A huge sense of relief this week. After another frustrating home draw last Saturday, this time against Winchester City, as Chairman you do not become immune to the negativity that can begin to engulf the situation. There were moments when, with ultimate responsibility, I did begin to question whether I have misjudged the situation and I should begin to bow to the pressure to question whether we are on the right path with the right players, the right management…
…Yet the truth of the matter is, we absolutely do have the right set-up, and sometimes you need to ride through the rough times and stick together in the same way as we do when things are going well. The facts speak for themselves. In the four years that our management team have taken over with their own squad, including through the tough covid times when successful looking seasons were abandoned, our playing record is second only to Truro City in our league with a record of winning 65 out of 117 games and drawing 26, losing 26. A fantastic record.
Of course, the other thing that restored my faith was a great 4-0 win over in-form Plymouth Parkway on Tuesday night! It was an excellent performance and a result that has given the whole place a lift. Hopefully we can carry that momentum over to Saturday when we travel to Metropolitan Police in what will be another tough match. For those of you travelling to the game by car, we have a loyal supporter who lives not far from the Met Police ground and he has advised supporters of some traffic roadworks to avoid on the approach to Hampton Court, so the advice is to not go the M3 way and instead use junction 13 of the M25 for Staines and follow signs for Walton on, or even junction 11 through Weybridge. Thanks Mark Lacey – there might be a few supporters willing to buy you a drink when they arrive in exchange for that travel tip!
This week we have also been in discussion about season ticket prices for next season, including looking at options for if we were in the league above next season, look out for these details in the next week or so as we will once again be offering an excellent value Early Bird option with even better value.
As touched on last week, we have had CCTV cameras in operation for a couple of years now which has been very useful, but this week we had additional ANPR cameras installed that now read registration plates and instantly check them against database records to enable us to further secure our car park. I guess that will equally mean that if your car is not fully taxed or have an MOT certificate, you might be best to leave it at home on matchdays!
We have lost one member of the Chesham United team this week. Our chef has resigned which leaves us on the lookout for a matchday cook, if you are interested, or know anyone that might be, please do get in touch. We are also looking for caterers to quote for our next Sportsman’s Dinner. We have taken the decision to push this next dinner, with Alex Horne and Ian Holloway, back to Thursday 14th September for no other reason than we thought we had not left ourselves enough time to properly organise and sell the tickets if we stuck with our original date for next month. Ticket details will be announced shortly, but if you know anyone who would be interested in catering for the event, please let me know, chairman@cheshamunited.co.uk.
One event for which tickets are already on sale is the Alex Horne’s comedy football match which takes place at The Meadow on Saturday 13th May. In short, Alex Horne has persuaded a load of funny people, some other quite famous people and a couple of actual footballers to play a game at Chesham United in the hope of winning his Comedy Football Trophy. There will be football, singing, commentating, new rules, halftime entertainment and extreme levels of exhaustion. It’s a totally unique concept and one that is proving very popular, we have already sold over 1,200 tickets for the event! If you don’t want to miss out on this fun-packed day, buy your tickets here.
Thank you as always for your support, we are at home again on Tuesday night when we play host to table-topping Weston-Super-Mare, it would be great to see you there.
Peter Brown, Chairman
