As you can tell from the lack of a December update I have failed in my aim of delivering a monthly update on the Club’s projects, (I will say they are projects – it could be called many other things), every month.

My first 100 days flew past and I am still getting to grips with the scope & scale of this job. How Brian survived for 17 years amazes me.

First, an update on the position on the leases for the buildings on the Club’s land. After a meeting with the management at SWECET, representatives from the Club and both sets of solicitors agreement on all areas under discussion was reached prior the end of 2025. Nothing will be signed until after the promised EGM, and acceptance from the members. The only hold up now is a request from the Trust to an amendment to the one Agreement which has been refused.

Secondly – Thanks, primarily due to some hard work and strong negotiation by Gary Thomson, our Club secretary, agreement with EE Hutchinson was reached, contracts signed and funds received for a small area at the far end of our land to erect a telephone mast. This is extra and much needed revenue to support the Club.

The raising of funds for all areas of the Club is critical. Andy Stanford & Gary Thomson have been working for several months on compiling a list of “jobs” that need doing at the Club. These range from simple jobs like painting through to major enhancements to the infrastructure, areas such as a new water tank and repairing/replacing the stand that overlooks the main pitch. At the last count this was over 230 jobs. They are now looking to prioritise the most critical and obtaining costs for the work. Some of these will be in the thousands of pounds to resolve so the next task will be to coordinate any support that the members can give to help improve the look and feel of the Club without breaking the bank.

On the rugby the Men’s 1st XV sit top of the Essex 1 league. This is despite a four point deduction caused when a player in the Colts side received a red card, the referees report on the discipline of the side after the red card was shown was less than complementary and Essex, after reviewing the incident and match, chose to implement a four point deduction as a “Club” punishment.

The Men’s first XV have won all 11 of their matches. The closest game was a narrow victory by a point over Epping Upper Clapton, (18-17), who sit second behind us in the table. We have the return fixture at the end of February which will be key in deciding the side that wins promotion this year. As mentioned earlier the Club needs revenue to survive. Our two bars are the main contributors to the CIO that enables us to provide the excellent playing facilities that Clive and his team work so hard to achieve. This season, two sides have dropped out of our league, a third cancelled their fixture against us earlier in the season (although we hope to reverse the fixture later in the year to play at Oakfield) and the last two rounds of the RFU Community Cup we had opposition cry-off with the loss of revenue and bar takings from these matches. The game against Epping Upper Clapton had to be behind “closed doors” with a subsequent loss of further revenue, we took something like 50% of the normal Saturday bar receipts. My personal opinion is that the RFU is letting the whole of Community rugby down and seems only to worry about England and the “Prem”.

Our T-Birds sit a comfortable fifth in their league. Won 7 and lost 7. They have another four league fixtures remaining. Saturday the T-Birds host Exeter University Women who sit just one place above them in the league. They can always benefit from your support so show up and watch some exciting T-Birds in action.

The Men’s 2nd Team have struggled to meet all their fixtures this year and Rick Love has decided to step aside after supporting the team over a long, long time. Our thanks to Ricky for all the hours and days he has spent encouraging the young, (and older), players over recent years. Wayne Tredwell has been asked to step in as coach for the 2s and together with the support of Reece Kidd will aim to build on the work Rick has done.

The Club bar and Bar 1928 are both delivering good revenues despite the challenges of sides not fulfilling our fixtures.

The cancelled Community Cup game on 31st January was another lost revenue opportunity but our thanks to Old Cooperians who played a mixture of our 2s & 3s with a few ex-1s players returning and a couple coming back from injury making for an entertaining match.

The opposition crying-off our games in the Community Cup has resulted in us making the quarter finals having only played one fixture. The Cup has been arranged that quarter, semi and final matches are played at the back end of the season. The draw has paired us against Cheshunt on 2nd May who are top of the equivalent league to us, Herts 1, having won 13 out of their 13 league fixtures. This will be a tough game. Should we better Cheshunt other sides in the quarter-final include Paignton, Novocastrians (Newcastle area), Evesham, Aldwinians (Manchester), and Crewe so we can expect a long journey.

I have mentioned the Acers previously in my update. A few Saturdays ago they hosted an event for other sides that provide opportunities for people with a disability. Almost seventy children and adults came to Oakfield to enjoy a game of rugby and make new friends. The team provided food for all and the event was supported by a number of senior players who showed up to offer their support. A lady I spoke to watching the event told me that the first thing her grandson said with a big grin on his face that Saturday morning was he was “going to play rugby today”. The work the Acers do is able to bring smiles to a lot of people.