END OF AN ERA

After our last game of the season at Redditch this Saturday it will be the end of an era for Hitchin Town FC as our chairman Terry Barratt is stepping down as chairman. He took over on 11th March 1991 so has given an incredible 34 years of loyal service to the club.

He did not have an easy start to his role as chairman. While he had been told there were debts he was led to believe they were in the region of £30,000 but in reality the figure was in to six figures. But Terry did not walk away and stayed to confront the problems. He met the players and advised them that if anyone wished to leave he would not stand in their way but he would ensure the wages would be paid to the end of the season. All the players agreed to stay.

Stability has been the main achievement of Terry’s reign. There have been no major crises and finances have been stabilised. Alongside Andy Melvin, Terry has ensured there is no bank overdraft, VAT and PAYE are paid on time as are all our suppliers. Hitchin Town is now respected as a well run debt free club and Terry deserves credit for this.

Terry also became a director of the Isthmian League for 10 years and then a director of the Southern League for 21 years where he also became chairman. He was very well respected and the clubs I visited all praised the job that Terry did.

The club have continued to improve their facilities during Terry’s time as chairman and Top Field has never looked better. On the field the last two seasons have been very disappointing but we have had exciting FA Cup runs and did reach the play-off final. Terry never attempted to undermine our managers over the years always offering his support where necessary.

Terry has been such a fixture at Hitchin it is hard to think of him not being around. Well I am pleased to say Terry has agreed to take the role of president so we will see plenty of him. I have enjoyed working alongside Terry for all his 34 years and on behalf of all Hitchin Town supporters I would like to say a very big thank you to Terry for his great service.

Taking over from Terry is Paul Sprague. Paul is a relative newcomer to the club having started to visit Top Field regularly in 2017/18. Before long Paul got involved initially providing some help covering social media at games before gradually taking on a more prominent role particularly during the crowd funding campaign where Paul worked closely with Stew and Matt in the social media team to ensure this was a huge success. Shortly after this Paul joined the Management Committee and has subsequently got more and more involved in ensuring the delivery of many initiatives in the last few years including kit, club shop, ground improvements, catering and match day improvements. In November 2023 Paul took on the role of Vice Chairman. I have no doubt Paul will prove to be an excellent successor to Terry so please give him your full support.

Roy Izzard