Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Sid the Sed - the Club's Official Mascot and I'm a horse... of course!

Actually... let's make that "A horse ON course" as this thoroughbred's sole purpose in life is to lead this Club on into the 21st Century - and whilst celebrating our values, look to turn this Club into the biggest, strongest.... and best amateur football club in London.

... so no pressure then!

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

So it's March already. The 4th team have nearly finished their fixtures, but for the rest of the club there's still several weeks of football still to come.

Some mixed results so far this season. Yesterday I witnessed the Old Sedcopians vs Queen Mary's game where we completely dominated the 90 minutes, but lost 1-0 having hit the woodwork at least 6 times! Incredible. So we've had our share of bad luck, but at the same time I've witnessed some very strong team performances.

The club goes from strength to strength. Demand for Old Seds football is higher than it's ever been with record numbers attending training and some 6th team friendlies to cater for the needs of the members. It's great to see so many young players getting involved and putting in some great performances. At the same time the old hands are still proving their worth week in week out. Most of all, there is an excellent spirit in the club which is a credit to each and every one of you, and it's also nice to see a good crowd regularly socialising after the matches.

I'm personally looking forward to watching the run in to the end of the season and then heading off on tour - can't wait for that!

A big 'Thank You' to all those people who have invested a great deal of personal time and energy to make this season a success. They know who they are and I'm sure you do too.
Jeff Cutting
Chairman - Old Sedcopians AFC

WINTER'S DAY
Wednesday, 28 March 2007

It's that time of year again. The Club versus the School. The venue is at Chislehurst & Sidcup School and this year the event takes place on Wednesday, 28th March 2007 at 2.00pm.

... and this year I want revenge!

The Club side will be captained by Luke Turner - who last year triumphed as the school team's captain and so is on course for a unique double. The School side will be jointly run by Nikhil and Rahil Dhul.

If you would like to be considered for either side, then check out the latest news on the website and click on the link that applies to you.
(Seds link to be added here)
(School link to be added here)

NEW APPOINTMENT

Training. Has been unbelievably successful and we have to say that we have been caught out a bit by the number of people looking to get fit and improve themselves. In the last 3 weeks we've seen 48, 44 and 44 players turn out.

A lot of this success is down to the hard work of my good mate Peter Biggs, who in the last few weeks has totally restructured training and along with Andrew Kingsnorth has also implemented the very popular Penalty Shoot Out (more on that later). Darren Fletcher has also worked alongside Peter in recent weeks ensuring that players get as much out of training as they can.

Therefore, at the Club's Committee meeting on Thursday, 8th March 2007, Peter and Darren were officially appointed "Training Co-ordinators" and money was released to purchase additional training equipment. Most of this has already been purchased by Peter and was in use at last Monday's session.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH AWARDS
February 2007

The Club's best players for February have been announced...

The Winners
Old Sedcopians Football Club -
MURRAY GARLAND
Captain's Comment - Muzz thoroughly deserves the award, as in the last few games we have changed the tactics and formation and Muzz came to the fore, taking on the extra responsibility and leading the back line well.
Sedcopians Reserves -
DAN SELVEY
Captain's comment - Dan played very well in both games we played and his committment to training has been 1st class. He has shown great leadership skills and is making himself a very valued member of the reserve team.
Old Sedcopians 3rd Team -
No award this month
Old Sedcopians 4th Team -
TIZZY GROVES
Captain's comment - Although we only played 2 games in february my vote for player of the month goes to Tizzy. Not only did he score in both of these games, but he also played a fundamental roll in defense ensuring us of the victories. A special mention also goes to Craig Lewis for stepping up and doing an outstanding job in goal against a strong John Fisher side.
Old Sedcopians 5th Team -
DAVID THOMPSON
Captain's comment - Dave's contribution to the 5th team in February has been immense, his attitude on the pitch has been positive and he just gets on with the job at hand - a job he does very well. Of the 16 Goals the 5th team have scored in February Dave has created 5 and scored 2 - can't really ask for much more. Plenty of 'Man of The Match' votes from his teammates in February also helped secure this award.
A personalised bottle of the sparkly stuff is on its way to the winners (unless you're underaged, then we'll have to think of something else).

