REPORT FOR SEASON 2012/13
Membership: We had 32 Full Members (2011/12: 45). Given that we normally aim for 15 per team, this figure was short of the mark. Of these, 15 were from the First Team but only eight from the Second Team. There were nine from the Old Boys Team. Casual Membership amounted to 10 (2011/12: 9), whilst we signed 12 Honorary Members (2011/12: 9). Of these Honorary Members, five were from the Second Team and the rest Old Boys. Overall the Club had a total of 54 members (2011/12: 63. The total of membership fees collected was £3,075 (2011/12: £3,705).
The average membership fees paid were: Full £67.03 (normal fee £70) (2011/12: £65.77), Casual £35.00 (normal fee £40) (2011/12: £27.77), and Honorary £48.33 (normal fee £50) (2011/12: £47.22), giving an overall average of £56.94 per member (2011/12: 57.69).
Registrations: With two MSFL teams in operation again, registrations were reduced to 49 (2011/12: 56). The Old Boys Team had 19 players registered for the Masters League (2011/12: 20). Of the 20 competitive matches played by the Old Boys Team, guests had to be used in 11 of them, percentage-wise more than the previous season.
Pitches: We retained the 3G pitch at The Hive for the First Team and played eight matches there. The Second Team were allocated the Roger Bannister Sports Centre which replaced Gosling Sports Park used the previous season. The Second Team played eight matches at the RBSC and the First Team two. Due to the poor weather endured during the season, we had to hire numerous other pitches to get home fixtures played, two at Gosling Sports Centre and two at West Hendon Playing Fields (all First Team). We also hired Norstar’s 3G at Ark Academy in Wembley on one occasion.
The usage at The Hive and the RBSC was fair considering the number of weeks lost due to bad weather. We lost two weeks on the 3G due to Barnet FC belatedly taking our booking on one occasion and heavy snowfall causing another postponement. Two pitches at Roger Bannister were wasted due to forfeitures, one of them by the opposition who have yet to pay 50% of the pitch hire costs.
Discipline: As has been well-documented during the season, we endured our worst disciplinary record in 37 seasons of competing in Maccabi football. The First Team collected a record high 33 cautions and six sending offs (including after-match misconduct cases) (2011/12: 14 yellows, one red). The Second Team had eight cautions and two reds (2011/12: 11 yellows). The Old Boys Team totaled nine cautions and one sending off (a guest player), (2011/12: 3).
Altogether, we amassed 50 cautions and nine sending offs (2011/12: 28 yellows, one red). As General Secretary I dealt with a record 60 cases, including the Club misconduct charge for the abandoned match against UJIA, for which we were fined £50 by the London FA. In an effort to stem the tide of cautions for dissent, we adopted a one-match ban for any dissent caution but this deterrent had little effect and had to be lifted because it caused unsettlement within the Firsts which could have been detrimental to the team.
Collecting money back from players for London FA fines has proved to be very difficult and at the time of writing this report, the Club is owed £12 by Craig Edwards, £16 by Jeff Bathija, £28 by Craig Cole, £65 by Dan Orgel and £68 by Kane Gilbery. If these remain unpaid, I will be emailing the MSFL to get the registrations of these players blocked
Overall, the Club’s disciplinary record for 2012/13 has been absolutely appalling and brought unwelcomed shame on the Club from the media. The knock-on effect of the UJIA abandonment was that the First Team were banned from The Hive by the Maccabi Masters Football League (fearing problems from Barnet FC), although it did not affect the Old Boys.
League fines: Our MSFL fines totaled £70 (2011/12: £102) so at least there was an improvement. The First Team and Old Boys Team did not collect a single fine. Of the Second Team’s £70 in fines, only one (£10) was incurred for an admin error – an incomplete team sheet. The rest were for postponing three Second Team fixtures without permission, two in the League (v Faithfold C and L’Equipe) and one a cup tie (v FC Team A). So, considering that 69 competitive matches were played, one anomaly costing a tenner can be viewed as be a good return and thanks go to the management of each team for doing a commendable job overall.
Subs collection: We retained match subs at £8 per player per game for the second season running, although the First Team began collecting £10 per player with £2 going towards training which was held at Middlesex University. This sum of approximately £20 per game was included as training income and not as match subs income.
