Edgware Town FC BACK in the SSMFL next season!

[Tiger Man]

<BR>It really amazes me what has gone on with this club, and also how little outcry there has been from the wider public. If you contrast it with the situation at Hendon FC for example, there has been a lot more public outrage at the situation and over how badly they have been treated, but I have not seen any of that for poor Edgware.<BR><BR>I was a regular attender at The White Lion Ground in the late 70's in the days of Brian and Eddie Stein, Martin Sperrin, Dave Beasant and Ray Fulton amongst others, not to mention the enigmatic Peter Shoedinde. During that period, just after the floodlights were installed, we were averaging probably around 300-400 for Athenian League games and quite a bit more for FA Cup games (I remember about 850 for a 3rd qualifying round replay with Leyton Wingate and about 1,600 for the next round against Barnet). I am estimating that during that period probably around 80% of our support was in the 14-20 age bracket. Therefore a good few hundred of us must be aged 40-50 like me right now. Surely amongst this group there must be enough of us with sufficient business nous and capital to drag this carcas off the table and bring it back to life. It was an important part of our lives in our transformative years so why should we be denying the youth of future generations in the area to enjoy the life affirming experiences that we had and that come from the joys of following a local non league football club.<BR><BR>Someone needs to grab the bull by the horns and inject some life into this sleeping giant. I agree that Harrow Council needs to do more. I am not going to criticise them for building a new mosque as I am sure that this also plays an important role in the local community (and as a muslim I would say that you can never have too many mosques!!) but a local football club also contributes just as much to an areas social cohesion and can also raise its profile on a national basis in a way that few other vehicles can. The handling of the Prince Edward playing Fields fiasco has brought little credit to the council and the current state of the site is a joke. My preferred option would always be for Edgware to somehow return to the White Lion Ground and whilst the land remains derelict and unbuilt on this always remains a possibility, although past experience tends to suggest that the longer a site remains derelict the less likely a return there becomes feasible (Scarborough the most obvious recent example).<BR><BR>If anyone wants to conatct me off list on this they can e-mail me at dawudislam@hotmail.com . Although these days I live some distance away In Bradford I am nonetheless always looking for signs of hope in an Edgware revival. Sadly I have seen little in recent months to give me any optimism. The days of us persuading the coach driver to allow around 20 of us to either stand or sit in the aisles on an away trip because so many wanted to travel seem a long time ago.<BR><BR>Dawud Islam<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>

<BR>You have to hand it to Gavin for his fanatical loyalty to Edgware Town, pictures of the once proud and now sadly derelict White Lion Ground, such as these, breaks our hearts so imagine how he must be feeling:<BR><BR><A class=bbc_url title="External link" href="http://www.derelictlondon.com/sportsgrounds.htm" rel="nofollow external">http://www.derelictl...ortsgrounds.htm</A><BR><BR><A class=bbc_url title="External link" href="http://edgwaretown.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow external">http://edgwaretown.blogspot.com/</A><BR><BR><A class=bbc_url title="External link" href="http://hoppysnaps.blogspot.com/2008/06/edgware-town-june-2008.html" rel="nofollow external">http://hoppysnaps.bl...-june-2008.html</A><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>

