Accrington Girls and Ladies Football Club

Annual General Meeting

The club holds it’s AGM at the Poplar Club, Wellington Street, Accrington on Monday July 9th at 7:30pm upstairs in the committee room.

This is the most important Club meeting of the year as the Club Officials for the following year are elected.

All the current officials stand down and we urgently need nominations for all the positions listed below.

We’ve gone through this season with too few officials to enable the club to run efficiently so it’s imperative that we have more people coming forward.

Please put your name forward if you’re able to help in any way towards running the club.

There is the possibility that some of the roles listed above are filled by more than one person.

Full training and support will be given in all the roles. Nominations or questions can be sent to either the Club Secretary Carl Ellwood by email or to Chris Bamford.

Alternatively they can be given to Chris at training, who will also try to answer any questions you may have. We are also looking for a manager for the AGSA Open Age Ladies team which will be playing in Division 2 of the County League next season. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a successful manager, or you know someone who may be interested please let Chris Bamford or Jo Cooney know

Olympic Torch Relay

As you are aware the Olympic Torch is being relayed around the country by 8,000 nominated Torch Bearers.

The Torch passes through Hyndburn on Saturday June 23rd starting at the junction of Harvey Street and Union Road at 10:19am, going down Union Road to Church, along Blackburn Road into Accrington, along Eastgate and up Burnley Road to the junction with Queens Road where it will then be transferred onto Burnley.

Our Club Welfare Officer Anne Ellwood has been nominated as one of the Torch Bearers on this route and we’re planning on lining the section with the club banners, kits, training tops etc. to cheer her along as she passes. We think that there will be a lot of press coverage for this in the local area so we want to try and make a big impression for the club.

It would be great if we can get as many players, family and friends down as possible. Unfortunately the exact details will not be available until the week before the relay passes through the town.

100 Club We still have numbers available in the 100 Club. It’s £1 per number per week to enter. The more people who enter the bigger the prize. See website for more details. We have paid out over £1200 in the last 12 months whilst raising nearly £500 for the club. Don’t miss out on the opportunity of possibly winning over £30 each week. For real betting however try to find out the best bingo sites in the UK.

Hyndburn Sports Awards 2012

We have won the Hyndburn Community Club of the Year award for the 3rd year running I wonder if we get to keep the trophy). This is the 4th time in the last 5 years and the 5th time overall that the club have won this prestigious award. The club now goes forward to represent Hyndburn at the Lancashire Sports awards which be held in Preston in August. The award is great recognition to everyone who has worked so hard over the last twelve months ensuring that the club continues to allow girls of all ages and abilities play football. The awards took place at Accross College with BBC Radio Lancashire presenter Steve Lowe acting as compere for the evening. Special guests for the evening included the Mayor of Hyndburn, Accrington Stanley Manager - Paul Cook, Accrington Stanley Chief Executive - Rob Houseman and other officials from Hyndburn Leisure Trust

Chris Bamford also won the Adult Volunteer of the Year Award, which came as a great shock to him. "It is a great honour to win this award, and would like to thank everyone for their help and support at club, this award belongs to you"

Anne Ellwood was also shortlisted in the Lifetime Achievement Award category for her work in promoting women's football over the years. Unfortunately Anne narrowly missed out on winning this award in a very tough category, but was extremely honoured to be nominated.

Ladies Tournament / Fun Day

The club's first Ladies tournament was a huge success with around 50 players taking part. The tournament consisted of 2 groups with 4 teams in each, and was based on a Euro 2012 theme with each team representing one of the participating nations. The top 2 teams from each group played each other in the semi-finals for the cup, whilst the 3rd &amo; 4th placed teams played each other in the semi-finals for the plate. The final was won by Ireland who beat Italy, with England winning the plate with a last kick winner over Holland. Presentation night has been made - here are the details!

Player of the tournament was Gabby Sabatino who played for the Sedish team. Many thanks to Joanne Cooney for all the organisation, to Bill Wilkinson and Chris Bamford who refereed the games, to Nick for keeping check of the results, to Beth Hibbert for getting the use of the Accross 3G pitch at such short notice and finally to all the players who took part, we hope you all enjoyed it.

