Grassroots Magazine May Issue 7

With the Season reaching its final stages we would like to thank everyone who has contributed to Grassroots Magazine. We have really enjoyed following the weekly action for so many different leagues around the County. We will continue to produce the Magazine in the close season, covering reviews of the Season for all the Leagues & we welcome content from the Clubs, photographers etc. We also want to hear about any end or season or pre-season tournaments taking place.

Congratulations to all those Clubs that have picked up silverware that season, we are compiling a complete Essex ‘Roll of Honour’ that we will publish in the coming months.

grassrootsmag@btinternet.com

Good Luck, The Grassroots team

This Months Content

Kit Aid

Baddow Spartak Review

Venue Page

Match Fit

Adult Leagues

Youth Leagues

Football Fitness Club

Notice Board

Farleigh’s

The Clarets

Page 4

Page 6

Page 11

Page 18

Page 22

Page 23

Page 26

Page 28

Page 32

Page 38

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Great KitAid Road Trip

In this KitAid's 25th Anniversary year, local KitAid Volunteer Barrie Neal has taken up the challenge to visit 25 football grounds across Essex, where he is to photograph the KitAid banner.

Undertaking the KitAid challenge Barrie is collecting funds for KitAid's work at a JustGiving site https://www.justgiving.com/page/roadtrip-essex1677775751739 which provides more details. Updates on the progress being made is also being provided on a dedicated twitter account at EssexRoadTrip2023 @Trip2023E .

Great support has already come from visits so far to Broomfield FC, Springfield FC, Wilvale Rangers FC and Runwell Sports FC.

Runwell Sporting FC have also gone the 'extra mile' providing pitch side advertising (using their own KitAid banner) and made a massively appreciated and much needed financial donation direct to KitAid too.

Can Barrie visit your ground and photograph the KitAid banner ?

If you are interested in Barrie adding your ground to the Essex KitAid Road Trip please let him know so that he can schedule it into the list of 25 grounds to be visited this year. He will just want to agree a time that he could photograph the banner at your ground. His JustGiving site is also open if you are able to make any financial donation to his KitAid fundraising effort: https://www.justgiving.com/page/roadtrip-essex1677775751739

KIT COLLECTION AND DONATIONS

The focus of KitAid's work, is of course the collection of unwanted football kit & equipment and its distribution to areas of the world where the game is loved, but participation is held back by lack of access to kit & equipment.

Most recent collection and distribution totals show just how close the charity is to reaching the magic 1 million items of kit & equipment shared and spreading smiles for the love of the game.

6,080 items donated in April

43,215 items donated in 2023

977,112 items donated since 1998

22,888 items to go until the 1 million.

Do you have any unwanted

kit to donate ?

Our clubs across Essex, with schools and local people, have been providing kit donations for many years now - but the 25th Anniversary year is extra special. If you anticipate having any unwanted kit or equipment this year you might consider contacting local KitAid volunteer Barrie on barrie.2014@yahoo.co.uk

Mayland Village FC have had pictures back of their own substantial kit donation, which is now spreading smiles for the love of the game in a rural village in Zimbabwe:

Managers:

Sharon Ridley

Coaches

Barry Dellar

Paul Hopper

Captain:

Jana

Squad List: Lily

Baddow Spartak Pumas U13’s Girls

Sharon manages the team with her two coaches Barry & Paul and are part of a great family club, Baddow Spartak was founded in 1976 with just two teams since then have achieved FA charter standard accreditation and gained an excellent reputation in the local community. Today Baddow Spartak F.C. provides football for boys & girls across a wide range of age groups, Soccerbility, Mini soccer from Under 7’s to Under 10’s, youth football from Under 11’s, to senior football for players over 16.

Baddow Spartak Pumas U13 Girls play in Essex County girls league, they have had a great 2022/23 season currently sitting mid table and reaching the Presidents Cup final.

