Making 2025 a year of sporting hope in Torbay

Sport in Torbay is hoping for a year of regeneration in 2025, as the Sport Torbay group looks to inject investment and participation across the community.

One shining success of recent months was the refurbished changing room facilities at Armada Park, home of Upton Athletic Football Club, and that is just the start for an organisation determined to overcome hurdles in the drive to achieve sporting prosperity in the Bay.

Shiphay Ward Councillor and member of the Sport Torbay organisation, Darren Cowell, explained the Armada Park transformation. He said: “I met with Upton Athletic in the summer of 2019 and they explained the planned repairs for the Armada Park changing rooms, which felt like sticking plasters on a gaping wound.

“We needed to look at a refurb or a rebuild. We thought around £50-70,000 would get the project off the ground but it has taken so long to deliver, partly because of Covid and the significant increase in the cost of building materials.

“We were successful in acquiring grant funding from Torbay Council, the FA and the Torquay Community Infrastructure Levy, enabling us to deliver a superb facility for the community.

“Upton Athletic were a formidable force in the 1970s and 80s, and their plight in recent years reflects the general state of team sports in Torbay and across the country.

“What doesn’t help in Torbay is the facilities used by our amateur clubs are not in good condition and a driving force for me is to get investment into sport, both clubs and individuals.”

The idea of all initiatives is to encourage sporting participation across Torbay, with all the physical and mental benefits that sport brings to the community and individuals.

“The believe to achieve initiative has supported talented individuals, such as our Olympian Abi Martin,” added Cowell. “There has also been the Back to Sports funding, which we established post-Covid to encourage clubs to get re-established with equipment and small grants.

“I’m also in the process of trying to get the annual sports grant re-instated into the budget. Sport in Torbay has always been a poor relation and the crusade to deliver infrastructure investment, such as at Torre Valley North, is so important to local people.

“We know we are scratching the surface but there are stories of hope, including the wonderful investment in tennis, which has seen the delivery of padel tennis courts in front of the Riviera Centre.

“When you look around at other authorities and other countries, there is so much to do. We’ve got great facilities at Clennon Valley, including the cycle track but that can’t be used at night because it needs floodlights.  

“Whilst I’m not an ultimate decision-maker at the moment because we’re in opposition, it doesn’t mean I can’t champion sport in Torbay.”