1982

1982

1982 showed an increase in Membership at the Annual General Meeting in May there were 257 Full Members and 7 Honorary and £1,524.88 in the bank. The usual Club Functions continued throughout the year plus Gardening had been to the Chelsea Flower Show and Kew Gardens, there was an Easter Panto as well as the Christmas Panto, there was also a pretty unsuccessful Sports Day where prizes of £1 Gift Vouchers were given. TONY REES had organised a trip to Wembley for the youngsters in the Youth Section and there was a Treasure Hunt and a trip to Chessington Zoo.

The task of sorting out the newsletter delivery rounds now fell to Brian Sherwood the Membership Secretary as it was still part of a Committee Member's job to deliver the newsletters, and on 7 June Eddie Pilgrim the Chairman made the decision that all Main Club committee meetings would be held on the first Monday of the month.

At the Presentation Dinner and Dance apart from the Main Club Awards the Football and Youth Sections also did their presentations, which made the presentation ceremony a bit l o n g ! The reciprocants were : Rusty Burgin , Chairman's Award , Brian Bartlett Member of the Year , and SANDRA TAPP Lady of the Year.

The committee elected in May were Eddie Pilgrim his sixth year as Chairman , Peter Scales Treasurer, George Gibson General Secretary, Brian SherwoodD, Membership Secretary , Margarey Parry Editor, 1000 Club Secretary Tricia Shepherd , and General Committee Members Ray Oddy, Pat Bartlett, Bob Parry, Marion Gunn and welcome to what was going to become a very familiar face Terry Wellard . Throughout the year the Sections were basically represented by Rusty Burgin , Cricket, Colin Gunn Youth, Brian Bartlett , Football, Ray Oddy Gardening, Keith Baldock Video.

1982 will be remembered for all the negotiations which went on all year through for both Murston Playing Fields and the Blue Circle A.P.C.M. Clubhouse. The A.P.C.M. negotiations had led the Main Club Committee to appoint a steering committee on 30 December 1981 comprising of Eddie Pilgrim, Peter Scales, George Gibson and Keith Baldock, the four of them co-opted on as per their brief Rusty Burgin, Roy Jackson and Gerry Calver . Club rules had been sent to Blue Circle and the Solicitor employed, the original 4 had discussed the “Heads of Agreement” with Blue Circle but by 5 July B.C.I. dropped out saying they were entering negotiations with a Leisure Company.

In the meantime negotiations were still on the table with Swale Borough Council for the Lease of MURSTON PLAYING FIELDS . On 22 February the Chairman pointed out the Notice in the East Kent Gazette that the proposed take over by Woodcoombe of Murston Playing Fields had passed through a full Council meeting. On 17 May a letter from Swale Borough Council stated that they were still awaiting confirmation from the Department of the Environment for the go-ahead on a 35 year Lease. Rusty Burgin asked for a steering committee to be formed and Keith Baldock asked for two sets of plans relating to whether we gained the A.P.C.M. or not, but as said above the A.P.C.M. fell through. Ray Oddy was appointed to Chair the steering committee with 2 members from each section, although this did change. A draft Lease was received by our Solicitors at the beginning of July and an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting on the 26 July gave the committee the go-ahead to pursue the Lease.

There was a buzz of activity with enquiries on the purchase of a line marking machine and wood for goal posts, and against the advice of the Solicitor it was agreed to go ahead with the Lease even though the swings and slides were in the way of the second pitch, this however was taken up by the Solicitor. After much discussion the Committee also rubber stamped a proposal: “To authorise main officers to allocate monies towards Murston Playiing Fields to a value of £700, this to exclude payment of lease and legal fees”. The mad rush moved on when Eddie Pilgrim sent Keith Baldock down to the Council offices to move our teams over to Murston Playing Fields and other teams off of the field, the Council Officer was not impressed but with Keith he sat and made the alterations.

The Land Committee became an important asset to the Club, Ray Oddy chaired with Peter Scales, Brian Bartlett, CHarlie Yardley, Reg Friar, Colin Gunn, George Gibson and Rusty Burgin they were forever meeting. An example of the knock on effect to the Club was when Sittingbourne Argyle Football team joined Woodcoombe “en mass” and became the Club's Sunday team.

On 6 September 1982 it was agreed by the Main Club Committee to go ahead and sign the Lease even though permission to move the swings had not yet been given, prior to the 6 th the Solicitor had asked for the names of four Trustees and the General Secretary had given the names of the three Club Officers and the Chairman of the steering Committee. The four Trustees are: Eddie P;igrim, George Gibson, Peter Scales and Ray Oddy, and the Lease was duly signed by them on 16 th November 1982.

On 15 September 1982 the Management Committee drew up Terms of Reference for the committee to work under:

1. The arrangements necessary to maintain and manage the field and accommodation.

2. The arrangements for, and the estimated costs of, establishing the field as a playing surface, to include as a minimum two football pitches and a cricket square, phased if necessary.

3. Future development of the field in terms of facilities and accommodation.

To give an example of the work undertaken by members on 6 September Ray Oddy reported to the Main Committee “That the football pitch was now marked out, and that the goal posts and line marking machine purchased. Stone clearing work had also taken place and work had started on the cricket square. The changing rooms in the A.P.C.M. Clubhouse were now ready for use”. It had been agreed that our Members could utilise the changing rooms but this entailed our Club Members becoming members of the A.P.C.M. at a cost of £5 per annum.

When 1982 came to a close there were a lot of very busy members, Brian Bartlett found his second home working on the field whenever he could, isn't it great that some years later we were actually able to make him Groundsman and PAY him! (22 years on it is still hard to get him off of the playing field.)