In the Cup final they faced a great side in Thundersley Rovers Girls U13. After going 2-0 down by half time, the girls battled well showing excellent teamwork to come back to make it 2-2 finishing the second half on top. This led to the game going to penalties, Baddow unfortunately lost out 4-2 in the shoot out but Sharon and her coaches were very proud of the girls who gave a great account of themselves.

Grassroots magazine where proud to give back to grassroots football by sponsoring the girls Presidents cup final training shirts, we attended the game and agreed the girls gave a great account of themselves.

Sharon would like to Thank all the players families for their continued support and our sponsors Advance Wealth

We are looking to strengthen the squad for next season if interested please contact Sharon on 07590750297

Dasha

Dulcie

Social Media/Website: www.baddowspartak.squarespa

ce.com

Club Sponsor:

WELL DONE

RAYLEIGH F.C U16 GREENS

WINNERS OF THE 2022/23 SJL PREMIER TROPHY

MEGA INFLATABLES PROVIDING BOUNCY

CASTLE HIRE IN ESSEX FOR MEGA FUN FOR EVERYONE!

• Bouncy castles

• Assault courses

• Activity castles

• Inflatables games

• Slides

• Adults Bouncy castles

• Disco Dome

• Photo Booth

• Mega Marquees

• Wedding packages

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Grassroots Magazine would like to support Essex Charity FC with their CLUB APPEAL!!

Unfortunately, all of us at Essex Charity Football Club have been rocked by some sad news about of club Chairman Dave Neill.

For those who are not aware Dave has unfortunately been battling cancer for a while now that returned after 7 years and has been going through extensive treatment to cure him from this horrible disease. Unfortunately, Dave and is family have been given the sad news that his treatment has failed, and the NHS have advised there is nothing they specially can do, and the only option now is to try private treatment.

We are sure you can imagine that private treatment is extremely expensive but what we can tell you is that this man is a fighter and along with the support of us and his loved ones will do everything we can to try and get him the treatment he so badly needs and deserves.

With that said a GoFund me page has been set up below for anyone who would like to donate. Now we appreciate that time are tough for everyone so if you are unable to donate, we would massively appreciate it if you could share the page so we can spread the message fare and wide throughout the community.

Dave, we love you man, and we are all behind you and with you in this fight.

Fundraiser by David Neill : Help Dave Beat His Cancer (gofundme.com)

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MATCHFIT EXPLAIN

HOW TO AVOID TRAINING INTERFERENCE

HOW TO AVOID

TRAINING INTERFERENCE

Interference describes the potential negative effect of attempting to train multiple elements of fitness at the same time.

In football, you need stamina to stay out on the pitch for 90 minutes and you also need speed to keep up with the game and make an impact. You need both stamina and speed, but the training required to improve each of these elements is very different.

Training for stamina usually involves using a combination of low, medium and high intensity actions and movements with the aim being able to sustain these efforts over time. Training for speed, on the other hand, involves short, fast-paced sprinting to develop fast-twitch muscle fibres and improve the phosphagen and glycolytic energy systems.

The two interfere with each other if trained at the same time. If you’re doing a lot of stamina training, your energy and nervous systems are going to be taxed, inhibiting your ability to produce maximal sprint speeds.

An extreme example would be an Olympic athlete trying to train to win both the 100m and the marathon at the same time. Their marathon training would be inhibiting their potential to become a faster sprinter and vice versa. They are two different qualities which must be developed separately from one another if progress is desired.

As a result, this athlete is likely to become average at both and world class at neither, despite having the potential to be world class. Of course, during the season, the goal shifts to simply needing to maintain the gains made during pre-season. This is why you will often see teams combining many different elements of training into one session during the season.

LINEAR PERIODISATION

It goes without saying that footballers need a combination of all elements of fitness in order to be effective on the pitch, which is why things can become puzzling. So how can somebody like Ronaldo display incredible levels of speed, stamina and strength all at the same time?

The truth is that to become an elite football athlete like Ronaldo, it takes years if not decades. It’s a repeated cycle of producing the right stimulus and allowing enough recovery time (combined with optimal nutrition) for adaptations and progress to occur

You cannot speed up time, but what you can do is ensure you’re training in the most optimal way (and not wasting precious time).

