Tuesday 31 August 2010

Chawton to Play in Aldershot League.

Chawton Athletic have been accepted into the Aldershot and District Sunday Football League and have been placed in the newly formed Division 6.

Due to the influx of teams from the defunct Farnham League, the ADSFL have created the new division for most of the new teams.  The League has been very helpful in accommodating Athletic at what is pretty short notice.  That said, the Club must now act fast to ensure we have enough players signed on before the first match.

Although the fixtures are not yet known, the expected first match is on Sunday 12th September.  Signing on is more complicated than the FDSL, as each player must also provide two passport-sized photos.  With this in mind, it would be very helpful if everybody could come along to training this Thursday (7pm at the Anstey Playing Fields) with the aforementioned photos.  Carlos will be bringing his camera if the weather is dry, with a view to getting the required pictures of those without.

Again, training on Thursday is extremely important - otherwise players will have to visit either Marc or Carlos this week to sign on in time, which isn't ideal (but in some cases, unavoidable).  Please contact either of them if you cannot make it!

Sunday 22 August 2010

Chawton Athletic to be Re-Born!

Chawton Athletic Football Club enter a new dawn today, as the Club is brought back from the brink of closure following the sad collapse of the Farnham and District Sunday League.  The new Management Committee would like to thank Matt I and George van Petrie for all their hard work to date, as both have stepped down from the running of the Club.  It is hoped that all they have done so far will not have been in vain.


Current players, Marc Taylor-Penfold and Carl Waterfield, will be taking over where Matt and George have so excellently left off.  The Club is aiming to enter the Aldershot and District Sunday League and plans to do so are hurriedly being put into place.  Details as and when they happen will be on here soon!

Marc is the new Club Secretary and Carl is the Club Treasurer and plans are afoot to appoint a new Club Chairman.  Again, details of that will follow when appropriate.

Training will continue for the foreseeable future at Anstey Playing Fields on Thursdays, starting at 19:00.  Every player, whether new or current are encouraged to attend!
Indeed, it would be advantageous to attend this Thursday, the 26th August, so the new management can update all players with the most recent goings-on!!


Matt I had already put into motion plans to make the Club more official, and joining the Aldershot League means this would be even more important.  With this in mind, the following will hopefully be put into place:

1) The Club should actively seek either further backing from existing sponsors, or obtain an additional sponsor or sponsors.

2) The formation of a Management Committee to oversee decisions that affect the club and to spread the burden.  This will be a minimum of the three main members, and a possible maximum of five people - therefore players will be encouraged to join the Committee to have a say in how the Club will be run, going forward.

3) The creation of a rota of tasks that are required to be carried out on match days.  In the past it is often the same people who help out.  Hopefully all players can help in whichever way they can and make this club a team!

4) The introduction of visible and fair fines system, details to be decided by the Management Committee.  All monies raised will go towards the running of the Club - allowing it run more smoothly and maybe have some trophies come the season-end.

5) The drawing up of a Chawton Athletic Club Rules, as the Club is expected to have a set.  In this will also be details of the fines system, as well as the usual signing on and match fees.  These fees are not expected to change from those already mentioned:  £25 signing on, £5 match fee with £3 for subs on/off.

6) The designing of a Club Badge!  This is currently in its draft stage...

Finally, I am looking into the possibility of having a more detailed website.  It is now possible to add separate pages to the blog, such as Squad Members etc - although it is hoped more detailed playing stats can be recorded too, so your friendly Blogmaster will continue to look into it!

Friday 20 August 2010

Farnham and District Sunday League Division One disbands!

The Farnham and District Sunday league has announced yet another team has withdrawn from the open age Division One and therefore it has become impractical to run this division and therefore it has been disbanded.

Here is the announcement in full from League Chairman Mr Dave Parsells -

"Ladies and Gentlemen,With regret, I have to announce that, following the decision of Lindford F.C. to follow Royal Oak F.C. in disbanding their Open Age team, it will not be practical to run Division One this season. As this competition has run continuously sincethe 1962-3 season, it is a disappointing situation, one with no obvious resolution. The matter is beyond the control of the committee,who apologise to West Liss, and Chawton Athletic, who made early decisions to continue to support the depleted competition. Dave Parsells."

It has come at an ideal time for me at the end of my first season back playing cricket after 6 years, and so with that in mind I have decided to now retire from playing football and to cease my involvement with Chawton Athletic.

The interest that the team seemed to be getting pre-season playing numbers wise was extremely encouraging and I suspest with a little bit of hard work the team can easily survive, I hope for those of you who wish to continue to play football especially for Chawton Athletic that someone steps up to volunteer to run the team.

Matt