Nathan Batchelor
Administrator
Club Secretary
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://www.thatsmagnificent.com/img/products/sanbarca.jpg "[avatar]")
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 224
|  | Bessacarr & Cantley Times 25 year history article
« Thread Started on Sept 13, 2006, 8:21pm » | |
Bessacarr Football Club are this year celebrating their 25th anniversary since being founded in 1981. It all started with some 15 youngsters from Willow Primary School playing football on the quarry fields and two of the fathers, Bryan Ward and Tony Roberts forming them into a team and arranging friendlies with other clubs. They played their home games at Wilby Carr School and their adopted strip was the blue and red stripes, blue shorts copied from the Spanish team of Barcelona and which is still the Clubs current colours. Their sponsors were Don Valley Sports which was displayed across the front of their strip
The team applied to join the Doncaster Boys Sunday League but did not get accepted until the 1983/4 season as an Under 12s Team. At the end of this season all the players were presented with a personally named trophy at a ceremony held at the Church Hall in Bessacarr. These presentations have continued every season since then, although the venues have changed. Another innovation started in the second season was an annual 3-4 day trip abroad to play in specially arranged tournaments against foreign sides of similar age. The first occasions involved visits to Holland and Belgium and in 1988 as 17 year olds they entered a prestigious tournament involving similar aged youngsters from top Dutch professional teams including Feyenoord, Ultrecht and Excelsior and even beat the former 2-1. This arose because originally Doncaster Rovers were to send a team to take part in this tournament organized by K.N,V.B. Dordecht through the Dutch F.A. but Billy Bremner reneged at the last minute and Bryan Ward who had arranged for them to take part entered his own Bessacarr team in their place. Although sending teams abroad lapsed at times this has now been renewed and teams in the Under 15s age group have gone in the last two seasons and hope to continue annually in the future.
Throughout 1988/95 the Club continued to run 5-6 teams in the Under 11s/16s range, playing at a number of venues, mainly local schools. During the close season the teams took part in mini-sided tournaments, had various outings to pleasure parks etc. and continued with their coaching. In 1996 following difficulties raising new Under 10s (recently started by the D.B.S.L.) and Under 11s teams it was decided to form a Nursery Squad with coaching for children aged between 6 to 11. New mini goals and pitch markers were purchased and arrangements made with Willow School to use their playing fields. A professional coach was engaged and parents were encouraged to assist at these weekly evening gatherings. Friendly fixtures with other Club Nursery teams were arranged on Sunday afternoons and as a result players became available to form our new teams. However the D.B.S.L decided in their wisdom to take over the arrangement of fixtures for the Under 7/10 ages who play mini-sided football and imposed the same rules as applied to the older age groups including LD.Cards etc. As a result these youngsters have to be treat as separate teams, which together with the new Under 18s League since introduced, makes the number of teams the Club has to manage increase from the original 5/6 to the present 10/12. This requires a lot of management, a lot of funds and the wholesale co-operation of parents.
As a Club we have been very fortunate in enrolling a number of dedicated people, mostly parents, who by their efforts have taken the Club to new heights. These have assisted Managers in running teams, served on the Management Committee and filled the most important roles of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. We are now one of the largest Clubs in the D.B.S.L.; have an annual turn-over of some £30k; have teams in 11 age groups; numerous sponsors and 5 playing venues. In February 2006 the Club was one of the few to be awarded the F.A.Charter Standard which involved, inter-alia, a written constitution, screening of all officials for child protection, F.A. Junior Team Manager Awards for all Team Managers, commitment to training, promoting codes of conduct, provide mini-soccer for under 10 year olds., close school liaison, equal opportunities and a Club Development Plan. As part of this development we are this coming season running an Under 12s girl team for the first time and aiming to improve coaching by persuading all Managers to take higher coaching certificates.
As a Club we have come a long way from that first team in 1981 and must thank those early parents who had the foresight and dedication to prepare such a solid foundation and to those who have since carried on the same traditions with the same zeal and effort to make the Club what it is to-day. The Club presently runs a monthly raffle (200 Club) for which we would like more parents to become members, has its own website, produces a monthly newsletter and runs many fund-raising events during the year (Fun Days, Team Photo Calendars, Indoor Football Tournaments at the Dome, Presentation Evenings etc.). The future however is dependent on ample supply of those type of parents who are willing to partake, assist and devote time to the Club as well as their childs own Team, in the development of resources for the benefit and enjoyment of their children.
Alan Burnside (Club President)
| |
|
![[Home]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif "[Home]")
![[New Topics]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/topics.png "[New Topics]")
![[Help]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif "[Help]")
![[Search]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif "[Search]")
![[Login]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif "[Login]")
![[Register]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif "[Register]")
![[Search This Thread]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/search2.gif "[Search This Thread]")
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif "[Send Topic To Friend]")
![[Print]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif "[Print]")
Author
Logged