TRAINING BIBS ÂŁ8 each inc. VAT Can have club logo printed Pay by instalments for larger orders, call Mat for details
Call: 0800 8 20 21 22 Email: mcourt@grassrootmedia.com
Contents 2 Grassroot Teamwear Cheap training bibs 4 ESU Scoreboards Good offers for member clubs that need a new cricket scoreboard 5 MD’s Letter 6 Player Fitness with Isaiah Barratt This month Isaiah looks at keeping your players fit during the cold winter months 8 Meadons Insurance Cricket club insurance from Meadons Insurance - piece of mind guaranteed 10 Sports Psychology with David Harrison Get some tips to change the way you think about the game 13 Cricket Coaching with Andrew Beaven Time to look at your scorebooks from 2013... 16 Grassroot Teamwear If your cricket club is looking for new playing shirts you probably won’t be able to find them this cheap anywhere else
18 The Grassroot Print Shop The Grassroot Media Print Shop is a new service to our clubs giving you the chance to make money through designing and producing club merchandise easily 22 Michael’s Trophies Great offers on trophies from Michael’s 23 Colin Smith’s club ideas Colin is back to give you details on some interesting loopholes/ideas 28 easyfundraising.org Easy & cost-free way to raise club funds 30 Twitter Directory See which clubs are where on Twitter – if you’d like to be added talk to Mat 31 The Secret Non-League Footballer This month to Secret Non-League Footballer looks at the issue of match and spot fixing. 35 JMN Sports Great value footballs for both training and match days from JMN Sports (and an exclusive discount code for Grassroot Media member clubs)
Grassroot Media Contacts Twitter @grassrootmedia Facebook.com/grassrootmedia LinkedIn search for Matthew Court Office telephone number 0800 8 20 21 22 or 01992 27 44 27 Mathew Court’s email address mcourt@grassrootmedia.com
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The MD’s Letter Hello and welcome to December’s special Christmas edition of the magazine. OK well the only thing Christmassy about it is the awful Merry Christmas thing I’ve stuck on the front cover, but it’s Christmas nonetheless so happy Christmas to you all, and thanks again for your continued support. So as we move in to 2014 I’ve got a few updates: one is that I’ve worked up a partnership with Vistaprint to get you guys a discount off their products. The idea is to give you access to more ideas on how to make money through club merchandise – I chose Vistaprint as I use them quite a bit for Grassroot Media promotional materials and I’m always happy with what I get. The other main news this month is that this magazine is now digital, by popular demand as I was against it for a while (call me old fashioned). But it’s done now and it means you can share this to whoever you like within your clubs if you think they’ll find it useful and/or interesting. I’m looking for a groundsman to do a regular monthly feature in here to share ideas and do a kind of monthly diary checklist on what needs doing on football and cricket pitches and grounds so if you know any good groundsmen please ask them to drop me a line. Ideally I’m after two of them, one for cricket and one for football. Marry Christmas!
Mat Court - MD
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Player Fitness Isaiah Barratt In his player fitness column this month, Isaiah Barratt looks at Christmas and how you can minimise its impact on your fitness levels
This month I am going to cover tips that will help give us a fighting chance to stay fit while indulging in the things we love over Christmas. Over Christmas we all tend to feel guilty about things stuff we consume drink and food-wise. Don’t worries there are ways to ensure you can still have fun over Christmas and stay fit. Think about portion size, the smaller the better. Try a bit of everything but limit the amount; try sharing with someone, so that you are not tempted to scoff the whole lot. Try healthier food, eliminate the foods full of carbohydrates that make us sluggish and add on the extra pounds when not needed. Replace these with high density nutrient food such as meat e.g. chicken, turkey and fish. Eat
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vegetables and plenty of it as this has a small carbohydrates value and not forgetting is good for us and counts towards our 5-a-day. Reindeer steaks are lower in calories, cholesterol and fat (saturated) than other meats such as beef, lamb or pork.
Enjoy your turkey, ham or pork for your Christmas meal just remove the skin which makes it a lot healthier, lean meat. Try eating your meal as late as possible say 34pm this way you wont feel as hungry when people are digging into those turkey sandwiches later on in the evening. Snack on hummus and carrot sticks or maybe even small handful of peanuts, this will be sure to help with the long gap before your Christmas meal. Eat slowly and listen to your body when it says it is full, savour every mouthful.
