The last 3 1/2 years have been the most interesting, unbelievable and exciting times for the Crawley Old Girls and we have grown from a small group of 10 beginners, on that first night in April 2015, to 3 sessions covering every ability of player. From beginners, with no experience whatsoever of playing football, to intermediates who have now been playing regularly for a few years to those who have played previously and are now coming back into the game. Crawley Town Community Foundation have been running the sessions each week and we have been able to reach out to many women to come and learn to play football or just come along and play recreationally. In the Summer, we managed to reach over 60 attendees at all three sessions, in one week, which was amazing.
Winning a number of Awards along the way has given us a great platform to inspire other women to take up football as an activity, regardless of ability or age etc. We often hear that women aren’t sure that it would be “their thing” but get them along to a session and they seem to be hooked on the beautiful game! To spread this message and give other women the opportunity around the Country needs time and money invested and that is the reason we have just held our first EGM & AGM and formed our new Group: Crawley Old Girls (COGS). From 18.50 hours on the 21st November 2018, we now have a Constituted Group, with an elected Committee and will be able to apply for funding and sponsorship to enable us to promote Women’s Recreational Football even further. During the last 3 1/2 years, we have had no income, funding or sponsorship and have relied on players to fund their own shirts, so now we can move forward with trying to obtain some income. Nothing will change with our relationship with the Crawley Town Community Foundation and we will still have the same sessions as we do now, this is just a move to enhance what we have been doing already. The only money we have ever received was from an Award we won, which we pinpointed to run our own successful Women’s Recreational Festival, in June of this year.
Our Committee has been elected as follows:
Chair – Carol Bates
Treasurer – Carol Macey
Secretary – Sandra Rees
Funding Officer – Amy Fazackerley
Funding Officer – Kathryn Ripley
Social Secretary – Karen Turner
Independent Officer – Pam Chandler
Admin./Marketing Officer – Kerry Read
All Committee Members can be contacted though our email address cogscrawley@gmail.com.
This is an extremely exciting time in COGS’ short history and we hope it will lead to more exciting chapters over the next few years. It also means we will be looking for sponsorship too, so if any Companies are reading this and would like to spend their CSR fund helping us to promote getting “older” women active, by learning to play football, get in touch!
Finally, thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far and also to all the other teams who have set up and are just as passionate about promoting Women’s Recreational Football, as we are! If we all work together, we can create greater things…..