Seds is 70 CLUB COMPETITION

2007 is our 70th birthday and to celebrate I've planned a series of events throughout the year. Keep checking the website or check with your team captain about forthcoming events. There is also a regular competition where you can win fantastic club gear.

This month we are offering the chance to win a personalised "Sid the Sed" T-shirt in our simple to enter competition. The closing date for entry is 31st March 2007 and the winner will be drawn by the Club Chairman at the next Committee meeting.

To enter, simply look at the question below and then click on the answer you think (or know) is correct.

In 1937 (our founding year), which teams were respectively crowned FA and Scottish cup winners. Was it...
A) Sunderland and Celtic?
B) Preston North End and Aberdeen?
C) Manchester City and Rangers?

2007 CLUB TOUR TO MALTA (GOZO)

For a Club that only started touring last year, we now have an amazing 17 players touring to Gozo. The problem is that 90% of these are from the 1st team and Committee!

Therefore, the Club will be working very hard to put this right and encourage players from all teams to go on what is an experience they'll never forget.

Touring with Old Seds allows you to unwind and relax in the only environment that really matters... with your footie mates! How much more incentive do you need?

Thanks to an incredible amount of hard work from James Manning, we believe we have the tour to beat all tours.

The tour will take place on the Island of Gozo, which is just to the north of Malta, on the May Day weekend. We leave London on Friday, 04 May and return on Monday, 07 May 2007. As with last year's tour, we will probably ask all tourists to book their own flights and we'll take care of the rest. Costs (ex flight) are not expected to exceed £150 and will include your;
1) accomodation
2) tour T-shirt
3) transfers to and from airports, accomodation and games
4) football match(es)
5) memories

The cut-off date for tour confirmations is 31st march 2007. To book your place on the tour CLICK HERE now and avoid disappointment later.

PENALTY SHOOT-OUT COMPETITION

Originally, we hoped to scrape together about 25 players and run the competition every couple of weeks. At the last count we had 50 and rounds have been taking place at every session in order to meet demand.

The latest tables have been published in the website news item "PENALTY SHOOT-OUT COMPETITION.
How are you doing?

6th TEAM UPDATE
by Norman MacDonald

It has been great to see the advent of a 6th team for the Club, and they have started with 2 wins out of three, with some very promising individual performances from the boys.

We will decide at the end of the season whether we enter a 6th team in the league but, whatever happens, the guys should all be playing regular league football for one of our teams next season.

PAST PURPLE

A massive thanks to former player Bill Finch for supplying me with some Old Seds memorabilia in the form of 2 photographs from the 1980-81 season (he thinks), showing two different team line-ups along with a description of the players involved.

The pictures are displayed below ... and would you get a load of those kits!!!