It is always important to stay hydrated so try and drink 2 litres or more a day, even mix it up with a squeeze of lemon or lime. At parties, slowly drink your alcohol. Don’t just shove it down as fast as you can! Sip a glass of champagne or white wine. If having spirits due to not liking the above then have single shots with a diet soft drink.
“...slowly drink your alcohol. Don’t just shove it down as fast as you can!...” Now for an interesting fact for you, research from the University of
Reading shows that a glass of bubbly can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The ingredient within Champagne is red grapes which is rich in polyphenols, plant chemicals that help to dilate the blood vessels in the body and improve our circulation. Well having said this, I know what I will be drinking this Xmas ha. Try keeping active throughout the day, if going to the gym try high intensity short workouts. Greater benefits plus saves you plenty of time. That way you can be back at home within an hour to spent time with the whole family. For most of us that train all year round ensuring our fitness levels are of the highest that it can be, Christmas time is an excellent break to let our bodies recovery. This way we are less likely to pick up any injuries and most important we will be more pumped and motivated to achieve them personal goals come 2014. Hope you all have a great Christmas and New year and I will see you in the New year.
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Sports psychology This month David Harrison from Pinnacle Performance talks about intimidation in sport
Intimidation in Sport - Are you a Wolf?
read so I picked up a copy of New Scientist (1 June 2013). Several of the articles took my eye with immediate links to sport psychology. The one that really took my eye was from Ecology around intimidation and how predators influence the behaviours of their prey. This got me thinking. Intimidation plays an important part in sport and how athletes develop, use and respond to intimidation can be the difference between winning or losing a contest. Just ask the England players in Australia at the minute.
“...just ask the England players in Australia at the minute...� This month’s article is based around a very important factor in every sport. I was on a recent train journey and I needed something to
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Some players and teams in sport are able to intimidate their competition and their environment
and as a result change their opponents behvaiour. They create a landscape of fear to coin an ecology term (Laundre in Yong, 2013). They create an environment where all they seem to do to win is show up. They are the top predators. They have that eye of invincibility, they are able to intimidate their opponents causing them to change their behaviour. Think of the greats in sport. Immediately athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi and Roger Federer spring to mind. Due to their past experiences their opponents of these greats have a mental map of risk (Yong, 2013) when they compete against them. They have developed strategies to minimise the impact of these 'predators', their behaviour changes. They are playing to not to lose (survive in Ecology!) as opposed to playing to win. Their behaviour has been changed because of the fear caused by the intimidation. The predators have already won!
In Ecology an example of this are wolves and elk. The mere presence of the wolves changes the behaviour of the elk, they spend more time looking out for the wolves than grazing. They are playing not to lose (become a wolves dinner!). In sport the consequences are not that serious but when you become an elk you have shifted your focus away from you and what you can control, you have become the prey, you have become intimidated.
“...the greats and the great teams have that much influence that they can change the environment...� In team sports this can be seen when home teams dominate opponents at their home grounds, they intimidate the away team into losing, they change the visiting teams behaviour as they control their environment. The greats mentioned above and the great teams have that much influence that they can change the environment, just like the wolves in the New Scientist research who changed the behaviour of the elk which then had a knock on effect
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for other animals. These greats, these top predators, change the sport that they compete in. Other athletes have to devise strategies to first survive and then move to become a predator. These strategies change the game, change the sport.
“...think in the present, the past has gone and the future hasn't happened yet...” In sport you can 'Create a Landscape of Fear' by remaining focused on the things you can control. Focus on your strengths, play to your strengths and make your opponents change their behaviour, make them become an elk! Think in the present, the past has gone and the future hasn't happened yet. Use positive and strong reference points where you have been the predator and refer back to the hard work you have done in training. Make sure you work hard! If you feel yourself slipping into a landscape of fear recognise the slip, acknowledge that your opponent has done this and then
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put a stop to this. Have a quick release that will put a stop to the intimidation. Then refocus on your strengths, refocus on 3 simple things that are within your control that if you did would increase you chances of winning.
Become a Wolf not an Elk! Please contact me through my website is you have any questions on sport psychology www.pinnacleperformance.co.uk Reference: • Yong, E. (2013) Scared to Death. • New Scientist, 2919(June 1), pg. 36 -39
Andrew Beaven Andrew Beaven from The Twenty20 Cricket Company gives us his take on the future of cricket coaching.
