The girls are back in town
News Archive > Sport > The girls are back in town
By Sports Editor PHIL BUNTJUST twelve months after lovers of football in Newquay were surprised and disappointed to learn that the successful ladies team of the town were to leave and play under the name Truro City and be based at their ground 14 miles away, it has now been confirmed that the ladies will be returning to play at Mount Wise as Newquay AFC Ladies again next season.
The team, who had won promotion through to the national league structure of the game in England, had decided to move to Truro after the financial requirements of going up into the higher league had apparently been answered by lucrative promises of support from Truro who were backed financially by their chairman Kevin Heaney.
However, despite a relatively successful start to the 2008-9 season it became apparent to many who supported the ladies that the financial support offered was having difficulties in being provided as the season developed and the credit crunch began to bite.
Heaney, whose business Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd was wound up in October 2008, continued as chairman of the club whose men’s senior side gained another promotion and step towards their ambition of national league football but the financial flexibility which was apparently once there to support a ladies side as well was significantly reduced.
Truro Football Secretary Ian Anear confirmed that finance had been at the heart of what he described as an ‘amicable’ decision between those who ran the ladies side of the game and Truro FC to see the side return to their roots at Mount Wise.
“It was the economic situation which has been mainly to blame for this” he said.
“We will be hoping to enter a ladies side in the Cornish league but the financial constraints and costs of running a ladies team at the level which was needed last season is not now really an option.
“However this has been a worthwhile exercise for us and provided us with an insight as to how competitive things are at the higher levels of women’s football.”
Colin Mills, who is director of football for the ladies team who will revert to their name of Newquay next month said “It is fair to say that we left Truro because some of the financial support we anticipated did not continue through the season but we don’t leave with any animosity between us.
“When we began to have to raise some of the money needed for ourselves it took away a significant part of the reason we had moved to Truro in the first place and so the decision to move back to Newquay became more easy to make.”
Newquay AFC Chairman Graham Drew said “I am delighted to see the ladies come back to Mount Wise and we were always sorry to see them leave but we understood why they did and the financial draw was one which they couldn’t ignore.”
Newquay Ladies will return to the southern league they were promoted from last year after their season as Truro saw them relegated.
