Cont~ Our crucial jigsaw piece fell into place when Ladyfield Evangelical Church, Chippenham, offered the use of their spanking new indoor sports court once a week. We had kind donations of kit and also had a significant donation from the Co-operative Membership Community Fund.
We were fortunate to have involvement from a fairly early point from Chippenham Futsal Club coach Chris, which made a huge difference in giving our sessions structure. Working with the futsal ball and within the smaller boundaries contributed greatly to the emphasis on skill and control. Numbers were frustratingly low for several months as first, though enthusiasm and enjoyment were high from the start. But I always had Jon Regler to remind me of how their project also started with small numbers. Little acorns, and all that. We hoped that patience, persistence, hard work, and commitment to what we were trying to achieve, would get us to where we wanted to be. And the policy was that however few turned up, we would be there and have some sort of session, come what may.
So, where are we now, three years on? The numbers involved, the fitness, and the skill levels, have all clearly increased. Female guests have played a major part, defying the sexist assumptions of some outside parties. The team has played in half a dozen tournaments, including Wiltshire Addiction Support Project annual tournaments, and Oxford and Wiltshire Social Inclusion Cups, emerging with no silverware, but with great credit for both their performances and their attitude.
But most of all, we have the most enormous amount of fun!
Thanks to Martin Searle for this if you would like to help out or find out more about Doorway please click here.
Morethanwords/OCTOBER, 2013