Crawley Old Girls win top trophy at Sussex Sports Awards

Chosen from hundreds of nominations, the COGS were 1 of 3 Finalists in the Community Impact Award along with previous winners START Wellbeing, as well as Cancer United.

Carol Bates, Founder of COGS, said “The winners are announced on the night and it was an amazing feeling to win such a prestigious Award. We didn’t actually think we would win it and we would like to thank Active Sussex and everyone at the Sussex Sports Awards for such a fantastic evening. #BelieveAchieve was the theme and it was great to see all the other Finalists too.”

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The COGS have won a number of Community Awards now and it has enabled them to share their story even further. Bates continued: “It’s simple really, it doesn’t matter whether you are active, or not, you CAN learn to play football at your own pace and with likeminded women.

"Since we started Crawley Old Girls, in April 2015, with 10 weeks of funding from the EFL Trust, through the Crawley Town Community Foundation (who continue to run the coached sessions) we have gone from strength to strength and now have 3 separate sessions per week. These cover all abilities from complete beginners to advanced/experienced players who just want to play recreationally. Women’s Recreational Football, as it’s now known, is steadily building around the Country, with many women, the majority new to the game, participating in Festivals and matches just for fun and enjoyment.

“The COGS welcome women with open arms, they are a great bunch! It really doesn’t matter if you have no experience or haven’t been active for a long time, we were exactly the same when we started! The women, who already attend, are all different shapes, sizes, abilities and levels of fitness so you can feel comfortable whether you are fit or not. We also have some good social events too!

"It’s very humbling to get so much recognition for something we all love doing but it goes to show that any women can kick a ball for fun and enjoy the beautiful game”.

If anyone reading this wants to come along just to find out a bit more, all the sessions are detailed on the website www.crawley-cogs.co.uk and the first session is FREE, so what do you have to lose?! You can also contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information.