Trials will then commence on Tuesday 12th June over a period of 4 weeks. It's essential that you try to attend as many of these sessions as possible. New players are welcome to attend. The trials will take place at Foxhill Bank Playing Fields, Harvey Street, Oswaldtwistle from 7pm to 8pm

New Era Coaching Sessions

The club are running football coaching sessions for girls of all ages and abilities at the New Era Youth Centre from Thurs 3rd May until Thurs 7th June. The sessions are run from 6pm until 7pm by some of our qualified coaches. They are all CRB checked and have played football themselves from an early age, and continue to do so. The sessions are open to any girls aged 5 or above who want to try football for the first time, or for existing players who wish to build on their skills in a fun and safe environment. These sessions have been funded with a grant from the Football Foundation to try and attract new players into the game at an early age and also to sustain existing players. We'd like to remind that despite football being one of the best sports for online gambling, we don't gamble with the players.

Lancashire Sports Awards 2011

The club were representing Hyndburn in the Club of the Year Category at the Lancashire Sports Awards held at the Blackpool Hilton Hotel on Friday 25th November. The club were up against other quality clubs from across the county and were extremely honoured to receive a Highly Commended Award. This is great recognition for everyone involved with the club - coaches, committee members, volunteers, parents, friend and of course the players.

Hyndburn Sports Awards 2011

We have won the Hyndburn Community Club of the Year award for the 2nd year running. This is the 3rd time in the last 4 years and the 4th time overall that the club have won this prestigious award. The club now goes forward to the Lancashire Sports awards in November representing Hyndburn. The award is great recognition to everyone who has worked so hard over the last twelve months ensuring that the club continues to allow girls of all ages and abilities play football.

Anne Ellwood was also shortlisted in the Lifetime Achievement Award category for her work in promoting women's football over the years. Unfortunately Anne narrowly missed out on winning this award, but was extremely honoured to be nominated.

The awards took place at Accross College with a demonstration from Freestyle Footballer Craig Corey who has appeared on Soccer A.M. and also on the advert for Wayne Rooney's Street Striker. Craig also holds the world record for moving the ball from side to side on his head - a staggering 137 times in a minute. Craig's demonstration showed what can be achieved through dedication and practice.

The awards were presented by Craig Heap, an Olympic gymnast from Burnley and Double Commonwealth Gold Medallist. Craig also gave a talk on his life in gymnastics, the problems he faced and how he overcame them. He was a very charismatic speaker who inspires others to strive to achieve the best that they can do.

Lancashire Telegraph Sports Awards

Anne Ellwood was nominated in the Grass Roots Heroes Peoples Choice Award for her services to Ladies football over the years. Anne was given a highly commended award in a very strong category.

Anne who has been at the club almost from the formation of the club has taken on a number of roles within the club until ill health forced her to take a back seat earlier this year.

The Club was also given a highly commended award along with Hyndburn Athletics Club in the Community Club of the Year category

New Manager for AGLFC Ladies

It's all change for the first team as the manager for the past two seasons, Chris Coyne stepped down this week. Chris felt that things had become a little jaded over the past few weeks and felt that the team would be better served with fresh blood to lead them. Joanne Cooney is taking over the reigns for the 2011/12 season as she's unable to play whilst re-covering from injury. She'll be assisted in this role by Jean Darby. We wish Chris Coyne good luck in his future footballing career and he leaves the club on very good terms. It's now time to look forward for the Ladies and we're sure that Jo and Jean will be able to revitalise the spark in the team that was perhaps missing during the latter part of last season.

Tournament Success for AGSA Ladies

AGSA Ladies in their first ever competitive matches at Open Age level succeeded in winning the annual Euxton Open Age Tournament in June. The team remained unbeaten throughout the tournament and didn't concede any goals in open play. They won on penalties in the final against The Fillies B after a goal-less match and extra time.

