WEYMOUTH Hockey Club have raised almost 90 per cent of their mammoth £250,000 target for a new artificial pitch.

The Seasiders’ 120-plus members have worked tirelessly in funding a massive £98,000 so far, plus two successful grant applications.

A total of £125,000 has been raised through the grants, £75,000 coming from Sport England and £50,000 from the National Hockey Foundation.

Weymouth could proceed when the release of the pitch’s lease is finalised by the current owners, Weymouth College. 

The club had faced possible closure if insufficient money was raised, with Redlands unable to find the cash to build a new playing surface upon the existing Astro, which had drawn complaints over playing standards from home and away players.

Weymouth have passed a series of deadlines – including a target of £125,000 by June – to keep their dream alive.

The Seasiders, who field men’s, women’s, juniors’ and minis’ teams, could even move away from the Redlands location to secure the future of the club.

Funds have flooded in for the Seasiders’ cause, including ‘Feast on the Farm’ owners, Joe and Casey Foot, who donated £3,003 – the proceeds from their last summer event. 

The duo also hosted local swimmers Matt Flux, Tim Edwards and Dave Parker who organised a Swim Ball at the farm, after completing their 20km swim around the Isles of Scilly in September.

A total of £1,120 from the raffle will also go towards the new pitch. Under-14s players Daisy Flux and Freya Barrington did a wonderful job selling raffle tickets on the night.

Elsewhere, the club are recently celebrating 11 of its junior players being selected to play for Dorset in the under-17, under-15 and under-14 age groups which includes Flux and Barrington plus Toby Gould, Hannah Venner, Izzy Hopps, Katy Stone, Ry Gerety, Sam Monteith, Joe Gould, Gemma Fox and Amalia Solioti Macklin.