The order in which you train various elements must make sense. For example, in gym training, the common order would be to train for hypertrophy first and then strength. With hypertrophy training you would be increasing your muscle mass, which would then enable you to lift a greater load in the strength phase. Increased strength means a greater ability to produce force, so after the strength training phase you’d move onto power training, learning how to apply that force at an increased speed i.e. explosiveness.

You train one thing which makes the next thing better and then you train the next thing because it makes the thing after that better. This is known as linear periodisation or block periodisation.

STRUCTURE YOUR SEASON

You’re always going to get better long-term gains when you concentrate on one element of fitness at a time and combine that with complimentary elements.

There are some fitness elements that can be trained for at the same time. For example, sprint training works well alongside power training in the gym and muscular endurance training goes well with stamina training on the pitch. Categorising your training into field-based or gym-based in this way can help to identify elements that will complement each other.

Planning which elements of fitness are most important for each period of the season allows you to structure your training in a way that makes sense and linear periodisation makes it possible to improve as a player with each block of training potentiating the next block, building on existing gains to create further improvements.

FILLING YOUR GLASS

Avoid overfilling your glass by putting too many fitness elements in there all at once. Add one element at a time and consider the most beneficial order to pour them in.

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Local referee around Basildon area

Charlie Forrest TEL: 07377999847

All youth sides are £20 a game

And over 18's are £40 a game

Happy and willing to commute to surrounding areas

CLICK HERE: For my Facebook page 'FFR’ (Forrest footballing referee’)

IF YOU ARE A REFEREE AND WOULD LIKE TO ADVERTISE PLEASE CALL 07752 178637, OR EMAIL:

grassrootsmag@btinternet

Football Fitness Club

Established in 2019, Football Fitness Club was formed by two former teammates that had recently retired from the Sunday League game having created a successful Management partnership.

After taking a short break, both missed getting out of the house to train with the lads, so the idea of Football Fitness Club was born. The initial idea was to create a training club for those that had retired from the game, to help players maintain their fitness levels. They quickly realised that the sessions attracted players of all ages & abilities so both decided that they would start taking the FA coaching courses. With the number of players increasing weekly, FFC added another 3 coaches 1 of which had fitness qualifications, they also added equipment so that the sessions could include a range of drills for fitness, agility & games.

With the Pandemic forcing FFC to stop for a while planned sessions were created so they were ready to start up again as soon as possible. A partnership was also established with Mates Mental Health support group who they put on weekly sessions for. This was a great success, so Mates FC was formed & the coaching team helped them complete an unbeaten maiden season.

Football Fitness Club run training sessions every Thursday in Chelmsford.

If you are interested in joining Football Fitness Clubs weekly session, Please contact: footballfitnessclub@btinternet.com

Grassroots is proud to be supporting Farleigh Hospice

Grassroots Magazine is delighted to be supporting local charity, Farleigh Hospice. In each edition, we will be sharing with you their latest news along with upcoming events that you can get involved in!

Farleigh Hospice has been a cornerstone of our local community since 1982 when, following the death of a lady called Audrey Appleton from cancer, her friends Glenda Lance and Dr Gill Collier launched an appeal to establish hospice services in and around Chelmsford.

Since its creation later that same year, Farleigh has provided hospice care to thousands of people affected by life-limiting illnesses and bereavement across mid Essex. The hospice, which is celebrating its 40th birthday this year, continues to help people to live as actively as possible from the point of diagnosis to the end of their lives, by providing physical and emotional care, free of charge.

As a charity, Farleigh relies on the generosity of the local community to raise the £6 million it needs every year to care and support those who rely on its services. One of the ways that Farleigh engages with the community is through the range of fundraising events it organises throughout the year, which are listed on its websitewww.farleighhospice.org/events

Here we take a look at some of the exciting events coming up… the Annual Quiz, Sponsored Doggy Walk and Autumn Shopping Extravaganza!

