Project Update

Project 100 Update as of 4 October 2026

Project 100 has changed enormously since we launched in February with the original ambition of raising £100,000. What started primarily as a campaign for new cricket nets has developed into a much wider project to improve Thetford Town Cricket Club as both a cricket facility and a genuine community hub. The original launch plans included new ECB-approved nets, disabled parking and improvements around the clubhouse.

🎯 The new cricket nets

The biggest development is that the project has moved from the original three-lane proposal to a new enclosed two-lane training facility, following the work around the revised site and the practical issues with the gradient. The New Nets will be including the enclosed two-lane system, centre curtains, vermin skirt, catchment drainage, gate, ground levelling/reseeding around the nets and two different lane markings.

And crucially, we’re no longer trying to find the whole amount ourselves.

We’ve now secured significant backing from Sport England, Norfolk Cricket Board and Breckland Council, alongside the extraordinary amount raised through Project 100 fundraising, sponsorship and community support. By 24 September, the latest figure is approximately £41,000 raised/secured, with the campaign working on closing the final funding gap required to get the facility purchased and installed.

💛 What Project 100 has achieved beyond the nets

This is the bit that can easily get lost when we concentrate on the final funding target.

Since February, Project 100 has brought together local businesses, charities, councils, national sporting bodies, volunteers, club members and the wider Thetford community.

The club has also received a confirmed £10,000 Community Support Fund award through the forThetford/Norfolk Community Foundation programme , independently listed among nine Thetford organisations receiving £69,000 collectively.

We’ve secured other funding and support for equipment, furniture, signage, accessibility and improvements around the club. We’ve had businesses sponsor us, volunteers physically improve the facilities, community groups support fundraising and hundreds of people engage with the campaign.

And Project 100 has helped reinforce the bigger vision: TTCC isn’t only somewhere people come to play cricket.

We’re looking at bringing more groups and activities into the club, particularly during the winter. The next major challenge is therefore accessibility and the outside infrastructure improving the uneven approach to the clubhouse, parking and patio/access areas so that someone using a wheelchair, walker or with limited mobility can get from the entrance to the clubhouse safely and independently.

📍 Where we stand today

So, as of 4 October 2026, I’d describe Project 100 like this:

Phase One, the cricket training facility is tantalisingly close to being delivered. The enormous task now is getting that final funding position over the line and moving from fundraising to ordering and installation.

Phase Two is already taking shape: turning the wider site into a more accessible, usable community facility, better access, parking, outdoor areas, toilets and infrastructure, so the club can accommodate far more than cricket.

When we launched, Project 100 sounded almost ridiculous: £100,000 for a grassroots cricket club.

Eight months later, we’ve secured major grant support, raised tens of thousands of pounds, brought national and local funders on board, mobilised businesses and the community, improved the clubhouse and got within touching distance of delivering the biggest single element of the project.

We’re not finished. But Project 100 is no longer an idea. It’s happening