Tag Archive for: Football

Fantasy Football Winners

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Fantasy Football Winners: The Premier League Season is now over for another year, and with it brings the conclusion of the 2018/19 Turf Matters Fantasy Football League.

In a season where the Premier League title race was fiercely contested right to the wire, the Turf Matters Fantasy Football league was won by a much more convincing margin.

Our top prize goes to Ossie Rowland, who was crowned league champion with an outstanding points tally of 2520, winning the league by a whopping 222 points, and ranking just 38th in the whole of England.

Stu Dunn finished a respectable runner-up with 2298 points, whilst Craig Williams completed the top 3 with a score of 2291.

Congratulations to all of our top 10 prize winners.

Place

Team Name

Manager

Prize Money

1

Highway to Pell

Ossie Rowland

£250

2

 God Bless The Freaks Stu Dunn

£100

3

KDFC

Craig Williams

£50

4

The Wizard of Özil

Chris Lynch

£25

5

Thats what she Sedge

Chris Sedgwick

£20

6

D-Boy Utd

D Boy

£15

7

Porter Vale

Alex Porter

£10

8

Game of throw ins

Mike Sage

£10

9

Scorpio Rising FC

Tom Clayton

£10

10

Doomed FC

Alastair Cuthbert

£10

Turf Matters would like to thank all those who took part in this season’s competition, along with league sponsors Dennis & SISIS.

If you were one of the lucky ones to make our top 10, please email sinead@turfmatters.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 31st May to claim your prize. All prizes will be sent via post within 30 days of the closing date.

Tractor Stolen From Football Club

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Tractor Stolen From Football Club: Staff at Eastleigh FC say they are “gutted” after a tractor worth £19,000 was stolen from their ground.

It happened at the Silverlake Stadium on Sunday night.

Tractor Stolen From Football Club

The Head Groundsman Dan Barnes arrived for match day preparations on Monday to discover the tractor had been stolen and the extent of the damage left behind.

Dan says there was “no remorse” by the people who stole it.

“It’s extremely upsetting. Not just for myself but for the football club as a whole. It’s a massive inconvenience financially and we now have to go through insurance claims. In terms of using the tractor itself, we’re now approaching renovation periods and that’s one of my main pieces of equipment that I’ll be needing to overseed and prepare the ground, so it’s a massive inconvenience.”

The tractor is used primarily at the end of a season, where it is used to overseed and prepare the ground for pre-season friendlies in July.

Hundreds of people on social media have been retweeting the picture of the tractor in the hope of helping the club to recover the vehicle.

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Vandals Damage Football Pitch

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Vandals Damage Football Pitch: Junior footballers from Spalding were left “devastated and disheartened” after vandals wrecked their pitch and equipment on Friday night.

Players and officials from Spalding United Youth Football Club arrived for their games in West Pinchbeck, only to find that a pitch had been vandalised and a container storing equipment used by the club had been broken into.

Vandals Damage Football Pitch

A pitch marker and rope used by the club were stolen and dumped in a ditch full of water, but not before the marker had been used to leave graffiti on the pitch itself and on Leaves Lake Drove where the playing field is located.

The vandals struck sometime between Thursday night, when Spalding United’s junior players had their last training session, and about 9am on Saturday morning.

Club secretary Chiara Lyon said: “My colleague on our committee received a call early on Saturday morning with a message that the pitch we play on in West Pinchbeck had been vandalised and the equipment in which we store all our equipment had been stolen.

“I drove down to Leaves Lake Drove at 9am on Saturday, only to find that some nice pictures had been drawn on the pitch and the container had been broken into.

“A pitch marker used to paint the lines on the pitches had been taken out of the container and used on the pitch before it was thrown into a dyke.

“There was paint all over the road and some “Respect” barriers to keep spectators off the pitch had been thrown into the dyke as well.

“I was devastated as some of the children had travelled from quite a distance away and we had to explain to them that their game go ahead as the police wanted to have a look at what had happened.”

Among the youngsters affected were a team from Newmarket, who had made a 127-mile round trip to play against one of the Spalding United junior teams.

