FOOTBALL CLUB TO UPGRADE FACILITIES THANKS TO GRANT FROM LOCAL ACCOUNTANTS’ COMMUNITY FUND

Visiting teams and referees at Thetford Town Football Club are set to have a more comfortable match day experience, after the club received a £1,200 grant from a local firm of accountants to refurbish the showers in the away dressing room, upgrade the referees’ facilities, and instal a new boiler.

Lovewell Blake’s Community Fund gave the money as part of a £22,000 grant round – the  latest from the fund which has given away over £320,000 to grassroots community organisations in Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire over the last 14 years.

As well as the first team and the reserves, the football club runs teams for youngsters of all ages, as well as a ladies’ team and a veterans’ team.  The club was founded in 1883.

Club chairman Nigel Armes said, “We are very grateful to Lovewell Blake for their generous support.  Thetford Town is very much a community club, providing a focus for both young people and adults, as well as contributing back to the community – including raising nearly £10,000 for Bury St Edmunds Hospital in the past couple of years.”

Lovewell Blake partner Jamie Norton, who heads up the firm’s Thetford office, added, “As a football player myself, and as a dad who has coached his son’s youth team throughout his childhood, I know just how important clubs like Thetford Town are to their local communities. 

“It is a real pleasure to be able to give this grant through our Community Fund to the club, and we look forward to continuing our support for the club in the future.”

The Lovewell Blake Community Fund was originally set up in 2008 as part of the firm’s 150th anniversary celebrations, with the aim of raising £150,000 for local charities and community groups in five years.  Once the target was achieved, the firm decided to continue the fund, and to date it has distributed grants totalling over £320,000.