Bob's Weekly Newsletter - 25/08/08

Football this week starts on Tuesday night in the John O’Hara cup at home to Peacehaven, kick off 7.30 pm. Then it’s an 18s game on Wednesday evening against Whitehawk youth, then on Friday night the reserves play away to Whitehawk - check the web site for ko time. On Saturday the first team travel to Crowborough in the FA Cup, ko 3pm.
A big thank you to Mickey Farmer and Malc Sowter who stood in and took our reserves to Hastings Utd. Hey, we may have lost the game 2-0 but if you knew the problems we had across two sides with a total of 11 (yes eleven) players unavailable, and we played many new first year players, we did really well. Steve Frost’s report is on the web site and I ask that you read it to have a good insight to the trials and tribulations of the day. Well done to everyone. We’ll be ok in the Sussex County Premier Reserve League with this kind of motivated people behind it. Well done everyone involved.
The first eleven played at home and moved into joint top position with St Francis Rangers after defeating East Preston 6-0. East Preston came without Danny Mac who I think they could have done with to be honest. I spoke to their coach and he told me that they had lost around 8 players so no one expected them to do well this season, but with a young side trying to play football, they hoped to get somewhere. 8 players gone, young side coming through….. We wish them well.
I said earlier about the web site and I want to mention it again. Some football web sites are crap, lets face it. I went on one the other day and it hadn’t been updated for around 12 months. Our web site, I gotta say, is brilliant. Its run by Malcolm Crouch who is a great guy and is one of the many unsung heroes of Ringmer FC. It has everything on there from results, fixtures, news, a forum for your views and a fantastic photo section. Malc’s latest addition is a video trailer set against pictures taken from the Rye game. Get on there and see how cool it is. www.ringmerfc.co.uk
I have received many e mails asking for my take on the statement made by the Board of Directors to the Press. I have no comment other than I now look forward to any statement that is positive and informative. If we’re gonna do our washing in public then can we at least occasionally put one out with that message. Keep talking people - every day if necessary.
See you on Tuesday night, home to Peacehaven.

County League Round Up 24/08

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County League: Ringmer's kids hit six
4:56pm Sunday 24th August 2008
By Bruce Talbot »
Joint manager Steve Oliver believes there is more to come from his high-flying Ringmer kids.
The Blues maintained their unbeaten start to the campaign by thrashing East Preston 6-0 and are locked at the top of the table with St Francis.
Joe Dryer (2), Sam Sowter, Ryan MacMillan, Kieran Patel and an own goal were Ringmer’s scorers and the game was over as a contest at half-time when they led 4-0.
Oliver, pictured, said: “We have got great faith in our young players and we’re absolutely chuffed with the start we’ve made.
“When we are allowed to pass the ball and play we will cause teams lots of problems. On Saturday we retained possession well and took our chances.
“The start we've made has given the boys lots of confidence and I still think we can improve.”

BLUES LEGAL ACTION?

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THE Directors of Ringmer Football Club have threatened its own trustees with legal action in an attempt to seize ownership of the club's Caburn ground.
Following months of discord, which climaxed earlier in the summer when chairman Richard Soan, manager Steve Johnson and most of the first team playing squad all dramatically quit the club, the board this week released a statement threatening a "legal
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remedy" to resolve a quarrel over the ownership of the ground. The Directors want the trustees, led by club stalwart Stan Williams, to hand over the deeds to the ground in order to consolidate a bank loan.The Board claim the bank will call in an existing loan if the deeds are not handed over, thus jeapordising the future of the club.However, the trustees fear the ownership of the ground could be seized by the bank if any such handover took place.

FA CUP Ringmer v Rye Utd FA.Com

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Ringmer produced a battling performance with ten men to hold off Rye United and record a 4-3 win after extra-time.
Kieran Patel gave Ringmer the lead after 16 minutes and David Altendorf doubled the advantage 29 minutes in. The game looked to be wrapped up five minutes later as Altendorf hit his second but there was much drama still to be had at the Caburn Ground.
Just before the break there was a flurry of activity. Ringmer goalkeeper, Jack Stern, produced a remarkable penalty save, Joe Dryer got sent off for the home side and Steve Johnson sparked Rye’s fight back with their first goal.

