It has been another relatively quiet week with no midweek game again, although that is probably just as well as the Aylesbury United game played at The Meadow had to be abandoned in midweek due to the fog – Aylesbury currently ground sharing with us at the moment until such a time as they can find a suitable location back in Aylesbury.

We did however enjoy our trip to Wales last weekend, once again the hospitality from our hosts at Merthyr Town was second to none, we were made to fell most welcome and enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining game of football between two very good sides. Even more enjoyable was the 1-0 win that we recorded, an important result with both Truro and Weston-super-Mare above us winning, it really is starting to build up towards a tense final third of the season.

After such a long trip last Saturday you might think we had a home game this weekend, or at least a relatively local tie, but no, we are once again boarding a coach nice and early, this time for a trip to Devon to take on Tiverton Town. It’s another tough game (they all are now) and we appreciate the fantastic effort being made by our supporters to continually make these long journeys, let’s hope we can provide you with another three points to celebrate.

Whilst we might not have a leaky defence on the pitch, off it our facilities manager, Ray Trafford, has been busy fixing no less than nine leaks in our external water works and has replaced some pipework around the ground. The cost of maintaining our current ground continues to escalate, another reason why we are so keen to move to new modern facilities that will be far more sustainable for the club.

On that subject, we are very close to putting in our second Pre-Planning Application to the council following feedback from the first submission, we are just awaiting a letter from Sport England supporting our case, and then we will be good to go with that application. As soon as I have more news, I will let you know.

I was delighted recently to see our kit from the 2019/20 season arrive safely in Africa as part of our ongoing support of the fantastic Kit Aid charity. I know our white home strip that year was not everyone’s favourite, but it has been very well received by the resident of Accra, in Ghana, where it will be given to several local teams within the city to be used as a new kit. Our relationship with Kit Aid stretches back to January 2011 when we became the very first Ambassador club for the charity, since then we have been joined by Stenhousemuir, FC United of Manchester. Marine FC, Stegoata FC, Everton (in the community) FC, FOMO FC, Airdrie Town community and Hibernian Community Foundation. We are very proud to be a part of that select group and will continue support and promote this wonderful organisation.

On the subject of charity, get used to me saying this between now and June, I am delighted to say that tickets for our charity choir concert are now on sale. We are very privileged to have the legendary Treorchy Male Choir visiting Chesham to perform at St Mary’s Church on Saturday 17th June. We are restricted to 250 tickets, priced at £25 each with all proceeds going to our charity partner Bucks Mind. Tickets are available from here.

Thank you for your support

Peter Brown, Chairman