From partner schools to students, local businesses and participants in weekly mental health football sessions; last week Shrewsbury Town in the Community gave the fantastic opportunity of playing on the hallowed turf at Montgomery Waters Meadow to a huge range of people from the local community during Play on the Pitch week.
Play on the Pitch week began on Tuesday with tournaments between partner schools from across Shropshire with over 100 pupils representing Greenacres, Wilfred Own, Mereside, St Winefrides, Condover, St Edwards, Oakmeadow, Severndale, and Coleham Primary schools. After a competitive round of fixtures St Winefrides ended up as the winners and lifted the cup.
That afternoon saw a varsity style competition between two partner Secondary Schools, Meole Brace and Shrewsbury Academy with fixtures taking place between each year group for both boys’ and girls’ teams. Meole Brace went on to win the competition. Shrewsbury Town in the Community's Community Sports manager, John Rix, said the day was, “a great way of us giving another extra treat to our partner schools by allowing them to come and play on the pitch here and it will be a memory these pupils will cherish for a long time.”
On Tuesday evening a business 5-a-side tournament took place with 18 teams being entered by a range of local businesses such as Reech Media, Fortis Sport, Salop Leisure, Technocover, ABP Shrewsbury, Timbermake, Timberkit Solutions and West Mercia Police. The tournament was eventually won by Salop Leisure.
Wednesday began with participants from the mental Health football sessions, Head’s Up, taking part in an informal game on the pitch. The sessions offer participants the chance to play football in a safe and open environment for anyone living with mental health issues. Participant, 20 year old Matthew Worrall who has ADHD and EUPD, said, “I’ve never played on a professional pitch before so playing today I was thinking ‘if I score a goal, that’s it, that’s my dream for today done’ which just helps so much.”