The Story So Far

April 20 Update

The Ellis has now been played on for 5 seasons and has seen the club host many events, from, our opening ceremony, Derbyshire training, academy tournaments, Derbyshire ladies tournament, England Hockey coaching workshops, along with all club training and matches, league and cup. 

January 16 Update- Ellis Complete

The "Ellis Astro" was completed during the early stages of the 15/16 season, with all teams quickly moving from Shobnall to our new venue. Massive thanks go to all involved throughtout the process to get this project finished. 

ASTRO APPEAL – August 2015  UPDATE

Astro Appeal Chairman – Steve Morrison

Background

As you all know we gained East Staffordshire Borough Council (ESBC) agreement for leasing the land, currently occupied by the old Redgra pitch, at Shobnall Leisure Complex some time ago and this is the site of the new “Ellis Astro”. Additional Changing facilities at Shobnall have now also been secured through us obtaining Sport England funding to develop a new pitch which helped persuade Staffs County Council to release £370K to ESBC to build these new changing facilities. This will be a benefit to hockey players, footballers, rugby players and in fact all pitch users at Shobnall, which is great. 

The fantastic news for us is Work has now started on our own new Astro!!

Tim Phillips, Shobnall Leisure Complex Manager and Steve Morrison Burton Hockey Club

So our very own Astro is now being built, and weather permitting, ready to play on in November. ESBC, working in parallel with us have also established some additional parking areas to the side of the pitch on an area that was once part of the pitch and putt area and work has also started on their new changing facilities within the Sports Complex. The combination of these activities as one project through partnering with ESBC really helped enable us to secure the £320K of funds from Sport England as the combined project releases a combined spend of in excess of One Million Pounds.

Secured Funds

Although we always knew the majority of the monies would need to be secured through major funding bodies such as Sport England and other funding bodies we still need knew we would need to make a substantial contribution ourselves and so we stated we would raise a minimum £86K contribution to the overall project and this I can now say we have achieved! 

This has come through various fund raising successes:

Peter Ellis Legacy 
Donations from VP’s/Patrons 
In kind contributions for professional fees 
Sportsman’s Dinner (Chilcott) 
Sportsman’s Dinner (Greavsie) 
Astro Piggy’s 
Other Donations 
Race night: 
Leicester Tigers events 
Pitch in Campaign 
Olympic prize draw 
Gift aid 
Bank Interest 
Awards night/ Dinner 
Balloon Race: 
Club funds contribution 
Other events

Total: £86,000                                

A successful bid to the National Hockey Foundation last year secured £50K towards our project from them. We also made an application for ESBC funding, under what is known as Section 106 agreements, which is essentially monies secured from Developers from their housing/construction projects in Burton and District and from these funds we have secured £69K.

TOTAL FUNDS RAISED SO FAR BY THE APPEAL COMMITTEE AND YOU! : 
£320K+ £50K + £69K + £86K = £525,000!!! 

The story does not end here however as we still need funds for a range of additional items and so we have now launched Stage 2 of our Fundraising campaign and have set ourselves a new target of raising a further £25K for the much needed additional facilities and equipment we need. Items include: New dug outs; Spectator stands; Security systems; Administrative block/unit; etc.; so we continue in our efforts to raise funds and so are now looking for companies to come along as either Team or Equipment Sponsors. Put out the word and see what you can do to help us achieve this new target.

If anyone has further ideas/ suggestions, or appropriate skills to volunteer with, then we are still looking for your input. Thank you once again for all your efforts thus far!

Best wishes

Steve Morrison

ASTRO APPEAL – April 2015  UPDATE

Astro Appeal Chairman – Steve Morrison

Background

As you all know we gained Council agreement for leasing the land currently occupied by the old Redgra pitch at Shobnall Leisure Complex some time ago and this will be the site of the new “Ellis Astro”.  Additional Changing facilities at Shobnall have been secured through our work in developing a new pitch which helped persuade Staffs county Council  to release £370K of funding to ESBC to build new changing facilities which will benefit footballers, rugby players and all pitch users at Shobnall which is great. Work will be timed to begin from May/June in parallel with each other and so we should have the new changing facilities within the Sports Complex and our own Astro built and ready for the start of next season (September/October 2015). The combination of these two activities as one project enabled us to secure £320K of funds from Sport England towards the combined project now costing in excess of one million pounds.

Secured Funds

Although we always knew the majority of the monies would need to be secured through major funding bodies such as Sport England and other funding bodies we still need to make a substantial contribution ourselves and so we still need to raise a minimum £86K contribution to the overall project ourselves.