FA Cup: Ringmer face ex-boss in next round

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Ringmer will face their former manager in the next round of the FA Cup after their ten men edged past Rye United. The Blues needed extra time to see off their division two opponents but the reward is a trip to Ryman League new boys Crowborough in the preliminary round. Steve Johnson quit Ringmer in the summer and subsequently became joint manager at Crowborough. New Ringmer joint manager Bob Munnery saw his side squander a three-goal lead after having Joe Dryer sent off in the first half only for Craig Brown to score the winner in the first half of extra time. Kieran Patel and Dave Altendorff (two) put the Blues in control only for Rye to hit back through Johnson (two) and Phillips. Munnery joked: “It was a great game for the spectators but after five years of giving up smoking it made me want to start again.” The game went to extra time at the Football Association’s request as Rye are currently unable to use their home match.

18/08/08 Weekly Newsletter

Our FA Cup progression was ensured with an exciting win against Rye on Saturday. Having established a 3-0 lead, a player was sent off for a foul in the first half. This gave Rye the impetus to stage a comeback and comeback they did using the extra man. They fought to hold on after we changed our system to 4-3-2 and the game moved into extra time. Extra time was necessary as it was imposed by the FA as Rye did not have a ground available.In extra time we scored the winner in the first period and ran the game out to our advantage. Although Rye were unlucky in the last few moments, the game overall was Ringmer's to be honest and the young side moved into the next round where they will come up against the tough opposition, Steve Johnson's Crowboro. The winners receiving £1500.
Midweek we went to the Oval in Eastbourne to play the much-fancied Eastbourne United and endured a bumpy pitch together with 500 mile an hour winds. A proverbial game of two halves this one with the home side scoring in the opening three minutes of play. We held on and went in the solitary goal down and after a half time chat and a slight re-configuration, we went into the second half full of optimism. To our credit we resisted the urge to use the long ball approach and continued to play our own way. This proved to be successful and we not only equalised but we took the winning goal too and went home with three points and fifth position in the league.
I started this season by saying that I felt that a lot of people hoped that we’d do well but I now have the distinct feeling that some people are hoping we fail. Perhaps they view us as a side that SHOULD fail because they think that we don’t have the right to be successful as we’ve had our own well-publicised problems. Its our job to stay focused on winning and playing good football.
Our reserves start their league programme on Saturday away to Hastings Utd reserves. We have managed to secure the services of a new reserve manager, although I will refrain from naming him as I’m still to cross the T’s and dot the I’s on the appointment. One thing I’m certain of though is that we’ll have a guest coach/manager doing the job Saturday as our appointed manager is on holiday until the first week in September. If you’re involved with the reserves be patient on this front and be supportive. Its gonna be a tough test for our young reserves this term with the side having an average age of 17.
Football this week goes like this - on Wednesday our reserves/18s play Eastbourne Town 18s/reserves. On Thursday the 18s play Pease Pottage and on Saturday our front side play East Preston in the SCL division one. All these games are at home.
See you at the first game, Wednesday evening 7.30 pm ko, against Dave Jenkins’ Eastbourne Town.

