Alongside being recently being promoted, North Petherwin Football Club are delighted to have received funding for new grounds maintenance equipment and machinery, an external automated defibrillator as well as a storage container. 

Working with Cornwall FA and The Football Foundation, North Petherwin were able to access different funding streams, such as the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund, to improve their grounds to help improve the playing experience for their players. The Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund provides tapered grants over a 6-year period helping to enhance and sustain the quality of grass pitches therefore providing North Petherwin with the platform to sustain a good playing surface for years to come. 

Alongside this, the funding received also allowed for a new tractor to be purchased again furthering the club’s ability to improve and maintain their grass pitches. This was a well-received replacement for the previous full scale farm tractor previously used. 

Pat Orridge (North Petherwin Vice Chairperson and Fundraiser) said, “We are truly grateful to the Football Foundation in supporting our grassroots club. The improvements have already benefited us, and it is less than a year since we had our new machinery. Along with a 6-year pitch maintenance grant recently received from them, the standard of the pitch and the additional period it can be used for matches and training has increased. 

Furthermore, the club receiving funding for an external automated defibrillator to be installed on site has provided a vital, lifesaving piece of equipment to help the club become a safer place. The Premier League Defibrillator Fund aims to support the installation of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and External Storage Cabinets at thousands of grassroots football facilities currently without an easily accessible device on site to help save the life of someone experiencing a cardiac arrest". 

Since receiving the funding for the defibrillator, Pat explains how the club have helped upskill and train it’s members to support the use of the defibrillator if ever need. Pat said, “We have trained all of the managers, coaches and committee members to use the defibrillator and we are lucky to have a fireman as one of the committee members who kindly ran a training workshop on basic CPR for club members.  

You can also access free online FA Sudden Cardiac Arrest Training Here