Following the hammering that grass roots football has taken from the pandemic, with the season cancelled and no revenue coming in, there’s good news as Swanage Town and Herston Football Club has been awarded a grant of £1,500 to help get match fit.
The money is being handed out to local football clubs to help improve their pitch. This is good timing as the Swans had already planned to sort out its pitch’s drainage problem over the summer.
Healthy contribution towards the costs
Now it’s got a healthy contribution towards the costs from the Premier League, The FA and the government’s Football Foundation.
The plan is to ensure that as soon as it’s safe to play football again, that the pitch will be ready with no large puddles when it rains, as in previous years.
The pitch has been regularly flooded in the past
Alison Newell, the Swanage Town and Herston Football Club secretary, said:
“It’s been a massive help securing this money from the Football Foundation funding”
Gerald Dimarco from the club added:
“It’s nice to see grassroots football getting cash from the ‘big boys’. It won’t pay for everything we’ve done to improve the pitch’s drainage over the last few weeks but it all helps! This is great news.”
Last month, a team of volunteers worked hard installing new pitch drainage, digging trenches and then laying the perforated drainage pipe. The pipes were installed at a slight slope, so the excess rainwater will run away from the pitch, down to a main drain. The trenches were then backfilled with sand and gravel, and then turf was laid on top.
Volunteers help install the new drainage to the pitch despite the heat
