Community team scores with football-mad African boys

A club which increases access to football for youngsters in Tavistock is extending its influence across the world by helping impoverished children in Africa.

Tavistock Community Football Club (TCFC) has delighted a team of boys in Zimbabwe, which is run on a shoestring, by sending them secondhand shirts and even a whistle to keep order at training sessions and matches.

TCFC, a Football Association two-star accredited club with 18 youth teams, widens opportunities to play football for young people in Tavistock and has extended its mission to Africa with the special gift of their first football shirts.

In line with its ethos, TCFC has supported various other sporting clubs with donations of kit and equipment and is now helping volunteer-run Plymouth United Zimbabwe Academy(PUZA) who will now be playing in red and black vertical strips emblazoned with a Tavistock legacy sponsor.

Based in Harare, PUZA play on dirt pitches and rely on their director, Alfred Karakadzai, to just to keep it going week to week.

Simon Standing, TCFC welfare officer, said: “As our own U18s have reached the end of their grassroots opportunities with the club, so we were delighted to be able to send over some various bits of old kits that we had accrued over the years, in an attempt to support the younger PUZA players.

“To say the players in Africa were ‘over the moon’ would be an understatement. It is sobering to think how delighted they were. This was put into stark perspective when Alfred asked if we could send our old match whistle if possible.”

The previous U18s are now hoping to send a second contribution as we had some home substitute kit remaining at the end of the season. It will be great to continue to support such a positive venture, and its adds a whole new element to the notions of community that is at the heart of what we do.”