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

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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!

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!