COMMUNITY TURNS OUT FOR OPENING OF PAVILION


15:00 - 05 July 2007

Residents of West and Middle Chinnock turned out in force on Sunday to see the opening of the village's £65,000 pavilion.

The building has been erected in memory of tsunami victim Piers Simon and was opened by former Somerset and England cricketer Vic Marks, who hails from the area.

Mr Simon, who died in the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand in 2005, used to play for the village cricket team, which competes in the Readers Mid-Wessex League Division One on Saturdays.

Mr Simon's brother, Luke, his mother, Celia, and grandfather, Henry, who is chairman of the club were at the opening.

The West and Middle Chinnock Recreation Association plans for the building to be used by the parish community and to house a village football team. The side will compete in Division Two of the Perry Street League.

The recreation association received a grant of £43,555 from the Big Lottery fund last November and was one of the first in the country to receive money from its Reaching Communities programme.

Mr Marks paid tribute to the efforts of his brother John, chairman of the community clubhouse committee.

He said: "It is not for me to single out anyone. Piers must have been a fantastic inspiration for this. John did an incredible amount of work and I would like to thank him and everybody else who put in so much hard work."

Brother John said: "I am very proud. We could not imagine it being accomplished as it has taken two years to find a funder. We are forming a new football team for the Perry Street League and we have had a playgroup here already so it is going to get a fair bit of use."

Neil Cochran, chairman of the parish council, said: "It is wonderful what the community has done and it has worked very hard to make it happen. It is a real village asset that I am sure will be around for years to come and a lot of people in the parish will benefit from it. It is an order of magnitude in improvement on what we had before."