BBC Berkshire chose Moles volunteer Luke Beard as their Sports Legend of the Week. Even if you don’t know Luke personally, you would have seen him at the club in one his various roles; Under-16s Manager, part of the Grounds Team, Clubhouse Manager plus many other roles.
Luke would like to add his special thanks to his partner Kelly; “Without Kelly’s support of me, none of this would be possible.”
Moles chairman Andy Cotton commented about; “We are all truly blessed to have you at our football club. Fabulous way to start the day and a brilliant tribute to you Luke and everyone who gives so much of their time to community life at Binfield FC.”
You can listen to the full interview with Luke and BBC Berkshire presenter Lucy Ambache below;
Transcript
Lucy: Awesome people from our sports communities here on Saturday Breakfast. You know those brilliant people who make grassroots teams tick and we’re doing football chat today. Well cut, we’re fully getting into the footballs.
Lucy: Let’s have a chat with Luke Beard who is from Binfield FC.
Lucy: Hello Luke, morning, morning.
Luke: Good morning Lucy.
Lucy: Hello, good to have you on. Now your title is manager of the under-16s, does groundwork, clubhouse manager, works in the bar, pours teas in the tea hut, cooks and cleans. Is there anything you don’t do Luke?
Luke: Yeah, I’m just a small part of a team that runs here at Binfield.
Luke: You know there’s a lot of us that cover all different areas but everyone mucks in to make sure we provide a great service here for everyone that attends really.
Lucy: Okay, I mean you’re busy. Why do you do this? Why do you give so much to Binfield?
Luke: I suppose you know it’s a sense we are a community club and it’s lovely when you know parents and children sign up on match days whether it be a first team match or their Saturday games. I remember as a child you know when the fields behind my parents were cut and we had them lines and it felt like you was at a pitch that was on TV or Wembley and I suppose we like to sort of like emulate that so when the children and parents turn up you know it looks aesthetically amazing for them. You know we’re a club in the middle of the countryside and we always get loads of lovely comments and I suppose it’s just you know that pride of doing that and supplying that to the community.
Lucy: Yeah that’s amazing because I mean my son plays grassroots and some of the pitches that you go to are all sorts of terrible but I’m like mate this is grassroots. So tell me about you, what is the joy of volunteering for you?
Luke: So I suppose it stems from the top we’ve got an amazing chairman and vice chairman Andy Cotton and Craig Gilbert now they are constantly busy. They’d never expect anyone to do anything that they wouldn’t you know they’ve both got busy lifestyles but they still you know put in so much time and effort along with you know our core team that does the grounds work, Lewis Pike, Martin Smith, they’ve got their own jobs you know they still manage to give 20 plus hours a week to help out down here and it stems across from you know the match day people you have Steve Humm and Stuart Hever they’re always here rain or shine and then you get to the actual football side of it so you’ve got Alan Clark at the soccer school all the way up to Ross and every coach in between that are all volunteers. You know it’s just an amazing thing given back to the community it really is.
Lucy: Luke someone you haven’t mentioned who seems to have joined the conversation is Rob Sutton. Hello, morning Rob.
Rob: Good morning.
Lucy: Rob’s here Luke to join in the conversation. Let’s see what Rob has to say about you. Were you expecting him?
Rob: Hi Luke, good morning. This guy is an absolute legend. He is far too modest to explain the full extent of what he does. He’s got a son, he’s got a lovely partner, family etc job as has everybody but this guy just manages to find the time. I don’t always know how whether it’s say from a coaching perspective through to working with the first team on the catering stuff but he is just the absolute superstar and we are so so so lucky to have Luke as part of the club and the impact this guy has is just absolutely amazing. I just wanted to say thank you Luke for everything that you do.
Luke: It’s a pleasure Rob, thank you.
Lucy: How is it hearing that Luke, that little surprise from Rob here?
Luke: Yeah lovely, it’s you know it’s always nice to to receive feedback. Yeah no you’re very welcome, thank you Rob.
Rob: You’re very welcome mate.
Lucy: Rob I mean do I even ask should he be my sports legend of the week this Luke?
Rob: Without a shadow of a doubt.
Lucy: There it is Luke, you’ve got legendary status. Awesome amazing to speak to you guys. Thank you so much for coming on. There we go Rob there and Luke Beard my sports legend of the week from Binfield FC. Now if you know a Luke I would love to chat to them. We can put the spotlight on them, we can make that happen on the