Game-on as 3G pitch is officially opened at Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre

Eighteen months of hard work finally paid off at the weekend for one Fenland village when its new £1.1million 3G football pitch was officially opened.

The state-of-the-art facility, added to the facilities already at Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre, must make the village the envy of many others in the area, as well as the towns.

The new pitch is the fruition of a lot of hard work from Paul Albutt and Martin Holmes, who are trustees and directors of the community centre, and are part of the management team of the Wisbech St Mary Football Club.

Local MP Steve Barclay has also worked alongside the pair to help secure the necessary funding for the pitch, which is not only available for the village club’s 30 teams but also to other teams in the area.

Work to construct the pitch began back in August thanks to the securing of the essential grant funding.

Some of the money – £75,000 – to pay for it came from the Alan Hudson Foundation, which is a great supporter of Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre as Mr Hudson used to farm in the village.

The centre itself has also raised £75,000 towards the cost. But the bulk of the cash came through the Government’s Football Foundation which provided £978,583.

Paul was delighted to see the facility officially open and paid tribute to Martin and Steve for their help in making it a reality as well as Katie Critchley from Cambridgeshire FA who also worked tirelessly on the project.

He said the new pitch is just the start of new things to come at the centre and football clwith plans in the pipeline for a new walking football team, a new scholarship educational programme is also due to be up and running by next autumn.

Paul said: “It is a question of watch this space. There is lots to come and people can find out more through our social media pages.”

Anyone interested in making use of the new pitch should contact Paul on 07908 826208.