As I write these notes, I have just been informed by our groundsman Craig that tomorrow’s league game against Weston-super-Mare has had to be postponed as it hasn’t defrosted after the week of sub-zero temperaturse we’ve had in Chesham. The freezing weather during the week made it look very doubtful, but the forecast was for it to warm up slightly but unfortunately that hasn’t been enough, and the match referee decided the surface would not be playable tomorrow.
These fixture cancellations for us, and Aylesbury, cause a financial headache. For instance, we would have expected a gate of around 600 tomorrow Saturday whilst in midweek that number reduces down to more like 350-400 with less admission fees, food and programme, you can soon start to see how this impacts the club’s finances. I appreciate that it is not always as easy, and is less of a routine, but please, it would be hugely appreciated if you could make an extra effort to try and still attend these re-arranged midweek matches, and bring your friends and family, there is something special about night matches under the lights.
At least on this occasion, we do not have to wait long for our next game as we are at home again this midweek, this time against Merthyr Town in the re-arrangement of the abandoned game earlier in the season due to the injury of our player Jake Peck. We are making this a “pay whatever you want’ entrance fee, so again, your support will be most welcome. We are in communication with Merthyr about potentially moving this game back to Wednesday night so please keep an eye on our website & social media, this would be with a view to making sure the game is played this week and giving the pitch an extra day of milder temperatures to thaw out.
I am sad to report this week that lifelong supporter of the club, Reginald Sear, passed away just short of his 86th birthday. The funeral has been arranged for Monday 13th February at 10am at Amersham Crematorium with the wake following at The Chess Suite. The thoughts of all of us at Chesham United are with Reginald’s family.
We have had a number of recent meetings to put the next stage of the pre-planning application into the council. As mentioned previously, the original draft initiated some questions that we need to address as part of our second submission – these are all queries that we are confident of addressing and it is a matter of getting all of our ducks in a row to ensure that the submission deals with any concerns and accurately reflects our vision for the future of the club. Believe me, I am as frustrated as you as to how long it all takes, but things are happening.
Elsewhere the plans for the Race Night are coming together, we have now sold all 100 initial tickets for the event from within the club, which was the intention as we look to develop the One Chesham United ethos.
We have a board meeting next week in which we will be discussing a presentation on the theme of One Club and how we take that forward – turning it onto actions rather than words.
Enjoy your weekend and hopefully see you during the week
Peter Brown
