OLLERSET FIELDS GRAND OPENING: [22 Nov @ 12:00am]

Project Photographs are in the Photo Gallery: A bit of background: New Mills Juniors football club was established in 1972 by Mike Taylor. It is a key figure in providing organized football training and competitive games for local boys and girls and ran by enthusiastic, friendly and sports minded volunteers. In 2007 the club was awaded the Derbyshire FA Standard Chartered Club of the Year. This was an extremley proud day for all involved. Back in 1972 we started with just one team. Today we have 9 and next season that will be 11 with the under 9 and 8 teams being introduced. Until this season we had just one pitch to play all our league games on at the Newtown recreation ground and have needed an additional playing area for some time. The mission to find another pitch started back in 2000 when Carl Heery (Club Secretary) attended a series of meetings at the Town Hall with the Town Council as it was quite obvious that Newtown Rec was unsuitable for the number of teams that we have. This was a time when other possible pitches were being either sold off for development or alternative park grounds were too small. In brief, after many council and public meetings it was established that the land on Watburn Road, which belonged to the Council at the time, was suitable for 2 pitches plus changing rooms. After a few years it became obvious that the scheme incorporating a clubhouse was too costly so in 2006 we decided to go for a phased approach and get the pitches up and running plus a car park to alleviate additional parking conjestion on Watburn road. A grant was awarded from the Football Foundation and the council helped with the remainder. Work started in 2007 on the levelling, re-seeding and drainage but because of 2 consecutive wet summers it has taken until this year to finally finish the project. The car park was the last to be completed with hardcore which we purchased and some road plainings which New Mills Council sourced for us The changing rooms are still very much on the wish list but the main item on the agenda was to convert the field into good quality football playing fields. Now the project is complete our aim is to get more youths playing football. I estimate that over the years we have had over 3500 local lads and now girls playing for New Mills Juniors. We ARE an important part of the community and we want to see this continue as the club carries on growing. Thank yous: Football Foundation for their kind donation. New Mills Council – in particular Alistair and Sue Stevens also Steve Sharp, Glynn Jennings and Beth Atkins who have been very helpful in supporting what we have being trying to do - special mention to the parks team led by Steve Lewis who have put a lot of effort and knowledge into making the pitch what it is today – this time last year you wouldn’t have thought a game of football would be possible here – I probably have left off a few names from the council who justify a mention here, my apologies to those. Parents – all those fundraising events, tombola’s – sponsored walks etc......thanks for your support – it doesn’t stop there though, we now need changing room facilities!!! The residents of Watburn Road – thanks for your patience – we hope to be good neighbours in the years to come. Our treasurer AllanToft for keeping a vigilant eye on all our spending. To Alken for the fabulous NMJ sign on the gate. Steve Goddard our car park contractor for the special NMJ rate (I bet he doesn’t take anything like this on again). Stockport Truck Centre for the extremely kind donation of our storage container and your continued support. Gary Emerson for raising the manhole cover in the car park – a relatively small job but greatly appreciated. The team managers for all the jobs small and large over the summer to get the site ready. Last but not least to our club secretary Carl Heery who started the whole thing off back in the year 2000 – for being tenacious enough to keep going – without his persistence we simply wouldn’t have this facility today - well done Carl. The list is long and I apologise if I have missed anyone out........ The Opening: So another landmark is reached in the history of the Juniors and after a few minutes of background, a few thanks and a lot of waffle from our Chairman Colin Ramwell our VIP guests were introduced to help us officially open and cut the ribbon to the site for this we had our club founder and life president Mike Taylor, Captain and leading goalscorer for New Mills AFC Carlos Meakin and a very special guest premiership referee Phil Dowd who my wife said is very easy on the eye...... by Colin Ramwell Chairman New Mills Juniors