The Grassroot Magazine October 2013 by Grassroot Media

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Contents 2 Grassroot Teamwear Cheap training bibs 4 MD’s Letter 5 Sports Psychology with David Harrison Get some tips to change the way you think about the game 7 Cricket Coaching with Andrew Beaven Time to look at your scorebooks from 2013... 9 Football Club Corner With Canton Rangers FC 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 Cricket Club Corner With New Milton Cricket Club 20 KB Cricket Check out the Stinger Bowling Machine for under £350! 22 Michael’s Trophies Great offers on trophies from Michael’s

22 Mindset Matters with Bernard Baines The most positive man I’ve ever met passes on some of thoughts to you 23 Grassroot Media asks... A special interview with Lewes FC on how and why they come up with such brilliant match day posters. 31 Twitter Directory See which clubs are where on Twitter 32 easyfundraising.org Easy & cost-free way to raise club funds 34 Meadons Insurance Cricket club insurance from Meadons Insurance - piece of mind guaranteed 36 Grassroot Media Guide to... Well Colin Smith’s guide to fundraising ideas Colin back to give you details on some interesting loopholes/ideas 40 ESU Scoreboards Good offers for member clubs that need a new cricket scoreboard

Grassroot Media Contacts Twitter @grassrootmedia Facebook.com/grassrootmedia LinkedIn search for Matthew Court Office telephone number 0800 8 20 21 22 Mathew Court’s email address mcourt@grassrootmedia.com

The MD’s Letter Hello and welcome to October’s magazine. Things are coming along nicely both in terms of getting more clubs and changing rooms on board and also when it comes to getting advertisers interested. If you know of any clubs that might want to join then please give me a shout or pass on my details to them as the most common objection from potential advertisers is that we’re just a bit too small still. To keep you in the loop we currently deliver an audience of just over 42,000 people in our biggest month and this needs to be doubled before we can really start to get the big huge brands involved. Of course we’ll always get the odd exception such as BT Sport, but most brands need 80-100,000 to notice us on their schedule. That said, I’m thrilled with the DryWorld campaign we’ve got up at the moment, a very relevant advertiser and product in a thoroughly relevant advertising environment (your changing rooms). They’re signed up until the end of the year and I’m working hard to maximise their investment but if you guys can retweet anything I tweet regarding them that would be awesome. As I’ve said before, we’ve got a unique offering in media and we could make up for the lack of numbers above by amplifying any advertising posters through social media. One thing that could help the numbers is getting more county boards on board, which I’m working on, but as part of this could be the football and cricket leagues you guys play in. It’s easy to find the details on the County FA’s and County Cricket Boards but much more difficulty to find league contacts, mainly because there are so many more leagues. SO if you have any league contacts you’d like to put my way (or talk to on our behalf) then I’d really appreciate it. If we could get leagues transmitting our message to non-member clubs that would be a real help. I’m also reviewing the offers you guys get in this magazine and you’ll see a couple have been dropped – I don’t charge advertisers to get in here, all they have to do is guarantee a discount or offer to you guys that I feel is relevant and appropriate (i.e. money off discounts for you) so if you know any brands or companies out there that might be interested please pass on this magazine to them so they can see what it’s all about. That’s it for now, I’m off to sell 2014...

Mat Court - MD

Sports psychology One pass doesn't make you a bad player - Recovering from school-boy errors in football This month we will look at a very important aspect of sport psychology; the ability of a player to recover from errors. The great players in any sport make errors but it is their ability to recover quickly from these errors that make them great and has the rest of us wondering why they are so good. I am a BASES Accredited Sport Scientist in Sport Psychology based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. My company, Pinnacle Performance (www.pinnaclperformance.co.uk) works with teams, athletes and coaches from a range of sports to

help maximise potential and performance and this recovery forms an important part of what I do with my athletes. What separates good players from great players is their ability to recover from School Boy Errors (SBEs) or mistakes. Mistakes and errors are a natural part of learning and development. Failure is only feedback and we must use this feedback quickly. As coaches we must encourage our athletes to try and use the skills and if they fail we give feedback to help them improve in the future. Everyone fails at some stage and some of the greatest and most successful people in business and sport have been labelled a failure but they have taken the feedback and learnt from it and gone on to achieve amazing things. The question is how do we do this in the heat of battle? How do we do it on the