The future of cricket coaching – what next for coaches working in schools and clubs? What game will the players be playing in 10-20 years’ time? And what should we be coaching now, to prepare players for the future?
Future cricket The traditional time and “long form” limited over formats will still exist, with typical club games lasting 6-7 hours. There will certainly be more T20, driven by the professional game and the excitement and immediacy of this game.
But as players have less time to commit to recreational play, even the 2.5 hours a T20 game takes to complete might be considered too long. We might see even shorter format games, indoors or outdoors in enclosed spaces (“cage” or MUGA – multi-use games area – games). Formats might develop along the lines of LastManStands, or the very popular indoor cricket (6-aside, 12 overs/innings) or even “street20” (again 6-a-side, but played over just 5 four-ball overs per innings).
“...players have less time to commit...” Players and coaches will have to adapt to these new formats, and, most importantly, be prepared, technically and mentally, to adapt again and again during their playing careers.
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Future skills
Future coaching
Batters will play more attacking stokes, and employ power hitting techniques more akin to baseball slugging. At the same time, they will need to manipulate deliveries that cannot be hit hard, and work ever harder on running between the wickets.
Coaches will have to focus on developing basic techniques and athletic fundamentals, but even more importantly should seek to inculcate adaptability in their players. The coach’s role remains to avoid and remediate techniques that inhibit the delivery of a skill, or that have the potential to result in injury.
“...there is already a move away from “textbook” coaching...” For bowlers, there might be less obvious change. They will concentrate on control and (especially) variations. A dot-ball is a (very) good ball, but taking wickets will still be important. After all, no batter can score runs once he is back in the pavilion!
Fielders will develop speed to the ball, and a fast release and strong arm…nothing new!
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But there is already a move away from “text book” coaching – reinforcing a player's strengths, rather than correcting (perceived) deviations from orthodoxy. The challenge for the future coach is now to distinguish between nonnegotiable orthodoxy, and permissible idiosyncrasies in their players’ techniques. There might no longer be one “right way” to play the game…but there will still be wrong ways!
Certain fundamentals remain – a level and steady eye-line, transfer of weight and power along straight lines – but beyond that cricket coaches might find that they are working with players to develop and enhance athletic abilities, and the fundamentals of movement – agility, balance, coordination – that currently get forgotten after primary school.
“...athletes first, cricketers second...” “Athletes first, cricketers second” (or perhaps, “cricketers and athletes”), rather than “fit(ter) cricketers” might become the new ideal.
How to “teach” adaptability Another trend in coaching circles is the inclusion of games-based learning into practice sessions, alongside traditional drills-based teaching. Expect more of this. By developing games-sense, or tactical awareness, coaches can encourage players to recognise for themselves when to apply a particular skill, and when not to.
The coach provides challenges, as much as he or she might previously have given (technical) solutions. Importantly, players are allowed to develop their own strategies and techniques.
“...changes in the game are inevitable...” Adopting and encouraging the “growth mindset” will be essential, for coaches and players. Changes in the game are inevitable, and by believing that “better is possible”, players can be more ready to adapt.
Conclusion Part manifesto, part crystal-ball gazing…some of this might ring true with you, some ideas prove to be well wide of the mark. Where do you see the game in 10 years time? And how can we prepare players for that future?
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Flexible payment plans, spread the cost across the season or use your end of season Grassroot Media payments to pay for your kit - email or call Mat Court for details Long and short sleeves available Quotes from our product testers:
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The Grassroot Media Print Shop A new service to our clubs giving you the chance to make money out of producing and selling promotional items to your players/members/fans. This month sees the launch of a new way for our clubs to design and manufacture club merchandise – the Grassroot Media Print Shop in association with Vistaprint. OK, it needs a catchier name, as do many of my ideas but I think you’ll find it useful. I approached Vistaprint as I have been a customer of theirs since I set Grassroot Media up. The leaflets you saw in your Welcome Pack when you signed up, the tshirts I wear on club visits, the magnet signs that go on my car when driving round the country, Grassroot Media pens, my mouse mat, business cards and lots of other promotional stuff I get done for the business all come through them. Everything that Vistaprint does is available to you guys, with various special offers such as free delivery which will change each month. And each month the plan is to highlight a few different products on the
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home page of the Print Shop, and then in this magazine features we’ll try to give you an easy-to-follow guide to producing one item of merchandise that we think could be a useful way for you guys to make some money, or make promoting your clubs easier. You can find the home page on the Grassroot Media website: www.grassrootmedia.com/mercha ndise
So this month as we are near the end of the year we are going to look at making a club calendar that you can sell to your members, or anyone else that you think might want one. Yes it’s 2014 soon! Who’d have thought that, eh? I can still remember when I was working at Waitrose in the mid-90’s putting a tin of baked beans on the shelf with a best before of ‘Jan 2000’ thinking “that’s futuristic”. Oh well...
