A NEW era in the history of Welshpool Town Football Club has been ushered in with the official opening of brand new junior pitches on the outskirts of the town.
The Wayne Evans Memorial Playing Fields, named in honour of the club legend who tragically passed away earlier in the summer, was officially opened earlier this month.
Evans, popularly known as Wanners, began his career with Welshpool Town and would enjoy a professional career with spells at Walsall and Rochdale before embarking on a coaching career in the USA.
Work on the pitch has been ongoing for the past year and ensures the club’s thriving junior section now has a home to call their own after several years of struggles due to the loss of Salop Fields to development.
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Through the Football Association of Wales’ Grassroots Facilities Investment Fund, the CFF – with support from UK Government – the club was able to support the installation of three new junior pitches through a grant of just over £65,000, coupled with club’s fundraising efforts.
After losing their previous junior pitches to a school build in 2018, Welshpool Town were left with half of their previous pitch access and struggling to cope with the demand of playing and training opportunities for their senior and junior teams – which led to two of their teams having to fold.
Club secretary Eva Bredsdorff said: “The opening of the Wayne Evans Playing Fields was a huge success from the beautiful sunshine to the many happy children playing football.
“The club was delighted to welcome Llanfair united Juniors as well as officials from the Football Association of Wales, CFF, Powys County Council, Welshpool Town Council and some of our sponsors.
“We were especially happy to see so many members of Wanners’ family in whose honour the new pitches have been named. The legends’ game was a fitting finale to a most successful day.
“A huge thank you to all our guests and participants, who helped make it a memorable event.”
The installation of these new pitches has allowed the club to add to their pool of over 270 junior and senior players – including over 50 female participants, apply for other FAW schemes to encourage participation in the area and restore the teams previously lost.
Chairman Chris Roberts said: “Without this generous grant from the Cymru Football Foundation and UK Government, the installation of these new pitches would not have been possible. We’re so pleased that our junior and senior teams have somewhere to train, play and help us grow as a football club.”
The club also thanked Paul Coackley for his hard work and the financial support from the UK Government Wales, the Cymru Football Foundation, Sport Wales and Powys County Council. The club is most grateful to these organisations as well as to our sponsors: Alexanders, BML-Hayley, Craven Electrical, Derwen Tooling Ltd, Gwilt & Son, Invertek, Lizard Technology, Lovatt Brothers Ltd, Plum Logo Group, Sterling Mortgages, Vyrnwy Caravans Ltd and Welshpool Printing Group.
Aled Lewis, Head of Operations at the Cymru Football Foundation said: “We’re delighted to be able to have worked with Welshpool FC with the installation of three new grass pitches and support their efforts to continue with development of grassroots football.”
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