pitch with a crowd watching? Every footballer is different so what will work for one athlete may not work for another. The first step is to be aware and recognize that mistakes and SBEs happen constantly and even the best players make mistakes (the best players can just recover quickly from them and forget about them!). When you make a mistake they key is to recognize that you have made a mistake and that you will react in a certain way and this will be an emotional response (this links to the Chimp Management model used by Dr. Steve Peters with Great Britain Cycling). With this in mind when you make a mistake you need to let the chimp do its thing. It is going to be mad, aggressive and frustrated (all emotions!) that a mistake has been made. During training you need to reduce the time this emotional response takes. Do this through simulations and extending your comfort zone. Then get the logical and rational side of the brain (the human in the Chimp model) back in control. You need to stop this emotional response. I do this by a loud clap of the hands when I am playing basketball. A footballer might shout to their self. Once this is done get rid of the emotional baggage and refocus. This is the

difficult thing to do. This can be done by concentration and positive self-talk with links to positive reference points of aspects of your game that if you did and did consistent would allow you to play the best game of your career. These aspects must be thing within your control and must be simple to perform, they must be in the present. An example could simply be to 'be loud and vocal'. So to summarise how to recover quickly from school boy errors in football: 1. Recognize the error has been made (everyone makes mistakes!) 2. Be aware of your emotional response 3. Stop the response and get rid of this response quickly 4. Refocus controllables

control

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If you have any comments about the article then I would be happy to hear them. Contact me via email at pinnacleperform@gmail.com and visit my website www.pinnacleperformance.co .uk for more information on sport psychology.

Andrew Beaven Andrew Beaven from The Twenty20 Cricket Company writes about Indoor Cricket – and how you can use it to prepare for next summer...

Indoor Cricket... Indoor cricket - bash and hope, just a way of filling in an hour on a Saturday morning over the winter. Not really part of the development plan for "serious cricket". Conditions indoors are totally artificial - depending on how warm the match balls are, they skid through low or bounce almost like a tennis ball. Good spinners can get turn and bounce. Sometimes the ball swings. Not so unlike outdoors, then. Batting - all you have to do is hit the walls by placing the ball in the gaps between the close fielders, or ping it back straight over the bowlers' head... Bowlers...well, I think you can see where I am going with this, now! Maybe it is time to take another look at indoor cricket! Far from developing bad habits, successful indoor teams (and those

who want to get the best from their 60 minutes of indoor cricket) will be applying a number of technical and tactical skills that work just as well outdoors. • Bowling has to be very straight (interpretation of wides is generally very strict, per T20); variations are essential - yorkers are VERY hard to work into corners; ditto slower balls. • Batters have to hit gaps, and there is a premium on good calling and running between the wickets, and on rotating the strike. • Fielding emphasises reflexes and reactions, and puts pressure on the

pick up and throw; with so few fielders, you have to back up every throw. Intensity in the field, bowling to plans, batting under (time) pressure. Not so bad, then! So fielding a team in the local winter indoor leagues can be very beneficial for the summer season. But that might mean only six 1st XI players getting a game. So why not adopt the indoor format as a part of your regular close-season practice schedules. Net practice does still have an important function, but in the traditional format (everyone takes their turn to bat for 10 minutes...if

they are lucky...then tries to hit the cover off the ball at every opportunity; everyone bowls in rotation) it can be far removed from the outdoor game. So instead of spending an hour in the nets, why not take that time to practice batting, bowling and fielding skills that translate directly to the outdoor game? Add a competitive element; play more games; add more intent to your off-season practice. Andrew Beaven is Area Co-ordinator for The Twenty20 Cricket Company, you find more information on how Andrew and the other coaches can help your club at their website: www.twenty20cricketcompany.com

Football Club Corner Martyn Evans, Treasurer at Canton Rangers FC in Canton, Cardiff Tell us a bit about your club... what do you do, where are you, which leagues, how many members etc... Canton Rangers Football Club is a mini, junior and senior football club based in the community of Canton in Cardiff. An annual 5-a-side tournament at the Marl in Grangetown, which featured local celebrity Maureen from BBC 1’s successful series “Driving School”, signalled the birth of the first junior football side from Canton. Known as "the Wanderers" for the tournament, a team of six players assembled by club president Mauro Caresimo and his cousin Vito Valluzzi stormed into the competition’s semi-finals of the Under 10 age group, winning many admirers. Local football legend Billy Hillman, coach of Grangetown Boys Club, was so impressed with the boys that he suggested they make an application to join the Cardiff and District Junior League. A successful

interview with the league’s officials followed and, in October 1999, Canton & Riverside FC was born. The first ever league campaign saw the side finish 8th. The rebirth of the club began in the 2003/04 season. Due to most of the children residing and attending schools in Canton the club’s committee decided that the shortening of the name to just Canton Rangers would be more appropriate. More junior teams followed and, in 2009/2010, Canton formed its first senior side. “The Bears” now has 200 players, with boys and girls representing the club from Under 7 through to senior level. The senior side play in the Cardiff and District Premier

Division, three promotions away from the Welsh League structure. They made their first ever appearance in the Welsh FA Cup and Welsh Trophy this season, losing in the second qualifying round and first round respectively. Off the field, Canton Rangers success continues to grow. The club has built up important partnerships and allegiances with schools, local businesses and football schools of development. In 2013, the club moved to its new home at Cantonian High School (crest below).

