Deal Mayor Cllr Marlene Burnham showed off her soccer skills on Saturday after cutting an appropriate black and white ribbon to formally open the new £20,000 clubhouse at Deal Town Rangers Youth Football Club.

Still clutching her handbag, she gallantly displayed her dribbling talents and even took time for a spot of goalkeeping at the club’s base at Castle Community College, Mill Road.

Club chairman Alan Clarke said: “After the opening ceremony the mayor took up a position in the goalmouth while the players did their best to score! I must say that her contribution to the occasion was impressive.

“After months of hard work and at considerable expense the clubhouse, donated by Network Rail, replaces the previous building which had been condemned.”

The club chairman welcomed guests from the organisations that had helped in upgrading the building, including Cllr Burnham from Deal council, Lesley Corley and Vicki Green from Network Rail, Cllr Carol Stickler and committee member Bob Parkin from the Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown branch of the Association of Men of Kent and Kentish Men.

Also thanked were the Globe and Laurel Freemasons, the building donors Network Rail and Gary Dixon, head of physical education at Castle Community College.

The opening ceremony was held after a game of football, which the team of coaches and managers won by 6-3 against a side of parent players.

To raise club funds a sponsored shoot out was staged in Henry Moore’s speed cage which recorded that young and old players had ‘kicked their way around the British Isles’, totalling 8,000 miles.

There was also face painting by Shivon Matthews.
Guests toured the clubhouse and its three changing rooms, referee room, coaches kit room, equipment store, a kitchen and toilets.