Unfortunately, all this means your Cricket Club is facing an unprecedented lack of income during the busy playing months when we would normally expect to be generating the funds that enable us to keep the club running throughout the year.

So, I am writing to you today to ask where possible, for your help.

Our financial challenge in facing Coronavirus

As a reminder, the main ways in which the Club generates revenue is from your annual membership fees (both adult and youth), from match fees paid by each player each game, and of course from the bar and social events held at Ripsley. As it stands, none of these income sources will be available for the foreseeable future, and certainly not during our normally busy months of April, May and June. The club has fixed monthly costs of approximately £900 year-round. Our fixed costs are made up of insurance, electricity, water, rates and upkeep of the square and outfield at our two grounds. Most of these costs are paid by monthly direct debit to spread the cost throughout the year. We normally build up reserves during the playing season to enable us to meet these costs out of season. It is often touch and go whether our financial reserves last until the season starts again but we normally manage to make it. That will not be possible this year.

Your committee has already examined where costs savings can be made whilst the start to the season is delayed. And please rest assured that as well as approaching our members, the committee is following up any and every other option to seek financial support for the Club. Sports England has announced an emergency funding scheme and we will be applying shortly. We are also waiting for details of the separate England and Wales Cricket Board scheme, which are promised shortly. We will be making a separate application to the ECB once the scheme opens.

How you can help us in meeting our current financial challenge

To try to help our club meet these financial challenges we have set up the website to enable you to pay your Membership fees for 2020, and/or, for those that feel able, to make donations.

Membership Contributions

You can pay your 2020 Membership (£80 for adults, £60 for youth - with concessions and sibling discounts) by logging on to the website or app and going to 'Your Account' and the Payments section or the Shop section. There are various options that will enable you to pay now, one off or with instalments (only for adult membership). Clearly, if we play any cricket at all this season it will not be a full season. Therefore, this will be a voluntary decision for each member to make, but we are asking as many of you that feel you can, and who would like to support your club in this way, to do so now and help ensure we keep the Club going through this time. You may have already noticed the website is 'asking' you to pay this year's membership - this is an automatic message generated by the website, please feel free to make the decision yourself as to whether you want to pay now or not.

Donations

Alternatively, or even additionally, you can donate using a debit or credit card, directly through the Shop section on the website or app to provide us with concrete financial support now. It is always difficult to ask for financial donations, but we are being encouraged to think creatively in these difficult times so perhaps you might like to think of any donation as being in lieu of money you would otherwise have spent at the bar (think of the health dividend!). Whatever works we hope that you will want to show your support and help ensure we can keep Liphook & Ripsley Cricket Club going through the current difficult circumstances.

Gift Aid

Whether you decide to pay your membership fees or to make a donation please tick the Gift Aid box. This automatically means that the Government will increase the money you pay to the Club by an extra 25%, without any additional cost to you.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this message and we sincerely hope that we can all be back out playing again very soon. While we don't know when or if we'll be able to play cricket this season, all we can promise is that we'll provide as much cricket as possible as soon as we are able.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about things the Club should be doing now to weather the current situation and to come out stronger on the other side please do not hesitate to contact me.

Finally, all thoughts are with those people who are suffering because of the virus, and please do remember to Stay Home, Protect the NHS and Save Lives.

Thanks again.

Laurence Fiddler
Chairman
Liphook & Ripsley Cricket Club