Some of our under 9’s team showing off their new kit sponsored by Days Bakery of Ashwell
This weekend our Under 9 team ran out on to the pitch in their brand new kit, thanks to the continued support from Days Bakery in Ashwell who have committed to a further two year shirt sponsorship deal.
The team were victorious, winning their match 4-0, so lets hope these become our lucky shirts!
Days have been supporting our team since we first started playing matches over two season’s ago as under 7’s. Thank you so much to George Dorrington and everyone at Days Bakery for your continued support …it really is appreciated, and a massive help for the club and the children in Ashwell.
Ashwell Accies is lending its full support to Play Safe – a national FA-led campaign to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.
Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.
The main element of Play Safe is a series of short films which emphasise the importance of clubs such as ours having safeguarding as an everyday reality. The films also explain to parents/carers and children themselves what to do if they feel unsafe or worried, because nothing matters more than making sure football is safe for everyone, especially children and young people. You can see these films below.
“As a youth team coach, I will be working with my club to ensure we support the Play Safe messaging,” says FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham. “I am also pleased that the campaign has the support of the former footballers with lived experience of abuse in football, who are on our Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group. The Group has collectively said:
“Learning from the past is crucial, so that we can prevent the horrific experiences that happened to us and so many others in football, from happening again.
“As a group of survivors, we fully support the ethos and important messages that Play Safe conveys – whether to club officials, parents/carers and or vitally, children and young people themselves. Equally important is that Play Safe is not a one-off campaign – it will be used at key points in the football calendar to remind everyone in football, that children’s welfare and keeping them safe, should be at the heart of all that we do.”
As the Survivor Group points out, you’ll see Play Safe appearing at various points throughout the season to keep safeguarding front of mind in football. Together, we want to do everything we can so everyone – particularly children and young people – has a consistently positive experience of our great game.
The Ashwell Academicals youth football club provides a safe and welcoming environment for children of all abilities to express themselves through sport. We encourage young people to try their hardest, have fun and enjoy themselves.
8 teams ranging from under 7 ‘s to under 14’s are registered to play competitive matches as members of Royston Crow Youth Football League, often with more than one team per age group. An Under 6’s team also trains each week having great fun in preparation to enter the league when they reach the Under 7’s age bracket.
If you drive past Ashwell Rec on a Saturday morning you will see that it is a hive of activity, the two pitches there are almost always in constant use hosting matches from 10am to 12pm, and you’ll see the fun and excitement that the children gain from participating in this wonderful sport. The older age groups play at SmallGains Lane which is similarly at full capacity most Saturday and Sunday mornings on the bigger pitches. The Accies cater for all abilities, we take Lionel Messis and My Messys, it’s all about participation.
As we start the new football season can look back on the successes of the 2020/21 season:
The under 12 ‘s had an almost unbeaten record gaining promotion to a higher division.
The under 18’s season culminated in a thrilling Cup Semi-Final which they lost in the very last minute to deny them a fitting finale in a Cup Final.
Under 13’s reached the final of the Tri-Counties Cup competition and met Letchworth Garden City in the Final. There was a great atmosphere down at the Small Gains ground as the Accies took a 2-1 lead with 10–minutes to play and the large home crowd was getting very excited…..Letchworth eventually got an equaliser with less than 5-minutes left and then showed their strength to score a last minute winner (it’s a recurring theme!) to thwart the Accies It was a great occasion ensuring that a tough season of interruptions, finished on a high.
A new addition this year is the Accies Girls team which covers Under 10’s and 11’s who will participate in the Hertfordshire Girls League. The team is looking for new players to join the squad, so come on girls….give it a go!
Many of the teams are mixed with boys and girls playing together. There are also girls specific training sessions from Under 7’s through Under 12’s. These have included occasional visits from professional Ladies football players.
A few words from Billie who plays for the mixed under 13’s team: “My favourite part of playing for the Accies is that it is like playing with family. I grew up with most of my team through pre-school and school. It is a gift to be able to meet up twice a week to play a game we all love. I am grateful for the support from the coaches who give up their free time to support us.”
“My overall best moment of the season was being brought back together after lockdown, not just to play football but to see each other and start to return to some sort of normality.”
For more information about our youth football teams contact us via this website, or email info@ashwellacademicals.com
We are delighted to announce our new sponsorship deal for this season’s Under 13’s team. The Fox and Duck in Therfield, and Strand PR have stepped-up to support our local boys and girls football team by sponsoring our match shirts for the next two seasons.
