Ship Ahoy!

After fourteen years as wandering nomads, Pitching In Isthmian North club Grays Athletic finally have a home of their own. Ship Lane, the former home of Thurrock FC, is about to be handed over to the club as part of a deal which sees land around the stadium converted into a vehicle processing plant, and now the work can start to bring the stadium up to standard once more. Club Chairman Lee Vehit explained: [i]“This is a fantastic day for sport in Thurrock, as well as one that secures the future of Grays Athletic. Our club is first and foremost a community club and it is our clear ambition to make Ship Lane the most welcoming of venues for all local people - men and women, boys and girls, young and old, including representatives of all sections of our local area. We have great plans to open up Ship Lane to the widest possible range of community use - and we would love to hear from local groups about how we can do even more. But first we have a huge job to do, to get Ship Lane safe and operational. The ground has laid dormant for the past six years, since Thurrock FC folded. And we know there is much work to do. But our army of Blues volunteers can’t wait to get started. This is a club with a great history and now with the brightest of futures.”[/I] Athletic have been waiting for this moment since last July, when Planning Permission for the plant was finally approved by Thurrock Council after first being rejected- although, in truth, they've been waiting for this moment since they were evicted from the Recreation Ground in 2010. Since then they've played at Rookery Hill- then home of East Thurrock United- at Rush Green, Mill Field and Parkside (previous and current homes of Aveley FC), and of course Tilbury, where they currently reside. We await news of a date for their move to Ship Lane, and given the amount of work required we don't expect it to be imminent, but it will be a day of much rejoicing when it finally arrives and we look forward to being there to witness it. It will also be lovely to see Ship Lane filled with noise and colour once more, after lying dormant since the end of the 2017-18 campaign. Many congratulations to all at the club- a deserved outcome after many years of toil, disappointment and false dawns, and a fantastic outcome for the community they serve, including their enormous collection of youth teams. Read more [url=https://www.graysathletic.co.uk/news/blues-poised-to-take-ownership-of-ship-lane--official-statement-2857344.html]here[/url]. [i]Follow the Pitching In Isthmian League on Instagram. Head [url=https://www.instagram.com/theisthmianleague/?hl=en]here [/url]or search for theisthmianleague on your app. We're also on [url=https://www.facebook.com/isthmianleague]Facebook [/url]and [url=https://twitter.com/IsthmianLeague]Twitter[/url].[/i]