FACILITIES for footballers at one of Barnard Castle’s clubs continue to improve thanks to the efforts of club officials and a £2,000 grant from local councillors.
Since Bowes FC moved from Shaw Bank to Tens Field last season, work has continued to upgrade both the playing surface and the changing area.
The size of the pitch has increased and drainage improved. The previously overgrown area which the houses in Bartlemere backed onto has now been completely cut back and tidied up.
And in the latest development, the town’s four county councillors gave the club £2,000 from their neighbourhood budgets to pay for new showers as part of ongoing improvements to the changing rooms, which have now been installed.
Club secretary Geoff Thwaites said a new roof had been put on the building and windows installed in the viewing area. The club is hopeful an application for £10,000 to Teesdale Action Partnership will be approved to pay for cladding to the wooden exterior of the building.
“If we get that, it won’t just look like a wooden hut,” he said.
Mr Thwaites said that although the facilities were “100 per cent better” than when the club moved to Tens Field, more plans were in the pipeline.
“The plan is to put some decking outside the changing rooms where players can take off their boots and not trail in and we want to carpet the inside and complete the viewing gallery.”
Meanwhile, new players – aged 16 and older – are always welcome. The club plays in the Crook and District League with fixtures on Saturday afternoons and occasional evenings at the beginning and end of the season.
Contact Mr Thwaites on 07886 897652.