New Sponsors for Ladies

The club are pleased to announce a new sponsorship deal with Group 4 Security who have provided a new kit for the Ladies 1st team

As part of the build up to the 2012 Olympics in London we've been accepted as a part of the Inspire2012 project which aims to get more people involved in sport. We applied using our Young Club Ambassadors as our project - using young players who've been at the club for several years, and who have started mentoring the new young players at the club. This means that we'll be able to start using the Inspire2012 logo on literature relating to any schemes the YCA's are involved in during the build up to the Olympics. We may also be given the opportunity to take part in any publicity events in the region.

Lancashire Sports Awards

On Friday 26th November - representatives from the club made what has now become an annual pilgrimage to the Lancashire Sports Awards at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Resort. The club were of course representing Hyndburn in 2 of the categories, Community Club of the Year and Young Volunteer of the Year. Unfortunately we didn't win the County awards against some very impressive nominees from 13 other boroughs, however we all had a great time and we made sure that the name of the club is noticed amongst a variety of people from the sporting world across Lancashire.

Tesco Publicity Day

On Saturday 27th November the Club were privileged to have been given the chance to hold a publicity stall in the reception area of the brand new Tesco Extra superstore which has just opened in Accrington. This was the first weekend that the store had been open so it was s a real honour to have been given this chance to publicise the club at this newly opened store. Tesco are heavily involved in grassroots football, and indeed they were the major sponsor behing the Girls & Womens Football Week which ran last year all around the country, and which we were chosen by the LFA to host an open skills evening for girls. A massive thanks to all the girls and parents who helped out during the day. We gave out a lot of leaflets and made lots of people aware of the club - hopefully we'll attract some new players to the club over the coming weeks due to all your efforts - Thanks again.

A big thank-you to Tesco Community Champion - Janet Ashworth for allowing us to put on this publicity stall and to all the staff we dealt with at Tesco for making us feel so welcome.

US Honour for Stacey

Stacey Barnes who is in her 4th year at Grand View University in Des Moines has been selected for the 2nd National US womens soccer (football!) team for District 7. Stacey trains with the Ladies over the summer and Christmas periods when she returns home to Accrington

Acorns Skills Day

The Accrington Acorns played host to their young friends from Horwich on Saturday 20th November at Hyndburn Sports Centre. The session was organised by 2 of our Young Club Ambassadors, Natasha Westall & Kerry Bamford in partnership with Leisure in Hyndburn, as part of their Active Pledge program. All the girls taking part enjoyed the sessions, which started with some skills drills, then moved onto some 3 v 3 games and finished with a fun 8-a-side game involving everyone. This is the 2nd event that the Acorns have taken part in, following a visit to Blackpool a few weeks ago for a similar fun football day (see Press articles). We are hoping to travel over to Horwich in the new year when they are planning to organise something along the same lines. Many thanks to everyone involved for making it such a successful day, and hopefully some new long term friendships have been formed.

Hyndburn Sports Awards 2010

The annual Hyndburn Sports Awards were held on Friday 24th September at Accrington Town hall.

The club were involved in several nominations and were delighted that 3 of our young ambassadors won the Young Volunteer of the Year Award. Natasha Westall, Beth Hibbert and Kerry Bamford have been helping out with the younger players for the last year or so, passing their Level 1 coaching in the process. They have also assisted in various schools around the borough when we have put on coaching sessions for girls. We are delighted that 3 of the original Acorns have been recognised for the time and effort they are putting back into the game - long may it continue.

The club also won the Hyndburn Community Club of the Year Award. This is the 3rd time we've won this prestigous award, against stiff opposition. This is a fantastic reward for all those people who have given up their time in various events around the borough.

We can now look forward to representing Hyndburn in these 2 categories at the Lancashire Sports Awards which will be held in Blackpool on Friday 26th November. This is always a great night and if anyone is interested in attending please let a member of the committee know as soon as possible.

