WOOTTON Bassett Town’s meeting with Highworth Town tomorrow – their first home game of the season – will be no ordinary derby encounter.

Why? Because the teams do not meet in Wiltshire, let alone Wootton Bassett. Instead, the match takes place at the Corinium Stadium, home of Cirencester Town, as part of a two-year groundshare.

The game marks the start of what will be the toughest period of the club’s existence as they prepare for their move to a new facility opposite Ballards Ash.

While their first team plays 15 miles away, long-time ground Rylands Way will be used by their reserve and ladies’ teams until Christmas. Its numerous youth sides, meanwhile, will be playing not just in Bassett, but in Broad Town and Calne.

Therefore, for Bassett’s committed but small band of volunteers, it’s all hands on deck.

“The continued support of our volunteer base, some 68 in all, will be required through the next two seasons,” said chairman Andy Walduck.

“Without our volunteers putting in their spare time we would not have a club, never mind achieve a complex relocation.

“Already we’ve seen an increase in workload due to the forced groundshare, but we knew this would come with it and it will be worth it in the end.”

When work on laying the foundations of the new facility begins, an 18-month clock until move-in time starts to tick for Bassett and its fellow Wootton Bassett Sports Association members.

And Walduck admits there is already plenty of excitement about the new chapter that lies tantalisingly near.

“At Cirencester we’ve now experienced something similar in terms of the facilities we’ll have,” he added. “Even after just a couple of friendlies, this has really whetted our appetite.”

What they’ll eventually call home will offer plenty. There will be five football pitches, two floodlit with one possessing the latest 4G artificial surface.

Arguably the main advantage provided by the future relocation will be the chance to base all 26 teams at one facility.

“Bringing our club under one roof is critical,” said Walduck. “We’ve seen continued growth in the volume of teams since the project commenced nine years ago, so we’re already looking at ways of absorbing this expansion into the new facility.

“Nothing is straightforward.”

At the turn of the millennium, Bassett were running a handful of youth sides. But this has grown to around 20 under the guidance of head of section Pete Yeardley.

More recently, Bassett have established a successful ladies’ team, who have quickly jumped from Division Three to Division One of the Gloucestershire County Women’s League.

Bassett’s new accommodation will also provide a fantastic base from which to run their well-developed community programme.

Through its Soccer Skills Academy, school holiday courses and additional weekly training are available for those aged five to 13.

Furthermore, free Saturday sessions are run during term time, which serve the added purpose of helping develop young coaches.

In the past two years, five youth section members have used the experience gained from running these to complete FA coaching courses, with two – Megan Tidy and Stefan Drawmer-Holmes – earning places on the FA’s National Coaching Scholarship Programme.

The broad range of opportunities available is meant to ensure Bassett fulfil their role as a charter standard community club.

Given the work involved, that isn’t always easy, but when the results are there to see, the reward is always worth the hours put in.

That will no doubt be the case when at the end of two years of toil, Bassett move into their state-of-the-art new home.

WHO'S WHO

Chairman: Andy Walduck
Vice-chairman: Danny Groom
Secretary: Ian Thomas
Treasurer: Dave Topping
Head of senior section: Chris Jones
Head of youth section: Pete Yeardley
Youth section secretary: Gill Gascoigne
Deputy head of youth section: Nigel Deane
Head of ladies’ and girls’ section: Bryan Wood
Club development officer: Jeff Tidy

HISTORY OF WBTFC

WOOTTON Bassett Town were originally established in 1882.

During their early years they were something of a pariah club, being suspended from the Swindon & District League in 1901 for the unsavoury conduct of both their players and supporters. Further poor behaviour saw them frequently hauled before the county FA.

Financial problems meant Bassett folded in 1908 before they were resurrected in 1930.
Since their reincarnation, their reputation has been less notorious.

Recently, the club was awarded charter standard development status, in 2008, and this was upgraded to community club status a year later as Bassett became Wiltshire’s first club to receive this distinction.

They currently run 26 teams from under sevens through to an over 35s veterans’ team, which has played in the Wilts FA Summer League.