Up and running again

Saturday 23rd July - Friendly
Easington United 2 Sculcoates Amateurs 2

At least after all the shenanigans on the programme front, the "new look" side did themselves proud on the pitch.  A well-deserved draw against the Humber Premier League champions but, perhaps more importantly, a superb attitude shown both on and off the field by all involved.  I best stop typing now before I get too excited...

A brief description of events would be - Scully start strong but we have the better chances; on 16mins Charlie commits a foul that would no doubt have resulted in a card in any competitive game - escapes punishment and proceeds to save Lee Benham's penalty; we continue to cause problems for the visitors defence and Sculcoates keeper James Hitchcock comes to the fore, while Gav clips the bar with one exquisite effort; before the break Gav scores while Scully wait for a flag that never comes.

Second half - Danny Drayton soon levels after a defensive lapse; Chaz saves well from Sean Lyons before we begin carving out more chances at the other end - Hitchcock denying Gav twice and Frosty, while Jamie fires just wide; great move on 82mins sees Frosty tee-up Gav for a second; Scully then level through Lyons and Hitchcock saves from young Sam Mac at the death.

Full time - back to pub where I miss out on bread & dripping!

If you want a more detailed account I suggest you look here while a full set of Colin Brammer's match photos can be found here.

As for me, after a couple of decent pints of Tetley Cask and an upbeat post-match chat with the new management, Chairman and Vice Chairman, it was back home to cook and enjoy a bit of Mexican cuisine and the sounds of The Motown Show on Smooth Radio.  Oh yes, I know how to enjoy my Saturday nights...

Programme faults

Not the start to pre-season I was looking for...

I knew everything was going too well.  The usual Friday night panicsurrounding the following day's programme hadn't really materialised; both Andy and myself had been calm, composed and - perhaps more surprisingly - pretty well organised (now there WAS a first!).

Aside from a bit of design work on page 3 (oo-er) the new-look match programme was just about wrapped-up and both of us were happy with the end result.  Of course I'm not going to claim it was all our own work...in fact I've got to say most of it was Lewes FC's work - well, their design ideas at any rate.  But we'd tweaked certain bits to our liking - we're not simple plagiarists you know.

And so with Mrs Slush out for an Indian, the Slushettes away with the fairies and the programme (almost) put to bed, I treated myself to a large glass of Chilean Red and sat down to enjoy Fire In Babylon, the brilliant film account of the glory years of West Indian cricket.  Ooh, and while you've got to say Michael Holding's bowling action ("Whispering Death") was a thing of great beauty, it was still bloody painful to look at the footage of what it did to Brian Close!

I woke up the next morning in fine spirits.  The day had dawned fine, I was in good time to get a hectic Saturday underway and despite the rumoured defections of a few faces from last year, I was in quietly confident mood about the season to come.  Then I got into the office.

One "Security Patch" upgrade on my PC and a dodgy printer later - some two hours in time - I was behind schedule and with only 16 completed programmes to show for my "efforts".  All had an annoying red flash running down the right hand side of certain pages.  My tourettes kicked in big style.

Three hours later - having delivered the Elder Slushette to her dance class and back, and having laid out the kit in preparation for the arrival of the players - I was back in the office to have another bash.  This time I managed 25 copies, 3 of which were "red-free".  They would have to do.  I raced back to the ground - avoiding the Easington Wedding of the Year" which had drawn a small crowd of well-wishers to the Square - hoping the players would offset my darkened demeanour with a performance to savour.  Thankfully, they did.

Dashed!

I should be heading to see this lot at Hull's Fruit tonight...

  

But pressure of deadline date for the first Eastenders programme of the season has scuppered my plans.  I can only hope my finished article is worth it!

No pain no gain

Who's in, who's out come pre-Season?

I've grown to hate certain aspects of the "close season" period from late May to early/mid-July.  It's not so much the fact that there is no football (as a club administrator I'm glad of the rest).  Instead it's the fact that due to our players being non-contract you can never quite be sure just who'll be there at the first session.

As such I was more than a little wary when I set off down to the Farm on an overcast Tuesday evening a fortnight ago for the first meet-up of players since the weekend's announcement of a couple of new faces at management level.

I'd already been tipped off that one, possibly two, of our core squad from last season had been training elsewhere and may not be re-signing this term, while another player had announced via Facebook that he was switching to "kick and clap".  Even among those who were expected to sign-up again for the coming campaign, we already knew of several first night no-shows due to various reasons, from work and holiday to "fitting an alarm system" and "got a plasterer coming round"!  With the decision having been made to restrict training for the first few weeks solely to those likely to be in contention for first team slots, this all left me thinking that the eventual turnout may well match the accompanying conditions. 

Thankfully, this wasn't the case.  

"I won't lie, this is going to hurt you more than it'll hurt me..."

About half Mack's anticipated first team complement were in attendance and despite persistent drizzle during what was a fairly stiff 90-minute session, all appeared to enjoy it and keen to kick-on in the coming weeks. 

Among those present at the first session were new First Team player/coach 'Nicho', back with the club after a couple of years (at Reckitts) and new Reserves player/boss 'Meddy', back with the club after a couple of years (at Withernsea).
A couple of weeks on and things are just about falling into place ahead of the opening pre-season game this Saturday, against HPL champions Sculcoates Amateurs.  The possible loss of two, maybe three, players from last season has been offset by the arrival of a couple of new faces and the anticipated return of a few more, giving Mack something to work with over the remaining three weeks prior to the big kick-off.