Get muddy for Farleigh this summer!

Midsummer Mudness is an exciting new evening event on Thursday 22 June at Wild Forest in Brentwood, which is the home of the Nuclear Races obstacle course. If you’ve ever wanted to try the infamous course, you will love this shorter 2km version with a variety of obstacles - including the death slide and zip wire – and plenty of mud!

It starts at 5.30pm so it’s the perfect after work team building event. You can also sign up with your friends and family for an unforgettable evening or take part on your own for a unique personal challenge, while raising money for Farleigh!

Once you are in the forest, you’ll be faced with an adventurous 90 minute obstacle course as you walk, run, climb and wade through woodland bogs and obstacles, finishing with zipwires into water and the famous death slide.

It’s not about how quickly you do it - it’s about taking on the challenge as a team and, of course, getting really muddy!

All sponsorship money raised from this challenge will help Farleigh to continue providing physical and emotional care to local patients and families living with a life limiting illness or bereavement.

A limited number of places are available, so don’t miss out. Please book by 31st March to secure your Early Bird Discount on tickets.

For more information and to book your place, please visit www.farleighhospice.org/mud

Please note, this event is not suitable for wheelchair users. For accessible events, please visit www.farleighhospice.org/events

If you have any questions, please contact our Fundraising Team 01245 457411 or events@farleighhospice.org

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We take a personal approach to every bathroom fitting we complete and ensure that every bathroom delivers on quality, value, functionality and appearance. If you would like a free, no-obligation consultation and quote please contact us.

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Supporters club

The Supporters’ Club of Chelmsford City will often be associated with that grainy photo of a bunch of fans who turned up en masse at Birmingham City in January 1939 with a battered old wheelbarrow for the big FA Cup 4th Round clash – nonleague butchers and bakers against Division 1 giants at the time. ‘Wheel ‘em In!’ became the fans battle cry, and the Supporters’ Club has been wheeling plenty in ever since.

The City’s football club has been the nearly team for quite a while now, flirting with glory but always falling agonisingly close to major success but the fans have still tried to do their bit over the past 30 years, as the club lurched to near disaster back in 1994. When we lost our fabled home of New Writtle Street, many stood up to resurrect the club, and this theme of pulling together has enduringly lasted to the present day as the ever-generous fans will often organise, take part in and fundraise for a number of local groups and charities, as well as provide cash to enhance the match day experience at the current home, Melbourne Stadium.

The Supporters’ Club is always made up of volunteers. People who follow the club avidly and passionately, who spend hours, days and even chunks of the season trying to raise awareness of the club and looking after the interests of the fans. There would be no club without these volunteers, who put out the terracing at the shared athletics stadium, who run coaches to away games, who sell merchandise at the ground and who fundraise for the benefit of the fans.

I realised quite early on that I wasn’t a guy best suited for meetings, discussing the feasibility of advertising boardings or maybe selling programmes – but throw me a challenge, and I was as happy as a footballer in mud. It all started for me back in the early 2000’s when the then Chairman Peter Stroud organised a walk back to the town from Billericay, where we were ground sharing, specifically to raise awareness of our plight of playing ten miles away following the demise of losing New Writtle Street.

The following year, a small group of us decided to complete ‘The Cannonball Run’, we’d attempt to drive to all the 21 away grounds in our league at the time, all within 24 hours. Now maybe you couldn’t do this now, what with H&S, more traffic cones than a stag do in Newcastle and even the price of fuel making it a loss leader, but we gave it a go. It didn’t help we had to drive up to Grantham, then across to Birmingham and into Wales for Merthyr (Merthyr at 11pm on a Friday night has to be seen to be believed!), before dropping down to Tiverton. Quite a journey, and we only did it with 15 minutes to spare before the news that the game we had arrived back to was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. I’ve always said fans of CCFC have a gypsy’s curse over us.

