Lockdown is unlocking and a vibrant North Wales village football club is celebrating its 20th anniversary with almost 200 players from aged from four to 60 training and playing again every week.
It means that Kinmel Bay Football Club, based at the village Leisure Centre, can at last use the £96,000 new all-weather training area installed by Kinmel Bay and Towyn Sports and Recreation Association just before the pandemic put an end to local football.
Now it’s in action almost every evening as well as at weekends with the club’s two senior sides starting to play friendlies and with competitive football just around the corner.
The club, accredited Platinum Standard by the Football Association of Wales Trust for a second year running, also run boys and girls groups from the age of four up and a ladies recreational side with players up to the age of sixty who have a played three, won three record.
Their all-inclusive policy stretches across gender and ability and even includes a successful Disability Section especially for the visually impaired.
All that activity had meant a shortage of storage space for balls, nets, training cones, corner flags and the rest of the paraphernalia of a football club and they have just solved the problem by taking delivery of two storage units from specialists Lock Stock Self Storage Ltd, of Denbigh.
Kinmel Bay FC Club Chairman Frank Standing said: “It’s been great to see the players coming back to fitness especially the kids who are really enjoying it.
“It’s good that both senior and junior sides can now have support as people are allowed along to watch them.
“We’ve been back training since the end of May and we will be starting the next season for the girls and boys in September. The senior sides start in July and it will be good to be back playing games.
“The club is 20 years old this year after being founded by Bill Darwin and his late sister, Anne Darwin, who did so much for the youth of Kinmel Bay and Towyn.
“They have been integral to our growth and Bill as our President still has a big input to the club.”
“It’s also the first time we have been able to make use of the all-weather surface which was installed just before the first lockdown and we’re hoping it will bring in revenue for us because we have to fund the site ourselves.
Bill said “ The Club has become one of the FAW’s leading Platinum community clubs because of its standards and it has recently teamed up with BT to become a community BT Hub at the Y Morfa Leisure Centre.
“It’s relationship with the Sports Association at Y Morfa is excellent resulting in the recent installation of the £96,000 all -weather MUGA surface which was possible with grants from Sport Wales and the WA.
“But due to the number of teams in the junior and senior sections the club was running out of storage so we contacted the specialists, Lock Stock Self Storage Ltd of Denbigh, for help.
“Their expertise and speedy service very quickly had us sorted with the delivery on site of two containers which enabled us to store our equipment safely and out of sight.”
The 40-foot and 10-foot units are former shipping containers and Lock Stock Self Storage sales consultant Lisa James said: “The club is really busy and it’s great to see so many people from the local community involved in it.
“They have a fantastic youth section here and run so many sides of all ages that I can understand why they needed the extra space.” ‘We are finding a lot of local leisure centres and recreational sports facilities are needing extra space so storage containers are perfect for them’.
Lock Stock Self Storage specialise in the sale of new and used shipping containers which range in size from 10-feet long up through 20-footers to 40-foot units, all eight feet high and eight feet wide, from 640 to 2,560 in cubic feet in volume.
Lock Stock Self Storage supply a variety of storage units for sale and hire including new wind and watertight, used wind and watertight and used in need of repair and prices range from £900 for small pre-used units needing repair through used wind and watertight units to new costing between £2,000-£4,500 and delivery can be arranged to most places in the UK.
The new units can also be insulated and provide versatile storage options or for the more ambitious, a range of possible uses has included office space, housing a flight simulator and even for storing thousands of young trees for replanting native woodlands.
Lisa added: “Containers are really versatile and ideal for so many different uses and we’re finding there has been a real surge in demand for them.
“An advantage of buying outright is that you can also paint the exterior to your own taste including having your company branding if you are launching your own business.
“Our specialist lorry can deliver containers up to 40 feet long and can also arrange to move units to different site locations.”