Step by step guide to making a club calendar 1. Go to www.grassrootmedia.com/merchandise
2. Click on one of the links to the Vistaprint page
3. Select ‘Photo Poster Calendars’ – it should be highlighted in yellow when you arrive there 4. Select ‘Click here’ next to the special offer in green text.
5. Select ‘Get Photos’ to add a picture to use in your calendar, I’ll use the Grassroot Media logo here as an example but you could perhaps use an image of your club in action, your club house, pitch, players or club logo. You can also click on ‘layout’ on the left hand side and go for a layout with more than one image.
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6. Crop and rotate the images as you wish. Top tip – if your image doesn’t fit, click on ‘edit’ and then ‘crop/rotate’ and either crop it or select ‘scale to fit’. 7. Fill in the boxes to put some words on the calendar – perhaps you could add a call to action on the bottom such as “for sponsorship opportunities for 2014 please get in touch” or something?
8. Hit ‘next’ at the bottom of the page. 9. If you’re happy with it tick the box and then ‘next’ – if you’re not happy then hit ‘back’ and do it again. You can always go back to the start and change the whole design. 10. Select how many you want and then next. Top tip here – have a think how many you think you can sell to your members/players/fans and for how much. 11. Add on any extras that you want to add on and then it’s in your basket. Orders over £30 qualify for free delivery (special offer for Grassroot Media that runs out on 30th December). 12. Sit back, wait for them to be delivered and then sell them at your next home game and the club keeps the profit. Everyone’s a winner.
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I hope you like the service, I’m really happy about it and I think you guys will like it too. If you order anything I’d love to hear what you think of the process. If you are thinking of getting anything else for your clubs and would like us to do a step by step guide like this in the next issue then give me a shout.
The range of products is quite big so I doubt we’ll ever get through all of them in these guides but things that I think you’d be interested in are: phone cases (these could be a gold mine for you as they aren’t as expensive to make as you’d think and people will pay a lot for them), mugs, mouse mats, club rubber stamps, club business cards, club pens, t-shirts, flyers, Christmas cards (for next year obviously), car bumper stickers, fridge magnets. If you’d like me to cover any of these in particular in January drop me a line at mcourt@grassrootmedia.com
Have fun designing, and I hope it helps you make a bit of cash for your clubs.
If you know of a cricket or football club that you think could host our panels, please feel free to tell them about us and what we do. We are also on the look out for leagues that want to spread the word of Grassroot Media so again, if you know any then please ask them to get in touch, the more clubs we have on board, the easier it is to sell to advertisers and the more money we can make for each club. www.grassrootmedia.com Tel: 0800 8 20 21 22 Mob: 07795 49 59 69 Email: info@grassrootmedia.com
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Colin Smith Colin Smith from Elvington & Tilmanstone Colliery Welfare Cricket Club continues talks about more great tips for our clubs.
Rewarding Your Volunteers: Give Somebody The Day Of Their Life
One of the ways to keep people interested is of course to reward them. This can take many forms starting with a simple heart felt “thank you”. Other forms of showing your club’s gratitude can be to buy them a small appreciation of your gratitude at the club presentation night or name something in their honour.
Keeping your club volunteers and encouraging new one’s is not an easy task. It can however be very rewarding as I always say “ some things are worth more than money”. I find volunteering is one of them. I am my club’s fundraiser but no one volunteer is more valuable than the next. I, for example could not prepare the cricket pitches like our volunteer groundsmen do. This is the chief source of our annual income as it allows us to hire the pitch to other clubs as well as playing our own home fixtures.
