Pitching In Southern League Division One South side Thatcham Town have revealed a plan to improve facilities at their Waterside Park home.
The original plans for the move to their current ground during the 1992/93 season included an artificial training pitch and now, nearly 30 years later that ambition looks set to be realised.
The West Berkshire club are aiming to install the pitch within the 10-acre site and boost community participation according to a statement on the club’s website: “With the growing population in the area the need for such a facility is becoming a necessity to encourage different age groups and abilities to become more involved in team sport.
“Our project will provide an all-weather surface for all year round use, it will be available for the local community to book, this will help us to realise our aim of increasing participation in sport across Thatcham.”
The club will need to fund raise, something that was already underway pre-Covid, but Thatcham Town Council have provided a £5,000 grant and Greenham Trust will match any fundraising up to £30,000.
Marketing manager Paul Ayres said: “Pre Covid the club had embarked on fundraising events but for obvious reasons had to put this on hold, hopefully as we move forward with restrictions lifting we will be again running a number of fundraising events to which we would hope for your support, be it individually or companies enabling us to achieve this project for the benefit of the community.”
The clubs main pitch will remain a grass surface.
