Chairman Ian Potter is looking forward to the annual Aylsham FC tournament next weekend. Here is his welcome in advance of the event:
With 160 boys and girls teams registered to play in the Aylsham Youth Football Tournament, we are expecting over 4,500 people to visit Youngs Park next weekend (3-4 June). Positioned for many years as the “friendly tournament”, we pride ourselves on being hospitable and bringing everyone from the local community together to support what has become one of the largest events in this historic market town.
It is hard to believe that our club formally known as Aylsham Wanderers Youth ran their first tournament back in 1987 on Aylsham Recreation Ground with a handful of teams playing across a small number of age groups.
Creating legacy is a wonderful thing for any organisation and it’s especially pleasing to see that we continue to award the best Aylsham player on each day with the Hazel Newstead Memorial Trophy in memory of Hazel who was a founder treasurer of the Youth Football Club and sadly passed away in 1993. What’s even more astonishing is her son, Steve has been a volunteer referee in every tournament since the beginning, stating he only missed one from memory due to ill health.
In the last 15 years I have been involved, we have grown from 60 to 160 teams, increased our participation age range and always try to ensure we have a strong girls team presence each year. The number of local businesses and sponsors supporting this event has increased expedentially (thank you) and our profit margin has soared beyond belief. Every penny is ploughed back into local grass roots football and we pride ourselves in sharing some of our profit each year with a local not for profit organisation.
I am a very lucky chairman, with such a great group of passionate people running things. We hope everyone taking part as well as all visitors will enjoy this fabulous football tournament and join us again in 2018.
Best wishes
Ian
Ian Potter looking forward to the youth tournament 3-4th June