A new clubhouse for Claygate

Progress newsletter – 3                                                                August 9^th, 2010

We’re at a critical phase...

We have had a great start, raising nearly 50% of the funding in just 4 months...but the next period is critical.  The project committee is pushing hard preparing for the construction, chasing sponsorship, planning future events and managing our grant applications. However, the overall funding picture is still not clear at the moment

What is clear however is more effort is required from club members. It is you who want this new pavilion and it is from you that we need more help.

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Cricket week wasn’t particularly successful on the field but it was for fundraising!

A large group celebrated the naming of ‘Paddy’s Bar ‘in recognition of long term service to the club by Paddy Walsh. The name ‘Paddy’s Bar’ will be used on the existing old bar and then transferred to the new clubhouse. Over £1200 was raised to sponsor the new bar

We also announced a deal with Surbiton based financial advisors Walpole Financial who have agreed to sponsor one of the two changing rooms for a deal worth £2500.This is our first commercial sponsorship announcement and we are continuing to search for others.

We had news of a personal donation from a senior Claygate resident, who having received a brick form decided instead to give us £1000. A fantastic gesture and the second on this scale from someone not directly connected with the club.

As far as the construction is concerned, the start date is dependent on how quickly our assured funds can be raised. There have been delays with the anticipated date for submission of the Building Regulations application to Elmbridge, which is now planned for this month. Short listing of potential bidders for the building works is now in progress.

We now have fundraising events planned on a monthly basis over the next period of time:

August 17th    Claygate v Surrey over 60’s

October 16^th     Quiz- at Holy Trinity Church Hall

November 26th   Dinner Dance - Village Hall

In the New Year we intend to arrange a Sportsman’s Dinner and we have plans for two exciting events at the start of next season- an attempt on the world nonstop cricket record and a charity match against a major celebrity team. 

We have sold a total of 75 bricks with a value of approx £2500. This is part of the funding initiative on which everyone can help and we need club members to buy bricks now to help our cash flow. Please sign up for your bricks as soon as possible and also ask your neighbours, friends and colleagues. The more our start date gets pushed back the more we may run into delays and difficulties with a build over the winter. The U10’s Colts side are buying a block together. A brilliant idea!

As far as the grants are concerned, the Elmbridge and Parish Council grants have enabled us to meet one of the criteria for the Veolia land tax grant - to have assured funding in place of a certain level. The Football Foundation application has been lodged, awaiting approval. The loan application to the England and Wales Cricket Board has stalled for technical reasons so some senior members have also offered possibility of loans.

This brings us to our current total...

With the grants from Elmbridge and Claygate Parish Council, funds committed from CCC, Claygate Royals and Claygate Recreation Trust, together with the amount raised from events, donations and bricks, we have assured funding in place of just over £140k. Should we need, loans from senior members will take us towards £170k.

With a project cost of £290k (minus £20k for work in kind) this leaves us £100k short.

Whilst the Football Foundation, the ECB, and Veolia may deliver this difference, we will not know the outcome until the end of October and we have to plan accordingly.

For a number of reasons it’s critical we start the project as soon as possible. Principally this is around ensuring we start groundwork at a time when we won’t be faced with costly delays or remediation work. We also have to spend the grant money within a certain financial year.

We also have a political momentum with the people that have helped us so far and the community at large, so the project team feel an imperative to start as soon as practical. We will also not get Elmbridge approval to start work until they are convinced that we have the funds in place to complete the project.

So where does this leave us overall?

As you can see however, the overall picture is not certain at the moment and we are monitoring this on a day-by- day basis.

What is clear is more effort is required from club members. It is you who want this new pavilion and it is from you that we need more help.

Whilst brick selling overall has been good, less than 10 have been sold to club members. Many have said ‘I will do it soon’. Now is the time, and not just from ourselves, but friends, relatives and contacts.

We would like every member of the club to have an individual target of selling at least five bricks.This could help the funding by another critical £10k.

You will shortly be receiving a letter from our President David Milner together with brick forms. Please try and make this happen and happen quickly!

We also need more ideas for events and fundraising and people willing to step up to the mark to actually manage something.  At the moment it is resting on the shoulders of a small group of people who have taken responsibility. We need more help!

In simple terms it’s vital that everyone understands the situation overall and the importance of the next two months.

Your club needs you...!

Nigel Abbott (Fundraising) Richard Waller (Project management)

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A new clubhouse for Claygate - Newsletter 2                                      

Lift off time!

Lots of encouraging things have happened over the last couple of weeks, building on the fantastic news of the grants from Elmbridge Borough Council and Claygate Parish Council to make an October start for building the new clubhouse a real possibility! 

Perhaps the most important and successful was the Summer Ball at Sandown Park which was brilliantly organised by Graham, Caroline and Rebecca. Capital Gold’s David Jensen hosted the auction which in its own right raised nearly £2000.  The whole evening, which was enjoyed by 130 people, raised around £4500.

Prior to that, throughout the day, ten volunteers sold bricks and ran a ‘bowling challenge’ at Claygate Flower Show. The bowling challenge in particular got everyone talking to us about our plans and there were many small cash donations. We raised about £500 and succeeded in further raising the profile of the project in the community.

The Claygate Country Five cross country race saw a team of seven take part. The undoubtedly star was Danny Simmons who appeared in a mankini - his individual bravery attracting sponsorship of nearly £200! The amount raised by the event on the day was around £1000.

A very successful colts season came to a conclusion two weeks ago and a BBQ arranged by Russ and Pam raised around £400.

