Firstly, a non-football congratulations to 7's defender Steve Daphne who became a father for the the first time last weekend to Ellie-Mae, who weighed in at 6lb 4oz.  Best wishes from all the club to father, mother and daughter who are all doing well.

The rebirth of the first team continues apace as well, and on Saturday they notched up their 10th straight league win in a row.  Again supported by a number of former Lloyds Bank stalwarts, the 1's didn't play to their best against an Old Westminster Cits side that belied their league form and played with a lot of spirit and determination, but it was the 3 points that really mattered here.  We cannot expect the first team or any team to play to their best every week, and there will be saturdays where they will have an off day.  However, as we are told over and over by any football pundit worth his salt, the sign of a potential league winning side is picking up the points even when you don't play well, and we seem to have got into that habit.  I know that Dom and the guys will be working hard on the training ground to get the performance back as well as the points.  One downside to saturday was the dislocated shoulder suffered by Mark Wheeler following an awkward fall.  Mark will be missed, and again I know the whole club wish him a very speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back as soon as possible.

Good wins for the 4's and 8's and 2 well earned poits for the 6's in a tough double header at Kew.  It was important that none of these sides lost on Saturday to keep the momentum going and keep themselves interested for end of season honours, so well done.  Indeed our only losses this weekend were in the cups, and nice as it would have been to get some silverware here it does allow the 2's and 3's to refocus on their league programme and continue the momentum there and the form that both have been showing of late.

This weekend sees a number of important fixtures throughout the club, with some that could determine how interested we will be in promotion issues going forward.  There are a number of games for each of our sides left, and it is important that we start to drive home now to get the impetus going and bring home the prize.  I cannot remember how long ago it was that we had so many sides in contention and it is creating a real buzz around the club.  It is up to all of us to try and make potential reality, and I wish all of our sides the very best of luck on Saturday and look forward to reporting on another great day for the club.

Cheers!

Steve Martin-lawrence, Chairman

Firstly a big well done to our home sides this week - four games, four victories! I cannot remember the last time that we had a full set of home games and came away winners in all of them.  Even more impressive was that we kept clean sheets in three of those games (so plenty of clean sheet jugs flowing in the bar I imagine) which is a tremendous effort.  Ironically I wasn't there yesterday due to a number of factors so unable to witness the achievement first hand, but thanks to those who texted me to keep me in touch with events.

The Cope is becoming a fortress and that is exactly what we want to see and the foundation we should build upon.  Gone are the days when teams thought that a visit to us was an easy three points and we need to continue to work hard to ensure that we never go back there.  We have a great set of captains who are working really hard behind the scenes, and you can feel the pride they have in leading a side in a successful club.  In previous weeks I have spoken about the team ethic that I have seen in a number of sides, and I really believe that this has been one of the major contributitive factors that has propelled this club forward.  It is slightly disappointing that I have heard of a bit of team disunity in a couple of our teams in recent weeks - a small minority of the club overall, but still something that we should be looking to fix immediately.  Passion and pride has a big part to play in this game and everyone will want to do well and will have an opinion on how a team succeeds.  However, there is a fine line between a healthy exchange of views and a destructive argument, and we all need to ensure that we stick to the former or as we have all seen it will affect a side on the pitch - lets make sure we destroy the opposition not ourselves!  Having said all that I do believe that club and team spirit is high, lets all work together to keep it there.

Unfortunately this week I have to end on a downside.  Yesterday one of our players had his personal possessions stolen from a dressing room. It was at an away ground, but irrespective of where it was it does highlight that we live in a society where theft and crime is on the increase, and we must therefore ensure we do all we can to make sure that events such as this are kept to an absolute minimum.  As a club, we constantly advise players to put valuables into a valuables bag that is taken out with the team, and we will put even more emphasis on this, and I will work with the captains to see how we can enforce this more strongly, but my message to you all is to be careful and vigilant and lets make sure that we simply enjoy our Saturday afternoons without episodes such as these.

 Steve Martin-Lawrence, Chairman