FOOTBALL was the winner at the end of the day — after a seven-year struggle to provide extensive sports facilities for the people of Tavistock, the first phase finally secured the backing it needed this week.

The Crowndale Recreation Association has been granted almost £23,000 by the Football Association towards the £35,000 needed to set up a mini-soccer facility in the Crowndale Valley — the first stage of a much more ambitious project that it is hoped will soon follow.

John Warne, chairman of the CRA said: 'I am delighted for all the CRA members past and present, and especially so for those who have maintained their commitment over the last seven years to the provision of outdoor sports facilities — and with this the protection of the green setting at Crowndale.

'Without such dedication and commitment, I do believe that opportunity might have been lost forever.'

He was also delighted for the local junior football clubs — boys and girls — who can now look forward to enjoying their sport at Crowndale and he gave credit to all the people who had worked hard to develop junior soccer in the borough against a backdrop of facilities that Sport England described as being among the most inadequate in the country.

Mr Warne said mini-soccer was only the beginning, as the FA had said it was interested in making the Crowndale scheme one of its national 'Flagship' projects.

'This would see full development of the CRA's 12 acres, hopefully in the next 18 months, to include changing and social facilities and, in so doing, we hope to see a structure which embraces boys, girls and ladies' football being developed through to Tavistock Football Club and, perhaps, for the very talented, through to Nationwide League, Premier or even international football,' he said.

Mr Warne expressed his gratitude to the FA, particularly Andy Mitchell, and everyone who has supported the CRA over the years, especially the Billy Butlin Trust and the Tavistock Lions, whose money is being used in this first phase of the development.

Mr Warne said the CRA had come about after two developers sought to build a supermarket on the outskirts of Tavistock.

One developer offered to provide extensive sporting facilities in the Crowndale Valley in return for building its store on the current soccer pitch.

'But West Devon Borough Council went for Safeway, when I think the people of Tavistock would have preferred the other option,' he said.

Mr Warne, a town councillor at the time, said it was apparent that the Crowndale Valley was vulnerable to development and he suggested to the council that they should protect that land. The council was unanimous in its support and was also able to get West Devon on board.

Mr Warne said there was an overwhelming need for football pitches — West Devon Council does not own a football pitch in the entire borough. There was also a need for cricket, athletics and BMX facilities, and all these groups came together under the umbrella of the CRA.

A bid was submitted for £2.16-million of lottery money for an all-weather athletics track, football and cricket pitches and a major pavilion.

But Mr Warne said the borough council failed to put in any money of its own and the bid was rejected. Lottery commissioners said greater backing from the local council was needed, though even today no money has yet materialised.

Since then athletics and BMX have dropped out of the CRA to pursue their own plans.

'Football stayed with it, so we just kept going. I felt all along that the land would go back to West Devon ownership and they would cash in on it and develop it. So we hung in there,' he said. 'In the meantime, deals with Sky Sports put billions of pounds into grass roots football and the FA was immediately keen on us getting on with the first stage — the mini-soccer.

'There is a huge demand for football in Tavistock at the moment with 20 teams playing, so we are really set to go.'

The CRA has also said it would keep the door open for other outdoor sports.

Town and West Devon councillor Ted Sherrell, a footballer in his youth, described the award as a 'great day for local football'.

'Thanks to the efforts of John Warne and the CRA, facilities which generations of youngsters in Tavistock and district have yearned for will finally arrive and there is now every prospect of more to follow,' he said.