All this activity means our total raised since the end of April by events and donation is now around £15k. A terrific effort in such a short period of time.

The £82k from Elmbridge and £20k from Claygate Parish Council has given us the 30% partnership funding required by one of the land fill tax community funds – this one run by Veolia. The application to the fund went in last week and we are very hopeful that this will result in a grant of several tens of thousands of pounds.

Next week is Cricket Week and in addition to playing host to five visiting sides, we are planning to announce two sponsorships - one commercial and one family based. Watch this space for news.

We have succeeded in getting our project included as the Waitrose ‘charity of the month’ for August and we will be featured in the Esher store for that period. Shoppers are given a number of tokens to spend and can then choose which charity the benefit goes to. Experience has shown that a charity can benefit by up to £1000 from such exposure. Please encourage everyone to shop at Waitrose next month!

Our arrangement with Fordhams (5% back on all sales at the end of the year) has been extended to cover rugby purchases as well, so it can continue into the autumn. Please think about this in terms of any of your sporting purchases.

Brick selling is progressing really well. It received a big boost with Phil and Marion Graham delivering over 3000 flyers around the village and this has prompted two or three forms being received every day at the moment. Some of the colts parents are also organising themselves to buy a block, devoted to a specific year group.

As far as future events are concerned we have the Over 50’s game against Surrey on Tuesday17^th August. If you have an opportunity please came down to the club to support the ‘old boys’ on that afternoon. The Quiz is scheduled for Saturday 16 October at the Church Hall. Tickets are £12.50 and include a fish and chip supper. If you can buy a table and bring a group of friends along please contact Marcus or Gareth.

Longer term, we have plans for a whole range of events which will keep activity going throughout the winter and we are even looking at activities for the start of next season. We do however still need more ideas!

Whilst recent activity has been particularly focused on fund raising, there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes on the building, building structures, drainage, mechanical and electrical designs as well looking at various sustainability issues in order to finalise the Building Regulations by mid August. With the current funding situation it looks as if we may start ground works on the site by mid October.

Nigel Abbott /Richard Waller

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A new clubhouse for Claygate - Newsletter 1

Following our launch meeting in April we have much to report after a very busy three months.

There have been many challenges along the way with some positive and some less positive news, but overall we are making good progress. 

As far as the construction is concerned, contracts have been awarded to Bolton Buildings for the timber frame design, WCJ Partners for the foundation design as well as a CDM coordinator. A committee has been established between the cricket club and CRGT, chaired by Peter Andrews to oversee the construction. Due to delays caused by funding commitments from Elmbridge Borough Council and Biffa, our current best estimate for starting work has moved to October.

On the fundraising side it has been very busy.

We have applied to various funding raising bodies which are being resolved in different ways. The most important of these in terms of scale is from Elmbridge Borough Council. We currently have an application in to the Council for a grant of £72k. This is on the agenda for the Cabinet meeting at the end of July having been postponed by two months because of the General Election.

Claygate Parish Council has been very supportive from the start of the project and last Thursday they voted to commit funding of £20k to the project.

Our application to Biffa (Land Fill Tax) was turned down because of a rule change whilst we applied, and the fact that we don’t yet have 50% of funds already in the project. The Football Foundation application has been lodged awaiting approval. The loan application to the ECB has stalled for technical reasons and we may have to ask some of the senior members of the club to make a loan to cover the intervening period. Once this is in place we will then re apply to Biffa, at the same time applying to Veolia (another land full tax fund) and a number of other grant making organisations.

Through the help of our local county councillor, we have been successful in getting an initial grant of £1k from Surrey County Council with a further and larger sum likely. We are also expecting support from the CRGT and from the Football Club. We have had donations from the Sir Cliff Richard organisation, The Foley Charity and Dairy Crest and a number of other Claygate businesses have been very helpful.

The sponsorship/fundraising committee have been working hard on a number of initiatives. We have sold over £1500 worth of bricks so far and the scheme is progressing well. But we do need club members to buy bricks now to help with cash flow. Please sign up for your brick as soon as possible and ask your neighbours, friends and colleagues to help. The more our start date gets pushed back the more we may run into delays and difficulties with a build over the winter.

The first of our events, the Circus on the Rec was a great success.  We sold out and 600 people shared the evening with us. We raised nearly £3500 and this significantly helped the profile of the project locally.

We have three events in quick succession in July. The Flower Show Run is this Sunday 11^th. (have you signed up for a team yet?) -  the Flower Show itself on Saturday 17^th July when we will need volunteers to help sell bricks through the day, and then there is the Summer Ball on the evening of the 17^th July at Sandown Park. This is nearly a sell out so get in touch with Graham as soon as possible. It will be a great night!

The seniors in the club are playing a game against Surrey O50’s on Tuesday 17^th August at Dalmore Avenue so do come down to support. In addition to brick selling there will be a raffle as well. We then have our Quiz night at the Church Hall on Saturday 16th October.

We have several other big ideas on the horizon, including a Race Day at Sandown Park and a possible attempt at the world non-stop cricket record, a concert in the Village Hall and several other ideas. If you have a thought for an event, please get in touch – again it seems to be the same people who offer and run these things time and time again.

Our total raised from bricks and events is currently around £9800...and the July events should see this move to around around £15,000 by the end of the month. We will be putting a batometer display up in the clubhouse shortly to show graphically how we are doing. We are also now publishing a monthly funding report on the website.

We are doing well but we still have a very long way to go!

Nigel Abbott (Fundraising) Richard Waller (Project management)