Youngs Park celebrates its fifth Birthday on Saturday 21^st November.

Although we are closed due to the current restrictions, I would like to raise a toast to all the volunteers who have contributed to make it happen and everyone who has volunteered or helped in some way, on or off the pitch. These people make it such a special place for Aylsham FC and our community.

Without the volunteers, committee members, players, coaches, user groups, business sponsors and advertisers, it would just be a building with no soul.

For so many it represents a place to be proud of in our community; a place for football, a place for family and friends and a place for sharing with everyone.

As it’s important to always look to the future, it’s great to read that Youngs Park and Aylsham FC are highlighted in the Football Foundation and Norfolk FA ten year strategic plan for 3G pitch investment.

Just click this link and insert “Broadland” for local plans. https://footballfoundation.org.uk/local-plans?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=LFFP%20applicant%20social

Happy birthday Youngs Park and stay safe everyone.

Ian Potter

After more than 22 years as Aylsham Football Club secretary, Mick McCann is stepping down. The club will be honoring his long service at a later date.

He will be a very hard act to follow, but the club is inviting members to apply for the vacant position.

This is a key position within Aylsham FC, as it is a role which forms part of the executive committee, with primary responsibility for liaising with the county FA and leagues.

The club secretary also plays a pivotal role in keeping the Executive, Adult and Youth committees up to date on all relevant correspondence, ensuring the rules and regulations are followed when signing players, completing paperwork etc.

We are fortunate to have very capable youth section secretary, charter standard officer, welfare officer and executive committee minutes secretary, which means the successful applicant will join an experienced team of volunteers.

Excellent communication skills, effective stakeholder management and strong organisation and administrative skills are essential to the role and, ideally, the successful candidate will have a good understanding of the FA and league rules – however, this is not essential.

It is possible to split the key accountabilities of the role (club secretary, adult match fixture secretary, disciplinary and player registrations officer) between two or more people depending on the interest shown. We would look to involve the successful applicant in how best to do this.

We are a progressive, community club, with big ambitions and a great facility in Youngs Park.  If you are interested in joining a passionate group of people who are all about our community then please give Ian Potter, club chairman, a call on 07944 915310.

Mick McCann (left) who picked up a long service award from the FA in 2017. He is pictured alongside Michael Banham, Chairman of Norfolk County FA and wheelchair tennis star Alfie Hewitt.

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.