The club continues to win trophies at various age groups but the two greatest successes for Wigton Sports Association in recent times has been the awarding of the Charter Standard and a substantial grant by The Football Foundation.

Football Foundation Bid
If you visited Wigton Moor during the 1980s, the club’s facilities were the best in the area. A timber prefabricated building had been purchased from ICI in Huddersfield and shipped over to Alwoodley. The building was over 25 years old but was in good order and provided changing rooms, toilets, a kitchen and a social area. Indeed it was a smart building for its time however vandalism and lack of funds to maintain it lead to its gradual deterioration. Anyone who joined and left the club in the late 1990s would only have ever known a damp dilapidated building which had become an embarrassment to the club. Unfortunately it had to go!

In 1999 the initial soundings for funding for a new clubhouse was made by a small team consisting of the Chair – Jim Pitts-Murray, the Secretary – Martin Oxley, Coach – Kevin Barr and Architect/Project Co-ordinator/Parent – Richard Burt. Things were going well – Leeds City Council (who own the grounds) were keen to support the redevelopment of the facilities as were local Councilors Ronnie Feldman, Ruth Feldman and Jonathon Brown. The Councilors were able to provide some local funding as were the Council through the Community Involvement Team.

By June 2000, Sport England had agreed to our project in principal and were ready to lead us through the remainder of the development project with a grant of 65% of the projected cost of £270,000. However, things soon went off the rails when all football projects were handed over to the newly created Football Foundation, which meant we had to apply for funding again! Whilst this appeared to be a setback, in fact it turned out to be a blessing. This gave Richard Burt the opportunity to re-cost the project and to include the cost of levelling and redraining the pitches.
By March 2002 we received the news that the Foundation would support our project in full with a total grant of £412,000 out of a new total of £536,000. This was given for improvement work on pitches and the building of a new clubhouse. This was the biggest award outside of London at that time.

By summer of 2002 the pitches were bare, ploughed up, re-drained and re-seeded. In October 2002 the old clubhouse was demolished. In November 2002 the foundations for the new building were sunk and the new Wigton Sports Association clubhouse was opened in September 2003.

This all sounds like a simple story about how easy it was to complete a project of this size… well it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t simple! Like most projects it takes a lot of hard work for many people within the club. Other people we should mention are Andrew Densley – Pitch Specialist and Wigton Newsletter Editor, Paul Lavery and Pete Muddiman – Fundraisers/Social Event organizers and Club Treasurer – David Reid. When the initial project team approached these people with a list of requirements, they took up the challenge without any reservations. However the biggest thanks must go to Richard Burt as without his design, his vision and drive the project would not have been completed (the design was shortlisted for the Leeds Awards For Architecture in 2004!). The new facilities are the envy of most junior clubs who visit us and it shows them what can be achieved if a club has a group of like-minded people. Hopefully other clubs will be inspired to follow our lead to improve football facilities everywhere.

Charter Standard
In March 2002, Wigton Sports Association were awarded that Charter Standard Development Club award. There is no doubt in the minds of officials that working towards, receiving and maintaining the award has made the club a much more “professional” enterprise. The club has always had a good attitude towards the coaching and playing of football, but the wealth and extent of training and knowledge available to Charter Clubs has certainly been of great benefit.