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WEEKLY BULLETIN – 17TH MAY

8

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEBBY
Congratulations to our captain Dan Webb who celebrated his 30th birthday on Friday. I phoned him to wish him a happy birthday and he agreed to do an article for the website in which he will give his views on life under lockdown as a non-league footballer. It should be a fascinating read and will hopefully go online towards the end of next week.

PLAUDITS FOR OUR PROGRAMME
Congratulations to our programme editor Mick Docking. The Soccer Club Swap Shop have released their respected annual programme awards, with the Hitchin Town FC programme coming 25th across the country and second in our division narrowly behind Stourbridge. Mick puts hours of effort in to producing our programme and I know just what a thankless task it is. Fixtures often change at short notice and he is often forced to produce double issue programmes covering games on Saturday and Monday. Quite a few games were postponed this season meaning hours of work by Mick never reaching an audience.

Mick’s programme deserves the honour of being considered second best in the league. He never takes the easy route of just repeating information already seen elsewhere and presents interesting and sometimes unusual articles that make his programme far more readable than the typical non-league programme – well done Mick!

COLLEGE PROGRAMME
I mentioned last week that the college students were having an Instagram work out run by ex-student Brodie Couzens. After this took place there was a question and answer session with ex-Canary Will Wright who is currently at Dagenham. This week the Instagram work out will be followed by a question and answer session with another ex-Canary Kane Smith who is playing now for Boreham Wood.

It is good for our current students to speak to past college graduates who have proved you can go on to progress through the various football levels and how playing for Hitchin can lead to further progression.

ATTENDANCES
We finished ninth in the Southern League Central division average attendance table with an average of 338. Bromsgrove finished top with 982 followed by Tamworth 645 and Stourbridge 642. St Ives finished bottom with 181 followed by Biggleswade 205 and Leiston 214.

Finishing ninth is a good performance considering we struggled in the League and were close to the relegation zone most of the season. We also suffered with losing a number of Saturday games and often playing in really bad weather conditions. All in all I must thank our supporters for their great loyalty despite it being a challenging season and our average attendance was still better than Royston who finished third in the table.

STEVE KIMBERLEY
Our social club joint manager Steve Kimberley continues his recovery from Coronavirus. I spoke to him on Friday and he felt about the same as the previous week proving full recovery does not happen quickly. Boredom is a feature for Steve as he is still confined to home and just manages to walk in his garden. He has an x-ray on Monday and hopes to learn more from that.

MARK BURKE CHRONICLES
Mark and myself have started work on part 3 which we hope to complete in the coming week. I had an email from our ex-keeper Tony Luff after he read part 2 last week and I thought you might like to see what he said:

Hi Roy, Great read great memories cannot wait for next one, I loved that time of my life and that brought the great affection I have for the Canaries and all the people and supporters of the club, I can’t tell you what that means to me , great memories. I love catching up with you all its like I have never been away. All my very best, Tony

GROUND REPORT BY STEVE BARKER
Unfortunately the work due to start on the pitch was delayed from Tuesday until Friday (15th).

This year work commenced with the seed being drilled into the surface and this seed was coated in fertiliser – I’ve never seen that before!

Following that, 60 tons of sport sand was spread on the pitch to dress the surface which fills all the indents caused by all the games played.

Now comes the awesome verti drain machine that puts thousands of holes 180mm deep to open up and relieve compaction and assist draining.

Finally the surface is drag matted to complete the work.

Germination sheets are put down in goal areas and the linesmen runs to protect from pigeons and irrigation then commences.

Some photos and videos are supplied that will give fans some Insight into the work that’s been done which I hope is found interesting.

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VENTI DRAIN IN ACTION

DONATIONS
We have already had twenty different individuals who have donated to the club and this has been very much appreciated. We are now at the time of the year when we would normally hope to be generating good revenue from the social club with events like the Cheese and Cider festival to look forward to. But at the moment that income stream has completely stopped so our cashflow is taking a massive hit. Any donation is much appreciated to help ensure we come through the pandemic in as strong a position as possible. Donations can be made by clicking here.

BY ROY IZZARD