It has been another crazily busy week for myself and the club, all very exciting and thoroughly enjoyable – I am fully aware that as Chairman that will not always be the case, so allow me to enjoy the good moments whilst I can!
The week included a very privileged visit to 10 Downing Street where I was a guest at a reception for Community Sports Champions, a wonderful day where I got to meet Lucy Frazer, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and discuss sport in our country. I’m not sure how much influence I will have had, but it felt good to be able to explain the views of a non-league club and the difference it would make if the money in the game, primarily the Premier League, was to drip down further to the likes of Chesham United. Whereas £50k is loose change to the top clubs, that sort of money would totally transform a season at a non-league club and enable them to invest more in facilities and community engagement (inevitably some will put it all towards a playing budget, but overall, I would like to think it would be spent wisely). Anyway, good as it was to share my views with an influential politician, I won’t be adding it to our budget for next season just yet.
It was a magical day and I had the chance to meet many inspirational people and enjoy some fine food and minted water – a bit different to boardroom hospitality at non-league football, but we are working on that at Chesham United!
It has been a long time since I have spoken about the desired ground move in my notes. I share your frustration at the pace these things move at. However, we do have a meeting with the Chief Planning Officer at Bucks County Council in a couple of weeks’ time when we will be able to go over our proposal in detail with a focus on any of the areas previously identified as needing more details supplied. I have been receiving some positive comments from senior people within the council and remain hopeful that this project will pick up pace again, but I know I have said that before so will not make any promises, but wanted to let you know that it remains very much a forethought for the Board behind the scenes.
Back at The Meadow, we have put in an application for a one-off ground capacity increase for the Alex Horne Charity Match that will take place again in May. Last year we sold out 3,000 ticket and I am looking to increase that to 4,000 for the day. We know the ground can hold 5,000 comfortably and it is only the costly additional requirements needed to increase the capacity on health & safety grounds that prevents us increasing the capacity on a permanent basis. However, we believe it would be worth doing everything needed for this match.
It will also prove a good test for what we do need to do to extend the increased ground capacity for other games. Pretend I didn’t say this because I really don’t want to tempt fate or count any chickens, but based on our growing attendances and the stunning turn out we had for Maidstone in the FA Cup, who knows what gates we could be looking at next season if we have festive bank holiday local derbies against Slough Town, Hemel Hempstead Town or St Albans City? Now scrub that thought from your memory and let’s focus on the here and now!
Last Saturday was a fantastic 3-0 win over Walton & Hersham and I must publicly pass on my congratulations to our management duo for the perfect game plan that was superbly executed. Earlier in the season we played two very tight games against Walton & Hersham, but at the weekend we were excellent and recorded as comfortable a win as you could ask for. The crowd at this game was fantastic once again, over 800. We are pushing closer and closer to that magical 1,000 mark, something not achieved for league games since the early 1990’s – I really believe we can achieve that this season.
Tomorrow (Saturday) we are away at Winchester City, a banana skin of a fixture against a side that beat us at The Meadow earlier in the season. A big thank you to all those travelling supporters that are planning to make the trip. Our next home game is on Tuesday night, and it is massive, when fellow promotion hopefuls, and dear friends of ours, Merthyr Town come to Chesham for what will be a fantastic night of football – please do come along and give the side your support. We are once again at home next Saturday when we host Swindon Supermarine, could one of these be the game where we top the 1,000 attendance? Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your work colleagues and tell everyone you see, even if you don’t know them, to come along and be a part of Chesham United history.
In other news around the ground, we have the new tannoy system pretty much ready to be installed, but we are looking for some volunteers to help with tacking the wires around the outside of the ground. If you have some spare time and are competent with a drill, hammer and a few nails, I would love to hear from you. Please get in touch at chairman@cheshamunited.co.uk
As well as the excellent performance on the pitch last Saturday, there were other activities around the matchday which were special to me, and I hope you also see them as the club making steps in the right direction. Firstly, we had the unveiling of our new flagpole, which was well-attended. I would like to pass on my special thanks to club chaplain, Edward Bowles-Smith for his wonderful words. At half-time we had the final of our primary school’s penalty-shoot out and it was so good to see all the children in the clubhouse after the match for the presentation and enjoying the occasion. Long after the final whistle they were still at the club, collecting autographs from the players (and I was even asked for the odd autograph myself as the Chairman – at least I don’t think they mistook me for a player!)
I’ll finish with my usual plug for the merchandise that has become such a relevant part of the club since our partnership with Taskmaster. We have sold more replica shirts this season than we would have sold over the past 10-15 years combined, and we now have more merchandise available with bucket hats in stock and beanie hats on order. You can visit the merchandise shop in the clubhouse on matchdays or visit online via the club website.
Thank you for your ongoing support, the positivity around the club could not be achieved without the backing of our brilliant volunteers, supporters and the community at large.
Peter Brown