The village of Gilfach Goch has been given a boost after two of its prominent sports teams have received money to purchase essential equipment. Both the village’s rugby and football teams received money from Pennant Walters which has been used to cover essential costs ensuring benefit for years to come.

Pennant Walters, which is committed to supporting the communities close to its wind energy projects, has donated more than £10,000 to the football club, whilst nearly £2,000 has been given to the rugby club to cover the costs of training at an indoor facility during the dark winter months.

Tyrone Gough, Chairman at Gilfach Goch Football Club, explains:

“As a Club we are growing and with that growth comes the need to ensure we have the right equipment and kit and that our volunteer coaches are appropriately trained.

“These costs are vast and soon mount up, so when we learnt that we had been successful in applying for funding through Pennant Walters community fund, we were over the moon.”

As well as covering the winter training costs of both clubs, they have also been able to jointly purchase a storage container to securely store all equipment.

Darren Hughes, Chairman at Gilfach Goch RFC, said:

“We are lucky to have received support from Pennant Walters over the years, but this latest funding has been a lifeline. We are conscious of keeping the costs to our players and families to a minimum and this donation will help us to do this.”

“Not only do we now have a secure storage container for all our equipment, but we will be able to continue training throughout the winter. The weather up in Gilfach Goch can be pretty unpredictable but securing this indoor facility for all our teams will mean that we can keep up the hard work in training to ensure we give 100% in our games.”

The sponsorship provided by Pennant Walters is from a fund linked to two wind farms in the Gilfach Goch and Blackmill areas, Pant y Wal in the county of Bridgend, and Fforch Nest, which straddles the border of Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taf. The two sites have a total of 21 turbines producing 53 megawatts of clean electricity – enough to power the equivalent of 25,000 homes.

Pennant Walters Managing Director, Dale Hart, said:

“It’s great to see both sport sides coming together in this way and we’re more than happy to lend our support to the two grassroots clubs.

“Our wind energy project community funds exist to make a difference to the local communities in which we work, and we’re delighted that this money will go to good use – benefitting their members for years to come.”