Page 10 • The HERALD • 8th October 2026 v F @heraldpublishing v www.hannahs-electrics.co.uk • hannahelectrics@gmail.com Local Youth Football Club Opens New Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club (YFC) reopened the resurfaced 3G pitch at Applemore College on e site is busy year round. Training runs between 5pm and 9pm every weeknight, and it takes an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 visits a week, with teams travelling in from across Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and West Sussex. “It is how far the club has come, having done so well in about ten years, and so quickly. Obviously it looks amazing, and the kids are here playing now, boys and girls of all ages. The legacy is fantastic. I am hoping that it allows everyone to be a part of the club and the community, and to enjoy sport.” comments Terry Cox, former Chairman, Hythe & Dibden YFC. e change has been sharpest in the girls’ game. Hampshire FA’s facilities case study credits the pitch with growing the club’s female pathway by 5,000% in eight years. More than 200 girls now play for Hythe & Dibden, with a clear route through to women’s football, and the club expects that number to keep climbing. e role the facility has played in the explosion of girls’ football is hard to overstate. Hampshire FA have published a video case study on these results. e club’s Girls Football Development O cer Steve Norris told the county FA: “For a lot of our girls their time at the club is their only time in football, and I think if we were calling off training sessions left, right and centre we would have far less than the nearly 200 who we have today.” Friday 4th September, alongside their new pavilion that gives the 27 year old club a permanent home for the rst time in its history. Teams from across the club took to the new surface a er a ribbon cutting at 5pm, watched by families, volunteers and guests from Hampshire FA, New Forest District Council and Applemore College. Nine years a er the original pitch was laid, the scale of what it now supports is easy to underestimate. Around 650 children now play for Hythe & Dibden, more than the number of pupils on roll at the secondary school the club plays at. Another 160 adults volunteer as coaches, managers and committee members. Set against the local population, those numbers are striking. Based on census age estimates for the parish, around one in four Hythe and Dibden children of primary and secondary school age play for the club, and roughly one in every 25 residents is directly involved in it. Cutting the ribbon - left to right: Clare Williams, Headteacher, Applemore College, James Golding, Chairman, Hythe & Dibden YFC and Terry Cox, former Chairman, Hythe & Dibden YFC Continued on page 11
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