Southport & Birkdale Sports Club seeks support for Indoor School fundraising appeal

One of the oldest multi sports and social clubs in the North West is in a race against time to raise money for new Indoor School facilities.

Southport & Birkdale Sports Club, known locally as S&B, has been hosting a variety of sports for men, women and children of all ages since 1859.

S&B has now launched a crowdfunding appeal through Spacehive to help them to realise its ambition of making improvements at its Indoor School, which is more than 80 years old.

New facilities would not only benefit club members but also local schools, and the wider Southport community as well.

S&B Chairman Andrew Carney said: “We are currently raising funds for our Indoor School Facilities.

“Unlike other campaigns the concept here is to target a large number of people for a small donation. Click on this link below to find out more.

http://www.spacehive.com/all-year-round-indoor-school…

“Please help us to make this happen.

“Any small donation will help a lot!”

So far the appeal has raised £6,390 with 56 backers.

But they need to raise £8,397 and have just 32 days left to get there.

Originally a cricket club dating back to 1859, Southport & Birkdale Sports Club has continued to grow over the years with hockey, tennis, squash and snooker all being played at Trafalgar Road.

S&B recently applied for £3,000 funding from the fourth round of Sefton Council’s Sefton Crowd fund for its indoor facilities. They have been granted £750.

The club is now appealing for local people to help them reach their fundraising target.

Funds will go towards carrying out further improvements to the S&B indoor cricket school, including new flooring, netting, and bowling machines.

Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club is a local community club providing the opportunity for Minis, Juniors, Ladies and Mens cricket. They have 50 juniors, 50 Senior Men and 20 Ladies players. The Indoor School is approximately six metres wide and 30 metres long and has one practice cricket lane in it. It is made of brick and a corrugated roof and is over 80 years old.

In 2019 the club raised funds from various events and invested £7,000 in repairing the building with new lights and a new insulated roof.

A team of volunteers spent six weekends cleaning, tidying and painting the indoor walls floors and roof to make the facility useable.

Despite these improvements to the indoor school, the club has a 15 year old bowling machine, 10 year old safety netting and 10 year old artificial matting.

They therefore require two new bowling machines, new artificial matting and underlay, and new surround safety netting.

S&B has been in direct contact with junior schools in Southport – St Philips, Our Lady of Lourdes and Farnborough Road, Christ the King, Birkdale High School, and Scarisbrick Hall School and local cricket clubs who will all participate in using the facility along with local cricket clubs.

This facility will give the club the ability to reach out into the community and engage with schools and clubs to attract players from all ages and backgrounds.

It will enable the club to provide an enjoyable experience while learning and developing the skills required to play the game of cricket. This will be an all year round facility with maximum usage expected. The facility will enable more people to become involved in physical activity.