Have you had any famous players pull on the shirt...? No yet, but with over 200 players under the age of 16, and our ground being only a stone’s throw away from the Cardiff City stadium, it is only a matter of time. The seniors have come up against

some famous names, including Olympic gold medallist Darren Campbell. Darren is the current sprint coach at Cardiff City, and in a game against his former side STM Sports we tried – and failed – to use the offside trap... Darren scored a hat trick in a game we lost 4-2. A few famous people have also played at our ground or attended the school where it is located. This includes Wales and Celtic midfielder Joe Ledley and Gary Lineker’s wife Danielle! Tell us something interesting about your club... After 13 years without a home, a team of volunteers have worked tirelessly to source and develop somewhere that will serve to act as a base for the club. Facilities that we can call our own. In the past few months, Canton Rangers have secured a partnership with Cantonian High School to develop facilities that will host local football training and matches. We have created two full-size football pitches for junior and senior football and four mini pitches for children up to 11 years old. However, we started from a blank canvass. There were no pitches marked out. We had no goal posts. No line painting equipment. We did not even have enough goal nets, corner flags and other match day equipment. We have spent £4,000 in the last four months so all our

teams could start their respective seasons. However, our vision is not just about pitches and posts. In the past few months, we successfully applied and presented to the Welsh Football Trust to become one of their development clubs. We have a Welsh FA official on board to help create a club development plan for activities ranging from facility development and finance, through to workforce management and improving standards. We have come on leaps and bounds in 2013, but there is still a lot of hard work to do and a long way to go!

Who does what at the club to do with revenue generation/sponsorship? In trying to raise as much money as possible to develop our facilities, it really has hit home just how important revenue generation is and how it needs to be conducted in a joined-up way. Unlike some other football clubs in our district, Canton Rangers is not entitled to any funding from our local council.

The club operates on a voluntary basis, with limited funds courtesy of playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s subs, registration fees and sponsorship. Historically sponsorship was a job for everyone. Teams would apply for grants individually, while sponsorship opportunities were seized however, by whoever and in whatever means necessary. Balancing the books at the end of the year was seen as a success. Now, various factors have changed this view. Firstly our financial climate. Many local businesses really would love to sponsor teams, but simply cannot afford the large one-off payment many of us need. Second, we are trying to build our club in a sustainable and allinclusive way. This brings several challenges, as we need to ensure our revenue can be secured year on year. Therefore relying on grants that you may not get every season is a huge risk. However, it also brings opportunities. Sustainable growth, equality and inclusivity seem to be among the aims, outcomes and objectives of many sponsors and funders. These are outcomes we have been able to evidence and project. The main way of doing this was to understand our members. We asked everyone to complete either a player or parent/guardian

questionnaire. The results of this are used to find out precisely what age groups we have, where our players live, what schools they attend, how they travel to games, what other sports they play, what they love and dislike about our club, their religion, first language and ethnicity. We have been able to link these answers to grants we are eligible for. However, in applying for funding it was essential that the same team of people applied – this avoids duplication of effort and embarrassment! This season, the committee applies for grants and external funding. Further, teams first pursue any opportunities for wider-club funding first, which are flagged to the committee. We have had good success so far. Despite the club having no reserves by the end of last season, we have been able to develop our facilities without taking any money from the club account. That means we have been able to create facilities without using player subs or taking money away from teams. There are now different avenues to explore to maintain these facilities. We are already working on these… Have you got any advice for other clubs in our network looking to be more successful when it comes to generating funds? Be innovative, be cheeky (don’t assume they’ll say “no”) and take it

upon yourself to show return on investment. The best example we can give is the success we’ve had with sponsorship raffles. As we mention above, some businesses find it hard to stump up the £500 needed to sponsor a kit. What we have therefore done in recent years – for teams that find it harder to source a sponsor – is sell raffle tickets at £10 each. The winner of the raffle becomes the team’s main sponsor for the season. Using this approach, businesses couldn’t use the excuse that they couldn’t afford to support their local team. Indeed, many thought it was a fantastic idea and would open the till to buy at least one ticket. In one instance we generated £750, with one business buying 20 tickets. Indeed, the winner was a small motorcycle shop that had just moved to the area – and who only had £10 in the till! However, nobody left empty handed. Every business that bought a ticket was mentioned on our website, with a link to their contact details. Our website has 4,000 unique visitors every year. Not bad for a tenner! In terms of internal revenue, we have also moved to monthly standing orders for player’s subs. This is a key part of our club development plan. We know that standing orders aren’t ideal for

everyone. Similarly, it is also quite effort-intensive at the start of every season. This has a number of benefits: it guarantees monthly income; it ensures that all money is put through the books; it removes the stress placed on volunteers to chase up payment, and it allows team coaches to be team coaches, not debt collectors! We are phasing standing orders so that in three years every player pays this way. We are up to 60% so far. We would be happy to provide advice to others on how we do this. Lastly, classic fundraising efforts not only generate cash, but they bring the whole club together. In the past few months we have run a race night (£500) and a duck race (£350), the senior team ran a half marathon (£1,000) all of which have had great support from our players, parents and volunteers.

