Community celebrate new Woodmansterne Pavilion

The community of Woodmansterne in Surrey  joined together to celebrate the opening of the brand new Pavilion at Woodmansterne Recreation Ground last month, providing a new six team changing room with disabled access plus officials changing facilities and toilets all for use by Woodmansterne Sports Club.

The new energy efficient block, funded partly by the Football Foundation and Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, replaces the old, run-down building the Club used to use and before the official opening of the pavilion, there was more good news 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 for achieving FA Charter Standard Community Status.

The Groundsman of the Year Awards are organised each season by The FA in order to find out the top groundsmen at various levels of the game in order to recognise all of the hard work put into preparing pitches for players to play on.

For the 2008-09 season, with the help of the Surrey Elite Intermediate Football League, a number of nominations were submitted to the Surrey County FA for inspection and this resulted Brazier being declared the County winner and being put forwarded to The Football Association for the National Finals where his efforts brought praise from the judges after carrying out an inspection of the club’s pitches.

Meanwhile, The FA Charter Standard Community Award is the pinnacle of the FA Charter Standard programme and is presented to 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.

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.

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 grassroots with, in the main, young sports people enjoying a better and safer environment.”