First of all I’d like to say thanks to all the boys for their effort through this season. It’s been my first season running the team and it’s been quite hard work but enjoyable too. Getting a team together each week has been a real struggle and our division has been a shambles. We lost 4 teams due to the gulf between the top 3 and the rest, and we’ve been the only ‘losing team’ not to fold, which is down to the boys who have played regularly despite the poor results. So thank you.
Due to the facts above, I was concerned about next season and the fact that 4 teams have dropped out, and spoke to the League Secretary to make sure that we would be dropping back down a division and be playing more competitively like our first 2 seasons. The past 2 seasons up the top have been hard going, even more so this year as we lost a few good players.
I was ensured we’d be relegated but then I came up with an idea – the fact that the Bush have literally flown through the bottom division and are looking to come back up got me thinking they would be in the same position as we’ve been, as they are no better than us. So, I proposed to the League that we scrap the 2 divisions and merge into 1 big division. This way, everyone will get to play each other, there’ll be more games and it will be more competitive each week. This is going to be discussed in the next general meeting on 28 April.
If the above goes ahead, we’ll get to play all the teams around our level and also a chance to challenge the better teams once in a while. They’re also talking about the Cup changing to a mini league then knockout comp (like Champions League) if my 1 division proposal goes ahead.
Changes for next season
One of the toughest things this season, outside of getting a side together, is collecting Subs. The Council are now charging £49.70 for us to hire the pitch (could go up further), and obviously we pay the Ref £15 a game too. So on average, each game is costing us £39.85. With only around 11/12 players showing each week we’re only getting £33/£34.50 towards this which obviously isn’t enough. And that’s if everyone actually pays.
Next season I propose to do away with weekly subs. Instead we’ll all be paying a Registration Fee up front. This will take away the shitty task of collecting subs and also mean the club is secure for the season. Since we’ve started, I have put in over £600 of my own money for league fees and pitch fees (plus our first kit) from the deficit of players not paying. I’ve done this to keep the Vaders going because I love it, but I don’t wanna pay any more if I can help it 🙂
The Reg Fee will be around £35, which is a bargain if you’re used to playing more than 12 games a season (and we’ll be looking at about 25 games if the big league happens). The idea is to also include a brand new shirt with your own squad number in the Fee. You can choose whatever number you like – if more than one person wants the same number, we’ll pick from a hat and then the loser/s will have to choose a different number etc. You will keep the shirt and wash it yourself each week and will wear your own shorts and socks (probably still black). I’m happy for there to be a vote on the new shirt, maybe if we can narrow it down to 3 choices and do a poll.
All this will save us money from not being owed subs and not having to wash a full kit, plus it will sort out who is serious about playing. There’s no doubt we need to recruit some new players and I’m going to be trying my best to do that over the summer. If you know of anyone who’d like to play then give them my number please.
Another thing we will want you to do in order to cover all our fees through the season, is to sell some raffle tickets. I’ve got some great raffle prizes lined up and will sort out the tickets in the coming weeks so you’ll have all summer to sell them. All you’d need to do is sell 20 tickets at £1 each and this will cover the fees comfortably. Obviously if you can sell more, that would be great. We can put the extra cash towards new match balls and water bottles etc.
And whoever is voted Cock of the Week will sell a footy rutter/scratch card to pay for the Ref the following week. You could probably do this on the day of the game in the pub.
I’d like to bring back training again. We planned to do that this year but it’s been hard with me moving to Porthcawl and the low numbers turning up for games. We should be having Season Presentations again too but lack of funds has stopped us.
New base
Me and Rob have had a quick meeting with Richard from the Welly, and it looks like this will be our new base from next season. He will lay on food and we can have exclusive access to the sports bar bit upstairs if we like. There’s Sky and BT Sport for footy etc so it would be great to get the social side of the Vaders back after every game. I know a lot of us have families to get back to and some have a fair distance to get back home etc, but it would be great if everyone could go back for 1 pint/drink at least. I’m looking into sorting beer tokens for us so everyone can have a free drink or two if we win.
Tour
With the above social point in mind, what does everyone think about tour? I think it would be good to organise something again for the boys. Either just a weekend away as normal or maybe try and organise a game against another Sunday League team up in England or Scotland and go out on the piss with them afterwards. I’m open to suggestions.
Finally
All the above is of course depending on how the majority feels and I’m happy for any suggestions etc. I’m just trying to get the best scenario for everyone and the club. We’ve only been going 4 seasons and the last 2 especially have been very tough but hopefully next season will be much more enjoyable. We’ve done great to get this far and I’m looking forward to a lot more seasons playing for the Vaders
So let me know what you think, when you’ve had time to read my book 🙂
Cheers
Rich