The First Team collected an average of £80.96 per match (2011/12: £75.85). It included raised fees for double-headers in 2 instances, including the null and void UJIA match. The Second Team collected an average of £84.05 (2011/12: £77.25) and the Old Boys Team £81.09 (2011/12: £76.91). The subs totaled £5,732 (2011/12: £5,903), which was down mainly due to the number of double-headers played and the fact that four Second Team fixtures (including one double-header) were forfeited (two wins, three losses). Allowing for students and kit washing reductions, I believe that the subs collection amounts were very good throughout the Club as the increases show. I would like to thank all those who collected the subs for bringing in this vital income.
Events: We held the 2013 Awards Presentation Lunch on 2 June at the Three Hammers in Mill Hill, which attracted 12 people. The event was a scaled-down lunch compared to previous years for a number of reasons, the main one being a poor response. Another reason was the absence of the Club’s perpetual silverware for the first time ever due to the failure of certain individuals to return the trophies in their possession by the deadline, despite email reminders. Missing were the First Team Leading Goalscorer’s Cup, the Second Team Player of the Year Cup and the Inter-Club Founders’ Shield. This meant that the engraving could not be done in time for the event at the Three Hammers.
Two trophies were with-held from Kane Gilbery (First Team Leading Goalscorer’s award and the Club Leading Appearances award) because he owed the Club £68 from disciplinary fines at the time of the Awards Presentation.
The Jack Kyte Challenge Cup was penciled in for Sunday 26 May but had to be canceled due to a rearranged Masters League fixture. The Cup will be contested for at the Club’s 45th birthday commemoration tournament scheduled for 29 December 2013 at Princes Park, home of the TFFC’s earliest origins. This event was last held five years ago to celebrate the Club’s 40th birthday.
Equipment: The three teams wore their first choice kits again during the season – the yellow and red Daniel Stewart kit by the First Team, the red and yellow Ellis & Co kit by the Second Team and the yellow and red Ellis & Co kit by the Old Boys Team. The Second Team lost nearly a full set of yellow ‘clash’ shirts worth over £250 and the majority of yellow shorts, their whereabouts remaining a mystery despite emails to the players. The First Team appear to be two shirts and two pairs of shorts down, whilst the Old Boys Team’s kit seems to be intact.
In storage we have two Bekhors green and white kits, one of which was used by the First Team when requiring a clash kit. We also have the Founders’ shirts (red and yellow broad stripes) and the all-yellow and navy Bekhors kit which Nick Waitsman had in storage and was returned to me. Due to playing at the 3G at The Hive, which runs adjacent to the Jubilee Line, we stocked up on footballs but didn’t lose too many overall. During the season I bought quite a few decent footballs for next season.
Training: Lee Fegan and Jonathan Cohen ran training both at Mill Hill Park in the summer and then at Middlesex University where we had use of half of an old-style astroturf under floodlights. Costly at £55 per session, the University was our only option since there was no space at the London Maccabi Lions 3G at Rowley Lane which we used the previous season. The reasoning behind agreeing to hire Middlesex University was the Second Team’s move from Gosling Sports Park (at £140 per match) to the Roger Bannister Sports Centre (at £87.60 per match). This saved us £52.40 per match which more or less offset the rise in training venue hire.
Adam Morris helped at Mill Hill Park with several weeks of pre-season fitness training which was appreciated. Attendance figures were good at Mill Hill Park and started ok at Middlesex University but then fell away as winter approached. Of the 20 weeks originally booked, we used the pitch on 17 occasions, wasting the pitch three times. Training expenditure was a record-high £1,100 (2011/12: £600) and we brought in £890 of which £398 was from the additional £2 per player taken from First Team match subs. The rest came from a pitch-sharing arrangement by Lee Fegan which contributed £25 per session. For the second season in succession the general lack of support by Second Team players hampered attendance figures.
Conclusion: I reported for the 2011/12 season that we had a fairly good season admin-wise and covered our costs efficiently. In complete contrast, this season has been a nightmare and a collection of indiscipline, forfeited matches, insufficient income, adverse weather and lost equipment have all contributed towards making the 2012/13 campaign one of the worst on record.
Despite the many problems, I would like to thank the Management Committee for helping to get us through an extremely arduous season and also, with notable exceptions in the First Team, for the general cooperation of most others across the Club.
