From partner schools to students on our BTEC programme, local businesses and participants in our weekly mental health football sessions; last week we 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 our 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 our 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. Our 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 our 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 our 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.”

Also on Wednesday our BTEC students got the opportunity to play a competitive game on the pitch as they represented Shrewsbury Town playing Preston North End in a Community & Education Football Alliance League game as they continued their quest for the league title. The 7-1 victory means that a win in their final game against Man City will secure them the title.

Players from our Women’s and Girls pathway also got to experience playing on the pitch as our teams took part in fixtures throughout the evening.

Finally on Thursday evening our Advanced Development Centres from Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Prees and Bridgnorth took part in a mini festival on the pitch as a reward for their hard-work in sessions throughout the season.

We hope that everyone who took part in Play on the Pitch week, from local businesses to our students and participants, had a great time and enjoyed the unique opportunity!