One World, a new work by internationally-acclaimed artist Mark Wallinger, has arrived in Aylsham as a football!

The work was commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary and was inspired by the famous Christmas truce of 1914, when soldiers from both sides emerged from the trenches and met in No Man’s Land to exchange gifts and play football.

Wallinger has taken the football itself as his canvas. He has transformed it into a globe of the world using photography courtesy of NASA. He also takes inspiration from the celebrated image of earth taken during the Apollo 8 lunar orbit on December 24 1968. Captured at the moment of earthrise, it is an image of enduring beauty, depicting a peaceful planet floating in the vastness of space. 

The Football Foundation, which has thousands of grant recipients across the country, selected Aylsham Community Sports which runs Youngs Park, home of Aylsham FC at random, to receive two of the balls. They will be on display at Youngs Park for a period before a decision is made about what to do with them.

Mark Wallinger said: “It is just over 100 years since the Armistice was agreed in 1918, and 50 years since the earthrise photograph was taken on Christmas Eve 1968. One World is my contribution to the legacy of those precious moments – spreading a message of peace for the world. Time to stop fighting and start playing; playing the beautiful game. Let’s take that image of a precious and fragile world into the future and celebrate the joy of playing together.”

Stephen French, Chairman of Aylsham Community Sports (Youngs Park), said: “We are delighted to have been chosen to receive two of these specially-commissioned footballs.

Youngs Park is open every weekend and anyone is welcome to come and see them”

WORDS COURTESY OF JUST REGIONAL

Aylsham FC is delighted to announce it has bagged £2000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.

Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £43 million to over 10,000 local community projects.

Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores up and down the country and it can now be revealed Aylsham FC has been awarded £2000.

Work will now begin on bringing the project to life.

Club chairman Ian Potter said: “Many thanks to all of the Aylsham folk who used their blue tokens to help our project.

“We have worked hard since Youngs Park opened to ensure that it is a safe environment for all of the young children who use it. Now thanks to this grant we can finally fence off the final part of the facility to keep our children safe from any traffic”.

Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said:

“Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”

Voting ran in stores throughout November and December with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the checkout.

Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said:

“Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down the UK to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.

Ian Potter – who expressed his thanks to all who voted for the project.

Aylsham FC is bidding to bag a massive cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative.

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its community funding scheme, which sees grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 – raised from carrier bag sales in Tesco stores – being awarded to local community projects.

Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.

Our football club is one of the groups on the shortlist.

We are looking to receive a grant to help towards fencing off the part of Youngs Park which is adjacent to the road. This is a big project and we are a pleased that we now have the chance to make it a reality and make the field a more enclosed and safer environment for children.

Ian Potter, chairman of Aylsham FC said: “We are delighted and extremely grateful to Tesco for this opportunity. We have achieved much since opening Youngs Park but desperately want to enclose the park to make it safer and more secure for our youngsters.”

Voting is open in the Tesco store throughout November and December. Customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

Tesco’s Bags of Help project has already delivered over £36 million to nearly 8,000 projects up and down the UK. Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.

Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “We are absolutely delighted to open the voting for November and December. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see these come to life in hundreds of communities.”

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “We’ve been thrilled to see the diversity of projects that have applied for funding, ranging from outdoor classrooms, sports facilities, community gardens, play areas and everything in between.

“We’re looking forward to learning the results of the customer vote and then supporting each group to bring their project to life.”

We are grateful to all of our sponsors who support our club in various ways.

If there are any businesses or individuals who are keen to get involved you can view our latest opportunities here:

Aylsham FC was formed in 2008 and set out with one primary goal – “one club, one facility”.  Thanks to the hard work and dedication of so many this dream became reality in 2015.  Youngs Park has now been successfully operating as a football centre and community facility for over 18 months, thanks to a dedicated bunch of volunteers.

The above has taken a huge effort, however as a football club committee we know the time is right to ignite our ambition by clarifying what we feel are the key priorities for AFC as we look into the future.  We have together created 6 Goals and 4 Critical Enablers which we would like to share today with you all.  Hopefully, what you will recognise is mostly familiar as the themes are more of a continuation around what are either doing or talking about.

Why do we need Goals?

-To define our ambition and direction of travel

-To provide us with a valuable framework to support decision-making

-They help everyone (club members and stakeholders) understand where we need to work together

Today is about sharing our high level goals. As it’s everyone’s club, what we would love is for you to start talking to us about how we get there and what you think we need to do next.  Most of the main committee members are aligned to either a goal or enabler to start thinking about the next steps.  We will publish the list of owners after our next meeting on June 12^th, but for now feel free to talk to any of us.

Please get involved.

Ian, Heidi, Gus, Mick, Chris, Seb, Lee & Ricky