Chiara said: “We had a team training session at Leaves Lake Drove on Thursday evening, but we don’t use the pitch on Fridays.

“There were two games scheduled on Saturday which had to be called off but once the police had finished, myself and some of the other committee members spent several hours cleaning the pitch.

“It wasn’t the nicest of feelings and it wasn’t the call I expected on Saturday morning when I was supposed to have been taking my youngster to a match.

“We’ve managed to get the pitch playable again, after it took us six hours to tidy things up.

“But it was very disheartening to see what happened because it affects the children.”

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Boy Racers Churn Up Football Pitches

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Boy Racers Churn Up Football Pitches: Boy racers performing ‘donuts’ have churned up a team’s football pitch in Market Harborough.

Two cars have damaged a large section of the turf at the Symington’s Recreation Ground by performing stunts and driving about at speed on Sunday night.

Boy Racers Churn Up Football Pitches

Officials at Borough Alliance Football Club, who run 17 teams for up to 400 players, officials, volunteers and parents at the site, have branded the actions as ‘mindless vandalism’.

Mick Draper, club chairman and manager of the under-10 team, said he was angry at the drivers.

He said: “These boy racers have come onto the pitch on Sunday night at about 8pm after our teams played at home.

“These idiots have spent five or 10 minutes trashing our pitches doing donuts.

“They have caused damage to three pitches.

“You can’t print what I think about these idiots. It is mindless vandalism.”

Local people have rallied round to get a group of volunteers together to work on the pitches so they are playable on at the weekend.

The club have also received support from Harborough Hire Centre and Jewsons, who are providing equipment and materials to assist them.

The affected areas will be re-seeded.

Mr Draper said: “We will get all hands on deck and sort this. There is no way we will not be ready for the games on Sunday.

“Our under-15s are going for the league, our under-11s are in a quarter-final and the under-nines are in a semi-final.

“They are all playing at home and all games will go ahead as planned. We will not let these vandals win. “

Harborough District Council have said they intend to install extra bollards to prevent vehicles being able to access the playing surfaces.

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Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch

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Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch: A football pitch in Drimnagh has been damaged in a suspected arson attack.

The pitch on Benmadigan Road is used by local club St John Bosco.

Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch

It is believed plastic fencing that was left at the pitch was set on fire.

Pictures shared on social media by Cllr Daithi Doolan show a part of the pitch scorched this morning.

Cllr Doolan condemned those who caused the damage.

He said: “This vandalism damages the whole community. If you are involved please. Stop and think. If you see it. Report it.”

Cllr Doolan has reported the damage to Dublin City Council, who have assured him they will be cleaning it up as soon as possible.

St John Bosco have been established in the local community for over 60 years.

The successful club operates teams for boys and girls at all underage levels.

Gardai confirmed investigations into the incident are ongoing.

A garda spokesperson said: “Gardai were called to an incident of a report of a fire at Brickfield Park, Drimnagh on 9 February, 2019 – there was damage to a green area with fire burnt out.”

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Derby At Forefront Of Football Pitch Revolution

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Derby At Forefront Of Football Pitch Revolution: Derby County Football Club is at the forefront of the biggest change in sport surfaces in over 20 years.

The club has worked with Talbot Sports Turf on installing revolutionary POWERgrass on an academy pitch at its Moor Farm Training Centre.

Derby At Forefront Of Football Pitch Revolution

Invented in Italy, POWERgrass has increased traction, stability and softness and is more robust than any other hybrid sports carpet.

Darren Wassall, Derby County’s academy director, said: “The POWERgrass hybrid carpet at our Moor Farm academy has exceeded all expectations with regards to wear, surface softness, reliability and playability.”

Sean Goodwin, Director of Talbot Sports Turf, which has exclusive rights to install POWERgrass as a turf in the UK, said: “We have decades of experience and we believe this is the best hybrid carpet system available on the market and is the biggest change in the industry in two decades.

“We are convinced it will become the turn-to surface for football clubs across the UK and Europe.”

He added: “We met with the inventor, Dr Niko Sarris, and have examined POWERgrass very closely. We believe he was the only individual who considered how the grass plant would grow within the hybrid system because his background is agronomy.”

