Happier news to start with this week as we offer our congratulations to our Joint Manager, Michael Murray, who finally got married yesterday after two cancellations during the pandemic – we wish you both many happy years ahead.
Whilst most of us have moaned about the weather this past week, our newly spread grass seeds on the pitch have been loving the rainfall that has accompanied sunny spells. The grass seed planted just nineteen days ago has germinated and come through the sand already. There is a huge amount of new grass and is already looking good, by the start of the season I am very confident we will have an excellent playing surface to be proud of. All being well, today it will have had its first small cut and light roll.
As mentioned previously, we are going to have to be much stricter on the level of usage we allow on the main pitch this season and the likelihood is now that we will have just two home pre-season friendlies before the season kicks off, these are currently planned to be against Hemel Hempstead Town on Tuesday 26th July and Wycombe Wanderers on Friday 29th July.
A big thank you to the significant number of people that have taken advantage of the early bird seasonal membership packages, based on feedback we have extended this to the end of the month, 31st May, to give those that get paid on the last day of the month a chance to purchase.
Unlike many clubs, we do not tend to make a lot of noise about player signings because in truth, unless you are putting them on a contract, the league forms are not available to be signed yet and any player announcement can very easily backfire. We have always liked to keep our cards a lot closer to our chest, but I can promise you that the team being put together by our management is very exciting and we will go into the new campaign with hopes and expectations of continuing on from where we left off at the end of last season.
Although the last game of the season win over Wimborne Town seems a long time ago, the football season has not yet completely finished for Chesham United. Our Academy team have made it through to the final of the ESPFA Cup Final where they will take on Runcorn Linnets at Stafford Town FC on Tuesday 14th June, 1pm kick-off. If you happen to be travelling to Wolverhampton to watch England play Hungary that evening, why not make a day of it and call in to this game in the afternoon – your support would be most welcomed!
A big thank you also to those volunteers that have done a cracking job of painting the white lines around the terraces, it is starting to look really good. We are still looking for volunteers to help finish the job as well as painting the goalposts and weeding around the place. We are also looking to replace and paint all the wooden tops on the pitch perimeter so anyone with a small saw and/or electric drill we would love to hear from you – we have the screws and wood available.
The floodlights have been ordered, although we have been advised to expect a delay on the installation as the war in Ukraine and lockdown in Shanghai affects material supplies. I am hopeful that they will be installed by the end of July, but have been advised that this may roll over into August. Either way, we will be starting the season in our new kit, the full reveal of this will follow in the next week or so. For the pre-season friendlies we will be wearing our claret & blue third kit from last season.
On the subject of kit, we will be holding our first Claret Club Draw in the second week of June to announce the name that will appear on the back of the shirt. We have this week received printed copies of our 2022/23 sales and marketing brochure that includes details of the Claret Club amongst other opportunities, these will be distributed and used by the commercial team, a digital version is available from here.
A final reminder that the funeral of our much-loved supporter, Fred Wallis, will take place at the Amersham Crematorium at 3.15pm next Tuesday, 31st May.
Have a great weekend.
Peter Brown, Chairman
