Nearly 7,000 sports clubs in the UK have benefitted from registering as Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs), a status which enables them to save vital funds to reinvest in community-level sporting activities and we are delighted to announce that our Joint Venture with Winstanley Park Cricket Club (the Orrell & Winstanley Community Sports Club) is now a registered CASC!

This is great news for us all in that the club can now claim Gift Aid on any donations (received after 30 April 2019) and the donor can also claim tax relief on that donation. Everyone’s a winner!

CASCs were introduced by the government to promote public participation in sports. By registering as CASCs the sports clubs can also receive charity-type tax reliefs, benefitting from mandatory 80% business rate relief, corporation tax reliefs and capital gains tax relief on the sale of land (should we ever get to this stage). These savings will be made on a recurring basis and means that all monies raised can and will be reinvested directly into the running of the club for the benefit of the community.

Over the last 12 months, the rugby section has sought donations from members and almost a hundred supporters have stepped forward and pledged donations ranging from £50 to £5,000 all of which are now eligible for Gift Aid (tax relief for the donor).

The club is in a healthy state playing wise; the 1XV narrowly missed out on promotion but our 2XV gained promotion for the third year in a row. Our 16s won the Lancashire Cup Plate Final and, for the first time in a long time, we will have a Junior Colts team for the 2019/2020 season. Our Mini and Junior Section numbers over 100 players and we will even be fielding a Vets 3XV team in the coming season.

A lot has happened since the end of the season and we have some very exciting news for the start of our new season, including the fact that until we finish our new home at Winstanley Road (as part of the Orrell & Winstanley Community Sports Club), we are going to make even bigger use of the facilities at St John Rigby College on match days; including our 3XV team and our Junior Colts and Mini and Juniors for some of their matches. On match days, we will also be opening up the conservatory for the sale of refreshments whilst watching the match (or celebrating a win) afterwards.

Sadly, as the rugby section prepares for the new season, the cricket section is on the run up to the end of theirs. It has been a mixed typical English summer, but the section has fielded three junior and two senior teams - with likely mid table finishes in the Southport Leagues. The Section also hosted the Pochin Cup Final for the Southport & District League and made the ground and facilities available to St Peters School on four occasions for inter-school competition games. As well as the outstanding league matches up to mid -September a 'vision impaired' match has been arranged for 18th August with the club BBQ on 30th August; to which are club members are welcome. Finally, there will be a family 'fun match' on 15th September to bring the season to an end. October sees the Presentation Evening with indoor nets coaching and practice beginning at the start of 2020.

So, you can see, we have lots to celebrate and lots more to look forward to. The Rugby Section Operational finances are completely under control and you are probably aware that the committees running the club are all volunteers nor do we pay players - so all monies are invested back into the rugby club and its future.

So, why are we appealing for help and why is CASC status so important?
We’ve made good steady progress towards achieving the dream of our own home and pitches and we will finally gain access to the land in October/November this year and start to implement those activities that are needed to discharge planning conditions and provide the detailed designs needed for grant applications.

In May next year our planning permission expires but by that time we will have made sufficient progress to meet the planning timescale and discharge the planning conditions. The cost of the activities to achieve this over the next 6 to 9 months will be £75,000.

Subsequent to that we will still need to raise a further £80,000 in match funding to attract grant funding which will be needed to complete the land preparation of the new pitches and get us over the finishing line for phase 1. All of which will be bolstered and enhanced by our CASC status and Gift Aid.

Please remember, your membership entitles you to attend both cricket and rugby events/matches. The Orrell RUFC first home game is Saturday, 7th September at St John Rigby (and the conservatory will be open for refreshments and drinks).

Please come and support us - the Future is black and Amber