These are incredibly exciting times for Bishop’s Cleeve Football Club.

On the pitch their flagship team are leading the way in the race for the Hellenic League Premier Division title, while off the field work is ongoing at their Kayte Lane home, which club chairman David Walker describes as “game-changing”.

And it’s easy to see why because we’re not talking about just a few licks of paint around the ground. Quite the opposite, in fact, because the finishing line is in sight for a project that has cost some £835,000.

“Apart from the existing clubhouse it’s a complete refurbishment of our facilities,” Walker told The Local Answer.

The jewel in the crown is the new 3G artificial pitch, which it is hoped will be used for the first time on Saturday 5th March when Paul Collicutt’s table-toppers host title rivals Bradford Town.

“That’s the hope,” continued Walker. “The new pitch will be laid in February – they actually call it a carpet – but we will need three days of dry weather to allow the sand to dry.

“That’s obviously out of our control but everything is on schedule to finish at the end of February, we’re well on the way.

“We’re having new LED floodlighting, new spectator pitch surrounds, a new four-and-a-half metre fence around the ground, a new car park at the front and other work to the infrastructure in terms of the car park.”

The work started in the latter part of September and Walker, who has enjoyed close ties with the club for well over 60 years, can’t wait for it all to be completed.

“We’re improving the facilities in terms of what we can offer,” Walker explained. “The 3G pitch was first talked about some four years ago and it’s taken a lot of hard work to get to where we are.

“The problem with the existing grass pitch was that because of the weather and the clay soil, over the past five years there have always been about two months in a season when we aren’t able to play.

“That leads to a backlog of fixtures but we also lose our regular spectators. They want to watch good non-league football so we have to get them back when we start playing home games again.”  

Those supporters, who have been heading to Evesham United to watch Bishop’s Cleeve play their home games this season while the work is being completed at Kayte Lane, have certainly been richly entertained.

The club have been doing the business home and away, and they lead the table by seven points with 10 games to play, although Bradford and third-placed Westfields have played a game fewer.

Nearly all of their rivals in the division play on grass, of course, but Walker said that Cleeve’s players can’t wait to play on their new 3G pitch.

“There are three teams in the league who play on an artificial pitch – Hereford Lads Club, Malvern Town and Roman Glass,” said Walker.

“The players enjoyed playing on those pitches, it was a good experience. Players from the past are grass traditionalists but the youngsters are coming through having played on astro.

“Look at Cleeve Colts, they are all used to playing on astro. It’s a playing surface that suits good football and it will suit our first-team’s style of play, which is fast and skilful. The ball won’t deviate, it won’t bobble, it will run true.”

And it’s not just the first team who will benefit from the new pitch.

“The reserves and the ladies’ team have been playing on the bottom grass pitch at Kayte Lane,” added Walker. “They’ll be delighted to play on the artificial pitch, for a start they’ll know their game is on!”

And the youngsters who make up the remarkably successful Cleeve Colts – some 30 teams – are also going to massively benefit going forward.

“We’ll be open for football – playing or training – from 9am to 10pm every day,” said Walker. “It’s a fantastic facility for the community as well as for our players.

“And with the population increases in the area we estimate we’ll have another five to 11 teams in the next five years.”

The club provide opportunities for girls as well as boys to play the great game that is football and once their new facilities are up and running there will also be the chance for people to play disability football and walking football.

“It will be football for everyone,” added Walker. “Everyone is incredibly excited about this project, it’s a fantastic project.”

It certainly is and the club, who will still use their bottom grass pitch at Kayte Lane, have been very well supported along the way.

“The biggest contribution was from the Football Foundation but we also received a grant from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund and we raised £90,000 ourselves,” said Walker.

The club have also been supported by Gloucestershire County Council, Southam Parish Council, Tewkesbury Borough Council, Bovis Homes and the Gloucestershire Football Association and they, along with many others, will receive invitations when Cleeve’s new facilities are officially opened on Sunday 15^th May.

“We’re still working on the details but we’re thinking it will be an all-day event,” said Walker. “We’d like to put on age group demonstration games involving Prestbury Phantoms and Gotherington Juniors and there will be disability football, ladies’ football and girls’ football.

“We’ll maybe have some sort of celebrity game as well, that’s our current thinking.”

By the time of the big opening, Bishop’s Cleeve’s first team will hopefully have secured their place back in the Southern League, of course.

“We’d like to kick on and keep progressing,” said Walker. “It gives the kids coming through something to aim for, we’ve had quite a few Colts players come through.

“But we can only really progress if we get more spectators, anything we achieve must be sustainable. We’d like to think that when we get back to Kayte Lane we will get more than 100 but if we do get promoted we’d really want 150.

“We’re looking at the artificial pitch as a catalyst to increase the number of spectators.”

For adult footballers, junior footballers and the community as a whole, it should be win, win, win.