The winning duck! The final bit of advice is to play to your strengths. Having our own ground has allowed us to use Grassroot Media, allowed us to

charge a burger van and ice cream van to pitch up every week, opened up avenues for ground sponsorship – given our position next to a railway line and the footfall on Saturdays (we have 450 visitors to our ground every week). However, this is a new area for us, which leads us on to our next bit of advice. Never be afraid to ask others for help! So if anyone has any good techniques or ways to generate match day funds, please let us know!!

What do you find is the best approach to getting advertisers and sponsors in and around the club? Twitter has been a powerful tool – but the key is to show just how valuable Twitter and other social media can be. Grassroot Media were kind enough to sponsor our Welsh FA Cup second qualifying round match last month. For £25 (cheaper than other clubs in the area) Grassroot Media had

advertising space in the match programme and were on our pre and post match tweets. To evidence the audience, we would look at the number of followers each account had when they retweeted our messages. Tweets mentioning Grassroot Media were retweeted 13 times, reaching 2,100 people mostly football clubs and fans. The exact audience Grassroot Media want to attract. How many advertising campaigns can reach over 2,000 for £25 – or 1.2p per person?!

More recently, Confused.com replied and retweeted to one of our tweets that thanked all our sponsors. Confused.com has 45,000 followers. The tweet also mentioned several local businesses. Not a bad return on investment. And that’s just Twitter! However, the best approach to getting people involved is word of mouth. It always surprises us just how much “intelligence” you can

get from parents and supporters at games. We have been put in touch with some fantastic people, businesses and other voluntary groups just from chatting to parents on the touchline! There’s no better “way in” to a business than going through friends, family and colleagues...! Have you had particular success in selling to particular markets? We have capitalised on Cardiff (and Wales as a whole) having a higher-than-average percentage of call centre companies and insurance groups. A lot of our sponsorship therefore comes from this sector – Admiral, Go Mobile and Confused.com to name a few. In the past, we have also been lucky enough to receive sponsorship or donations from businesses in the Canton area – Darlows, Rileys, the Victoria Park, Duke of Clarence and Beverley pubs. The sponsorship raffle draws in a wide range of sponsors, from cafes to comic stores! We have also appealed to local residents – resulting in a generous donation from Charlotte Church! Which brand would be your perfect sponsor and why? With the club spending £8,000 every season on training and £4,000 a year on kit, these are the companies we actively contact. However, the perfect brand would have to be L'oreal – because we’re

worth it! Plus Cheryl Cole might come to the publicity event! Are you involved in any other sports? Is there anything our clubs can learn from clubs outside of cricket and football? A recent survey of our players shows that 25% play another sport for their school or a different club. We often find that players play rugby for their schools and cricket in the summer. As part of our club’s “vision”, we are keen for our new home to be a multi-disciplined sports hub. Multi-disciplines sports clubs are common in Europe (Real Madrid basketball is a great example) but it rarely happens here. Long term we would like to pursue 4G playing surfaces for Canton Rangers football and hockey teams – catering for men’s, women’s and disabled teams. Such a facility also presents sustainable revenue sources by hiring out to other community groups and sports clubs. With rugby clubs (unsurprisingly) being very well established in Wales, we can learn many things from them off the field: whole-club cultures, successful clubhouses and good links with local businesses. On the field, they operate two-way feeder systems with bigger local or regional clubs – allowing fringe or youth players at professional sides to play grassroots. Welsh football should certainly look at

that going forward. Have you got a Twitter page our other clubs can make contact with you on? @CantonRangersFC – please follow us! Is there anything you'd like us at Grassroot Media to be doing that it isn't at the moment? A “recommend a friend” feature would be good. Caerleon Town put us in contact with you – and we are now your “favourite Welsh club” (your words, not ours!). However, maybe you could give an incentive (financial or in-kind) to Caerleon for spreading the word? P.S. It would be rude at this point not to mention our club and team sponsors, affiliations and associates this year... so thanks to Admiral Insurance Atlantic Pacific Marine Limited Cantonian High School Chapter Arts Centre Chessmann Cardiff Confused.com Darlows Property Go Mobile Lidl Red Homes Estate Agents Rileys Tai Wales and West Housing ... and, of course, Grassroot Media.