The next few years saw me organise a number of sponsored events. 15 of us attempted a 50-mile challenge in The Peak District, which was incredibly tough, other lads cycled to various away games. We tried our hands at The Three Peaks, where one or two were given a rude awakening to mountain life as we got off the minibus at 10pm, cold and miserable, and had to climb up Snowdon via the UK’s most difficult and steepest road out of Llanberis. A few toenails went missing that trip, let me tell you.

Over the years, the fans have raised money for many different benefactors. What started off as fundraisers for the Supporters’ Club has evolved into attempts to spread the love around a little bit, so cash has been donated to Farleigh Hospice, Chelmsford Mencap, CHESS, the NHS, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance – and now MATES. I estimate that over £40,000 has been raised by the current crop of hikers in the five years that they’ve been yomping around England and Wales following the club, plus all the money they’ve pumped into the ailing pub industry whilst doing so too.

The idea started as a hike from Hungerford to Truro to watch The Clarets in April 2018. Four walkers in a small motorhome, a driver as support and we’d kip in there at night – what could be more quintessentially English? Well, anyone who’s spent a week in a cramped motorhome with four other burly blokes, socks that stood up on there own by the end of the week and slim four feet bunk beds would understand that the hiking was probably the easiest part of the challenge –but we did it. We were even asked to give the team talk to the players before the game, which, needless to say, resulted in a 2-0 defeat. That gypsy’s curse again?

In 2019, we went a little more ambitious. Walking from Chelmsford itself to Torquay, the mileage was just getting higher. Numerous scrapes along the way on this one, as we had to secretly sneak through an Army base, detour around rockfall and suffer a hotel so bad in Heathrow, its penthouse suite was the lobby. Yet again, a huge sum was raised by generous fans, and one of the hikers even had his head shaved on arrival to bring in another £750.

We had to break for COVID but have since hiked from Lands’ End to Winchester and in 2022, we traversed much of the Southwest Coast Path from Hell Lane near Bridport all the way via The Seven Sisters to Maidstone. One thing often prevalent on these hikes is the camaraderie of spirit, and the sheer good nature of people we meet. Monies are thrust at us by passers-by, breakfasts are bought for us, and we put the money into the pot, landlords take pity on us and buy us a rehydrating beer. On one trip, the landlord in The Albion, Liskeard took one look at us – after a few nights in the motorhome – and offered us free lodgings in his pub, even throwing us the keys to lock up when we leave. That was a good night.

So, 2023 saw us attempt what was likely to be the toughest yet. Climb Yr Wyddfa, or Mount Snowdon if you will, and then stomp the 250 miles southeast to Hemel Hempstead for the game a week later. The lads always self-fund these hikes, and a week off work is always required so its quite a thing to sign up for, and this year, we were lucky enough to have two new guys join us. They certainly knew what they were in for even before we started as our minibus blew a tyre at Betws-y-Coed, potentially stopping us before we started. Luckily, the AA came to our rescue, but no yellow van could help us the next day as the mist, rain and ice made Snowdon attempt doubly hard. One of the lads’ vertigo kicked in, so a four-hour climb turned into six and we still had 12 miles to walk when we got down.

The days were long, tough and generally pretty wet for the first few – but then again, North Wales in April?!? Going knee deep in Welsh bogs was a regular occurrence, and it was almost a relief to cross the border at Chirk, Oswestry and have flatter terrain. Following the River Severn was a treat, crossing Ironbridge another and we were able to add some culture to the trip by stopping in Stratford-Upon-Avon for a night, where the bard was toasted at a lovely olde worlde pub called The Garrick where we randomly met the former head steward at The Wibblers brewery, Burnham-on-Crouch, who donated £35 to us.

Snowdonia had taken so much out of the group in the first two days, the team were picking up a number of injuries which made the challenge even more difficult. Despite the rain, the bogs, the lack of sleep and undercooked bacon sandwiches, the thought of raising cash for our own Supporters’ Club and MATES spurred the group on. Many of us have reached a time in our lives where we’re reasonably fortunate to have our health, happiness and good friends, so we want to give a little back.

