EB Lions AFC

Posted on August 3, 2007

Going into the 2007/2008 season we have 10 teams, including two girls' teams, which is fantastic news. We would like to develop even more teams and to involve more children but the main obstacle that we suffer from is a lack of pitches/amenities.

Edlesborough Parish Council kindly allow us to have two 7-a-side pitches on the Green and we have applied for use of a third 7-a-side pitch at Dagnall. Our 11-a-side teams play at Edlesborough School and at Holmans Field in Eaton Bray.

It would be wonderful for the future development of the village, children and community if we were to secure our own 'Ground', with 11-a-side and 7-a-side pitches altogether, an all weather pitch and training area, coupled with club house/changing room. We know from talking to Miss Hatfield at Edlesborough School and Nick Evans at Scouts that they would also make great use of such facilities for sporting and outdoor use and this would give the community a fantastic amenity too. We know that we can secure substantial funding from the Football bodies for such a project, so money would not necessarily be as big a hurdle as people might think. If anybody knows of a suitable site we would be grateful if they could inform the Club chairman, Andy Lancefield.

Recently we received news that our U15 team have won the Fair Play Award for the 2006/2007 season from the Chiltern Youth League. This is the second time that they have won the award. The U7 team took part in a Mini Soccer Festival at Kempston on 7th July, where the emphasis of the day was to encourage fair play. They were second in the fair play awards for their age group and their manager was very pleased with their performance. Although the organisers stressed that teams would not be judged on results and scores it was encouraging to note that EB Lions won 5 of their 6 matches which bodes well for the coming season.

For more information about the club please access our website at www.eblions.co.uk.

-- Liz Coates, Press Officer, EB Lions AFC.