Thank you everyone / Diolch yn Fawr pawb. 15

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Cricket Club Corner Steve Taylor, Chairman of New Milton Cricket Club in New Milton, Hants Tell us a bit about your club... what do you do, where are you, which leagues, how many members etc... New Milton Cricket Club is a family orientated club which plays its cricket in the New Forest in Hampshire. We were founded in 1927 and have played league cricket since 1929. We have approx 150 playing members, and another 100 social members. The club comprises of four Sat Teams - 1st XI Sat Team in the Southern Electric League Div 1, 2nd XI Hampshire Div 1 and 3rd & 4th XI's in the Hampshire Regional Leagues. We have a Sunday Side, a Ladies Section, and a midweek / T20 Side. We also have U9, U11, U13, U15 and U17 Junior Teams, who are assisted by approx 22 coaches over the year at some point. Have you had any famous players pull on the shirt? Our most famous player has to be the late David "Butch" White. Butch

played for us in the 60's and early 70's. He was a quick bowler who opened the bowling with Denis Shackleton at Hampshire. Butch played 2 Test Matches for England and took over 1000 first class wickets for Hampshire. Who does what at the club to do with revenue generation/sponsorship? Steve Taylor (Chairman) along with his 14 man strong committee all work together to get sponsorship and arrange functions to bring in much needed revenue. Things like themed nights and karaoke nights are always good money generators. Have you got any advice for other clubs in our network looking to be more successful when it comes to generating funds? Our advice would be to try and involve as many members/parents/players in what you are doing as often as you can.

Winners of the New Forest Presidents Cup (vs. Premier League club Lymington)

Communication is the name of the game. Don't let the committee sit on their laurels! What do you find is the best approach to getting advertisers and sponsors in and around the club? We try to give them plenty of feedback and information on what the club is all about and let them see that you advertise them well. Which brand would be your perfect sponsor and why? No one specific. But currently our kit is supplied from a local sports supplier who in turn get the club kit from Stuart Surridge. Are you involved in any other sports? Is there anything our clubs can learn from clubs outside of cricket and football? No just cricket. Have you got a Twitter page our other clubs can make contact with you on? No but we have a New Milton CC Facebook Page. Is there anything you'd like us at Grassroot Media to be doing that it isn't at the moment? No I think you are doing well communicating to clubs like ours what benefits there are. If you would like your football or cricket club featured in a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Club Cornerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; article please get in touch with Mat Court in the usual way...

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Mindset Matters with Bernard Baines Bernard Baines looks at what can put and keep you in the right mindset to be more effective in whatever you’re doing, whether it be at work, in the clubhouse or on the pitch. Mindset Matters...

Why is there bathwater on your desk? You’ll have heard the old saying, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.” Meaning, if you’re going to get rid of some rubbish, make sure you don’t throw out the valuable stuff too. That sounds like good advice. But I’d like to emphasise a point. “Make sure you do throw out bathwater!” Most of us have our own private collection of bathwater. Stuff that we’ve been meaning to get round to for ages. Clutter from projects long completed etc. Where is your bathwater? Try looking on top of your desk – or in inside your drawer and filing cabinets. Check out your shelves and computer files. But there is one final place that I really urge you to look for bathwater and that’s between your ears. What needs clearing out here? The designer William Morris said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” How about only having thoughts in your head that you know to be useful or believe to be beautiful? OK. Your desk can wait until tomorrow but if there is ‘bathwater’ between your ears, surely you owe it to yourself to get rid of it today... ©Bernard Baines 2013

As a trainer and life coach Bernard Baines helps individuals and teams achieve what they want to achieve by developing a positive mindset. bernard@mindsetmatters.co.uk www.mindsetmatters.co.uk

Probably the best match day posters in the world...

Mat talks to Charlie Dobres, Marketing Director at Lewes FC about their brilliant matchday posters. I can’t quite remember how it happened but about a month ago I stumbled across a promotional match day poster for one of Lewes FC’s upcoming games. I can’t even remember which poster it was because as soon as I saw it I went on to their website and became immediately immersed in the ‘back catalogue’ of posters they’ve produced over the past couple of years. Some are brilliant, most are better and as Lewes FC are a member of the network straight away I got on to the club to see if there was any way we could have a chat to share with the rest of you what they are doing, how, and why. I was put in contact with Charlie Dobres, the Marketing Director at Lewes and we had a bit of a chat. The conversation was enlightening, not because of the ground breaking way they do their promotional posters, but because it made me realise that any club could do it, but because the results

come about because of the thought processes behind it all rather than the technical expertise involved. There will be more posters further on in the article, but here to whet your appetite if you haven’t seen them before is one of my favourites:

