The community of Woodmansterne joined together to celebrate the opening of the brand new Woodmansterne Pavilion at Woodmansterne Recreation Ground on Saturday, 21 November 2009.
The state of the art pavilion, for use by Woodmansterne Sports Club, provides a new six-team changing room with disabled access plus officials changing facilities and toilets. The energy efficient block replaces the old, run-down building the Club used to use.
Before the official opening of the pavilion, there was more good news for Woodmansterne Sports Club as the Surrey County FA presented the club with two awards; the first to David Brazier, for The Groundsman of the Year Award and secondly to the club for achieving FA Charter Standard Community Status.
The Groundsman of the Year Awards are organized each Season by The Football Association in order to find out the top groundsman at various levels of the game in order to recognize all of the hard work put into preparing pitches for players to play on.
For the 2008/2009 Season with the help of the Surrey Elite Intermediate Football League a number of nominations were submitted to the Surrey County F.A. for inspection. This resulted in David Brazier, the long serving groundsman at Woodmansterne Hyde F.C., being declared the County winner and being put forwarded to The Football Association for the National Finals. Although unsuccessful in the Finals his efforts brought praise from the judges when they carried out an inspection of the Club’s many pitches.
The FA Charter Standard Community Award is the pinnacle of the FA Charter Standard programme and is presented to those clubs like Woodmansterne Hyde FC, who have raised their standards in all areas and lead the field in promoting best football practice, both on and off the pitch in grassroots football. The FA Charter Standard Club programme, supported by FA partner McDonald’s, was established eight years ago and helps clubs to improve standards of coaching, administration, player development and Safeguarding Children.
Following the presentations, The Mayor of Reigate & Banstead (and local ward member), Cllr Richard Mantle, officially opened the building, which was followed by a community BBQ and a number of organised football matches played by the club’s youth teams.
The £800,000 project was been funded jointly by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and the Football Foundation. A grant from the Football Foundation covered 49 per cent of the capital cost of the work with the Council funding its half of the scheme through its Pavilions Improvement Project, for which funding was agreed back in February 2007. The Council and the Club worked jointly on the application and was supported advice from the Surrey County FA and The FA Regional Facilities Manager Stuart Lamb.
Cllr Adam De Save, Executive Member for Leisure and Wellbeing, said: “It is great to see the culmination of several years’ hard work come to fruition. I am sure the local community will benefit hugely from these fantastic new facilities and importantly they will enable Woodmansterne Sports Club to expand the provision for both boys and girls youth football teams”.
The Football Foundation is dedicated to revitalising the grass roots of the game, constructing modern football facilities, developing football as a force for social cohesion and as a vehicle for education in communities throughout the country. Funded by the Premier League, The Football Association and Government, the Football Foundation is the nation’s largest sports charity.
Leigh Read, Managing Director of Woodmansterne Sports Club said: “The new pavilion is an amazing building and we are delighted to have the use of such fantastic facilities. This outstanding sporting venue now boasts facilities commensurate with the standard of its playing surfaces and will become amongst the best in the county. The beneficiaries of the improvements will be players at grass roots with, in the main, young sports people enjoying a better and safer environment.”