POWERgrass has a bespoke root zone as part of a system, which improves the growing environment and, at the same time, has more synthetic fibre filaments per square metre than any other product.  This, together with the patented backing to the carpet, makes it unique.

Sean added: “One of the issues with hybrid carpets is the ability to be renovated at end of the season.

“If a hybrid carpet does not have very good tuft-lock, synthetic fibres will be removed when old grass is taken out. We are delighted to say that the tuft-lock of POWERgrass is the highest available on the world market.

“It is also the only carpet with tri-coloured fibres which ensures it marries into the grass sward as well as possible.”

Talbot won a prestigious BALI National Landscape Award for the installation of a POWERgrass pitch which has been hailed as ‘our Wembley’ by grassroots footballers in Regent’s Park, London.

The pitch, which is the first of its type at an outdoor public sports facility in the UK, was initially a Royal Parks’ pilot but has been a huge success because of its quality and robustness.

Mark Rowe, assistant park manager, said: “POWERgrass is now in its second season and through last winter and up to now this winter, we have seen no games called off due to adverse weather conditions apart from when the playing surface was covered in deep snow.”

POWERgrass has enabled thousands more people to enjoy sports in Regent’s Park and Sean believes that it has set the benchmark for other public facilities across the country.

He said: “POWERgrass is the best surface available and offers a cost-saving. It will change the face of sports surfaces for sports clubs from The Premier League to the local park.”

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Vandals Ruin Village Football Pitch

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Vandals Ruin Village Football Pitch: A village football boss has condemned “mindless” vandals who ruined their pitch by driving across it and churning up the turf.

Cartmel AFC’s ground was targeted by someone driving across the wet surface performing “doughnuts and wheelies” and scarring the sodden ground on Boxing Day.

Vandals Ruin Village Football Pitch

Club chairman Steve Chambers said it was ‘out of the blue’ for someone in the community to have done such a thing.

“It’s simply mindless vandalism,” he said. “We are such a supportive community and for this to have happened is very unexpected.”

Police have launched an investigation and the football club has gathered CCTV footage that may show who was in the area at the time.

Mr Chambers is hopeful that the CCTV evidence will help trace those responsible for the criminal damage.

“With luck the footage will give us something and the culprits will be brought to justice,” he said.

The team hope that they will still be able to play on Saturday (January 5) despite how deep the marks are on the field.

First team manager Andrew Kendall said: “A lot of volunteers spend a lot of time on the pitch and so it’s very disappointing and upsetting for the club for this to happen.”

Anyone with information should contact the police on 101 quoting log number 103 of December 27 or call CrimeStoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch

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Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch: A Renton football team have been left with nowhere to play their games after vandals set fire to their pitch.

Players and coaches at Renton Craigandro have been left gutted by the damage done to their pitches at Tontine Park.

Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch

The grass pitch has been left blackened and unplayable with remains of melted plastic bins ruining the grounds.

The community club– which coaches 270 young players – will now have to foot the bill for the burnt out pitch and fix the damage by themselves over the festive period.

Matches which were set to be played this weekend will also have to be moved, costing the club even more money as they will have to pay to rent other pitches in the area.

One of the club’s coaches, Joe Mulvenna, was passing the club’s premises on Sunday night (December 9) when he spotted the burning bins.

Nearby residents called emergency services who attended to extinguish the blaze at around 7pm.

The fire was contained to the bins and caused no further damage to the pavillion on the park.

However, the fire has left blacked charred rubbish which will need to be cleaned up by the football team.

The grass will also have to be turfed at the expense of Renton Craigandro, who took over the pitch on a 25-year lease from West Dunbartonshire Council last year.

Club coach Joe said: “We were very lucky as it could have been so much worse.

“People panicked as they thought the whole place was on fire but thankfully it wasn’t that bad. It’s just so disappointing that someone would do that.

“We are now going to have to foot the bill for the damage and we don’t know yet how much it is going to cost.

“It is just an inconvenience for us all as we are going to have to put the time in to repair it and we now have to try and find another place for our teams to place while the pitch isn’t usable.”