Where did the idea come from for such creative posters? The story of the posters is connected to the story of Lewes FC. Three years ago the club became fan owned â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the result being a future as a not for profit community partnership to get out of administration. The club is therefore very much involved with, and owned by, the community (100 people). From the start of this there was, and has been, a commitment to doing things in a certain way, the right way. It was and is about trying to create an honest relationship between ownership of the club and the shareholders or fans of the club. One issue clubs fans have across many football clubs is they don't feel connected with the club and they don't know what is going on mainly because the club doesn't speak to them. We wanted to change this and be a bit more creative. Previously there had been little communications for matches, it simply wasn't a priority and we saw an opportunity to engage local people - many larger clubs can do this easily, smaller clubs have to be a bit more creative. I simply believe that you need to tell people what your doing. Then you work out how you do it and this is where the posters come in. We hadn't really done it before. Before, the posters were nicely designed but didn't engage.We

wanted an element of humour and non-bullshit, something written with footie fans in mind. And we weren't afraid to take a risk. We now take even more risks now we're more confident with it and the process involved. My background in advertising and marketing helped but wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the reason it has happened, it just made it slightly easier. First and foremost we wanted the posters to look good. During the first season we had a design agency that we worked with and we worked with them to create and improve the designs, we've moved on now to doing the initial stages of the process, the creative work and planning, ourselves (me) and we work with another design house where they work up the concepts that come from me. Essentially, they do the fine-tuning. We did this to cut costs but it has given us the opportunity to be more creative as a club and get more involved. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t deny my background helped at this concept stage as design and advertising are two different things. People need to remember that advertising needs to be: 1. Engagening 2. Entertaining 3. Informative 4. Have a call to action It's all about growing in confidence in your understanding of your

Audience and what you offering is. Football is a key part of modern culture. Football fits in with film, TV, music, art and other types of entertainment to create the culture. What we are trying to do is make a connection between art & film and football posters. The desired result being linking football to a whole cultural backdrop and through this we are trying to get the reaction we need from someone to notice, be entertained, tell someone about it and ultimately act upon it. When you’re watching TV ads' its the entertaining ones you talk about, that's what we try to do, create posters that people want to talk about.

If you don't have a background in design you can do it.; contract it out to a local firm. What we do, amending or pastiching an existing design, is easier than starting from scratch as you’ve got the starting point already in your hands. It’s important to get inside the mind of the person that's seeing your advertising – it certainly helps that you're a member of the target audience. Having a sense of empathy is essential, I mean this as in looking at it from someone else's point of view. That's the trick of advertising & design. What do you want the action to be, from a

notional level as well. For example a tweet forwarding it on is the kind of reaction you want. If we can entertain people through the marketing as well as the football they are getting a better experience from Lewes FC. A lot of the fans love the way our marketing works as they are able to feel proud of the uniqueness we try to bring. A lot of what we are doing at the football club is for our own club and wouldn’t work in exactly the same way for other clubs but anyone can do similar things. We want to demystify the marketing side of things. Other clubs following what we do is brilliant. Where do you get the inspiration from? Sometimes I’ve got a concept for a particular match, in the most part it is reacting to the match; sometimes the opposition, sometimes it’s the date, perhaps a birthday or anniversary, sometimes something to do with the town or what’s going on in the town. Other times it’s quite random. For example, for the Canvey Island match we did a pastiche of the album cover to the Clash’s ‘London Calling’. The only thing that made that happen was that Lewes starts with an ‘L’, Canvey Island with a ‘C’ and it fit with London Calling.

If you take something already iconic then it amplifies what you are saying and is likely to make it entertaining. The ideal poster has the edginess that reflects the town. Think about the tone of voice. All we are ever doing is amplifying a truth - find something true about your football club or town and then you use the tone of voice to amplify this; they recognise and relate to the fact that it is true. The worst advertising is what doesn't ring true. Claim something that can be backed up. What is true about your club and what will resonate with the audience to do with it. The road sign one came from the famous “road to Wembley”. Coincidentally our sponsor Sussex Ashpalte obviously has a connection which is good too.

Three years ago my thoughts were to get to a point where we would have a sponsor or partner to do the work for us, i.e. with marketing we'd get a small local agency to do the work for us. We haven't done it mainly because I'm here but the plan was to have a partner we didn't pay but promoted and this is something I think other clubs could do. Partnerships don’t have to be about money – a club might get more value out of services in return for the football club giving exposure. Employers and employees quite like to work on these kinds of projects. They might not get it right at first but work with them and you’ll get better results than if you did it yourselves, and a more engaged partner.

Could you talk us through the process behind each poster?