Ivan Titmuss from the Fox and Duck said “We’re delighted to have joined forces with our Marketing team Strand PR and signed an historic sponsorship deal with the Ashwell Accies Football Club! The Fox and Duck, Strand PR, and the Ashwell Accies – what a dream team! Good luck to the club this season!
We were super excited to receive an invitation from Charlotte Crisp (Head of Youth Development and Cambridge United) to be mascots at Cambridge United’s game against Actonians in The FA Women’s National League at the weekend.
Not only did the girls from all of our age groups get to meet the Cambridge United Women players, they got to walk out with them at the beginning of the match, and also have a kick-about on the pitch before the game.
The girls had an amazing afternoon, and we are very grateful to everyone at Cambridge United for looking after us so well. I believe Cambridge United Women have a few more life long fans!
The Ashwell Accies are back for the 21-22 season !!
This weekend all of our age groups were back on the pitch …nearly 150 children from Ashwell and surrounding villages and towns, outside in the fresh air with all their friends, getting some exercise, and having lots of fun.
We are delighted to see all the boys and girls back on the pitch, and we are looking forward to the season ahead.
Our under 10 girls performed amazingly well at their first ever competition at the weekend. The tournament hosted by Hitchin Belles saw 12 teams from all over Hertfordshire compete against each other over the course of the afternoon. The Accies showed brilliant teamwork and some excellent skills playing 5 matches, scoring 7 goals and finishing the event unbeaten. More importantly they all had a lot of fun!
It is a great beginning for the new team made up of U9 and U10 players who will begin playing in the Hertfordshire Girls Partnership League at the start of the next season. We are always looking for new players to join the team, if you know any girls in year 4 or 5 that might like to give football a go then please get in touch and we can get them along to give it a go.
This weekend we held our first ever all girls session. Accies girls from all of our age groups …including Under 6’s up to Under 12’s, got together to train and have some fun.
We were also extremely lucky to have a visit from Charlotte Crisp who is currently a first team player for Cambridge United Women, and is also Head of Youth Development at Cambridge Utd, as well as being the driving force and head coach behind their fast growing Girls development and elite centres.
Charlotte ran some drills for the girls, and then the girls had an opportunity to ask her some quite probing question.
We ended the morning with an enormous water fight …some of us are still drying off.
Thank you to the Under 12’s who helped set-up this session, run some of their own drills, and helped encourage some of our younger players.
Thank you to all the team coaches who were so enthusiastic about helping us promote and run this session, and all their help in the background over the last few weeks.
And thank you to Charlotte for giving her time and making the session so much fun.
The Accies football year was somewhat curtailed, as with all things in the annus horribilis of 2020, but one look at the faces of children and parents alike when football finally returned in late September told you everything that you need to know about the importance of our wonderful sport to the wellbeing of all.
The children were like coiled springs, finally released having been scrunched up compressed in a package for months and the feel-good factor really was a joy to witness. The results of the matches didn’t even matter. Nobody cared whether they’d won or lost. They were playing football with their friends and having a fantastic time in the process, something they had been deprived of for so long.
The effort that went in from our coaches and committee to prepare for the return of football is not be underestimated. They did some great work on top of their usual efforts to ensure that football could continue and the Accies remains a safe place for the children to be. So, a massive thank you has to go to them. A special thank you to our new secretary, Vicki Prowle, who joined us at the start of the year and has taken on the extra role of Covid officer. She has done a fantastic job ensuring we are in a great place to continue playing football.
Even during the down time, the Accies were keeping busy; three bin bags of kit has been collected and donated to KitAid to support people in some of the world’s poorest countries, so soon we may have an Accies team in another part of the world!
Off the pitch the battle goes on to improve facilities. With now over 150 children participating under the Accies banner, nine teams and just four pitches in the village, resources are stretched to the maximum. The few pitches that we do have are showing the strains of accommodating so much football, so if any kind landowners are reading this….please contact me on email or via the website!
As always, the club couldn’t run without the fantastic support and help from the parents. Thank you to all who help out on match days or with training. I know it is massively appreciated. We look forward to seeing you in 2021. Up The Accies! Andy Hayes, Chairman- chairman@ashwellacademicals.com
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