THE community in Riding Mill is hoping the return of football can kick start a sporting revolution in the village.

After an absence of almost 30 years, the village has a football pitch at Riding Mill Cricket Club and local volunteers are using its return as a catalyst to create a sporting hub.

In a project driven primarily by the cricket club and Broomhaugh and Riding Parish Council, villagers are looking for funding to demolish the current, outdated pavilion and create a brand new building to accommodate all sports, sexes and ages.

As it stands, the pavilion has no indoor toilets, no electricity and no showers, while the kitchen in situ was second hand when the structure was built around 40 years ago.

Having seen that there is demand for football in the village, sessions for local children aged between seven and 12 have started up on Sunday mornings, the community now want to bring its facilities into the 21st century to try to appeal to more people.

Up until a few years ago, the club was only really used by cricketers playing friendly matches on Sunday afternoons.

However, the club formed a composite team with Corbridge and entered the Corbridge Millers, which includes female players, into the West Tyne League. Benwell Hill’s third team also use the pitch.

Midweek league games are hosted at Riding Mill too, yet female players often have to change in the Duke of Wellington pub as there are no separate changing facilities.

Riding Mill Cricket Club chairman Clive Page said: “It has gone from a casual Sunday afternoon thing, to three midweek teams and two Saturday teams playing here.

“Now we have sorted the football pitch out, we held a meeting and 15 parents attended so those sessions are proving popular and are growing as word gets around.

“What we would also like to see if a senior team play here on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, and we know that local teams struggle for grounds and they can be quite expensive.

“We are trying to develop the sports field into a sports hub for the area with more cricket and football to get more children and parents involved, but the building we have isn’t fit for purpose.

“I’m sure the cricket club was very grateful they were able to move to the building in 1986, and the facilities would have been fine for them, but we need something to cater for all if we try to make a sports hub.”

To allow football to grow, volunteers poured endless hours of hard work into transforming the overgrown stretch of grassed area into a smooth surface for a pitch to bloom.

After the long grass was strimmed away, the area was ploughed, seeded, reseeded and cut, before goalposts were installed and the playing area was marked. It is hoped sessions for young footballers will grow, with the goal to enter a junior team from the village into the Tynedale Mini Soccer League next season.