A SFRS spokeswoman said: “TheScottish Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 7.07pm on Sunday, December 9 to reports of small fire in the open in the Renton area of West Dunbartonshire.

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Quad Bikes Tear Up Football Pitch

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Quad Bikes Tear Up Football Pitch: Pitches at Solway Banks in Brynteg were damaged again by tyre tracks at the weekend, leading to Brymbo Lodge FC coach Kieran Howard to hit out at the vandals for ruining children’s football.

He says they are also putting lives including their own in danger with reckless behaviour. He added that the Brymbo and Brynteg area is suffering anti-social behaviour being caused by youths, some of whom he believes may even have played for his club in the past, and has urged them to think about the consequences of their actions.

Quad Bikes Tear Up Football Pitch

Coaches, youngsters and their parents were left dismayed when they turned up to pitch two at Solway Banks this weekend and found it had been cut up again by a vehicle.

“It looks like they have come through the back way, where there are no defences against cars, bikes or quads”, Mr Howard said.

“Talking to a few of the lads it looks like quad bike tyre marks and we’ve had problems with four-by-four vehicles in the past.

“We have more than 200 players at the club, it is affecting them all from the under-six’s upwards and stuff like this is going to hamper their opportunities.

“The club is a community hub and this is the kids’ green space. We all meet up – parents, kids and volunteers and to come here and see this, it’s sad.

“I don’t know how long it’s going to take to repair and I don’t know what is going to be done about it.”

Mr Howard added that there had been problems with anti-social behaviour in the area of late, and felt he had to speak up – with concerns about the dangers of vehicles being used in an area where children play.

He said: “A lot of anti-social behaviour is going on over that way. This follows on from the problems we had on Bonfire Night.

“I’ve already asked for a zebra crossing to be put in because you have to cross the road to get from pitch to pitch.

“As a local I’m sad to see what is happening to the reputation of this area. A small minority is giving it a really bad name at the moment.

“People come here to play from all around, Brymbo, New Broughton, Pentre Broughton and other villages.

“Some of the people involved in this behaviour could have family who play for the club and possibly even played for us themselves when they were younger, so I don’t know why they’re doing it.

“Perhaps they think its funny but they aren’t thinking of the consequences. Someone’s going to get hurt and a child could lose their life up there through reckless behaviour.

“I just want them to think about the consequences of their actions.”

Councillor David A Bithell lead member environment and transport said: “Vandalism of football facilities and fields causes disruption to those who play and use these facilities.

“I hope those responsible are caught and made to make good any damage.”

Gwenfro County Councillor Nigel Williams added that he was working on solutions to try and prevent vehicles getting on to the pitches.

He said: “I have already asked Streetscene to put some obstruction at the entrance to stop vehicles gaining access.”

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Football Club Furious As Vandals Hit

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Football Club Furious As Vandals Hit: Bosses at a football club have been left furious, and have hit out at vandals who tore up their pitch.

Yobs used a vehicle to churn up the pitch used by Bishopton FC, which runs teams for men, women and kids.

Football Club Furious As Vandals Hit

The site, which is operated by Renfrewshire Leisure, is also home to several other clubs in Bishopton and neighbouring Erskine.

However, the mindless vandalism means it may now be out of action for weeks.

Nori Fian, Bishopton FC’s vice-chairman, said: “We think this may have happened on Friday night and I reported it to the police on Saturday afternoon.

“It looks as if someone has got on something with two wheels and driven round the pitch several times.

“I was filled with revulsion when I saw it. There is a lack of facilities already in Bishopton and now one of its only pitches has been vandalised.

“I don’t think we will be able to use it for the foreseeable future but I’m hoping repairs can be made before we play at home again next month.”

Joyce McKellar, Renfrewhire Leisure’s chief executive, said the damage is being assessed.

She said: “Hopefully repairs can be carried out so the park can be made playable by this weekend.

“The pitch is used by several teams from the Bishopton and Erskine areas and, if repairs cannot be completed by the weekend, other parks are available.

“We don’t expect any games to be cancelled because of the damage to the pitch.”

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