As we approach the end of the year, I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to everyone involved with Bishop Auckland Football Club (BAFC). We have a fantastic set of volunteers, loyal supporters, supporters club officials and members, staff, Directors, and sponsors, without whom we wouldn’t be able to function.
The start of the year, with the lack of football and continuation of Covid 19, it continued to prove difficult to generate income into the ground. We have again, during this difficult time, had to find other ways of doing this, but with the fantastic support from Margaret Cooke we were able to introduce the indoor shelter (Chef’s Shelter) to the outside bar area. This proved extremely popular during England’s successful run in the European Championship. We have more plans also to replace the temporary Gazebos that we have had to take down due to storm damage.
We also gave back to support the local community, by allowing Track and Trace to use our car park with no rent charge, allowing local residents to be tested and obtain results as quickly as possible which I will be opening and locking up all the Xmas bank holidays.
We have successfully supported several Charities including Joanne Illingworth leading on McMillan Cancer, The Teenage Cancer trust, supporting our under 23 Reserve side sponsor Bishop Trains, fund and install a remembrance bench, following the sad loss of their young colleague, Jamie Dawson. Plus, a collection for Prostate Cancer in support of our Ex-Chairman Nick Postma and over £5,000 to The James Cook Children’s A & E Appeal.
Our Bar manager and catering hut ladies have continued to work tirelessly not only in the hut feeding and watering our loyal customers, but upstairs during evening and weekend functions in the Colin Rowell Suit. These hard-working staff also gave their time to cook a fabulous Christmas Lunch, giving us the opportunity to thank our 25 volunteers for they hard and often unseen work. Whilst there are far too many volunteers to mention personally, myself and the board would like to put on record how grateful we are to each and every one of these great people, and let’s remember, whatever their role they all contribute to making this club a success.
We recently opened the Bishops museum shop in the Market Place. A fantastic place to look and reminisce on the club’s fantastic unbeatable history. We are hoping it will attract visitors over the year leading to more new and old supporters to the matches. We are relying on donations, merchandise sales, raffles, and more ticket sales to make the shop pay for itself but with the help of some great volunteers and the Durham Amateur Football Trust I am confident we can make it work as it’s in the perfect location. I have personally taken all the players down to the museum shop and shown them the history of the club and how proud they should be to put a two Blues shirt on.
I get grief off the fans all the time saying we are a sleeping giant; the club isn’t what it used to be and the position we are in the league I must agree but we need as much backing off people in the town as possible to get us back up where we belong.
We are working hard behind the scenes raising money to add to the players budget and get us back up where we belong. Unfortunately, money talks nowadays and we have no millionaire backers at the club just hard workers who are prepared to put a lot of time and effort into the club.
As an ex-player there was no one prouder to put a two blues shirt on than me, meeting at the Queens Head hotel for pre match meeting with poached eggs then walking up to Kingsway will always stay in my mind as proud moments. We need to get this back into the club some loyalty and pride which I am sure will bring success and I personally will be putting more money into the club to help us keep up the highest players budget we have ever had at Heritage Park.
As we see the end of games at Heritage Park for the year, we look forward to seeing some great football in the New Year. We all have full confidence in Chris Hardy and his team to move us up the league, where hopefully he will put his full stamp on the team and see us in the top half of the table in the following season. The ambition of all involved in the club is to see promotion.
I personally along with some of the directors are down at the club every day, working tirelessly to keep this great stadium and club going, whilst my colleagues who can’t and juggle their duties with full time work commitments continue to support the club in their own time. This being the unseen work vital to the running of the club.
Unfortunately, we have lost Voneus as our main sponsor. They have pulled out of the area with competition a lot fierce for them than 18 months ago. However, we are hoping to announce new sponsors early next year which will help the team budget and allow Chris to obtain the players in he needs.
On behalf of the Directors and myself, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year and hoping we get BAFC back up where we belong in 2022!