How long does it take you to do each one?

1. Firstly you would get the inspiration/concept for match from the sources mentioned earlier. Sometimes they come at quite random times so make a note of them when they come to you.

For a match on Saturday, we will start working on it by middle of week before. To come up with a time plan weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll agree front with the suppliers/partners timings and then work backwards from there so you work out when you need to start. We then get the posters up in town on the Wednesday prior to the Saturday game.

2. I then do a basic PowerPoint mock up to give to the agency. These could be drawn freehand or Photoshop but I use PowerPoint. At the start I was canvassing opinion from people close to me whose opinion I trust and who understand the football club & town. What goes over to the agency is design-ready. 3. The agency comes back with it an initial designed version. 4. We generally go back and forth two or three times fine tuning. Proof-reading is very, very, very important here. 5. Then we should be ready to go and get it printed (250 total A4 and A3) to go up around town. 6. Three or four people from the club go out around town putting the in shop windows, pubs etc. 7. We then combine the physical poster marketing with web & social media activity to further amplify the message.

What are your favourite top three posters you've done for Lewes FC? The kissing policeman was really the perfect storm; we were playing the Police on Valentines Day!

The Soviet Motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day image was so bold and only needed a bit of tweaking to make a great poster.

The Eye Test poster was simple and was able to get out the fact we were unbeaten. Unlike most of the posters it was a completely new idea as opposed to pistiching. It also connects rather nicely with one of the club sponsors, Specsavers, on an obviously level. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nice when it all comes together, which I think did.

I mentioned I liked the Apocalypse Now poster (at the start of this article) I like the detail in there such as the rooks flying across and taking the place of the helicopters in the original. With traditional media such as posters you have more time with the audience to get across small pieces of detail such as this that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do with some other forms of advertising. We also put up an A0 sized version opposite the main rail station too, the space was donated to us and gives us a chance to talk to people our other marketing may not reach otherwise.

We’ve sold 100's of posters generating profit for the club as a new revenue stream, which was an expected bonus out of the process. What about copyright? You have to think about copyright issues when you’re going down this road. We consciously will not do anything near Disney and other brands that take copyright more seriously than others. We go for ones where copyright isn't going to be such an issue, generally older stuff, communist imagery is always good for us, and artists like Banksey are very liberal with copyright. Is there one poster you'd like to do which you haven't done yet? There have been a few I've not done because of copyright but the great thing is if you have a great idea you just do it. What are your top tips for people in charge of promoting matches and fundraising events? Do it. This is the no.1 problem (not doing it) - loads of conversations go nowhere because they don't get done. For example, we had an idea about penalty shootout against a leprechaun for St. Patricks day. We just committed to doing it and worked out how later.

Non-league clubs have to have a sense of humour. You think about what you can do to get a buzz around the club. If it doesn't work it doesn’t work, what have you lost? You’re trying to create an all round good fun time. Sure, the focus is the football but you’ve got scope to do stuff fans would never see in the premier league - not demeaning the football on the pitch but we can have a laugh and do what we want. Thank your lucky stars you’re running a non league club as you can get away with virtually anything as long no animals or children were harmed in the process! That’s it, great stuff! I’ll leave you all with Charlie & Lewes FC’s most recent creation... Bonfire Dogs...

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List your clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 31

Guide to... Some fundraising ideas from Colin Smith at Elvington & Tilmanstone CWCC By popular demand, Colin Smith from Elvington & Tilmanstone returns to the magazine with some great fundraising tips for your clubs.

Grant fundraising can be a daunting prospect when you first start. First of all where do you start? Well you need to know your sun, moon and stars before you start to look for sources of funding to achieve your goals. How you do this is have an Open Day at your club or carry out a consultation within your community to find out what people would like that would add real value to your club. A suggestions box is also a simple way to find out what people would like. From this consultation with your user groups, players, volunteers, committee members, visitors and club members you will be able to create a WISH LIST. This can also form part of a sports development plan for your club and from the wish list you can also create a funding strategy. All useful for funding bids and good practice for all sports clubs.

