ALTON Hockey Club has launched a £50,000 ‘Push for a Pitch’ appeal to help toward the building a new all-weather pitch at Eggar’s School.

Expected to cost in the region of £450,000, the new pitch is needed so the club can continue to provide training for it’s hugely expanding junior section, as well as provide pitches for adult team matches.

According to spokesman Vicky Small, the club currently uses the all-weather pitch at Amery Hill School but, due to the limitations on usage at the weekend and the lack of floodlights, the juniors have limited training space on Saturday mornings and sometimes have to forgo training altogether so that the adult teams can play league matches.

This the seniors need to do if they are to remain in the league and further the club’s already impressive progress at adult team level.

At present, Alton Hockey Club is operating at capacity, with two ladies’ teams, four men’s teams, and teams for boys and girls at under-12, under-14 and under-16 level. The club also has more than 100 juniors wanting to learn and better their game and is having to turn potential new members away.

But the club is hoping to change all this.

The proposal is for the new artificial pitch in the grounds of Eggar’s School, on London Road in Holybourne, to be floodlit and for the club to have primary use outside of school hours.

According to Vicky, Eggar’s and Alton Hockey Club are aiming to raise £120,000 between them toward construction costs, with Sport England providing the rest. Eggar’s would be using the pitch for its pupils, and potentially for other sports clubs, but Alton Hockey Club would have priority at weekends and on certain nights as part of the deal, to secure more pitch time for training, development and matches.

Alton Hockey Club has already managed to raise £20,000 toward its part of the cost and is keen to enlist the support of the community to help raise with the rest.

Anyone keen to help with the fundraising push or who would like to donate money to the cause should visit pushforapitch.co.uk or call fundraising committee member Sig Watkins on 07595 984476 or e-mail [email protected].

n Humbly Grove Energy, based at Lasham, has donated the funds to Alton Hockey Club to buy a defibrillator which has been given to Amery Hill School.

The equipment has been installed on the outside wall of the changing facilities for school and is for sport and community use.