Formby Hockey Club in for a bright future

A LOCAL hockey club now has well-lit pitches all year round after a donation from Redrow has enabled them to purchase new, stronger lighting.

Formby Hockey Club received a £1,000 donation as part of Redrow’s voluntary community fund that has seen £5,000 shared between 10 community groups and good causes around Formby.

Hockey Development Officer, Marc Bourhill, says the club’s artificial floodlit hockey pitch is usually used every day for both hockey and football and the previous floodlights were not powerful enough meaning the teams struggled training under them: “In the summer the club’s cricket section have to field on part of the artificial pitch but to enable this to happen we have to remove some of the lights meaning lighting at this time of year is completely inadequate.

“To address this problem, we’ve moved two of the columns to the corners of the pitch so they can remain in place and added an extra lamp to these columns.”

The club, that was established around 1900, now runs 12 hockey teams from U12s through to over 60s involving men, women, boys and girls so it is a huge part of the Formby community. The teams currently can’t play matches, but training has resumed after lockdown.

Marc, who was previously an England Hockey National Age Group coach adds: “Usually we have approximately 150 youngsters who play hockey and attend the five junior sessions that we run per week as well as playing matches. We deliver hockey coaching into six of Formby’s primary schools and one of the secondary schools daily throughout the year.”

The pitch that the new lighting is benefiting is also hired out for football and is typically used by over 100 adults and 120 juniors on a weekly basis meaning they will all have better conditions to train in with the new lighting.

Sian Pitt, sales director at Redrow Homes (Lancashire) says: “Our community funds are developed to benefit communities where we build. It’s great to see just how much Formby Hockey Club contributes to the local sporting community and has done for decades.”