Don’t be afraid to be ambitious after all you are trying to move forward and be positive. Don’t think that you won’t get funding for anything because if you think like that you won’t even try. Once you have your wish list you need to appoint a committee member as the club fundraiser. Top tip here – don’t give this person any other jobs as they will have enough on their plate with fundraising alone, believe me I’ve been there. This is the position I was in 3 seasons ago at my local cricket club. I had a wish list and was appointed the fundraiser. Now I had a slight advantage in that I had already applied successfully for many grants for the local youth football club, Eythorne Rovers. Anyway the club wish list included: • New mowers for the square and

outfield, value £5,000 • New ride on roller for the square, value £5,000 • New electric scoreboard, value £4,200 • Electric shutters to protect the scoreboard against vandalism, value £600 • A return income for the club to improve sustainability, • Solar panels on the roof to reduce electricity bills, • A rainwater harvesting tank to supply water for the clubhouse toilets, and to water the square in the summer, reducing the water bill, value £3,900 • Funding to the tune of £33,000 to renovate and modernise the clubhouse, • Electric pop up sprinklers on the square controlled from the clubroom using the rainwater collected from the clubhouse roof, value £3,200 • New youth team, • New kit for teams, value £1,000 • Club sponsorship, £1,400 • New and improved annual fixture booklet, cost £160 per seaason • Participation in the vCricket Programme for the youngsters between ages 16 – 25, as a reward for volunteering, • Volunteers to be rewarded with nominations for awards, Alan Albury and OSCAs • Membership of the CASC scheme, so gift aid could be

claimed on donations, • New synthetic wicket, costing £9,000, • Two new practice mobile net cages, value £2,300, • New practice catching cradle, value £300 • New line marker, cost £300. So here we are with a wish list of twenty items for a cricket club based in a a socially deprived area of Elvington in Kent. In fact the area is in the top 20% most socially deprived in the whole of England. So here I am faced with an impossible Wish List for a club with one team and about 25 members at the time. So if you’re club is in a better position than mine was don’t despair because in the space of three seasons through mainly applying for grants and hard work I have achieved all of the twenty wishes bar one, and that is pending. Yes, we have all of the above bar the electric sprinklers and no I am not retired I work full time as a civil servant. No, I am not a genius, no I do not have a degree and I have no qualifications in fundraising. What I do have is a passion for fundraising and a committee of good men that fully support me and the club. In fact I wouldn’t bother at all unless I liked the committee members – so you

can see how much they mean to me as friends. Some of the grants are simple, like the Lords Taverners, and some require more work. What you will find is though that some of the information you will have from your community consultation and research will cross into more than one application. So how did I actually achieve these grants?, well I will tell you about a few: I applied to : • The Coalfield Regeneration Scheme Level 1 funding for the mowers and the roller. • I applied to the Awards for All for the rainwater harvesting scheme. • I applied to Sport England and the Lords Taverners for the synthetic pitch and net cages. • I applied to Colyer Ferguson and the Bernard Sunley Foundations for the clubhouse renovations. • I have applied to the Screwfix Foundation for the pop up sprinklers. I could go on but the secret of success is to keep going when you have a knock back. With my own experiences I had a 100% success rate for ages I thought I was invincible and then I had a few

knock backs – one was for £440,000 to the BIG Reaching Communities Buildings Fund. The thing is you move on and try again if you have a knock back. With funding nothing is guaranteed until you have the money in the club account. You will have to jump through many hoops but it is worth it, as their is no better feeling than delivering your fundraising agenda item when you have been awarded a grant through one of your applications. I have been awarded 24 grants over six years totaling over £100,000 for the local cricket club, youth club, youth football club and the local welfare sports ground. So to summarise top tips are:

• Carry out a consultation to create a wish list, • Research, via Google or other search engines, sources of grants • Fill in the forms a little at a time • Don’t rush your application, • Get a friend to proof read it before submission, • Be persistent and don’t give up, • Use all available sources of information and help you can, • Join the CASC scheme to claim gift aid. All of these off the field actions can lead to success on it. For example when I joined my club they hadn’t

played league cricket for 5 years and only played friendlies. Since I joined we have re-entered the Kent Village League and have been promoted as champions or runners up in three sucessive seasons. Now I know this is down to our players but the off the field activity can lead to fresh enthusiasm on it. We now have about 40 players registered and about 120 non playing family members at our club. We are thriving with new volunteers and have a cricket square that is the envy of all local clubs. We even have Kent Cricket Club groundsmen in twice a season to help us maintain the surface. We also now have five local teams that call our ground their home. We have also had a volunteer that won the BBC South East Unsung Hero Award and an Alan Albury Award, and four young volunteers that have 100 hours success on the vCricket programme. I think it’s called coming a long way in a short space of time. So go ahead create that WISH LIST and don’t be shy. It can be done we have a state of the art electric scoreboard that cost over £4,000 from a grant that nobody thought we could ever have in a socially deprived area. We’ve got it and are so proud of it .

I offer a grant advisory service for small clubs where I will assess your bid and in some cases help you write applications. I can do this electronically so distance is not a problem – all I ask is for a donation to my cricket club as reward. I am happy to help you.

Colin Smith Elvington & Tilmanstone Colliery Welfare Cricket Club Contact email: tilmanstoneminers@hotmail.co.uk

The man himself, Colin Smith (left) and the club Chairman, Trevor Rogers.