... mind you, personally I'm disappointed at the lack of Keeganesque perms!
BILL WRITES - The pictures show two 1st team line-ups from the 1981 season when the Old Sedcopians 1st XI were the AFA Kent Junior Cup Winners 1981(I Think!). The line-ups show; Old Sedcopians 1(Selby) Catford Wanderers 0 - Venue CUACO Sports Ground Beckenham and the bottom photo shows from Left to Right:-
Back Row - Chris White, Chris Oliver a.k.a. “Ollie”, Steve Selby, Bill Finch a.k.a. “The Flying Pig”, Ritchie French, Mick White, Dave Hawes.
Front Row - Rob Doughty, Dave Neale, Stuart White, Denis Sullivan, Declan Wells
Chris White - played on the right wing. Pencil thin but quick. Famed for playing in a scarf when the weather turned a bit nippy. Chris Oliver - No nonsense centre half. Steve Selby – Striker - At the time a young player with a long future ahead of him as the spearhead of Old Seds attack. Unfortunately beer and curry took its toll (a favourite staple of many an Old Sed) and within in couple seasons could be found lumbering around at full back in the stiffs. Bill Finch – Goalkeeper - A fine figure of a man. Nicknamed the Flying Pig for obvious reasons! Did I ever mention that I once scored a hat trick for the stiffs? No, well the first goal went like this…..zzzzzzzzzzzz. Ritchie French – Midfielder – Once tackled me in opposition half when I got a bit carried away – we were winning 4-2 with only a minute or so to go. Mick White – Striker – Brother of Chris – Had his brothers’ share of the weight but not his speed! Dave Hawes – Right Back – Later to become 1st X1 captain. Lived just round the corner from the Alma in Sidcup (our after match hostelry at the time) was fond of ringing his wife from there at about 7 in the evening and saying “We’ve just about to leave Dorking – I’ll be home in an hour” Rob Doughty – Left back – Wife Sue was an early WAG (without the money) who was a regular spectator. Destined to grow into Old Seds answer to Howard and Hilda from Ever Decreasing Circles. Dave Neale – Left midfield – Cultured left foot – no one knew what his right foot was for. A true sporting gent. In one match Seds scored from his cross. When the ref awarded a goal Dave told him that the ball had gone out of play just before he crossed it. Stuart White – Midfield – No relation to Chris and Mick. 1st XI captain. A midfield enforcer who treated every game the same and took no prisoners. Denis Sullivan – Striker – Always missed games in January or February as he insisted on going skiing – no sense of commitment some people! Declan Wells – Sweeper – Stick thin but second only to Stuart with the ferocity of his tackle. In one game whilst Declan was shepherding a striker to towards the edge of the area, said striker took a dive, and much to Declans chagrin the ref awarded a penalty. The next time the striker was in the vicinity of the ball Declan launched himself with eyes only for the players ankles, knees, thighs etc. As the player lay in a crumpled heap Declan loomed over him and said, “ Now that was a foul”!

WEBSITE PLAYER PROFILES

Can you help us to keep our great website looking great?

Have you really explored our website properly? Have you gone beyond the homepage and the match reports?

It was created by our very own Dave Robertson and is truly the envy of every other amateur football club around. It is a very complex site, but its simple to use format hides a lot of this. There are a whole host of databases which holds and links each section to another section, provides stats on individual players, the teams we play against and how each side performs.

One major part of the site is one that sadly we don't use enough... and that is the PLAYER PROFILE section... the bit of the site thats all about you! Did you know that every minute you play is recorded, the side you played for, when the games were played, the goals you scored - or the clean sheet you kept, the teams you scored them against, a description of who you are and what you do... and a picture of your good-looking self... well, maybe not - but you get my point.

So... Can you help us to keep our great website looking great? - If you have a digital camera, why not take it to the game this Saturday and take pics of the players and the action? The results can be posted along with the match reports and added to your profiles. Reply to this email or talk to your captain for more info.

FRIENDS RE-UNITED

A major part of our Seds is 70 celebrations, is to make contact with as many former players and invite them to participate by sharing their stories, attending events and forward us any memorabilia that we can publish on the website and/or display them Club events.

However, we are also experiencing a major period of growth at the moment and we want as many of our new players as possible to Club to heart as much as our players in the past.

A number of players have already registered on the FRIENDS RE-UNITED website. It doesn't matter if you have only just joined the Club... register now... or add us to your existing list. You may even recognise some of the names already there... or maybe you know of someone who should be there but isn't!

GILBERT'S CLUB SHOP - New Items Available

The 2007 price list has been published on the website.

GET YOUR CLUB GEAR HERE!

Choose from a wide range of clothing and accessories from t-shirts to sweatshirts, bags to towels. Each displaying the Club badge, your name and initials. You can even get yourself a pair of purple bootlaces.

We've kept the prices low and for every item you buy, the Club receives a donation.

Originally posted - Tuesday, 20 March 2007 @ 23.09 hours.