Our other major fund raising successes so far have been: 

Peter Ellis Legacy: £10K

Donations from VP’s/Patrons:  £10,455 (ongoing)

In kind contributions for professional fees: £6000

Sportsman’s Dinner (Chilcott): £8,256

Sportsman’s Dinner (Greavsie): £10,500

Astro Piggy’s (ongoing):  £1,585

Other Donations: £1,787                                              

Race night: £2,110

Leicester Tigers event: £1,083                                                                                                   

Olympic prize draw: 2,698

Gift aid: £6,163 (ongoing)

Interest:  £870 (ongoing)

Awards night/ Dinner: £1,557

Balloon Race: £1,662

Club funds contribution: £3,687

Other events: £545

Total: £68,958                                

A successful bid to the National Hockey Foundation last year secured £50Ktowards our project from them. We also made an application for ESBC funding, under what is known as Section 106 agreements, which is essentially monies secured from Developers from their housing/construction projects in Burton and District and from these funds we have secured £69K.

TOTAL FUNDS RAISED SO FAR BY THE APPEAL COMMITTEE AND YOU! : £                       !

We also have pledges from Club Vice Presidents of interest free loan facilities of up to £20K to ensure we will have all the necessary funds in place and available for the start of the build if needed whilst we continue our fund raising.

The Sportsman’s Dinner with Jimmy Greaves – on the 17th September at St Georges Park –Needwood, Burton upon Trent raised us a staggering £10,500. Another Race Night organised by Ian Brown and Ian (Rocky) Whetton raised £2100 and we have successfully launched our Pitch in campaign which currently has brought in nearly £3K . We are continuing the Astro Piggy campaign and so if you haven’t got a Piggy yet please get one , can collect one from the Henhurst Club. More initiatives are planned: Raffle/auction; another Leicester Tigers event, Astro Advertising; Sponsorship etc., but if anyone has further ideas/ suggestions, or appropriate skills to volunteer with, then we are still looking for your input. Thank you again for all your efforts thus far!

Best wishes

Steve Morrison

ASTRO APPEAL – OCTOBER 2014  UPDATE

Astro Appeal Chairman – Steve Morrison

Fantastic news! I am now officially able to announce that Sport England has awarded Burton Hockey Club £320,000 towards our Astro Turf project!

So since that launch we have come a very long way indeed and the hours of work by the Astro Bid project team have now finally hit the jackpot. Peter’s Astro Dream will now become a reality!

Congratulations to all those involved!

Background

We gained Council agreement for leasing the land currently occupied by the old Redgra pitch at Shobnall Leisure Complex some time ago and so this will be the site of the new “Ellis Astro”.  

The introduction of a new pitch also required the need for additional Changing facilities at Shobnall and so, working with ESBC, £370K has been secured from Staffordshire County Council toward these facilities. Our plan is that all this work be timed to happen in parallel with each other and so have the new changing facilities within the Sports Complex and our own Astro built and ready for the start of next season (2015). By combining these two activities as one project it became more attractive to Sport England for their funding eligibility criteria and as such has enabled us to win this incredible support of £320K of funds from them towards the combined project costing £895,000!

Secured Funds

Although we always knew the majority of the monies would need to be secured through major funding bodies such as Sport England and other funding bodies we still need to make a substantial contribution ourselves and so we still need to raise a minimum £86K contribution to the overall project ourselves.

Our other major fund raising successes so far have been: 

Peter Ellis Legacy: £10K

Donations from VP’s/Patrons:  £10,455 (ongoing)

In kind contributions for professional fees: £6000

Sportsman’s Dinner (Chilcott): £8,256

Sportsman’s Dinner (Greavsie): £10,500

Astro Piggy’s (ongoing):  £1,585

Other Donations: £1,787                                              

Race night: £2,110

Leicester Tigers event: £1,083                                                                                                   

Olympic prize draw: 2,698

Gift aid: £6,163 (ongoing)

Interest:  £870 (ongoing)

Awards night/ Dinner: £1,557

Balloon Race: £1,662

Club funds contribution: £3,687

Other events: £545

Total: £68,958                                

A successful bid to the National Hockey Foundation last year secured £50Ktowards our project from them. We also made an application for ESBC funding, under what is known as Section 106 agreements, which is essentially monies secured from Developers from their housing/construction projects in Burton and District and from these funds we have secured £69K.

TOTAL FUNDS RAISED SO FAR BY THE APPEAL COMMITTEE AND YOU! : £877, 958!

We also have pledges from Club Vice Presidents of interest free loan facilities of up to £20K to ensure we will have all the necessary funds in place and available for the start of the build if needed whilst we continue our fund raising.

The Sportsman’s Dinner with Jimmy Greaves – on the 17th September at St Georges Park –Needwood, Burton upon Trent raised us a staggering £10,500. Other planned activities include the continuation of the Astro Piggy campaign; another Race Night; a Raffle/auction; another Leicester Tigers event, Astro Advertising; Sponsorship; and a major fundraiser will be a Buy your own piece of the Astro campaign, (Astro 100 Club), so watch this space for news on that initiative.   If anyone has further ideas/ suggestions, or appropriate skills to volunteer with, then we are still looking for your input. Thank you again for all your efforts thus far!

Best wishes

Steve Morrison