New hope for Wakehurst in bid to return to Ballymena?

WAKEHURST Football Club have been given fresh hope in their bid to get back to playing home games in Ballymena.
Wakehurst FC.Wakehurst FC.
Wakehurst FC.

The local side has had to play its games outside the borough for the past four years due to the absence of a venue which meets IFA Championship criteria within the Ballymena area.

In that time Wakehurst have played at both Tobermore United and, more recently, ground-shared with Moyola Park in Castledawson.

But speaking at the club’s annual dinner in Tullyglass House Hotel on Saturday night, North Antrim MLA Paul Frew, a long-time backer of the club’s campaign to return to Ballymena, indicated that a possible avenue has emerged for a return to Ballymena.

He said that while he could not disclose full details at this stage, a local football club has announced plans to build a new ground in the area and that tentative proposals have been put forward which would enable Wakehurst to ground-share at the venue.

Mr Frew said that this would enable Wakehurst to play at a venue in Ballymena which meets the criteria to play in the Championship, while a possible link with Wakehurst could help the host club to attract more IFA funding for the project. He also stated that the creation of a ground up to Championship standard could also help the host club with any ambitions to gain promotion to the Irish League ranks in the future.

It had always been widely expected that any return to Ballymena would be to the Showgrounds – particularly if proposals by Ballymena Borough Council to turn the main arena into a 4G surface come to fruition – but Frew insisted: “We have options other than the Showgrounds.

“Will we be in a ground in Ballymena this tme next year? The reality is probably not, but I will continue to battle for that. We need everything to fall into place at the right time.”

Referring to the opening of a new pitch in Clough earlier this year, which he said had taken six years of campaigning, Mr Frew added: “Wakehurst will have that day.

“I can’t give you a date and time but I will fight tooth and nail to bring you back home,” he added.

At the same dinner, Wakehurst chairman Billy Erwin described the club’s four-year absence from Ballymena as “absolutely diabolical”.

For more coverage from the function see page 55.

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