We all enjoy a hike, a challenge, to stretch ourselves a little then sit around a beer garden in the sun with a cold pint and laugh along at the silly things that have happened to each other. If we can help by offering a few new opportunities to good people like Dave at MATES, then its no real hardship to us and – I don’t mind admitting – spurs us on to achieve things that maybe we’d never do otherwise. Life’s about embracing the moment, and the fans of Chelmsford City have been doing that now for some while, with no signs of it stopping.

We arrived at Hemel Hempstead tired, dishevelled and cold but warm on the inside. Maybe the 0-0 stalemate wasn’t quite the ending we’d anticipated but that gypsy’s curse had receded slightly. As we limped back to the minibus, several of us carrying scars of a foggy day up Snowdon as well as physical injuries, it was a job well done. As of today, we’ve raised £7,500 for this year’s stomp. The amount of good this will do cannot be measured but we’re incredibly humbled and grateful to all that contributed. Crowdfunding to raise funds for Mates, a local non-profit organisation raising awareness and support of mental health, as well as our Supporters' Club on JustGiving

Click here to watch our short film

Me? Now my trench foot has abated, I’m waiting for the fixtures to come out so I can fiendishly plan the hike for 2024. Always had a thing about The Great Wall of China…….

Defender Ben Brookes has agreed a deal to see him continue to play his football with the Clarets into the 2023/24 Season!

The 22-Year-Old joined the Club from Isthmian League North side Hashtag United, who went on to win the league, on the 31st January 2023. Brookes since went on to make 18 appearances for the Clarets scoring 1 Goal, a strike against Dulwich Hamlet that was nominated for Goal of the Season. Manager Robbie Simpson spoke on “When we first signed Brookesy, it was obviously a bit of a gamble taking a player from Step 4 halfway through a season to come straight in and settle with no training, no pre-season but he took to it like a duck to water.”

“I remember the first game, away at Hungerford, he played he looked like a seasoned veteran at Step 2 level. His focus and mentality is so strong and really it was never going to be any other situation. He’s so focussed and determined on that end goal of becoming a FullTime professional footballer in the football league, that you just know it’s going to happen and he knows that he needs Chelmsford to make that happen.”

“He’s committed to next season and we are really thankful to him for that. We are really committed to him in making him the best that he can be and helping him along his journey of becoming a Full-Time professional footballer.”

“He’s already excited about pre-season, he feels like he can achieve something really special with this club both individually and as a team. We’re really aligned in that in our values and our goals and I can’t wait to have a pre-season with Ben and really push him to his maximum. We’re delighted that he’s agreed to stay with us.”

We look forward to seeing Ben back out on the pitch in a Claret shirt for the upcoming campaign as well as being back out with the squad at the start of Pre-Season!

are delighted to announce that defender Ben Brookes and Forward Callum Jones have agreed deals that will see them continue to play their football with the Clarets into the 2023/24 Season!

The 23-Year-Old played an integral role in Robbie Simpson’s side last season scoring 9 goals in 35 Games. Since joining the Clarets in April 2021 having left Colchester United, Jones has made an impression on the squad and despite having a period sidelined he has proven himself to be a key member of this Clarets side.

Manager Robbie Simpson spoke on Callum Jones staying at the club “I thought it was going to be one of those seasons again for Jonesy where he picked up an injury and misses a large part. To come back the way that he did and have the impact that he did just shows what a great personality he has, the resilience that he has shown over the last two seasons has been truly remarkable.”

“His strength and athleticism, his all round game particularly towards the back end of the season, has been really impactful on how well we did and where we finished in the league. Considering it was his first full season, that wasn’t even a full season [because of the injury sustained earlier in the season] in mens football because of his injury the season before, there is still so much to come from him and I think he is a really really exciting player and there’s no doubt in my mind that he will be a top, top player at this level.”

“We are really looking forward to getting him back next season and helping him develop and reach his potential”

We look forward to seeing Callum Jones in a Claret shirt for the start of the 2023/24 Season!

Photo Credits: Roger Robinson Photography"