THE Tommy Clucas Memorial Fund has reached its target of £378,000 to build a sports hall after a generous grant from the UK’s largest sports charity, Football Foundation.
The foundation has contributed £99,942 of the funding towards the project, which will enable the construction of an indoor community sports hall at Peel Football Club.
The funds followed a £45,000 grant from the Manx Lottery Trust.
Work on the sports hall has started.
JCK Limited took control of the site during December and the building project is scheduled to be completed by April 2013.
The committee is now switching its attention to raising monies for a contingency for the building project and to fit out and equip the facility.
The new sports hall will have an enclosed 40m x 25m third generation artificial grass surface with LED lighting, equipped to facilitate various sports, with associated facilities and a viewing area.
It is hoped that the Tommy Clucas Community Sports Hall will be used by local sports clubs, recreational youth/community organisations and the general community for sport and recreation purposes.
Tommy was a ‘son of Peel’, who played football for Peel and the Isle of Man national team.
Neil Cain, treasurer of The Tommy Clucas Memorial Fund and junior coach at Peel Football Club, said: ‘We are extremely grateful for the support given to us by the Football Foundation, which has pushed our project funding over the finishing line.
‘As a coach, I recognise the significant benefits that an indoor pitch facility will offer in the often harsh conditions we are exposed to on the Isle of Man.’
Since the Football Foundation was launched in 2000, the Foundation has awarded around 8,000 grants worth more than £420 million towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £520 million.
Paul Thorogood, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: ‘I commend Peel AFC, The Tommy Clucas Memorial Fund and the Isle of Man FA for working tirelessly to secure this funding and I look forward to seeing the end result in the near future.
‘The Football Foundation is dedicated – with funding provided from the Premier League, The FA and government [via Sport England] – to raising the standard of grassroots community sports facilities and to getting more people actively playing the national sport.’
The Tommy Clucas Memorial Fund fundraising efforts have focused around community events, in particular the Peelstock music festival, which completed its seventh successful year in 2012.
The fund’s committee said:‘We would like to thank everyone who has contributed so far in making this project possible, and for the overwhelming support shown for Tom over the last eight years.
‘We hope that our local community will take great benefit from the project for many years to come.’