Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club has been awarded £6,500 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund to help it meets its expenses during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses as of March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty.

In response, on March 31 Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through covid-19. Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus.

The grant will allow Sheffield Collegiate to meet its ongoing expenses in the period up to the end of July 2020 and to ensure its ground is ready for a resumption of play.

Richard Ibbotson, Chair of Sheffield Collegiate, said:

“This grant from the Community Emergency Fund is very welcome and will help to ensure that we are ready to resume play as soon as that is permitted by the ECB and, together with the ongoing help from generous sponsors such as University of Wolverhampton, Gripple and Henry Boot, it will help to avoid cutbacks which could have a serious effect on the great facilities and opportunities we offer to men, women, boys and girls from across Sheffield and beyond.”

Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said:

“As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future. The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players, is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.

“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”

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Notes to Editors

For more details about the project please contact Paul Thomas: Tel 07979 526888 or email cpthomas333@gmail.com

About Sheffield Collegiate

Founded in 1881 Sheffield Collegiate is one of the oldest established clubs in the area, based at Abbeydale Park, Sheffield, with excellent playing facilities on both our main grounds on the same site.

We are known around the cricketing world as a club producing great players and officials such as Michael Vaughan - Former England Captain; Joe Root – Current England Test Captain; Richard Kettleborough – named Umpire of the Year 2015 by the ICC Elite Panel; and Billy Root – Glamorgan County Cricket Club.

We have won the Yorkshire League seven times, the National Club Competition in 2000 at Lord’s and the 1984 National Under 13 Club Championship, together with 35 other Leagues and Championships. In 2019 we reached the last 4 in England in the National Club T20 Championship.

In 2020 the men's first team are due to play in the prestigious ECB Yorkshire South Premier League. We operate four further teams on Saturdays together with Sunday and midweek teams. We have our own coaching scheme and the Root Academy is the entrance to our Junior Section with the U13's graduating to the Michael Vaughan Cricket Academy. In 2020 we were hoping to operate twelve Junior teams in all, from U9 through to U18, competing in the Ben Jessop Sheffield Junior League as well as in regional and national junior competitions.

We have strong links with all of the local primary schools, offering taster days, curriculum time coaching and tournament days at Abbeydale Park. Our schools coaching is coordinated and run by players and coaches at SCCC. Our work in schools is often the first step for young people into cricket before then coming to try our sessions on a Friday night.

We are a club which prides itself on its local roots, and one of our main goals is community interaction and engagement. We also have a rapidly expanding Women's and Girls Section which welcomes women and girls from 11+ of all abilities, and we have close links with the Yorkshire Cricket Board and the Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Sponsors of Sheffield Collegiate: University of Wolverhampton are our current Main Sponsor. Gripple and Henry Boot are Senior Sponsors. Club Sponsors include: Banner Jones, City Taxis, Hallamshire Wines, Hamnett Wealth Management, Keebles, Rillatech, School Road Dentist, Solpro Group, and Tapton Hall. We are very grateful to all of them for their generous support.

Photography

Photographs of our ground and members in action are available upon request.

About the Sport England Community Emergency Fund

Part of Sport England’s overall £195m support package to help the sport and physical activity sector through COVID-19, the £20m Community Emergency Fund which aims to deliver immediate funding to those most in need. It's specifically targeted at organisations, including those not currently supported by us, who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but who are experiencing short term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the ongoing crisis.

Awards will be between £300 and £10,000, and in in exceptional circumstances we’ll consider awards of more than £10,000. The types of organisations eligible include local sports clubs forced to close at short notice but who are facing ongoing costs around maintenance and utility bills, and voluntary and community sector organisations who deliver or enable sport and physical activity.

This £20 million fund of National Lottery money is designed to complement other sources of funding from the government, such as funds targeted at small businesses.

Further information on the Community Emergency Fund – including seeing if your organisation is eligible and the application process - can be found via https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/community-emergency-fund.

About National Lottery

National Lottery players raise £30m every week for good causes, funding arts, heritage, sports, voluntary and charity projects around the UK. For more information on good causes in your area go to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

About Sport England

Sport England is a public body and invests up to £300 million National Lottery and government money each year in projects and programmes that help people get active and play sport.

It wants everyone in England, regardless of age, background, or level of ability, to feel able to engage in sport and physical activity. That’s why a lot of its work is specifically focused on helping people who do no, or very little, physical activity and groups who are typically less active - like women, disabled people and people on lower incomes.

www.sportengland.org