NIGEL KYTE, June 2013
Membership: We had 32 Full Members (2011/12: 45). Given that we normally aim for 15 per team, this figure was short of the mark. Of these, 15 were from the First Team but only eight from the Second Team. There were nine from the Old Boys Team. Casual Membership amounted to 10 (2011/12: 9), whilst we signed 12 Honorary Members (2011/12: 9). Of these Honorary Members, five were from the Second Team and the rest Old Boys. Overall the Club had a total of 54 members (2011/12: 63. The total of membership fees collected was £3,075 (2011/12: £3,705).
The average membership fees paid were: Full £67.03 (normal fee £70) (2011/12: £65.77), Casual £35.00 (normal fee £40) (2011/12: £27.77), and Honorary £48.33 (normal fee £50) (2011/12: £47.22), giving an overall average of £56.94 per member (2011/12: 57.69).
Registrations: With two MSFL teams in operation again, registrations were reduced to 49 (2011/12: 56). The Old Boys Team had 19 players registered for the Masters League (2011/12: 20). Of the 20 competitive matches played by the Old Boys Team, guests had to be used in 11 of them, percentage-wise more than the previous season.
Pitches: We retained the 3G pitch at The Hive for the First Team and played eight matches there. The Second Team were allocated the Roger Bannister Sports Centre which replaced Gosling Sports Park used the previous season. The Second Team played eight matches at the RBSC and the First Team two. Due to the poor weather endured during the season, we had to hire numerous other pitches to get home fixtures played, two at Gosling Sports Centre and two at West Hendon Playing Fields (all First Team). We also hired Norstar’s 3G at Ark Academy in Wembley on one occasion.
The usage at The Hive and the RBSC was fair considering the number of weeks lost due to bad weather. We lost two weeks on the 3G due to Barnet FC belatedly taking our booking on one occasion and heavy snowfall causing another postponement. Two pitches at Roger Bannister were wasted due to forfeitures, one of them by the opposition who have yet to pay 50% of the pitch hire costs.
Discipline: As has been well-documented during the season, we endured our worst disciplinary record in 37 seasons of competing in Maccabi football. The First Team collected a record high 33 cautions and six sending offs (including after-match misconduct cases) (2011/12: 14 yellows, one red). The Second Team had eight cautions and two reds (2011/12: 11 yellows). The Old Boys Team totaled nine cautions and one sending off (a guest player), (2011/12: 3).
Altogether, we amassed 50 cautions and nine sending offs (2011/12: 28 yellows, one red). As General Secretary I dealt with a record 60 cases, including the Club misconduct charge for the abandoned match against UJIA, for which we were fined £50 by the London FA. In an effort to stem the tide of cautions for dissent, we adopted a one-match ban for any dissent caution but this deterrent had little effect and had to be lifted because it caused unsettlement within the Firsts which could have been detrimental to the team.
Collecting money back from players for London FA fines has proved to be very difficult and at the time of writing this report, the Club is owed £12 by Craig Edwards, £16 by Jeff Bathija, £28 by Craig Cole, £65 by Dan Orgel and £68 by Kane Gilbery. If these remain unpaid, I will be emailing the MSFL to get the registrations of these players blocked
Overall, the Club’s disciplinary record for 2012/13 has been absolutely appalling and brought unwelcomed shame on the Club from the media. The knock-on effect of the UJIA abandonment was that the First Team were banned from The Hive by the Maccabi Masters Football League (fearing problems from Barnet FC), although it did not affect the Old Boys.
League fines: Our MSFL fines totaled £70 (2011/12: £102) so at least there was an improvement. The First Team and Old Boys Team did not collect a single fine. Of the Second Team’s £70 in fines, only one (£10) was incurred for an admin error – an incomplete team sheet. The rest were for postponing three Second Team fixtures without permission, two in the League (v Faithfold C and L’Equipe) and one a cup tie (v FC Team A). So, considering that 69 competitive matches were played, one anomaly costing a tenner can be viewed as be a good return and thanks go to the management of each team for doing a commendable job overall.
Subs collection: We retained match subs at £8 per player per game for the second season running, although the First Team began collecting £10 per player with £2 going towards training which was held at Middlesex University. This sum of approximately £20 per game was included as training income and not as match subs income.