Now before you all switch off and say “ I know that”, I will bring you on to my main point. AWARDS The way I find really showing your appreciation and encouraging and retaining volunteers is to nominate them for awards. In cricketing terms there are a few out that like the Outstanding Service to Cricket Awards (OSCAS) and the Kent County Cricket Alan
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Albury Awards. There are many awards that are sport specific, and I know that football has F.A. volunteer and McDonalds sponsored awards as well.
I have also successfully nominated two people for the BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award for the South East Region. One was my good cricketing friend, Trevor Rogers or Sir Trevor as we call him,and one was a referee of 49 years, Bernie Grivell. What I particularly liked about this award is it is non sport specific – you can nominate somebody for the contribution to any grassroots sports club.
I am very proud to say that I have also taken this to another level. I have personally nominated successfully two people so far for National Honours and I have two pending. These are not all cricket based but two are. When I say National Honours I mean O.B.E, M.B.E or the reintroduced British Empire Medal.
‘Sir’ Trevor with Freddie Flintoff at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award 2010 You can also nominate a group of people for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. This award is equivalent to the M.B.E for groups and clubs.
Trevor Rogers receiving his BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award from Rob Smith, Presenter BBC South East Today
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When you nominate an individual you cannot be specific as to what honour somebody should receive, that is decided by the Ceremonial Secretariat where you send the nomination form. All I can say mine have been placed on the services to the community list.
Having had some success and I hope more to come I can give you a few tips here if you have somebody in mind that you think is worthy of nomination for such an award.
their colleagues but try not to tell them why and tell them not to tell anybody that you have asked. I CALL THIS THE SECRET DETECTIVE STAGE.
TIPS AND ADVICE
So you’ve got your form formatted you then need to type it onto the downloaded copy and save it to your home drive computer. Once you have a copy you are happy with you will need to think about obtaining up to five letters of support for your nomination. This again is a confidential process.
First of all I find the nominee must have longevity of service to their chosen field of volunteering or have made a massive impact in a short space of time. Then you need to download the National Honours nomination form from the GOV.UK website. You need to study this and think about how you could fill it in. I find formatting it is the best for me. By formatting I mean printing off a working copy and writing some phrases that you would later expand on to fill out the form. For example if your nominee was instrumental in obtaining a new piece of equipment or local sponsorship then format this with new piece of equipment. Once you have your form formatted you will then be sure that your nominee will have a chance of success. At this stage you will probably be feeling quite good about the nomination. I would say you need to be otherwise if you think it’s a bit light you haven’t got enough. But don’t give up and as this is a confidential process you cannot ask the nominee what else they have done. You have to sneak around asking
In the past I have obtained letters of support from the local M.P., the Parish Council leader, the local Council Sports and Leisure Officer, the Council’s Community Engagement Officer, Sport specific County Officer’s, PCSO, local residents and this is a nice one – a former pupil or child that is now an adult that can directly relate and reflect on the impact of your nominee’s work and contribution to the local community and wider if relevant i.e. County, International etc. Writing letters of support also known as citations is an art form in itself. However their is a list of fantastic tips on the GOV.UK website under writing citations. Have a look at these as they are useful for writing the nomination as
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well. Ideally try not to duplicate specific stories or to many events in the nomination and the citations. When you ask for a letter of support send them the link to the citation writing tips but try not to insult them or teach them to suck eggs, be subtle. Keep rewriting the nomination and improving it, until you are happy with it, before printing off your final copies for posting, address is on the nomination form. I found that the more I dug the more I learned of what my nominee had done. A good example being when I nominated somebody regarding their footballing volunteering I also found out that they had been a volunteer umpire at a local cricket club for 44 years as well. What a fantastic piece of information that I could now include in the nomination. This turned the nomination from a single sport nomination to a dual sport volunteering nomination. As my nominee had never taken a match fee I could also approximate how much he had put back into grassroots football on a monetary basis and how many hours he had stood at the crease over 44 years. This was impressive reading when you looked at these figures alone and came to many thousands of pounds and many thousands of
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hours all voluntary unpaid work within the community.
“...you have to wait up to two years...” When you have all your letters of support and the form ready to go send a few photos or newspaper reports if you can. These will not be returned so don’t send anything you only have one copy of but it is worth doing as it gives the nomination added credibility. Don’t be afraid to nominate somebody that has received other awards as contrary to what you might think this actually helps the nomination, as again it adds credibility.
