All go at the Club in November

November 2005

This month has proved to be a hectic one in the calendar -
and we thank members for their patience as disruptions once
again cause inconvenience to one and all.

Once again the Clubhouse resembles a building site . . .
but hopefully this is the last disturbance for some time!

Major improvements are still ongoing, this time with a major redevelopment of the car park. Costing the Club nearly £40,000 as part of the planning permission, an area all round the centre green has been removed and will be improved to extend the car parking facilities at the Club. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the month. This should ease the problems being experienced on training nights and when the Club is exceptionally busy - which these days seems all the time.

A further £7,000 is being spent on the refurbishment of the ladies' toilets in the main bar. This should be completed in the week commencing Monday 21 November. We thank the lady members for their patience as we improve their powder room!

More money (nearly £5,000) is being used to purchase a new big screen and projector for the main room as well as a large digital or plasma screen near the rear of the hall. This will enhance the facilities at the Club especially with the World Cup looming large next year.

All this is happening in the first week of December and will give the Club three large screens - one in each of the three rooms plus two conventional sized televisions and one large flat screen.

The old screen and projector from the main room will be utilised in the small coach/education room which has also seen new tables being installed as well as marker boards on the walls for education purposes.

This room is now being used by players after games for their hot meals and they will now be able to watch the match results coming in whilst they scoff at the trough.

The superb facilities at Crawley Green have once again been recognised by local press reporter Don Neufville who writes in this week Luton News:

"OK, no more texts, emails and calls about what a great
atmosphere it was at Crawley Green Sports & Social Club for the England v Argentina game on Saturday.

Once again it was probably the best venue for big screen international football and the Club is the one they are all talking about.

In fact, the members-only Luton venue is so popular it is now going to install three brand new giant-sized jumbotron screens in time for this summer's World Cup.

Expect the Club to be packed out as we watch some of the world's biggest matches."

OK, so Don got some of his facts muddled up (two of the screens are already in use) but the flavour of his article was spot on - the atmosphere at the Club is as good as you can get without being at the match itself. When the winning goal went in the whole Club went wild - and this for a friendly! What's it going to be like if we do well at the World Cup itself.

The whole club went wild when Owen scored the winner against Argentina!

The next big night at the Club is the last Friday of the month when another 1966 World Cup winning hero, Alan Ball, visits the Club in our annual Football Dinner (Nobby Stiles was the guest speaker in 2003). Tickets for this event sold out months ago and we expect another superb evening.

World Cup Winner Alan Ball (above) is the guest speaker at next week's sell-out dinner at Crawley Green!

Members may like to take note that in April 2006 our Spring Dinner will include Steve Kindon - and anyone who attended the evening a few years ago when he was our main guest will know it was probably the best evening we have held. Maureen Bowler has already being harassed for tickets for this evening which will be restricted to members only. No guests - as we know this one will be a super sell-out!

Last Friday, the Saturday side held a fundraising event when they hired a hypnotist for the evening and a terrific crowd watched with hilarity at the antics of some of our members under the 'fluence'. Thanks to Eddie Downey, Neil Tattersall, Dawn Feeney and Craig Freeman for organising a superb evening. £400 was raised for desperately needed equipment for the Saturday side.

New enamel Club badges have been purchased and the Club Secretary is pleased to report that they all sold out within hours of them going on sale. Ronnie Bates has now ordered a further 100 for the youth section, so if you wish to purchase this smart enamel badge at a mere £2 per badge give Ronnie a call.

The Christmas Draw is well under way so if you have not been badgered by the Hon Sec for some books ask him. He will be only too pleased to help you!

The only downside at the moment is that the Council is still having problems completing the work to put the Club on mains drainage. After thinking they had finished the task, the Club found to its cost that the contractors had missed connecting one drain which was still filling the cess pit. They have now located the 'rogue' pipe and we hope that they can complete the task this side of Christmas!