Tesco Skills Coaches 2010

We once again had the services of an LFA Skills Coach during June and July 2010. We are indebted to Chris Hurst for the input he had with the players and coaches over this 6 week period. The focus of the skills sessions is very much about allowing every player as much time with a ball at their feet as possible. They are encouraged to try out new skills from the minute they arrive at the sessions, and also to carry on practicing them after they leave. All the coaches were impressed with the sessions and are looking to carry on with the ideas in their own sessions.

Accrington Girls & Ladies FC Independence Day 2010

The club held a football skills day on 4th July to enable girls test their footballing skills in a variety of drills covering passing, shooting, heading, dribbling and ball control. The girls who took part all had a great time, with each player receiving a momento of the day and the overall winner receiving a beautiful locally handcrafted trophy.

New Coaches

Congratulations to Lee Bamford, Natasha Westall, Beth Hibbert & Kerry Bamford who all passed their Level 1 in Coaching Football in March 2010. Lee is a coach with the Under 17's, Tash, Beth and Kerry all play for the Under 18's and assist with coaching the Acorns and Under 12's

Acorns On TV

Following on from our successful coaching sessions in 2 local schools and the press coverage that they brought, the club were contacted by Channel M, the community TV channel for the Manchester area. They were interested in attending and filming one of our club training sessions at Hyndburn Sports Centre. We played host to the crew from Channel M on Tuesday night (26th Jan). They spent an hour speaking with various coaches and players as well as filming a lot of the session. The program was aired on Wednesday night (27th Jan) on Channel M Today. For those who missed it click on the picture below

Lancashire Sports Awards 2009

Friday 13th November 2009 saw representatives of the club at the Paradise Lounge, Pleasure Beach, Blackpool for the annual Sports Awards ceremony for Lancashire. The club were there to support Rachel Brown who was nominated for a Special Recognition Award. There was also a nomination for Heather Bickerton as Young Volunteer for Blackburn with Darwen. Heather is the daughter of Club Treasurer Dave Bickerton and is currently studying at the University of Chicago. Unfortunately Rachel Brown couldn't attend at the last minute but we were honoured to collect the award on her behalf.

Hyndburn Sports Awards 2009

At the Hyndburn Sports Awards 2009 which were held at Accrington Town Hall on Tuesday 8th September, the club were nominated in 3 categories.

Community Club of the Year

The club was nominated for this category for the 2nd year in a row. This is an award which we have won twice before in 2004 and again in 2008 and it was great to be nominated again as it shows the club's commitment to opening up the game of football to girls of all ages, creeds and abilities throughout the Hyndburn area. We finished runners-up to Hyndburn Athletics Club.

Young Volunteer of the Year

Becki De-Maine was nominated for this category and finished runner-up. It's always good to see young people giving back to the sport they enjoy, and Becki has given up her time over the past few years. Starting as a player with the junior teams, she progressed onto the Ladies until a serious knee injury forced her to miss a complete season. Not wanting to give up on football she started helping out coaching, primarily with the Under 14's team and also regularly attended the monthly Club meetings. Early in 2009 she took on the role of Press Officer and has done a tremendous job in keeping the club in the public eye with the local press and radio, particularly with the Girls & Ladies Football Week held in June.

Special Recognition Award

The Honarary Club President, Rachel Brown was nominated in this category. Rachel who attended St Christopher's High School and played for Accrington Ladies 91, has gone on to play football at the highest level for Everton & England . Despite being a fierce competitor, her own biggest critic when playing, Rachel remains a very level-headed and approachable person off the pitch and despite having a very busy schedule, Rachel manages to return to the borough on a regular basis to take coaching sessions and has attended club presentation nights on several occasions, where she has been a popular figure with everyone. Our merchandise - find something for you. She is a great ambassador for the game, and a fantastic role model for any players young or old, so it was fitting that she was awarded this honour by the borough. Unfortunately Rachel was tied up with the little matter of the European Championships so the club collected the award on her behalf. We are working towards presenting her with the award in person at Turf Moor on October 31st during the half time interval. Rachel will now automatically be nominated for the same category at the County Sports Awards which will be held in Blackpool in November. Special thanks to Jane Grantham, Ben Shorrock and the team for their work on putting on the evening, a great presentation and refreshments.