Once you have it ready to go send it recorded delivery and then you have to wait up to two years as awards are announced twice a year at New Year and in June for the Queen’s Birthday List. All I can add to this is if your nomination is successful you will get such a buzz from being the nominator it’s almost like receiving the award yourself – well this is how it made me feel anyway. I love it, I love it ( Kevin Keegan famous interview rant mode) when one of my nominations receives a National Honour.
I was fortunate enough to be invited by one of my successful nominees to watch the M.B.E. investiture at Buckingham Palace and it is a day I will never forget.
The whole day, the Palace, the people and of course being chosen as one of only three guests by my nominee to go into the Palace and watch the investiture, in this case performed by Prince Charles, was magnificent. The investiture finishes at about 1:30p.m. and gave us plenty of time to have a great meal in Covent Garden, have a few drinks in London, see a West End show and catch the fast train home. What a day.
John outside Buckingham Palace gates with from left my son Daniel, John, my wife and John's sister Jackie and of course me again. So go ahead and get nominating; it’s not difficult. There is no better way to say thank you to a volunteer that really deserves a little bit more than a verbal thank you than to nominate them for a National Honour. I always think you are a long time dead and while somebody is here they should receive the recognition they earn, so don’t leave it to someone else – do it yourself or your nominee could miss out. Give somebody the day of their life.
My friend John Bagley receiving his M.B.E from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace
By Colin Smith Elvington & Tilmanstone Colliery Welfare Cricket Club Email:tilmanstoneminers@hotmail. co.uk
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Twitter Directory Birmingham County FA: @birminghamfa Bosham FC: @boshamfc Bronze CC: @bronzecc Clifton CC: @cliftoncricket Clifton CC ground: @cliftonccdevt Crawley Down Gatwick Football Club: @Officialcdgfc Epping CC: @eppingcc Gateshead Fell CC: @gatesheadfellcc Hailsham Cricket Club: @hailshamcc1871 Lodway CC: @lodwaycc Marsden CC: @cuckooscricket Old Parkonians Association: @oldparks Old Parkonians FC: @oldparksfc Parkfield Amateur AFC: @parkfieldafc South Loughton CC: @southloughtoncc Southgate Compton CC: @sccricketclub Stapleton CC: @stapletoncc Steeple Langford CC: @steeplelangford Sussex County FA: @sussexcountyfa Tynedale CC:@tynedalecc Westinghouse CC: @westinghousecc Whickham CC: @whickhamcc Winterbourne CC: @winterbournecc Woodnesborough FC: @woodiesfc Worlington CC: @worlingtoncc Worthing FC @official_w_f_c
List your club’s Twitter account in here so everyone else can get following you. Only those clubs that are members of the network like yours are allowed on this list. To get listed just drop Mat a note at mcourt@grassrootmedia .com or on Twitter @grassrootmedia Grassroot Media recommends: @birminghamfa @fvhtweets @michaelsengrave @sussexcountyfa @meadonscricket @4grants @chance2shine 29
The Secret Non-League Footballer Each month we print an article from the excellent Secret Footballer website – you can see more at www.thesecretfootballer.com
Fixers cast shadow over football Football attracted headlines for all the wrong reasons last week, with six men arrested on suspicion of alleged match-fixing in England. At least three players were involved but, with none at professional clubs, it obviously suggested that they were linked to non-league outfits. This was confirmed when Michael Boateng and Hakeem Adelakun, who play for Brighton-based Whitehawk FC in the Conference South, were charged with conspiracy to defraud. I find this very sad and it makes you wonder how people will now look at the non-league circuit.
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It’s exceptionally concerning that players would take money in order to throw their own games, whether by means of them getting booked or the team conceding a certain amount of goals. The threat of corruption is something that shouldn’t enter football. The authorities must treat this with utmost seriousness. And yet, in all the time I have spent in non-league, not once have we been sat down from someone representing either the FA or PFA and advised about what we can and what we can’t do. Very much like the article I wrote on recreational drugs in football, players are very naïve about these issues.
“...It just isn’t taken seriously enough and we are given no guidelines...”
