Temple Cloud Cricket Club are in desperate need of your help after being forced out of their home of over 70-plus years.

The club, founded in 1919, was issued with a lease break notice in August, requiring Temple Cloud to leave its Stowey Road base by March 2025.

Following an extensive search process, the club has been able to reach an agreement with Farmborough Parish Council to make the Farmborough Recreation Ground their long-term home. But in order to be able to achieve this, the club are undertaking three separate projects to ensure that their future is secure.

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Temple Cloud Cricket Club is a volunteer-led, not for profit community club and is seeking help from the local community in a bid to raise funds. Their current crowdfunding project is to help create inclusive changing rooms, showers and toilets, including accessible facilities. This is the most significant, and costly, element of Temple Cloud’s move and without it, their ability to continue to deliver routes to physical activity will cease. If they’re able to achieve their dream, they will be able to grow their offering to even greater levels.

The club’s project plan estimates the costs at £47,000, £12,000 of which has been funded from other sources. This will help to create secure and inclusive changing rooms for two teams, male and female umpire changing rooms, showers that meet current standards, toiles including accessible ones, and new windows and doors throughout.

Alongside this project, Temple Cloud are hoping to create a welcoming environment within the pavilion with a kitchen, bar and outdoor seating area, as well hoping to bring the playing and practice facilities up to the required standard.

This year was arguably Temple Cloud’s biggest yet, with over 2,500 cricket interactions in 2024, ranging from the first team coming fourth in the West of England Premier League, to fielding their first ever girls team - three of whom were selected for the Somerset Pathway.

The club also provides subsidised youth cricket coaching for children from over ten nearby villages, welcoming between 50-75 children each week to their Friday night sessions. They run an under-11s and under-13s team and have put forwards a number of children to representative county trials.

Temple Cloud also obtained the ‘ClubMark’ accreditation this year, the gold standard issued by the ECB assessing safeguarding, governance and other aspects of running a club.

Away from the cricket, the club also provides a social environment for people of all ages, ability and backgrounds. They help build communities, whether it’s a place for parents to meet, children to build relationships or adults to create friendships addressing the serious issues of loneliness and mental health issues, particularly amongst men. This is all in danger of being taken away following Temple Cloud’s landlord’s decision to issue the lease break notice.

Should the move take place, Temple Cloud will look to also launch Dynamos and All Stars sessions, offering more cricket opportunities for all genders from 5-9 years-old, as well as a Walking Cricket tester, looking to provide opportunities for the new community to get active. The move would also allow Temple Cloud to hold their first ever women’s training and match.

In the longer term, Temple Cloud will also like to help bring external fitness equipment to the community and re-imagine the current multi-use games area in partnership with the Parish Council.

For more information, or to donate, visit crowdfunder.co.uk/p/savetemplecloudcricket. Their plight was also featured on BBC Radio Somerset on December 6, which you can listen back to via the BBC Sounds website and app.