The First Team collected an average of £80.96 per match (2011/12: £75.85). It included raised fees for double-headers in 2 instances, including the null and void UJIA match. The Second Team collected an average of £84.05 (2011/12: £77.25) and the Old Boys Team £81.09 (2011/12: £76.91). The subs totaled £5,732 (2011/12: £5,903), which was down mainly due to the number of double-headers played and the fact that four Second Team fixtures (including one double-header) were forfeited (two wins, three losses). Allowing for students and kit washing reductions, I believe that the subs collection amounts were very good throughout the Club as the increases show. I would like to thank all those who collected the subs for bringing in this vital income.
Events: We held the 2013 Awards Presentation Lunch on 2 June at the Three Hammers in Mill Hill, which attracted 12 people. The event was a scaled-down lunch compared to previous years for a number of reasons, the main one being a poor response. Another reason was the absence of the Club’s perpetual silverware for the first time ever due to the failure of certain individuals to return the trophies in their possession by the deadline, despite email reminders. Missing were the First Team Leading Goalscorer’s Cup, the Second Team Player of the Year Cup and the Inter-Club Founders’ Shield. This meant that the engraving could not be done in time for the event at the Three Hammers.
Two trophies were with-held from Kane Gilbery (First Team Leading Goalscorer’s award and the Club Leading Appearances award) because he owed the Club £68 from disciplinary fines at the time of the Awards Presentation.
The Jack Kyte Challenge Cup was penciled in for Sunday 26 May but had to be canceled due to a rearranged Masters League fixture. The Cup will be contested for at the Club’s 45th birthday commemoration tournament scheduled for 29 December 2013 at Princes Park, home of the TFFC’s earliest origins. This event was last held five years ago to celebrate the Club’s 40th birthday.
Equipment: The three teams wore their first choice kits again during the season – the yellow and red Daniel Stewart kit by the First Team, the red and yellow Ellis & Co kit by the Second Team and the yellow and red Ellis & Co kit by the Old Boys Team. The Second Team lost nearly a full set of yellow ‘clash’ shirts worth over £250 and the majority of yellow shorts, their whereabouts remaining a mystery despite emails to the players. The First Team appear to be two shirts and two pairs of shorts down, whilst the Old Boys Team’s kit seems to be intact.
In storage we have two Bekhors green and white kits, one of which was used by the First Team when requiring a clash kit. We also have the Founders’ shirts (red and yellow broad stripes) and the all-yellow and navy Bekhors kit which Nick Waitsman had in storage and was returned to me. Due to playing at the 3G at The Hive, which runs adjacent to the Jubilee Line, we stocked up on footballs but didn’t lose too many overall. During the season I bought quite a few decent footballs for next season.
Training: Lee Fegan and Jonathan Cohen ran training both at Mill Hill Park in the summer and then at Middlesex University where we had use of half of an old-style astroturf under floodlights. Costly at £55 per session, the University was our only option since there was no space at the London Maccabi Lions 3G at Rowley Lane which we used the previous season. The reasoning behind agreeing to hire Middlesex University was the Second Team’s move from Gosling Sports Park (at £140 per match) to the Roger Bannister Sports Centre (at £87.60 per match). This saved us £52.40 per match which more or less offset the rise in training venue hire.
Adam Morris helped at Mill Hill Park with several weeks of pre-season fitness training which was appreciated. Attendance figures were good at Mill Hill Park and started ok at Middlesex University but then fell away as winter approached. Of the 20 weeks originally booked, we used the pitch on 17 occasions, wasting the pitch three times. Training expenditure was a record-high £1,100 (2011/12: £600) and we brought in £890 of which £398 was from the additional £2 per player taken from First Team match subs. The rest came from a pitch-sharing arrangement by Lee Fegan which contributed £25 per session. For the second season in succession the general lack of support by Second Team players hampered attendance figures.
Conclusion: I reported for the 2011/12 season that we had a fairly good season admin-wise and covered our costs efficiently. In complete contrast, this season has been a nightmare and a collection of indiscipline, forfeited matches, insufficient income, adverse weather and lost equipment have all contributed towards making the 2012/13 campaign one of the worst on record.
Despite the many problems, I would like to thank the Management Committee for helping to get us through an extremely arduous season and also, with notable exceptions in the First Team, for the general cooperation of most others across the Club.
NIGEL KYTE, June 2013