In front of the biggest League crowd for many years Yate Town FC ran a highly successful Community Day on Saturday 19th October, with the Bluebells playing their part by winning 2-0 against Tavistock, on a sunny autumn afternoon. Much preparation went into the organisation of the day with many volunteers at the club playing their part to ensure that all went well.
After a wet night the game was in some doubt in the morning but thanks to groundsman Roger Hawkins and his colleagues the pitch was declared fit after the earlier torrential downpours.
By 9am commercial manager, Stewart Thomas, with the help of committee member Rob John had set up a stall at Tesco’s (pictured below) and were raising money for the club’s charity of the season, St Peter’s Hospice, plus selling club merchandise.
With TNT Sports now available in the clubhouse, the fans started arriving just after 12.15pm with the bar staff in place for what they knew would be a busy afternoon. The usual pre-match preparations and more was going on behind the scenes so that all was ready for the match. Programmes were sorted to sell, the car park attendants were in place, the turnstile operators were ready and the mascots from Yate United Under 10s and their parents arrived.
The students from SGS met with the media team and were in place to start their projects linked to Yate Town Football Club and will be returning regularly over the coming weeks. They filmed the game, took photographs and witnessed the post-match interviews. One of the students commented, “Thank you for a great day today which was a good insight into the team, the club and it was an amazing match. We are all looking forward to the next one!”
Another student said, “I loved working on Saturday with Yate Town because the football is always exciting alongside a great atmosphere and everyone is shown so much support. This helps me enjoy what I do massively!”
The volunteers from St Peter’s Hospice were set up ready to promote their charity, their mascot, Lenny, was all dressed up and the bucket collection was ready for half time. In total £307.60 was raised by the bucket collection in Tesco’s and at half-time.
Meg Austin, from St Peter’s Hospice, who was at the game said, "Thank you so much to Yate Town FC for hosting us at Saturday's game. The atmosphere was incredible, and everyone we spoke with had such heartwarming things to say about the work of St Peter's Hospice. We are deeply touched to have been chosen as Yate Town FC’s Charity of the Season, in honour of Iain Prior, who was in our care in April. Support from groups in our community like yourselves means a great deal to us—without it, the vital work of St Peter’s Hospice wouldn’t be possible. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who donated."
The vans from South Gloucestershire Foster Care, to promote their services and activities within the community, plus the Ice Cream van from Vintage Ices were in place – and on a pleasant afternoon many ice creams were sold!
The mascots for the afternoon, Yate United Under 10s were involved in a cross-bar challenge at half time with 3 children and 3 parents taking part and commentary was included to add to the occasion. The cross bar was hit once by one of the dads who won a free ticket to a game this season.
The children had earlier run out with the teams and were involved in the pre-match rituals before the game and also had time to practise their skills on the pitch when they arrived.
Below the pictures show some of the 818-crowd relaxing in the sunshine at half-time.
Chairman, Mark Thorne, was thrilled with the day and said, “What a day for the club and local community. The atmosphere all day was great and you could feel the excitement from the young supporters for some of whom this may have been their first time at a match. The club will continue to build from this day and we’re hoping everyone will come back and watch some more games with us during the season. We even had the ITV West cameras at the club and a brief slot in their Monday evening sports section”