As always it gives me great pleasure to be asked to supply an article about Wetherby Sports Association as I feel Wetherby would like to know what we have been up to so here goes !
Yet again, we have had a successful and busy year and I would like to share some of the highlights that we have experienced over the last 12 months.
First of all – funding. We recently found out that after months of applications / paperwork, our bid submitted to Green Leeds was successful. We have been awarded a grant of almost £20,000 which will go towards the costs of repairing our All Weather Pitch (or, to us internally, our Muga!). This money is vital to us as the pitch has deteriorated quite rapidly over the last 2 years. Our Muga provides quite a large source of income to the Association – as well as just our teams training on it we also hire this out to the public, so we are delighted with this result.
The Football Foundation have agreed to match our funding from Green Leeds so we can now go ahead and let the work commence – this has been scheduled for the beginning of May so we are looking forward to seeing the end result !
The Wetherby Community Bonfire was held again on the Ings and we were pleased to offer our support on the day. This year was slightly different as with less than 24 hours to go there was uncertainty as to whether this would actually go ahead as the Ings had flooded. With quick thinking from my Bonfire colleagues, the site of the Bonfire was moved, also the location of the fireworks and members of the public watched the event from the Sports Association car park. From the Sports Association we had 30 volunteers who gave up their time to assist on the day so a big thank you must go to them. Also I would like to say a special thanks to Simon Donkin and his team who made the day a fun event ! We will be back again this year and hope it will be even better !!
Social Events – by popular demand we arranged a couple of After Dinner Speaker Events at the Assocation as these always seem to be popular. In May we were pleased to welcome Chris Kamara and this was a sell – out. Everyone said how much they enjoyed it so we then secured a booking for Paul Merson to entertain our members / guests in November. Again this was a success so we are now looking for different artists to entertain us in 2011. We will keep you posted !
We have also appointed an Events Co-ordinator in the guise of Andy Hunter (a few of you may know Andy from his Bulldog days !). Andy has taken on the role of providing entertainment for our members and our calendar is starting to fill up for 2011.
Andy has arranged a comedian on the 19th March – Mike Lancaster, tickets cost £15.00 which includes supper and tickets are on sale at the Association.
We also have a fabulous act performing for us in May – who performs as Michael Buble and Robbie Williams- again, tickets are on sale at the Association for £15.00 including supper.
We also have a new Kitchen Manager – Jamie Hullah. Jamie has taken on the role of “transforming” our kitchen and is providing lots of delicious dishes for our teams – our Senior Footballers / Rugby teams have been treated to Chicken Stir Frys, lasagne, Fatijas etc just to name a few.
In Memoriam
On to sad news. As you may be aware, John Moore lost his fight with leukaemia on 15th July 2010. John battled this disease courageously and we were all praying for him throughout the year. John’s funeral was held on Monday 26th July and it is estimated that over 350 people attended at St James’s Church. Understandably, the wake was held at the Sports Association and our thoughts and prayers go to Rita, Stephen and David. As you can imagine John is missed terribly at the club and will be a hard act to follow !
In honour of the commitment and hard work that John put into the Club, the Sports Association has awarded John a posthumous recognition award. Wetherby Athletic Football Club have also organised a plaque for John which has been positioned at the foot of the steps – these are now known as the “John Moore’s Steps”.
We hope to have a busy year ahead of us and it is all down to your support that keeps the Association running. Of course, we are always looking for members to join us on the Committee and become involved in the running of the Association – whether it is fundraising, opening / closing up, supervising parties, organising entertainment and social events ….. if you feel that you would like to be a part of the Association and want to join our committee then we meet once a month on a Wednesday.
If you are interested then please speak with me or any other member of the committee – we would love to welcome you here at the Association.
Kind Regards
Claire Stubbs
Secretary
Wetherby Sports Association
February 2011
(Tel – 07999 887235)