"No Mrs Brown, your son's doing fine...he's just blowing a bit..."

We currently have three games lined up ahead of the start of the new CML season.  Following Scully, the East Riding County Juniors make their annual trip to the Humber Riviera on Wednesday week before we meet Hornsea Town on Friday 5th August, hopefully for the Holderness Cup Winners Cup.  I say "hopefully" as there's been a bit-of-a-to-do involving our north Holderness rivals' right to be in the fixture, on account of there has been no Tanton Cup (the normal qualification process) this year.  I won't bore you with any further details...yet!
There should have been a fourth fixture on the calendar but both Grimsby Borough and Scarborough Town have pulled out of the 30th July date.  At time of typing this I'm still waiting to see if Mack has filled the date to his satisfaction.  If not we could always do some more running...

"You shouldn't even see a football before August"

Away from the action, I've been busy working on the new look programme and coordinating the first Eastenders Kit Sponsorship Raffle.
The latter has proved a real bonus.  Over twenty businesses are currently in the hat for next Wednesday's draw, with the first three out gaining a shirt sponsorship deal for the coming campaign.  And thankfully, there's not a "Twydale Turkeys" among them (Hull City supporters of a certain vintage will know what I mean!).
The kit raffle is being carried out in conjunction with Mansfield kit suppliers Hero, to who we are returning some twenty years after we last wore their merchandise.  Of course, this arrangement hasn't met with the approval of all.  "Why can't we have Nike?" has been an oft-repeated question in recent days.  "Because they don't do green & yellow quarters" is the short answer.
To my mind, working with a lesser-known brand name fits in with our rather unfashionable image and anyway, a company that is still going after 25 years in this day and age must be doing something right.
The weekend coming up also sees the second annual Fun Day take place at the Farm.  Again the centrepiece is the "Awd Ezzies" v "Ex-Tigers" match in memory of much-missed former Eastender "Raggy" Hudson.  I've been informed tonight that a certain Mr Windass is on the cards to appear this year, having been forced to drop out last year due to some poxy Master tournament on Sky.  Here's hoping.

Keep on running

With pre-season meetings and another sponsored event just around the corner, the new season is definitely upon us.  It's a busy time down on the Farm...and in some cases a painful one!

A Bridge for the Living

On the 30th anniversary of the Humber Bridge opening, it's apt to give an airing to Dave Lee's excellent short film of the poem Philip Larkin wrote for it...

And of course before the Bridge there was this...

Happy Birthday Humber Bridge!

Bloody penalties!

It isn't just England's men who exit World Cups on penalties.  As this weekend showed, the women can match their male counterparts, while England were also beaten on spot-kicks in the first ever Goodwin Hull & East Yorkshire World Cup of Football...

Didn't get there myself (kids parties, dance rehearsals, you name it) but from Twitter it would sound as if the day proved a success.  Unlike England of course!

Step on

Does the granting of Step 7 Status to the Humber Premier League mean we made a mistake in jumping ship?

Reported confirmation of The FA's rubber-stamping of the CML's new Step 7 "regional" set-up was, understandably, received very favourably in this quarter; appearing as it did to fully vindicate our Club Committee's original 2009 decision to ship-out from the Humber Premier League and move to pastures new.

You can therefore imagine the reaction in these four quarters to reports on various message boards and websites recently, which suggested that the HPL has received similar grading for 2011/12; especially given the higher costs incurred by our CML membership over the past two seasons.

Having moved competitions to supposedly quicken the pace of progress, to be left thinking after two years of escalating expense that we are basically no further on is particularly galling. However, as always with such matters, things are never so simple.

For a start, it would appear that both competitions have actually received "Provisional" Step 7 status. This in effect means that both have 75% of its membership who meet the required criteria and both need to get the remaining 25% membership up to speed by 31st March 2012 to ensure full Step 7 status is eventually granted.

However, whereas both North and South divisions in the CML have gained this accreditation (previously only the Supreme Division boasted Step 7 status) only the Premier Division in the HPL has achieved it; Division 1 remains "below the parapet" as it were.

In addition, the Ground Grading Requirements set out by the CML are more in line with The FA's Category H requirements from 2010/11 and thus geared more towards helping clubs eventually attain Step 6 status, be that in the Northern Counties East League or the East Midlands Counties League.

These requirements are more in tune with our aim to climb as high up the "football ladder" as is possible for a club of our very limited resources.  They are also somewhat higher than the basic Step 7 guidelines issued by the FA last year. These do away with any need for grounds to be enclosed or to have any hard standing (which Low Farm boasts) or covered accommodation for spectators (which Low Farm boasts...of sorts!). The pitch perimeter need only be rope and rail and there is no requirement for fixed entry points. Looking at these guidelines, not only does it suggest a "lowest common denominator" feel but while it is no surprise that the HPL Premier Division achieved Step 7 status, perhaps more tellingly, what does it say about Division 1 that it didn’t?!

At this point I must confess to never having been a fan of the HPL’s second tier. In my view it has achieved little in terms of furthering the development of clubs that couldn’t  have been done by the Premier Division of the East Riding County League. Indeed, given that the champions of the County League have gone on to more than hold their own in HPL Division 1 in recent years (2009/10 County champions Hodgsons took the HPL 1 title last term) there’s an argument to suggest that the standard of competition is as good in the County Premier as it is in the Division it feeds.

So, all things considered, I still think we were right to jump ship.  Having said that, the sooner we get that extra shower head in each of the changing rooms the better...