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April Note from the Chairman

Hi All

With reference to the recent Easter break, I hope you have all had some time to relax and spend time with family. Oh, and managed to get a little bit of a football fix also.

And talking of things ending, I cannot believe we are fast approaching the end of the football season. How quickly has that gone? I know it is the end of the season, as I am starting to hear of some great successes on the pitch from our teams. Firstly, our Under 13’s Stars team were confirmed as league champions, achieved with 2 games remaining. Well done to Dave. Dean and the boys. Then, on the same day, we had more league winners with our Under 15’s Gold winning their Division 1 equivalent. Mike, Phil and boys, once again a huge well done.

I hope you have all created lots of special memories throughout the season, with our footballers playing with smiles on face and enjoying playing for Greetland. Yes, this season has certainly had it challenges. Well, one in particular. The weather! It has rarely stopped raining over the winter period and of course, this has various impacts. Firstly, our grass pitches (as with our fellow grassroots teams) have taken a hammering throughout the season, with many matches called off. Thank goodness we have the magnificent venue that is Brooksbank to host a high volume of our matches, which has kept things ticking along to an extent. And of course, with matches being called off, the knock-on impact can be a backlog of games, which can create havoc for teams, especially those who have rugby and cricket players within their ranks. I see the Huddersfield league have announced that matches can be classed as ‘a walkover’ without financial penalty if teams are unable to fulfil matches. Whilst a sensible decision, footballers simply want to play and it can make a mockery of league positions when matches are not played and teams awarded points ‘for free’. No easily solution.

At the time of writing, our Under 18’s team are 4 matches from finishing their grassroots careers. Their coach, Gareth Ewing, has been managing the team since inception at Under 6’s, which is a fantastic achievement and if my memory serves me correctly, Gareth is the first coach to take a Greetland team all the way through the age groups since our former chairman, John King, who did so many years ago. We will hear more from Gareth within my next note.

Now, a little whistle-stop tour of other activity within the club.

As soon as our final matches finish, we will be immediately begin this spring/summers pitch improvements. For those with a knowledge of such things, this will include weeding, spiking, verti-draining and overseeding grass. Whilst we had to postpone matches this year (sometimes at short notice), I am confident that without last years pitch improvements, we would have had many more postponements and I am equally confident that this is a trend that will improve further over time.
On the subject of pitch improvements, we are an exploratory stage in reviewing if our own 3G pitch at Goldfields is a viable option financially and also environmentally. Along with Elland Rugby and under the umbrella of Golds, we are custodians of Goldfields on a long term lease from the council and any changes we consider for the site have to be reviewed carefully with all parties in mind, such as the member clubs and local community.
I have recently been working on the task of organising player trophies for this season. Not counting open age, vets and disability sections of the club, we have nearly 500 junior players on our books. This is therefore no small task, but my commitment is that every registered Greetland FC player will receive their own individually named trophy for taking part and representing our wonderful football club during the 2023/2024 season.
We are on the cusp of developing new partnerships to ensure that we have the desired pathways for all types of football at Greetland FC and I will be excited to share more details on these exciting developments as we progress through the off-season.
As our great club continues to grow and more time and resource are required to sustain our week to week tasks and future development objectives, we are in need of new volunteers to join our committee group. From helping painting the white lines on our field, to support new fund raising, or offering general advice and guidance on planning/finance management or running our social media communications – Any help/new volunteers would be welcomed with open arms. If you are interested in finding our more, then please get in touch (info@greetlandfc.co.uk).

Finally, good luck to those Greetland teams/players still fighting for trophies, league titles and promotions and I hope you all enjoy the final few weeks of another memorable season.

Very best wishes,

Ian Chapman

Chairman

Greetland Football Club

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April Note from the Chairman

11/22/2024

Hi All

With reference to the recent Easter break, I hope you have all had some time to relax and spend time with family. Oh, and managed to get a little bit of a football fix also.

And talking of things ending, I cannot believe we are fast approaching the end of the football season. How quickly has that gone? I know it is the end of the season, as I am starting to hear of some great successes on the pitch from our teams. Firstly, our Under 13’s Stars team were confirmed as league champions, achieved with 2 games remaining. Well done to Dave. Dean and the boys. Then, on the same day, we had more league winners with our Under 15’s Gold winning their Division 1 equivalent. Mike, Phil and boys, once again a huge well done.

I hope you have all created lots of special memories throughout the season, with our footballers playing with smiles on face and enjoying playing for Greetland. Yes, this season has certainly had it challenges. Well, one in particular. The weather! It has rarely stopped raining over the winter period and of course, this has various impacts. Firstly, our grass pitches (as with our fellow grassroots teams) have taken a hammering throughout the season, with many matches called off. Thank goodness we have the magnificent venue that is Brooksbank to host a high volume of our matches, which has kept things ticking along to an extent. And of course, with matches being called off, the knock-on impact can be a backlog of games, which can create havoc for teams, especially those who have rugby and cricket players within their ranks. I see the Huddersfield league have announced that matches can be classed as ‘a walkover’ without financial penalty if teams are unable to fulfil matches. Whilst a sensible decision, footballers simply want to play and it can make a mockery of league positions when matches are not played and teams awarded points ‘for free’. No easily solution.

At the time of writing, our Under 18’s team are 4 matches from finishing their grassroots careers. Their coach, Gareth Ewing, has been managing the team since inception at Under 6’s, which is a fantastic achievement and if my memory serves me correctly, Gareth is the first coach to take a Greetland team all the way through the age groups since our former chairman, John King, who did so many years ago. We will hear more from Gareth within my next note.

Now, a little whistle-stop tour of other activity within the club.

As soon as our final matches finish, we will be immediately begin this spring/summers pitch improvements. For those with a knowledge of such things, this will include weeding, spiking, verti-draining and overseeding grass. Whilst we had to postpone matches this year (sometimes at short notice), I am confident that without last years pitch improvements, we would have had many more postponements and I am equally confident that this is a trend that will improve further over time.
On the subject of pitch improvements, we are an exploratory stage in reviewing if our own 3G pitch at Goldfields is a viable option financially and also environmentally. Along with Elland Rugby and under the umbrella of Golds, we are custodians of Goldfields on a long term lease from the council and any changes we consider for the site have to be reviewed carefully with all parties in mind, such as the member clubs and local community.
I have recently been working on the task of organising player trophies for this season. Not counting open age, vets and disability sections of the club, we have nearly 500 junior players on our books. This is therefore no small task, but my commitment is that every registered Greetland FC player will receive their own individually named trophy for taking part and representing our wonderful football club during the 2023/2024 season.
We are on the cusp of developing new partnerships to ensure that we have the desired pathways for all types of football at Greetland FC and I will be excited to share more details on these exciting developments as we progress through the off-season.
As our great club continues to grow and more time and resource are required to sustain our week to week tasks and future development objectives, we are in need of new volunteers to join our committee group. From helping painting the white lines on our field, to support new fund raising, or offering general advice and guidance on planning/finance management or running our social media communications – Any help/new volunteers would be welcomed with open arms. If you are interested in finding our more, then please get in touch (info@greetlandfc.co.uk).

Finally, good luck to those Greetland teams/players still fighting for trophies, league titles and promotions and I hope you all enjoy the final few weeks of another memorable season.

Very best wishes,

Ian Chapman

Chairman

Greetland Football Club