Sports & Recreation Clubs


The cricket square getting its autumn/winter feed. The artificial strip is a ClubTurf 27m International Match Pitch


“


  


Simon Mills


There was a general flurry of activity, not to say anxiety, over where the money would be found. Ironsiders were not keen on going down the personal loan route again


Land, and in a conservation area, so any owner was limited in the type of re-development. However, after five years of negotiations and court battles, in 1995, we did get a new fifteen year lease. “ When that lease ran out in


MAINTENANCE FOR ALL SYNTHETIC SPORTS SURF A CES


 


RE! Our unique REAQUA® process


combines pressure washing and vacuum extraction, transforming sports surfaces and returning athletics tracks to ‘as new’ condition.


2010, Aviva put the ground up for sale, as it did with the neighbouring Spencer Club’s. Both clubs had the first option to buy and there was a general flurry of activity, not to say anxiety, over where the money would be found. Ironsiders were not keen on going down the personal loan route again! One of London’s iconic sporting charities came to the rescue - the London Marathon Trust. One of their objectives is to ensure the preservation of London sports fields and facilities and they came to the rescue and provided the cash for both clubs to purchase their grounds. A separate company, London


Marathon Trust Earlsfield Ltd, jointly owned by Battersea Ironsides Sports Club and the Spencer Club, was set up to own the freehold of the land each club occupied. It means that the Ironsides could be where they are forever. It was a big turning point for the club. “No more rent payments and,


  64 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2016


generally, we were financially much more secure. It was a great relief,” says Eric. Prior to 2010, the club had a holding company, Battersea Ironsides Sports Club Ltd, of which Eric was a director. He has always been on the club’s ground committee and, up to the London Marathon Trust help, he and a couple of club colleagues, notably Mick and Jean Peddle, had taken on the


responsibility for the upkeep of the clubhouse, pitches and ground facilities. Without them going the extra mile, week-in week-out, who knows whether Battersea Ironsides would have survived? Fellow Ironsiders recognised the huge contribution Eric had made over the years and nominated him for an honour and, in 2013, he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to sport in Battersea. You only have to look at numbers to see how well this small, multi-use site is doing these days. In 1983, Battersea Ironsides


had two cricket teams, two rugby teams and a football team, and no juniors at all. Now, in the summer, there are


four cricket teams playing in the Surrey Championship on Saturdays, and a Sunday team playing friendlies. Last season, there were 138 senior cricketers and 136 under age 15 juniors. Battersea Ironsides Football Club runs four teams each weekend and has sixty-seven players signed-on this season, and the rugby club has four teams with eighty players vying for places each weekend. There is also a thriving junior rugby section, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year. There are 870 boys and sixty- eight girls involved in this, making it one of the biggest junior rugby clubs in the country. Last season was the best ever


for Battersea Ironsides Rugby Club. The first fifteen won the Junior Vase at Twickenham, and also won the Surrey League and the Surrey Cup - a magnificent treble. A local private school also


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156