Can you help your local grassroots football clubs?

Regular readers will know I'm a bit of a football fan. I support two teams. In the Premiership I've been a lifelong Manchester City fan, through thick and thin. However as I can't get up there as often as I'd like, I have always taken an interest in our local lower league teams. In the 60's and 70's my Dads business sponsored Edgware Town FC. 

The advert for MacMetals was on the programme for donkeys years. I developed an affinity for Barnet FC when they played at Underhill. A few beers before at The Mitre, a curry on the High St after. When they moved to The Hive, it never was quite the same. Four years ago I started following Hadley FC, the oldest club playing inthe Borough. I went along at the invite of my nephew, who was writing a blog on local Non League football. I loved it and bought a season ticket. Today I will be going up to tidy up the ground and car park areas and clean up the signage, as the club prepares for the new season. The club runs on the grace of volunteers. If you can spare an hour or two today or tomorrow, please get in touch. The more people help, the quicker it gets done. Contact details here - https://hadleyfc.co.uk/contact/index.html - Please give an hour or two if you can.

On Tuesday I went down for my first game of the new season, a cracking pre season friendly against Edgware and Kingsbury FC (the club Edgware Town became when they moved from the Old White Lion Ground). They play at Silver Jubilee Park. I met up with a couple of mates, one of whom is the club secretary at Edgware. 

@EdgwareFC vs @hadleyfc pre season friendly - 2-1 at mo. Great to be back at grassroots Footie. Football, beer & mates. pic.twitter.com/2EwUAG39vf

— Roger Tichborne/Rog T (@Barneteye) July 12, 2022

He asked me to put a call out. The club needs sponsors and volunteers. Specifically they need people to help in the following areas.

Turnstiles 

Hospitality 

General stewards

Local grassroots clubs do amazing work. For many local youngsters, clubs like Arsenal, Spurs etc seem to be mythical entities that they would only play for in their dreams. Local non league clubs provide a realistic opportunity to play at a decent level. They have yout schemes and any half decent players have a chance if they work hard. Some players including Stuart Pearce and Ian Wright started in Non League and ended up playing for England and for Premiership clubs. 

You can contact Edgware Town here - http://www.edgwaretownfc.co.uk/index.php/contact-us

Another great local club are Hendon FC. They are playing an Arsenal XI tomorrow at Silver Jubilee Park.  Why not nip along if you fancy some great football on your doorstep.

Council Cabinet Member Sachin Rajput declares One Barnet outsourcing flawed !

I have just returned from the Barnet Council Cabinet meeting. During a long answer about closure of day centres, Councillor Sachin Rajput took time out to have a swipe at the former Labour adminstration of Barnet, who signed a ten year contract with Freemantle for provision of day centres and care homes. He stated that long ten year contracts are inflexible and not suited to the fast changing modern world.

Hello, earth calling councillor Rajput. You are a member of the Conservative cabinet that is hoping to sign up for the ten year long, one billion pound One Barnet Contract. That is TWENTY times bigger than the Freemantle contract.

After the meeting, the Council Leader rushed around to engage Councillor Rajput in conversation. One can only ponder what they were discussing.

I agree with Councillor Rajput. Ten year contracts are too long, too restrictive and are not suited to the modern, changing world. We will have some footage to show you of this in the not too distant future. This blog has been criticised for saying that Rajput seems to be one of the saner and more competent members of the cabinet. Whilst he is not Mother Theresa, he certainly seems able to see the basic problems with the council.

Now we only have the other ten of them to go and we'll get the whole fiasco dropped.

Later on at Cabinet Resources, we had the sight of Jack Cohen reducing the committee to silence, as he pointed out why the sale of Hendon Football Club had proceeded. Jack did something almost unique for a Barnet Councillor. He did his homework. The Leader looked deeply troubled. When faced with compelling evidence that they were going to make a lousy decision, the Cabinet ground to a halt. I have never seen anything like it. Jeff Lustig and Nick Walkley looked like they'd had their testicles slammed in a cupboard door. They were not happy at all. It is quite clear that if Barnet Council proceed with the sale of the football club, there will be a huge legal case and Barnet will lose. It is also clear that they will alienate the local Jewish community who are backing a a bid, which offered more money and didn't breach any rules. There is a clear need for more school places and the school backers have a solid plan. I don't support the closure or moving of any football club from the Borough, but if we are to sell off the ground, then lets at least get the best deal for the taxpayer and if it can improve the quality of local education, even better.

Nobody who witnessed Jack Cohens interjection will be left in any doubt as to the problems with the current preferred bid. We will post a video of it tomorrow. Councillor Hugh Rayner also interjected as head of the committee responsible for reviewing the bid. He stated that he was most unhappy at the attempts to bounce his committee into rubber stamping the bid.

It is fair to say that Cllr's Cohen, Rayner and Rajput tonight all spoke with a degree of common sense, which I have not seen for a long time in Barnet Council. I hope that this is infectious.