Bedford Ladies & Girls FC report that Watford’s Kim Farrow and Renee Hector recently did the honours to officially open a newly-refurbished Allen Park, in the presence of the Mayor of Bedford Borough, Dave Hodgson.
Having made Kevin England, of Beds FA, aware that one of the ambitions of Bedford Ladies & Girls FC was to find a ‘home’ of our own when the project for the Allen Park refurbishment came about we did not need to be asked twice if we wanted to be involved with this facility. So we helped Bedford Borough Council to secure the funds so generously given by Sport England in April 2013.
On Tuesday 3 February 2015 the newly refurbished facility at Allen Park was officially opened by FA WSL players, from Watford Ladies FC, Kim Farrow and Renee Hector both of whom were introduced by Jill Upton of Bedford Ladies & Girls FC and Beds FA Councillor representing female football.
Kim has recently transferred from Leicester as one of the top scorers in the division last season with 17 goals from 19 appearances. Renee started playing football for the Stevenage Borough Vixens before joining Enfield Town Ladies. She then trialled for Watford Centre of Excellence at the age of 11 and has worked her way up to secure a first team position but not in the role as striker as she has traditionally played but as a central defender. Both the ladies were a credit to themselves, their team and ladies football.
The Mayor, Dave Hodgson, was also present at the event as he had given his full backing to the project and was delighted to see the finished result.
The original building was just run down changing rooms but with the funding and careful planning under the guidance of Phil Nicholson, Develpment Officer, Parks and Countryside for Bedford Borough Council, the end result is 6 spacious changing rooms each containing showers and toilet facilities, two referee changing rooms each with private shower and toilet, a disabled toilet fully accessible from outside the building via a ramp, a fully equipped kitchen, club room and toilet facilities.
The club room is accessed via automatic sliding doors which look onto the regenerated well draining, flat, grass pitches. Bedford Ladies & Girls use the pitches each week for their youth players and have the use of one 11v11 senior pitch, one 11v11 junior pitch, one 9v9 pitch, one 7v7 pitch and one 5v5 pitch. All of these pitches are in excellent condition and accommodate their players from u10s up to and including u18s.
Bedford Ladies & Girls FC are very excited about the new facility and although it is still early days have managed to secure the venue to host the Beds FA Fair Play Tournament due to take place on Sunday 26 July 2015. This is a yearly event which attracts many teams both boys and girls from under 7s to under 12s and includes taster sessions with the Skills Team for all as well as u6 mixed teams, girls under 8s and 9s and PAN disability. The event was very well attended last year and we expect growing numbers again this year.
Dave Hodgson, of course, is very familiar with the all ladies football Club having tracked their progress through to the current position of the Ladies First Team, Captained by Tasha Fensome, who is currently the top scorer in the FA WPL (Women’s Premier League) South East Division One. As the Mayor himself said and the answer is, of course, Bedford Ladies First Team.“Which is the highest ranked football team in the county?”
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