100-year-old Ovingham Football Club set to fold after failing to secure ground for next season Ovingham Football Club president Luke Vanston has confirmed the 100-year-old club will fold. CENTURY-OLD Ovingham Football Club is set to fold after dropping out of the race to secure its home ground. The future of the Cats has been hanging in the balance for more than four years due to low player numbers, financial problems and uncertainty about where it would play from next season. They had previously managed to stave off extinction and were runner-up in the SA Amateur Football League's division eight reserves this past season. But president Luke Vanstan said the club, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, could no longer continue because it only had a smattering volunteers, most of whom had little time to commit because they were in the defence force. He said the club also came to the conclusion its chances of extending its lease at Charles Cane Reserve, set to expire on March 31 next year, were remote because council staff recommended BOSA Soccer Club take over the Churchill Rd ground. "We had to make a hard decision - and it was a very hard thing to do," Vanstan said. It was the only decision we had at this point in time. A lot of us on the committee are in defence and we just don't have the time and resources needed to keep it alive when no one else is going to help out. We had to go with the best option to keep the boys playing footy. Vanstan said the majority of Ovingham players would now join Kilburn's B or C grade to boost that club's numbers. He said Kilburn had agreed to put Ovingham memorabilia around its clubrooms to acknowledge the Cats' history. The boys all said that as long as they stick together and play together, they weren't worried about where they played. The Cats were among six sporting clubs which had applied to lease Charles Cane Reserve - its home since the 1960s. But Vanstan said they withdrew their application last week. We read the council report (on expressions of interest to use the oval) and in the end we thought it was not worth fighting for. We put a lot of effort to get our expression of interest in but we got a score of 30 out of 100 - we didn't even come close. We realised we'd probably be losing our home. Ovingham life member Heather Sandford, a volunteer at the Cats since about 1970, said the club's demise was a "total tragedy." "I'm shocked and so saddened," said the former Cats treasurer, secretary and trainer. I helped build the clubrooms in the early 1990s and most of my life has been spent there. That club has been in my life longer than my family. Councillors were expected to select which club got the lease for Charles Cane at last week's council meeting but deferred a decision to learn more about the impact a new tenant would have on the ground's turf and irrigation system. BOSA secretary Ralph Armiento said his club, which has not had a permanent base in its 16-year history, remained confident its proposal to take over the lease would be approved. He said the club turned away more than 40 players this year because it had outgrown playing fields next to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre and at Prospect's Blackfriars Priory School. "We are very confident we will be given the licence because we have a lot to offer to the City of Prospect," Armiento said. We're the number one participation sport, number one growth sport, have 250 members, including 150 based in the City of Prospect, we're the only soccer club in the council and we were born in the City of Prospect. We're knocking back people and we can't fulfil our requirements at the current venues. Armiento said the club would upgrade the ground's clubrooms, lighting and security if its application was successful. The other clubs in the running to secure the lease are Eagles Lacrosse Club, Broadview Football Club and soccer clubs Adelaide Villa and Adelaide Star. Prospect's community and planning director Debbie Richardson said councillors would likely vote on the expressions of interest at either a special meeting on December 10 or the following week's council meeting. "We recommended in that report that we go to community consultation with a different preferred tenant (BOSA)," Richardson said. But the council are free to make any decision they want to make. Richardson said the councillors wanted a balancing act between maximising the use of the ground and not damaging the oval by using it too often. We need to move quickly so that the clubs can make their decisions for next season, but we also need to have the right outcome.