What a fantastic weekend we had at The Meadow with the completely bonkers Comedy Match on Saturday and our youth Mad Hatters fundraiser on Sunday – a great time for the club, the town and the charities that will benefit from the events. On Sunday alone a four-figure sum was raised for the Hospice of St Francis at the tea party event.
On Saturday we had over 3,700 people pack the terraces for Alex Horne’s latest comedy genius football match. The biggest crowd we have seen at The Meadow since we played Cambridge United in the Third Round of The FA Cup some forty-five years ago, and they were not disappointed. A huge thank you to Alex Horne and all the comedians that took part to create such a joyous event. To see so many smiling faces on a sunny day in Chesham was fantastic. Thank you also to our own players from our men and women’s senior teams – I hope you had a fantastic time, a game unlike any other you have played this season I am sure.
And there must be a massive thank you to everyone involved in organising the event, you are simply the best volunteers a football club could ask for. The professionalism shown, the teamwork and fantastic organisation makes me very proud to be the Chairman of this club. We have made huge strides this season on the pitch and will be starting in August in a higher league where our all-round standards will need to be higher – I think last Saturday we proved that we are more than capable of reaching these new levels. We cannot do it without our fantastic volunteers, and we always need more, so from the bottom of my heart – thank you.
Please keep an eye on your social media accounts, as we will have more news coming out from the club today, including full details of 2024/25 admission prices and season tickets and how you can get your hands on yours for our first ever season in National League South. We will once again be featuring an Early Bird offer providing even greater value for what promises to be another exciting season, playing a few new clubs, and some that we have not played for many years.
One thing keen social media followers will have noticed is that many clubs at Step 2, where we will be playing next season, are announcing their player retention lists already. That is not something we have historically ever done as a club, however, as we move into a new era and plan for a settled squad going into preseason we will be making our own announcements early. In fact, you may well have already seen announced earlier today a couple of players that will be leaving the club, to whom I am sure you will join me in thanking for their services and wishing all the best for the future. Goalkeeper Zaki Oualah and striker Ricardo German are both moving on to pastures new, both playing a key part in our promotion season and will go down in the club’s history, but we must plan for the future. Looking for more player news? Keep an eye on social media later this afternoon for further news of our own player retention list for 2024/25.
In other footballing news, I am delighted that we have signed a partnership with Pro Sports Academy to have an Under 18’s side that will participate in a Wednesday night league. We have been consulting with our current youth set-up over this and very much see it as implementing another key step to creating a pathway within the clubs for our young players around Chesham to progress through from our mini youth section to semi-professional football without having to leave the club. Entrance to watch matches will be charged at £5, although these games will be included in the price of your season ticket – details of which will be available later.
Our senior women’s teams are now on their summer break, recuperating before we go again next season in the FA Women’s National League. I hope those of you that were at the charity game on the weekend enjoyed the contributions of 1st team women Ellie Doerr, Gemma Fraser, Becky Fraser and Tasha Smith. They will be busy with pre-season in the coming weeks and the team are getting on with scheduling some pre-season games for later in the summer. More of that as it emerges.
The pitch itself at The Meadow has also received some much-needed pampering. It has been completely reseeded and had more than 100 tonnes of specialist sand spread over to help boost the regrowing process. With the support of our excellent ground staff we are setting out to have the best possible playing surface when the new campaign comes round.
Next Friday 7pm, we have our awards and presentation evening in The Chess Suite, I hope to see many of you there, thank you once again for your support.
Peter Brown, Chairman
