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TOWNFIELD COMMUNITY DAY

Vicki England

Too much time on my hands
1874 Official
5
Jul 31, 2013
1,697
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There's been a few 'should have beens' recently, but today should have been a wonderful community day at the ground, run in conjunction with Barnton Juniors and Barnton FC.

What would have been fantastic for us, was to have seen so many of our former players back with the green on. They jumped at the chance to be involved and that shows how the club still has a place in their hearts. That also goes for Streety, who was looking forward to putting his kit back on to help from the touchline. He will always remain 74 and will keep involved to rearrange this.

For those who don't have the Newsletter, here's what we said.....


As well as the football season coming to an end because of the serious national situation we find ourselves in, a Community Day that we were planning with Barnton has also had to be called off. This should have taken place tomorrow however we are not ‘null and voiding’ this, we’ll resume our plans when it is safe to do so.

We were approached a few months ago by Dave Bryning, who is involved with Barnton Juniors. Last year, the Juniors held a fantastic fundraising day for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and it proved to be very successful, with hundreds of people attending and significant funds being raised.

Dave had arranged the event, after one of his family members had benefitted from Alder Hey’s care and he and his family wanted to show their appreciation. Dave asked whether we would be interested in taking part in the next one as a ‘Legends day’ where some famous names from 1874, would play the same from Barnton. He had already sounded out Michael Van Brandon, who said he would definitely take part and it’s fair to say that we jumped at the chance!

As everyone will recall, we ran a couple of excellent community days when at the Barton Stadium and it was something that we were interested in doing last season, involving former players, but sadly this didn’t happen. So when Dave told us of his plans, we were delighted to have been asked to work together with Barnton and we quickly set about sorting things from our end, which included games with our Junior teams, the Legends game and activities off the field too.

First job, after letting Bow & Goodie know that they may get some game time, was to contact Ian Street. Streety had been on standby to help previously and when we told him about the Community Day, he agreed to manage the team. Let’s be honest, he has some good experience at it! He set about contacting former players to ask whether they would play, and the response was fantastic. Every ‘legend’ that he messaged said they would like to pull the green shirt on again, which was terrific. There were only two that couldn’t be involved, and that was because they had moved out of the area.

Streety had set up a WhatsApp group and he said that the banter and chatter, was electric. The lads were looking forward to it and were even talking about training sessions before the day. This was led by Mr Neil Chappell, yes no day would be complete without Chappie pulling on the number 6 shirt again! Plans were all going well, until Covid-19 hit. Despite the disappointment that this is no longer happening tomorrow, Ian has sent the message below.

Hi all. Long-time no speak, hope everyone is ok and keeping themselves safe in this current crazy situation we all find ourselves in.

I wanted to pen a few lines for the newsletter about what was going to happen with the planned Community Day in conjunction with Barnton FC on the 9th May.

To say that the players that were going to be involved and myself are disappointed at the enforced postponement of the day is an understatement and with the added bonus of the great cause of charitable donations to Alder Hey hospital being the main loss, makes it even more sad.

We have tried a couple of times in the past few seasons to arrange the day but for various reasons circumstances have prevented it so far, no doubt efforts will still continue to stage it again.

A day of fun and 1874 Legends football would have been an absolute pleasure to be involved in, virtually everyone that I asked to take part had no hesitation in saying yes, which just shows how much high regard the club is held in by all the players that have been lucky enough to represent the club. The only lads not able to commit being Matty Ward who now lives in New Zealand and Matt Beadle who has moved back down south, both were gutted to not be able to make the day.

It would have been good to see the likes of Mike Brandon, Matt Conkie, Adam Foy, Danny Thomas, Ryan Stewart, Paul Connor, Mike Aston, Kyle Riley, Neil Chappell, to name just a few, back in the green shirt again, it would also have been interesting to see how many minutes current gaffa Paul Bowyer had in those old legs.

I think probably the busiest person in a changing room full of players that ‘hadn’t kicked a ball properly’ for a while was going to be resident physio Phil Lea who I’m sure would have needed extra bandages and more ice than was needed to sink the Titanic.

So it’s fingers crossed that the day can eventually be rearranged for a later date and we can all get together again but for now, stay safe, look after loved ones and keep supporting the team the best you can.

Onwards and upwards. Streety.


So disappointment for Barnton and for us because of the postponement and sadness that we couldn’t raise funds for the Hospital, especially during these difficult times but we wanted you all to know about the exciting day that will be rearranged and hope that you’ll all be there when it is.
 
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