Thanks to Wokingham Borough Council’s £60,000 refurbishment of Chalfont Courts in Lower Earley, Laurel Park Netball Club and Kickz now have the facilities they need.
The renovation is particularly helpful for the netballers. What started with a few mums four years ago has now grown into a club with 12 teams of all ages and gender playing in most divisions of the Berkshire leagues.
"You couldn't really use them before the work was done," said Lisa Wise, club founder and head coach of the netball club.
"They were a valuable community asset sat right in the middle of Lower Earley. So we talked to the Borough Council. They listened, and resurfaced the three courts, marked them out with non-slip paint. They took out the divisions between the courts, and renewed the existing floodlights, fencing, rebound boards and gave us new netball posts."
Lisa says the new open layout means coaches can have different teams, abilities and age ranges all playing in the same time slot, which benefits the new junior section as parents can bring siblings and friends to the same session together.
"But it's not all about leagues," she said. "We also get a lot of people coming down just to play socially.”
The netball club uses the courts on Monday and Thursday evenings, while the Kickz project uses them Wednesdays.
Kickz offers free football sessions to 11 to 19-year-olds. It hopes to steer young people from anti-social behaviour by giving them new activities and different routes into education, employment and training.
The borough council runs it in partnership with the Premier League and Reading Football Club. To book the courts please call the Council's Sports Team on (0118) 974 3728.