It just isn’t taken seriously enough and we are given no guidelines. I haven’t received a booklet from any organisation giving me the rules and regulations about betting on football. In the past, one of my old gaffers did say to me to be careful what I was doing and what I was betting on, as it could come back to bite me. That is as much information as I have ever been given and I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of players in non-league. I can categorically say that I have never bet on my own team to win, never mind lose. There has been the odd shout in a changing-room that a team have a few injuries and are struggling, with one or two lads putting a few quid on the opposing team to win. Players will always do this, whether it’s by placing the bet themselves or by asking a friend or member of family to do it for them. I fear this is creeping more and more into the game and it doesn’t surprise me that these recent allegations have been made. In 2009, five Accrington Stanley players were banned for gambling on their own game. Unusual betting patterns had been reported on a
match between Accrington and Bury in May 2008. An FA investigation resulted in Jay Harris being suspended for one year, David Mannix for ten months, Robert Williams and Peter Cavanagh for eight months and Andrew Mangan for five months. They were also fined between £2,000 and £5,000. I know a few of these players and, from what I heard, some of them had cashed in on the game bigtime.
“...I know a few of these players and, from what I heard, some of them had cashed in on the game big-time...” I’ve also heard gossip about players throwing the last game of a season when their team had nothing to play for. It’s pretty simple, really, as long as you don’t do anything stupid like going to your local bookmaker and sticking a grand on your opponents to win. When it’s come to the game, most players usually bottle it and decide not to go ahead. But I have heard
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whispers that a few games have been thrown. I’m talking about years ago but it has happened and no doubt still goes on. It just isn’t always picked up or investigated.
There will be a player who will try to get others to do it but, generally, players fear the worst and realise that it’s just not worth it. There’s 30,000 non-league football clubs so it’s highly likely that some teams have been on the fiddle and have thrown a match here and there. I remember, when I was a young pro, playing with a player who would bet on himself as first goalscorer in every game. I’m not sure whether he placed the bet himself but, one week, he said that he was 8-1 first goalscorer and smirked. I found this quite funny as it’s such a vain thing to do. It really shows how some footballers are up their own arses and fancy themselves. He was a pretty arrogant guy and, when he scored, he used to brag about how much he had won and about his club goal bonus as well. These sort of players are all about themselves and they couldn’t care less if their team had won or lost. If we were beaten 5-1, he would be buzzing that he was on the
scoresheet and couldn’t care less about the defeat. In the past, I’ve been at a club where we had a kitty, which was made up of players’ fines throughout the season. Yet when it got to Christmas, we decided – by a majority vote – that we stuck half of the kitty on a football bet. We would look at teams who were in good shape – and were decent odds – and would stick, say, £2,000 on a treble.
“...It really shows how some footballers are up their own arses and fancy themselves...” It was very risky and could result in our Christmas party going from being at a top VIP nightclub in London to a few rounds down at the local Wetherspoons. Alternatively, if the bet came in, the money could be put aside for perhaps a cheeky trip to Magaluf at the end of the season. Every week, many footballers put on “accumulators” – a bet that grows in size and in potential winnings with each successful result. Players will examine the fixtures across all the Football
Web: thesecretfootballer.com Twitter: @tsfnonleague Facebook: /TSFfootballer
League clubs and non-league sides and try to pick the teams that are in the best form. Also, with inside knowledge as players, rumours are easily spread. A few quick phone calls to pals in the game, at different levels, can expose more information, such as suspensions and injuries.
“...A simple answer to the question will result in me picking my pal’s team for the accumulator … or not...” I’ve had the occasional flutter in my career, albeit not in the league I’ve been playing in. And I have called a friend playing in League 1 and asked him whether his team are fancying themselves at the weekend, if they reckon they’ll win. A simple answer to the question will result in me picking my pal’s team for the accumulator … or not. However, it would appear that some players are starting to take advantage of this and it is developing into an addiction.
It also comes as no surprise to me that Delroy Facey – or “Delboy” Facey, as many non-league players are calling him – is involved in the match-fixing investigation. Let’s just say, as a former team-mate of mine told me recently, that Facey – the ex-Premier League striker turned football agent – is very cash conscious. There’s a thin line between having a bet every now and then for enjoyment to when it becomes compulsive, when you can lose hefty amounts of money. This is also when greed and/or desperation can creep in. This latest match-fixing case worries me but, hopefully, it won’t tarnish people’s views about nonleague football.
We’ve got two more copies of the Secret Footballer’s first book to give away as competition prizes over the next few weeks. Both are signed and fingerprinted by the mane himself so if you want to be in with a chance of wining them keep an eye out for a note from Mat Court in your email inbox.
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