BANDON FEB 1995

27/2/95


BANDON:



"It's a rainbow coalition," remarked Brian Crowley MEP at

Saturday's launch of the Town Park Development Plan by the Bandon

Soccer Club.



The soccer club are the major players in the development, and the

rainbow referred to, a sporting one, consists of the soccer club,

the athletic club, and the pitch and putt club. Perhaps the main

coalition, that which has made past developments possible and

future ones probable, is the alliance between the club and the

trustees of the Town Park.



But making the impressive plans a reality is going to cost some

money: two hundred and sixty two thousand pounds. The much

needed clubhouse will take much of the finance. It is proposed

to develop it in two phases.



Phase one will see the basics: changing rooms, showers, toilets,

etc. That, in addition to needed work on the third pitch, the

provision of a car park, and the piping of a stream, will cost

well over one hundred thousand.



The soccer club proposes to fund the development in a number of

ways. There is a œ5 a brick appeal, a œ100 a shot patronage

scheme, company and business donations, the club's own weekly

Lotto, plus numerous other fund-raising events in the near

future.



Besides, the club will be doing its best to get grants from the

likes of the National Lottery, the FAI, and the Leader Project.

And the political and football luminaries present on Saturday

night all promised to back the worthy effort.



Bandon AFC was founded in 1970 and now has two pitches at the

Town Park. They field three adult teams, two in the AUL and one

in the West Cork League. Schoolboy teams are fielded at four age

groups: Under 11, 12, 14, and 15.



Club membership, which continues to rise, is about 180. Changing

facilities for the junior teams are provided by local publicans

while the underage lads tog out in a hut in the Town Park but

without shower facilities. Training takes place twice weekly and

the costs, premises, light, are met by the players.



In 1993, the club re-opened the pitch and putt course (also in

the Town Park) to provide a service for the community as well as

a source of income for the club. To date, the Bandon FC Pitch

and Putt Club has been a tremendous success not alone with the

locals but with many visiting Pitch and Putt clubs and indeed

with tourists.



Bandon intend to develop soccer in the general area in

conjunction with the improvement in facilities. Plans are afoot

to field a team at intermediate level, to enter a team in each of

the schoolboy age groups, to introduce ladies and girls soccer to

the area, to promote and encourage schools soccer in the town,

and to establish a West Cork coaching centre in Bandon.



As chairman Frank Corcoran reminded us at Saturday's impressively

organised reception, it is a long way from the days twenty five

years ago when a group of soccer loving young men got together to

play the game on any field available.



The club has a motto: "With God's help, little things grow".

There is another saying: "God helps those who help themselves".

Both ring true in Bandon where the future holds promise of great

things to come and not just from the politicians.



Denis O'Driscoll is the president of the soccer club and the

officers are: Frank Corcoran (Chairman), Denis Hayes (Vice

Chairman), James Nyhan (Secretary), Donal Warren (Treasurer), and

Tim Coughlan (PRO).