DIY SOS Ottery style

The request

Otter Garden Centres was approached by a member of the Ottery St Mary Youth Football Club, asking if we could help them with urgent repairs to their current viewing lean-to shed. This was constructed of wood and sheet metal cladding which was leaking badly and becoming unfit for purpose.

The football club asked if we could carry out repairs to make this lean-to into a nice area for parents and supporters to watch the children playing matches when the weather is poor.

After looking at the building, it became clear that all efforts to repair it would result in a rather bleak, dark, old shed for parents to stand in.

How we helped

The team discussed ideas on ways to help and agreed to donate and build a brand new modern summer house, with a covered lean-to on the front for parents to stand under to cheer the teams on, along with a small covered patio area at the side where a BBQ could be set up to provide food and drink such as bacon sandwiches, hot dogs, teas and coffees for supporters and players after the matches.

We hope this brings extra fun to matches held at Ottery Football Club and perhaps raise some extra money for the club if they wanted to sell refreshments to visiting parents and teams.

The match

To celebrate the handing over of the new summerhouse to the youth football teams, the club organised a friendly football match with a team from Otter Garden Centres playing five-a-side football against the under 13 Ottery team.

Sabine Taylor said: “The under 13 football team was a delight to play football against and they were very kind to their visiting team. We all came away impressed with the level of football they played and their conduct on the pitch; they showed that you can be good at football and also be a credit to the sport and your community.

“We are pleased to have supported the youth teams and we hope we might be able to arrange an annual match so that we can keep in touch with them and help again in the future. It’s so good for young people to get outside and play sport and Ottery Football club gives the youngsters a great opportunity to do this.”

The end result was a marginal win for the Otter Garden Centres team – but we suspect that the under 13s let us win as a thank you for donating the summerhouse and providing bacon sandwiches after the match.