To all Between the Sticks keepers, mums, dads, and grandparents.
Firstly, I am sorry for the lack of newsletters recently - put it down
to the summer weather, granny duties and increasing old age.
Well done to the keepers who kept going through the summer - we know it
was difficult for many of you because of us having to cancel Thursday sessions
for a short time due to the increasing work commitments and enforced FA courses
of our very successful coaches, three of whom achieved promotions last season.
I have finally managed to put together the achievements of our keepers
last season and an extremely impressive list it is. I hope I have not forgotten anyone - if I
have please let us know.
As you are probably now aware, we are discontinuing our 5 weeks in
advance discounted payments. The reason
for this is that I find it extremely difficult to charge keepers for sessions
which they are, through possibly no fault of their own, unable to attend. Neil and Robbie agreed to my request to
discontinue this form of payment - apologies to those who preferred to pay in
advance. (I don’t think I would make a
very good business woman do you???)
We, at BTS, have just about managed to avoid any price increases for some years now, despite moving to the considerably more expensive 3G pitches and the reduced numbers during the holiday period. If you all keep supporting us we will aim to avoid any price increase for as long as possible. Remember - when you come home from school or work and it is cold and wet and you decide not to bother to come, we are still there for you and still having to pay the coaches and rent for the pitch. So please help us to keep our prices as they are by continuing to support us.
One disadvantage of our system of ‘pay on the day’ is, as we have
mentioned before, that we have no idea how many keepers are going to turn up on
the night. We, for the majority of the
time, have sufficient coaches to cope with however many of you turn up, but
every now and again, as occurred on Monday, we are surprised (but delighted) by
the numbers. I can assure you that next
week we will have the extra coach needed to avoid the slightly larger than
normal group sizes.
We do not want to introduce the system adopted by most other clubs of
paying for a half term or term in advance so hope you understand that
occasionally we are caught out.
In the near future I will no longer be at BTS on Thursday evenings -
Julie, Robbies better half - is taking over from me. I will still, however be there on
Mondays. For those of you who only come
on Thursday, thanks for all your friendship and for your patience when I have
my ‘senior moments’ !!!
As always, thank you all for your continued efforts. You must all be doing something good because
we are frequently receiving great ’feedback’ from clubs and managers.
All the very best for the new season.
Jenny - Neil - Robbie - Martin - Nick - Gaz - Dave.