1977

1977

The early months of any year are usually cold and dismal so 1977 started with a Men's Stag Night and a Ladies Hen Night. The cricket section were trying to hatch a deal with Swale Borough Council whereby a licence for the Rectory Playing field for 364 days at £10 would develop, the Council to cut the outfield and the Club to look after the wicket, but unfortunately when the Council came back with an offer it was a definite “No No”, still efforts in all directions continued and the A.P.C.M. at this stage were also considering our request for land.

On 26 April 1977 information was reported to be on it's way from the London Gardener's Society to enable the formation of a Horticultural Section, with all the houses having gardens on the estate this first step would eventually lead to the formation of the Gardening Section several years later.

A Charity Football match was held on 8 May at Sittingbourne Football ground to the rear of the High Street (this ground became the market and then Sainsbury's Supermarket), the aim of the match was to raise funds for Ron Smith's widow Eve. There was a special committee of referees formed by Richard Shrubshall and Rusty Burgin, Colin Gunn and Ray Oddy joined this committee. It was Colin's task to deal with the distribution of 3,000 programmes at a cost of 25p for adults and 10p for children, Radio Kent and the East Kent Gazette helped with advertising and John Roberts donated £10 which was used to purchase the match ball. The guests were looked after by Jock Weir , and Pam Turner and Gladys Day were on hand for “tea making”. Noted is a plea from Colin Gunn for volunteers to man the turnstiles! Also a committee proposal “That the Club buys a maximum of two bottles of champagne for football players and officials” was agreed. The very successful event raised £276.49 for Eve Smith and entertained many of the townspeople as well as Club Members.

The Woodcoombe Team was represented by the following squad:

GOALKEEPERS: Ray, THE CAT Oddy , John Hartridge , FLASHY DRESSER ON AND OFF THE FIELD, and Special Guest Alan Hogkinson , ex England & Sheffield United.

DEFENCE: OLD BONES Rusty Burgin , Micky Scott WHO LOVED HIS TACKLES, John Rees THE RELIGIOUS ONE JUDGING BY HIS COMMENTS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST, Brian Eustace , NOTHING GOT ROUND HIM, Bruce Anderson , THE SCOT WHO OBTAINED A SPECIAL VISA TO PLAY, Micky Lidstone , CUSTOMS OFFICER (NO BRIBES ACCEPTED).

MIDFIELD: Dave Barrows , DEFT TOUCH WAS UNCONFIRMED BY WIFE, Peter ‘WILL OF THE WISP' Wyeth, Brian BartlettT FAMED DEFENDER, ALAS ALL RECORDS OF THIS DESTROYED IN THE 1914-1918 WAR, and Special Guest Gerry Summers the Gillingham Manager and Ex West Bromwich Albion star.

FORWARDS: “MY BOY” Laurie Vanlint, Colin Gunn FIREMAN WHO PROMISED ACTION WITHOUT USE OF CHOPPER, Alan Merryman WHO LIVED, ATE AND SLEPT FOOTBALL AND OCCASIONALLY WENT TO WORK, Peter Sheaf FAMED FOR LEADING DEFENCES A DOG'S LIFE.

REFEREE: “Bionic Dick” Robert Shrubsall supported by Linesmen Alan Truss and Dave Baker, proven fact that none of these three really knew the rules.

When Brian Bartlett took his first Youth Team onto the playing field in 1975 he could not have foreseen how things would develop for the young footballers in the Club, Ron Smith and Dave Barrows and other parents were a great help to him and at the end of the 1976/77 season the U.12, U.14 and U.16 teams had all done very well in their leagues, the U.12 team had pulled off the double and Brian must have been the proudest man around! To celebrate the success story 2 tickets were purchased for the Cup Final and all the boys' names were put in a hat, the winner was Peter Richardson .

On 3 May 1977 the Youth Section was properly formed in that it had a committee to run it instead of the overworked Brian Bartlett and his managers. The committee was: Chairman Rusty Burgin, Secretary Tony Rees, Treasurer Brian Bartlett, plus M. Phillips, I. Denman, R. Clarke, G. Ratton and J. Williams . The committee's first aim was to encourage the parents to join the Club and their other main intention was to ensure that all the boys got to play, they introduced a membership fee of 20p if parents were members and 50p if the boys' parents were not Club Members.

The Club's Dinner and Dance that year saw 142 members at the dinner and about 300 attending the dance, the guests were Jock Weir and Mr. Wilson from the Kent Playing Fields Association. The cost was £1.25 for the dance only and this is what members who paid £3.50 for dinner enjoyed:

Asparagus Soup

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Roast and Creamed Potatoes

Braised carrots and peas

Peach Melba

Cheese and Biscuits

Coffee

The Club Personality was Bill Stephens.

The Chairman's Award, Burgin Cup was presented to Eddie Pilgrim.

At the A.G.M. in May 1977 something happened which would not be allowed to happen in future years when all three officers of the Club stood down and 3 new officers elected, they were: Chairman Eddie Pilgrim, General Secretary Keith Baldock Treasurer Peter Scales. Ray Oddy returned as Vice Chairman, and Rodney Clark Membership Secretary, plus of course a representative from each section .

The first thing the new committee did was to write to the A.P.C.M., Strutt & Parker, Sterling Homes and R. Neames stating that although there had been a committee change the Club was still very interested in finding property.

The second thing that happened was that the Chairman Eddie Pilgrim asked for clarification as to how profits from the sections was used. The Rule Book under Rule 28H “Profit or Surplus of a Section was discussed, this reads: “This will be retained by the Main Club Treasurer for preferential use within the Section, but will be reviewed annually by the Main Club Committee, who may decide to cut down or stop for the time being the grant or grants from the Main Club funds. The Main Club Committee may also decide to reduce the amount held by any Section”. Keith Baldock asked if Rule Books should be issued to all members and it was agreed that this would depend on cost.

On 7 July the new Treasurer Peter Scales issued guidelines to Sections on how funds, budgets and accounts should be kept. The Receipts and Payments Account first appeared at Main Club Committee meetings and the same format has remained in existence ever since.

The new committee also decided to put on suspension the Volleyball Section as it had been dormant for 12 months, and the 1000 Club would be canvassed on the newsletter, it stood at 205 but had been 330, this was to drop to 157 by December. They were also concerned about sportsman representing the Club who were not Club Members, and it was agreed under Club Rules 12 and 14 that the committee should introduce pro-tem the following rule: “That only Club Members who have paid their Main Club Membership fee and Section fee to which they may belong, can vote at the Club's A.G.M. E.G.M. or the Section's A.G.M. or E.G.M.”

The cricketers lost by 7 runs in the final of the Evening League to Stevadors and the U.16 Cricketers acquitted themselves well in a tournament at Faversham. All the Members were enjoying social events, Chicken & Chip disco then a Sight-seeing trip to London by 53 of them, followed by 44 members going to Margate at a cost of £2.75 including transport supper and show, a Car Rally organised by Peter Scales and Roy Jackson, at the cost of 50p per car, there was an inter-club tournament in November with a social evening, and December the now customary Children's party, dance and Santa House Calls on Christmas day.