Towcester Town Football Club

Towcester Town Football Club are a Chartered Standard Community Club with 24 teams from Under 7's through to Adults. Children as young as 4 years can join the club via our hugely successful Mini Kickers group held at Towcester Leisure Centre on Saturday mornings. This is the foundation on which our club grows and from here it is hoped that children if interested, will go on to play for the club for many years to come. All of our 35 coaches/managers have a minimum of Level 1 Qualification, most of which have assistant coaches which are all first aid trained. Working on a voluntary basis they are all fully committed to our club and players. With the creation of a new committee in 2014, su... read more Towcester Town Football Club are a Chartered Standard Community Club with 24 teams from Under 7's through to Adults. Children as young as 4 years can join the club via our hugely successful Mini Kickers group held at Towcester Leisure Centre on Saturday mornings. This is the foundation on which our club grows and from here it is hoped that children if interested, will go on to play for the club for many years to come. All of our 35 coaches/managers have a minimum of Level 1 Qualification, most of which have assistant coaches which are all first aid trained. Working on a voluntary basis they are all fully committed to our club and players. With the creation of a new committee in 2014, supported by its coaches and managers the club aims to strive to bring excellent footballing opportunities to our town. Towcester Town Football Club relies heavily on sponsorship to help with the purchase of kit and welcomes any business, organisation or individual who would like to take the opportunity to support us. The club was formed in 1988, when a group of parents set about providing football for the youth of Towcester. Following early training sessions for mainly boys of 12 years of age and under, word soon spread around the local schools and within weeks over 50 boys were attending the Saturday morning training sessions. It was decided that the newly formed club would enter the Northampton & District Youth Alliance League at under 12 level, a committee was formed and the club entered its first season with a mixture of players ranging from 10 to 12 years of age who were eligible to play. The first season was extremely frustrating in terms of results, but proved to be a very sound learning base for all. However the club was growing stronger in terms of more boys attending training sessions and for the following season it was decided to add an additional team to the league. The club continued to grow and 1994 saw the introduction of our hugely successful tournament which continues now, this year we will see 108 teams from across Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire compete. Our tournament is unique as it is the only one in the area to offer competition between the two counties. This has now grown into a popular event and a regular feature in the local calendar, bringing in around 3000 people over the weekend. All of the teams play on the recreation ground and Towcester Primary School on the second weekend of June, so you can imagine what a squeeze it is, last year and this we have had to turn away numerous teams due to lack of space, last year alone we threw away 700 in cheques!!. Our tournament a great success in terms of the quality of the football being played, and plays a big part in our fundraising activities. 2004 saw the club being awarded the FA Charted Standard Award and in 2009 we were successful in our application to become a Community Standard Club. This is the highest accolade a grass roots club can achieve and we are very proud to be one of the ten clubs in Northamptonshire to hold this. Unfortunately the club does not own any land or its own premises. This is certainly tight at times and where possible kick offs have to be staggered or played at the away ground. Sadly, not all leagues will allow for a kick off later or earlier than 10.30, which can make life very difficult indeed when 3 teams need to use the same pitch at the same time. As you can see it is possible to have 15 home games on a Saturday morning alone, this is a logistical nightmare. Having to use public space also brings a number of challenges, not least to ensure pitches are safe and clear from dog mess and litter. We would require for use immediately a minimum of 6 hectares to meet our current demand, which is shown on the plan attached. Ideally we would like 9/10 hectares, so would require a further 3/4 hectares immediately adjoining the allocation to be offered to TTFC for use for football related activities at a cost of an agreed agricultural land value +20%, to be determined by an agreed independent valuer. The date of the offer to expire 3 years from the transfer of the allocated site to TTFC. Winter training takes place from October to April at the astro-turf pitch at Towcester Leisure Centre 4 evenings a week, due to demand we are having to overspill onto the astro-turf pitch at Tiffield School as there is only one pitch at each venue and there are not enough slots available. This comes as a great cost of around 11,000 per annum. The 2017/18 season saw Towcester Town Football Clubs first inclusion of girls football, this is a requirement as part of our Chartered Community Club Status. Girls football also takes place on Wednesday evenings at Towcester Leisure Centre and is ran in partnership with SNC, this has proved enormously popular and the girls will feed into our club from here. However, the lack of facilities may force the club to abandon this for the foreseeable future. This year we have created a club shop via our suppliers at MDH, this will enable our supporters to purchase Towcester Town Football Club merchandise for the first time. This helps the club to provide a strong identity. The beginning of our 2017/18 season saw the introduction of a new user friendly web-site. During the last 12 months the club committee have worked extremely hard to accommodate more and more children, however, our lack of facilities curtails the amount of children we have been able to bring into the club, often turning children away and adding them to our never ending waiting list. And of course with the planned expansion of the town of over 3000 new homes this will only get longer. As you can see, the committee members, coaches and managers work very hard to make Towcester Town Football Club a success, however, we are unable to offer our services to anymore children (unless aged 4-6) until we have established our own pitches and facilities. Our committee is doing everything in its power to make Towcester Town Football Club a huge success. But there is a sense of frustration when we can see our club going from strength to strength and have great plans for the future, yet continue to be held back by a lack of facilities. All we need is some land to build pitches, something we feel should not be too much to ask for the community, considering the joy and fun we bring to so many, and the proposed expansion of Towcester. It is our hope that very soon, hopefully with your help, we can build our pitches, clubhouse and our changing facilities and from there we can build on what we have already established, bringing in much-needed revenue and help Towcester Town Football Club continue to meet the demand for children and adults from the local area to enjoy playing our national sport.