A football club in Wallingford has made a new purchase after support from a fund backed by former England cricketer Darren Gough.
The £75,000 Gigaclear Rural Sports Club Fund aims to support teams based in rural locations across the broadband company’s full fibre network, which spans 26 counties.
It has enabled Wallingford and Crowmarsh FC to purchase a sports camera with the aim of improving player development and team performance.
The club’s commercial manager, Kevin Corrigan, said: "As a local grassroots football club we rely on volunteers to help us continue to grow and support football across 40 teams and 400 players in our local area.
"To get the fund’s support is so important in helping us achieve this and we are very grateful."
He added: "The sports camera is portable and sits on a tripod during games.
"It’s simple, quick to set up and there’s no need for anyone to control the camera during games.
"Once the game is finished, we just upload the game on to the Veo platform and their AI automatically detects goals, corners, freekicks and so much more.
“The camera has become an important tool for the management team, the so we can look at team shape, individual positioning, balance and analyse every aspect of our game to help us learn and improve both as a team and individually. It’s so helpful.”
Fund ambassador Mr Gough said: "Since launching the fund, it has gone from strength to strength, providing valuable support where it is needed most.
"It’s great to see so much kit and equipment being sent out to rural sports clubs such as Wallingford and Crowmarsh FC.
"I believe it will help make a difference to players now and to the rural sports teams of the future."
The club, whose teams play their matches at Wallingford Sports Park, was formed following the amalgamation of Crowmarsh Youth Football Club and Wallingford Town AFC.
It delivers both amateur youth and adult football throughout the town of Wallingford and its surrounding area including Crowmarsh.
It is not the first Oxfordshire sports club to have benefitted from the fund, with Bicester and North Oxford Cricket Club previously buying a new digital scoreboard with the support.
Club chairman Gary Sansome said: "We’re really grateful to Gigaclear’s Rural Sports Club Fund for helping towards our new digital scoreboard.
"It’s a great asset for the club and has enabled us to deliver an enhanced and professional experience to all our members who play at the ground.
"With this modern electronic scoreboard, we now have an integrated scoring and live YouTube streaming platform."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here