Youth football team in Bulverhythe scores new sponsorship deal with Bellway

Youth football team in Bulverhythe scores new sponsorship deal with Bellway

Publication Date: 27-11-2025 09:00

Youth football team in Bulverhythe scores new sponsorship deal with Bellway

A youth football team which plays home games down at Bulverhythe pitches has netted a two-year sponsorship deal with a local housebuilder.

Bellway Kent, which is building 210 houses at Porters Grove, on the former site of the Darwell Campus of the St Leonards Academy in St Leonards-on-Sea, has paid £3,000 to sponsor the Ore Irons FC under-13 team.

The contribution has allowed the team coaches to buy full new home and away kits of shirts, shorts and socks, rain jackets, kit bags, training tops and water bottles.

The team, which plays its home games at the Bulverhythe Recreation Ground in Bexhill Road, was started in 2023, originally as DMF United FC, by local charity organiser Dom Warren and his best friend Martin Swann. Now, under a fresh re-brand, the team has a squad of 14 youngsters and plays in the Rother Youth Football League Under-13s Blue division.

Dom said: "I approached Bellway to see if they would be interested in sponsoring us and they really stepped up to the mark.

"We set up this team to give kids in the area the opportunity to train and play for a football team. If we had not got the funding from Bellway, we were facing having to stop running the team but thanks to that very generous contribution, that is not the case now.

"The £3,000 deal, which covers this season and the next, has enabled us to buy a full set of playing and training kit for the whole squad - and even tops for us coaches too. We have bought kit which has a bit of growth in it so that it will fit the players next season as well.

"The new kit and training tops make the team look incredibly professional and, I am sure, puts an extra spring in the step of the players. The new kit seems to be working its magic as the team has won its first five matches of the season."

Cheryl Ubsdell, Sales Manager at Bellway Kent, said: "The Ore Irons FC under-13s play their home games and train just a couple of miles away from our Porters Grove development so they are effectively our local team. When Dom approached us for sponsorship we were very happy to give them a contribution to help keep the team going.

"At Bellway, part of our philosophy is to engage and play a positive role in the communities where we build new homes. This football club provides a place where youngsters can play the sport they love, make new friends on and off the pitch and emulate their footballing heroes."

Dom and his wife Alexandria, who live in St Leonards-on-Sea, both received an MBE in the 2025 New Year's Honours List for their services towards the eradication of food waste and poverty after setting up and running Dom's Food Mission in 2015. The charity focuses on redirecting surplus food, which would otherwise go to waste, to people in the community who need it. The charity's projects have gained support from singing superstar Rod Stewart and some ex-players at the Premier League team West Ham United.

To find out more about Dom's Food Mission go to https://www.domsfoodmission.com.

For more information about the new homes at Porters Grove, visit https://bellway.co.uk/new-homes/kent/porters-grove or call 01424 541366.