David O’Driscoll, manager of the Coppermill Swift Vet team, spotlights an under-valued local club
Currently England’s women’s football team are participating in Australia for the World Cup after conquering Europe. There are high hopes that the men’s team can follow the same path. It may seem a good time to be involved in football, but for many members of a community-based club, the Coppermill Swifts feel somewhat differently.
Six years ago, I was part of a group of men who wanted to play football locally. Someone suggested using the Lowhall ‘cage’ – a 6-a side pitch at the back of St James Park, in the Coppermill area of Walthamstow. I remember many in the group did not realise that there was a pitch there, as it seems so hidden away and underused.
The group grew organically by word of mouth and we needed a bigger pitch for a twice weekly game, so we moved across to the 9-a side pitch next door, but the surface was astonishingly poor, with players risking injury. We quickly stopped playing there. Sadly there were no alternatives in the local area, so to get a bigger pitch we had to move outside the Walthamstow area for the second game.
Six years on from these humble beginnings, much has changed with the group now christened ‘Coppermill Swifts’, and it has developed into a phenomenal community project. In fact if you walk around the local Coppermill community, you will see the distinctive badge of the Swifts.
Today it comprises a men’s veterans football team, a female veterans rugby team and eight youth teams, many of whom play to a high standard, beating well-established youth teams due to the high-level coaching they receive. They have managed to fit in two evenings of coaching at nearby Douglas Eyre sports centre, and are looking to expand further.
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The Swifts today are well organised with an active committee seeking ways to ensure that everyone has access to the coaching and football gear. It has organised a fund-raising night at the Trades Hall in October.
The Swifts Chairman, John Mansion said, “such is the demand we could use football pitches five nights a week. We now have over a hundred on our waiting list. Low hall would be ideal for us”.
In my day job, as a psychological professional working in the NHS, I know how even a little exercise can have powerful effects on our physical and mental health. This applies to all age groups, but today, nearly 80% of UK kids don’t meet the minimum recommended amount of activity, with similar figures for adults.
The Swifts committee has been speaking to the local council about the Low Hall pitch. And I understand there is money from various sporting bodies available to finance a new surface. Yet, nothing happens and discussion has faltered as a proposal for a Lido to be built on the site has become a priority for the council’s planning.
There have been considerable changes in Walthamstow in the six years that we have been playing football; the council have been involved in huge and complex building projects, which has transformed the area.
But this neglected and sad corner of the borough, which is a great space for football, is overlooked. There is so much to celebrate in the Coppermill Swifts story and the hard work of this volunteer-led group, which is rare in London.
You can support the Coppermill Swifts by donating to them here: www.eventbrite.com/e/coppermill-swifts-ceilidh-fundraiser-tickets-600726167137.
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