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THE future looks bright for Salt River-Blackpool Soccer Club, after floodlights were installed at their Shelley Street headquarters in Salt River.

But the wait for the much needed lights was indeed a long one. According to the club, the Shelley Street venue has been part of a "vote-catching political game since 1994".

Promises were made but never fulfilled. The community and hundreds of sports people were the losers. The gloom disappeared recently when the official switch-on of the lights took place, with a turn-out of over 300 people at the venue.

The club's 150 junior footballers, aged 6 to 19, and 120 senior members were smiling. Their days of practising in the dark are over. Competitive matches with fellow clubs in the Safa Cape Town (Safa CT) have begun.

Iqbal Kaskar, the club chairperson, says a successful partnership involving the City of Cape Town and the club's sponsors has triggered the long awaited improvements at the Shelley Street venue.

The council donated 18 floodlights that were used at the old Green Point Stadium, which was demolished to make way for the for the new stadium for the 2010 World Cup.

Kaskar lauded the club's main sponsor MSJ Electrical for their R80 000 contribution, Councillor Cedric Thomas for availing R55 000 from his ward allocation fund, and the old Swiss Soccer Club at Green Point Common, who provided the pylons at a nominal cost.

"There are plans to improve the floodlights as part of the upgrade work we envisage at our home venue," says Kaskar, whose club is affiliated to the Cape District FA (CDFA) in Wynberg.

Blackpool's semi-pro side campaigns in the Safa CT Castle League. The club's u/19s play in the LFA Cape Town-Tygerberg as the CDFA has no competition for this age group. Blackpool, a merger of 54 year old Blackpool and the 16 year old Salt River United, are hopeful their budding stars will emulate the renowned players of yesteryear. Among them are the Abbas brothers, Seraj and Ismail, Miley Abahams and ex-Woodside star Dougie Carelse, who coached the semi-pro side to a commendable third place this past season.

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