Last updated at 12:07, Friday, 24 February 2012

Salterbeck Storm have finally found a place to call home declared chairman and founder Vince McNicholas.

Salterbeck Storm coach Vince McNicholas with volunteer parents and some of the Salterbeck Storm players

McNicholas has secured the ground and facilities in Walker Road for the use of the club - and he couldn’t be happier.

“Every club has their own home, be it little or big, they all have to start somewhere and this is it for us,” said McNicholas.

“It was always our goal to have somewhere to call home and hopefully now it is happening.”

The facilities will have to undergo a major revamp but McNicholas hopes that eventually there will be at least four changing rooms, a kitchen and bar facilities in the clubhouse.

He says going without a home for the past 12 years has been tough on the club and they do lose players because of it. To be honest if we hadn’t got Walker Road I think I would have thrown the towel in,” he admitted.

“We are going into our 13th season and it is hard without a club. I would love to see lads come through the ranks at Salterbeck and eventually have the opportunity to turn professional.

“But instead they seem to go to other amateur clubs because we don’t have the facilities or somewhere to call home.”

For now McNicholas is concentrating on getting a set of changing rooms up to standard, fixing the boiler and putting up sticks on the pitch, which he hopes to have in use by St Patrick’s Day on March 17.

“That would be what I would love to see,” he added. “But now I need the support from other people because you can’t do this all on your own.”

As well as running an open age side in the Iggesund Cumberland League, the club also has several junior sides which will use the facilities.

And McNicholas hopes it will be used by the community on a wider scale with football also being played from there.

He thanked Yankees Bar and Harrington Legion for helping them out over recent years and also Mark Fryer and Barbara Cannon for their help in securing the Walker Road site.

Training for Salterbeck’s Under-8s, 9s, 10s, 11s and 12s will take place at Walker Road this Saturday from 11am. All welcome.

First published at 11:27, Friday, 24 February 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk