Donations information

Every year we add an option for donations to our membership renewal form. Those donations go directly towards supporting the community work that we do in association with Spencer ONE.

We’re very lucky in that we don’t need to drum up membership – in fact even at the size we are, we repeatedly must turn people away. This means that those without access to membership may struggle to play and to that end, as well as running all we do for members, we work pro-actively with local schools to ensure as many children as possible can enjoy playing the game. Part of this is working alongside charities such as Chance to Shine in promoting in school play but chiefly we see our role as helping bring schools together to compete which gives more opportunity in enabling those keenest to play.

At Spencer we host Wandsworth primary schools tournaments across 4 categories: Year 6 mixed, Year 6 girls, Year 5 boys and fun days for Y3 and Y4. Over time we also sought opportunities for those playing in these tournaments who had moved to secondary schools and so created Y7 and Y9 leagues for those. From 2013 to 2019, we expanded the number of school teams playing at Fieldview each year from 22 to 82 and numbers of those able to play from 176 to 1,888. Our ambition is to increase those numbers.

In conjunction with this, we host an annual CPD (Continuing Professional Development) day for local schoolteachers to learn more about how to coach cricket, especially within the confines of urban school playgrounds.

The donations also go to support our disability work, again something that we’ve developed over recent years and about which we are very proud. We help by providing facilities for local schools and we are also a hub for Surrey disability cricket, hosting roadshows and Surrey’s county disability team. Of note is our weekly in season Inclusivity Junior Club where disabled children play alongside their siblings and families – always an inspiring occasion. We work with the Lords Taverners charity, who have produced two inspiring videos of local activity - one featuring ex Spencer junior Gus Atkinson joining his Surrey & England teammate Sam Curran at a Garrett Park school session and this one, titled ‘Khristian's Story’.

You’ll probably not be surprised to learn that the actual costs of all this work surpasses our donor income but every donation we do get helps defray and increases our ambition. Thank you to all those who support this work.