BOB'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 10/08/08

One of the most important things about writing a Newsletter is to allow people to have a right to reply. Not this Newsletter though, ha! Only kidding. Richard Soan has written to me and if you receive this letter via e-mail you’ll get it as an attachment. If you get it through the post, its enclosed. If anyone has a view or an inclusion, please send your admission through by next Sunday.
Football this week goes like this - on Tuesday the first team play away to Eastbourne United at the Oval, 7.45pm ko. The meet is 6.30pm there and we’re leaving the club at 6pm sharp. Call Deb if you need a lift. On Thursday our reserves/18s mix play at home against Eastbourne Town, 7.30pm ko. You’ll be notified of your inclusion in either game.
Strangely, the club’s booking with Ringmer College ended last week meaning that we now train at the ground. Fortunately we have privately arranged training sessions at Falmer, but they start in early September on Tuesday nights. So until then we’ll work it out at the Caburn. When September gets here we’ll all do Tuesday nights at Falmer then Thursday nights at the ground (weather permitting). I’ll be speaking to our grounds people to see if we can actually make the perimeter area into a more playable surface for training aspects and less like a farmers field. I think with a bit of TLC we can do something with it. Anyhoo, 2 games this week so no training.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave you’ll know our season started on Saturday and I aint gonna bang on about the win. I thought we played ok but Shoreham weren’t at their best and they’ll probably feel they did enough to get something from the game. I guess they did get something - a player sent off - but so did we. Still it was important to get a good start in terms of the result and we got it. Irrespective of that though, I thought our attitude and application was brilliant. Well done to everyone who contributed to the success of the day.
We have a new first team sponsor in Harvey Self Drive and their Managing Director is Michelle Marshall. I am hoping that Shell will come to some home games and I know we can count on her continued support through this season. Shell lives in Ringmer and its great to have someone in the village as a first team sponsor.
Next Saturday we play Rye in the first round of the FA Cup. Unusually, the FA have asked that we play extra time in this first game, should the scores be level after 90 minutes, as Rye’s ground is not ready to be used yet and they hope that will prevent a replay. If there is to be a replay, it’ll be at the Caburn once more on the following Tuesday.
See you all at Eastbourne on Tuesday night.

BOB'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER - 03/08/08

It's quite common to have football issues discussed in different circles to the politics in a football club and some would say it becomes complicated when politics are discussed pitch-side - sometimes, arguably by people who may be mis-informed. Such is the case at Ringmer FC unfortunately with people talking about the current state of affairs at our club.

Lets have some clarity and lets be honest with each other. If the Directors’ and the Trustees’ would sit around the table and sort things out we could move forward. I like Richard Soan. I admire all he’s done for your Club. I like Stan Williams too. This is a man standing up for what’s right in his eyes. He gave his word to the fella who the pitch was purchased from that it wouldn’t be lost. I can only imagine that at one time they got on a lot better. The trouble is this - nothing is happening, Richard, whilst still a Director, will not pro-actively work with the club and will not (in my view) do a single thing to either ensure the security or on-going running of the club. Stan seems happy to let things run on and see where this leads us with what could mean disastrous consequences. Now these people will argue about the ownership of the pitch, which means effectively the club, the truth is that the MEMBERS own the club. All the people that think they’re in control are voted on/off to their respective positions and one now asks whether its time to call a MEMBERS meeting to either get everyone into gear or vote people on or off so we can get this football club back on track. We had enough people turn up to air their views when it was head-on and now I think its time for people to say “Ok, lets sit down with a cup of coffee and lets chat about the years’ of good times we’ve (you’ve) had and lets work this out”. Lets remember, on the horizon we have VAT payments and Health inspections to consider, to say nothing, frankly, of the very poor position we have put Trudy in - always uncertain if her employment is continuing.

On the football side (which apart from cleaning dressing rooms, organising officials, cutting grass, getting rid of skips, now watering pitches through August, washing kit, calling players, putting kit out before games, and clearing kit up after) its going ok. We need a reserve manager or we need to pull our 18s manager, Kev Wood, forward to do the ressies which will leave me and Louis to do the 18s I guess. I see on the Nomad site (which reminds me of a footballing equivalent to train spotting or those weirdo’s you see at the airport waiting for planes to crash) that they’ve all agreed that not only will we be relegated but we’ll be last. I love it when people make statements like that without any knowledge of the squad we’re putting together. Lets wait and see huh? Lets get out there and play and compete.
I’ll be glad when it starts and we can leave this other crap behind, albeit for an hour and a half. The last first team friendly is on Tuesday night 7.30 ko against Peacehaven. Come up and shake my hand will you? Directors and Trustees, get off your high horse and come to the football. We’re all getting bored with these playground antics.
Lets be allies together. Trustees, Directors and us ordinary people, its not too late but we’ve got to act now people.