Well done to the 1's and 6's on getting two good victories on an overall diasappointing day for the club.  I am especially pleased for the first team, who last season had three very tight encounters with Bank of England, always just coming off the wrong end of a result, so it is good that they turned the tables yesterday with the reward of a home tie in the next round against South Bank Cuaco.  The 6's are certainly playing some "bring the crowds back" football, and having been involved in a 10 goal encounter at the start of the season, went one better with a 6-5 win yesterday, and it is good to see the enthusiasm generated there.  Disappointing results for the rest of the sides, but I do not expect us to take that lying down, and am confident that we will bounce back again next week, and get the good results we are now expecting each week, but remember such results will only come with hard work on the training ground, and a good spirit on and off the pitch.

I wasn't around yesterday, but still had an active involvement in the games played yesterday, and so this week would like to illustrate some great teamwork off the pitch as well as taking the opportunity to thank a few people.  We are lucky in the SAL that we do get reliable referees appointed to our games, and it is a rarity that any of them actually cry off - however injury and illness took their toll this week, and in the space of 15 minutes on Friday night we lost not only one but two of our appointed referees for the games yesterday.  Not an easy task to replace at such short notice, but Alex, Scott and myself got down to the task in hand to attempt to do so and between us made over 40 calls to try and resolve the situation.  We had great backing from the SAL (Mike Redhouse and Gareth Dineen) and the AFA (Trevor Syms) and between the lot of us we eventually came up trumps.  A special thanks to Mr Chaudhuri, who having refereed a game in West London in the morning then made a 150 mile round trip to help us out in the afternoon.  The dedication of all those involved in ensuring that we had the requisite number of officials is to be applauded, and the determination shown is perhaps something we can all think about when taking to the pitch.

With that in mind, I look forward to reporting on a better set of results next week.  Please remember training this Wednesday, an opportunity to get the disppointment out the sysytem and start afresh next Saturday.

Steve Martin-Lawrence, Chairman