As I write these notes the sky is filled with rain once again (when is Spring finally going to arrive?), but hopefully we should be hosting our scheduled league match with Yate Town at The Meadow tomorrow (Saturday). A huge credit to our groundsman, Craig Ringsell, who has done another magnificent job looking after our pitch this season, despite a huge amount of games taking place on it, including Aylesbury United and our own Ladies team. The pitch has been in excellent condition throughout the season and has been a big help in our quest for the play-offs.
Despite being a wet week, on Tuesday night we showed that we are capable of competing with anyone in this league as we restricted the league leaders, Weston-super-Mare to one speculative shot. Unfortunately that one shot hit the back of the net and we were pinned back for a 1-1 draw, which on paper is a good result, but does mean that we have now just won one of our last ten matches. Not the form we are looking for at this crucial stage of the season and it is important that we start picking up three points to secure our play-off position, sooner rather than later.
As we move into our final few home games of the season I must say another very special thank you, this time to Paul Campion who is standing down from his role of manning the matchday office and calculating the turnstile takings. After fifteen years in the voluntary job, Paul is taking a well-deserved break with the Good Friday match against Dorchester Town being his last in the role. Paul will still remain very much a part of the club and continue to help out around the boardroom on a matchday, where he remains very much welcome as a Life Vice-President of the club.
This does of course mean that we are on the lookout for a replacement to take on this role for the next fifteen years now…or for next season for starters. We have some fantastic volunteers working the turnstiles and selling the programmes, if you would like to be a part of that team by manning the office and taking responsibility of handling and counting cash, please do get in touch, chairman@cheshamunited.co.uk.
As mentioned last week, we are also on the lookout for a caterer to provide food for the players and boardroom on a matchday. This is a role that I have temporarily taken on myself, but to be honest, I could really do with finding a replacement as soon as possible. If interested, please contact me, come along and see what we do, what facilities we have and how much we can afford to pay for the job. It would be much appreciated.
Away from the field I must commend our commercial team who are doing a stupendous job of generating income and attracting sponsorship for the club on a scale that we have not seen for many years here at Chesham. That is of course made easier by the part everyone at the club plays in creating a community asset that sponsors want to be associated with, including the often unsung efforts of those involved in running our ladies and youth set-up.
On that note I would like to say a special thank you to tomorrow’s match sponsors and special guests, Bridgeport Forest Products – their support is hugely appreciated. We are very proud of our football club and sometimes when you live and breathe it everyday you forget what a wonderful asset it is to the town and we should be looking to share this with more businesses and the wider community, which is why events like the Alex Horne Comedy Football Match next month is so important to us. It is not just about the money it generates for the club and our chosen charities (over 1,400 tickets sold so far), but it brings new faces through the turnstiles.
I am delighted to say that tickets for our charity choir concert are selling fast. We are very privileged to have the legendary Treorchy Male Choir visiting Chesham to perform at St Mary’s Church on Saturday 17th June. We are restricted to 250 tickets, priced at £25 each with all profits going to our charity partner Bucks Mind. Tickets are available from here.
In recent notes you will have seen me mention the new ANP cameras we have installed in the car park to address the improper use of the area we have witnessed in recent months. In doing so I jokingly mentioned that if your car is uninsured or does not have an MOT ticket then you might want to leave it at home. Just to clarify any doubt, I am not condoning driving around in cars without an MOT or insurance, I was merely trying to make a light-hearted point about how great the cameras are in a way that might grab more attention. Apologies if anyone took that the wrong way. What I should perhaps have said is that the cameras look your reg up against a database and can tell if you are uninsured or have not MOT. Full stop.
A quick reminder about 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 1,450 tickets for the event! We will very shortly start announcing some of the players taking part in the match – watch this space. If you don’t want to miss out on this fun-packed day, buy your tickets here.
Thank you as always for your support, I hope to see many of you at The Meadow tomorrow.
Peter Brown, Chairman