<BR>

<BR><BR><BR>Excellent post and it brought back a number of memories when I first started watching Edgware back in 77/78 as a kid. They club did indeed get huge (for Edgware) crowds, it wasn't just my imagination that the whole town seemed to support them and get behind them (remember that in the 40's they were regulary drawing crowds of around 4000 for league games !!!)<BR><BR>That Edgware team from 78/79 was a great side with Beasent in goal, the superb Shoedindie up front and yes there were lots of us kids who used to invaded the pitch after a goal had been scored to the ammusemt of the older supporters.<BR><BR>What became of them? well I guess many such as yourself moved away from the area, or grew up and started watching spurs/arsenal for eg. The area has changed a lot since those days in the 70's and more importantly there is no real community feeling anymore, outside of the Jewish community or the rapildy growing eastern european, both of whom have no interest in a non league club.<BR><BR>Sadly, Edgware were only ave 90+ for league games in the first season after winning promotion to step 4, and even if they had of owned the WLG would have found it hard to sustain that level of footbal with those crowds.<BR><BR>Paul Gregory & Ken Batten were not interested in my plans to attract support tot the club much in the same way that Wingate & Finchley have done with open days and soccer schools.<BR><BR>Paul Greogry had already thrown in the towel after Harrow Council voted for planning permmison as he was looking forward to his reteriment in Greece, as for Ken Batten, the man was little more than a figurehead at the club.<BR><BR>Whilst I found Ken Batten to be a nice guy, as a chairman he didn 't really appear to go 'that extra mile' to save the club, <BR><BR>I tried to get pro active, despite being ''banned' and contacted the FSF and various people with a view to bringing back the club, albeit under a different name, but to no avial.<BR><BR>There really has been no support to bring the club back, so called suppoters decided to follow steve newing's Edgware team to the various clubs he pitched up at and others took to following Edgware's rivals from the SSML.<BR><BR>There was some ray of light last summer when a consortium of south american buissnmen wanted to bring the club back but it turned out that they were looking for a vechile to bring players in from south america football schools and nothing has been hearrd since.<BR><BR>It will be four season's next month since Edgware last played football and there seems little hope of them ever kicking a ball again, and the WLG falls into depladitaion with every day that passes, I would much rather they knock the whole place down now, rather than see it wasting away as it is. Edited July 18, 2011 by Tiger Man

[Horace]

It really amazes me what has gone on with this club, and also how little outcry there has been from the wider public. If you contrast it with the situation at Hendon FC for example, there has been a lot more public outrage at the situation and over how badly they have been treated, but I have not seen any of that for poor Edgware.

 

I was a regular attender at The White Lion Ground in the late 70's in the days of Brian and Eddie Stein, Martin Sperrin, Dave Beasant and Ray Fulton amongst others, not to mention the enigmatic Peter Shoedinde. During that period, just after the floodlights were installed, we were averaging probably around 300-400 for Athenian League games and quite a bit more for FA Cup games (I remember about 850 for a 3rd qualifying round replay with Leyton Wingate and about 1,600 for the next round against Barnet). I am estimating that during that period probably around 80% of our support was in the 14-20 age bracket. Therefore a good few hundred of us must be aged 40-50 like me right now. Surely amongst this group there must be enough of us with sufficient business nous and capital to drag this carcas off the table and bring it back to life. It was an important part of our lives in our transformative years so why should we be denying the youth of future generations in the area to enjoy the life affirming experiences that we had and that come from the joys of following a local non league football club.

 

Someone needs to grab the bull by the horns and inject some life into this sleeping giant. I agree that Harrow Council needs to do more. I am not going to criticise them for building a new mosque as I am sure that this also plays an important role in the local community (and as a muslim I would say that you can never have too many mosques!!) but a local football club also contributes just as much to an areas social cohesion and can also raise its profile on a national basis in a way that few other vehicles can. The handling of the Prince Edward playing Fields fiasco has brought little credit to the council and the current state of the site is a joke. My preferred option would always be for Edgware to somehow return to the White Lion Ground and whilst the land remains derelict and unbuilt on this always remains a possibility, although past experience tends to suggest that the longer a site remains derelict the less likely a return there becomes feasible (Scarborough the most obvious recent example).

 

If anyone wants to conatct me off list on this they can e-mail me at dawudislam@hotmail.com . Although these days I live some distance away In Bradford I am nonetheless always looking for signs of hope in an Edgware revival. Sadly I have seen little in recent months to give me any optimism. The days of us persuading the coach driver to allow around 20 of us to either stand or sit in the aisles on an away trip because so many wanted to travel seem a long time ago.

 

Dawud Islam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to hand it to Gavin for his fanatical loyalty to Edgware Town, pictures of the once proud and now sadly derelict White Lion Ground, such as these, breaks our hearts so imagine how he must be feeling:

 

http://www.derelictl...ortsgrounds.htm

 

http://edgwaretown.blogspot.com/

 

http://hoppysnaps.bl...-june-2008.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent post and it brought back a number of memories when I first started watching Edgware back in 77/78 as a kid. They club did indeed get huge (for Edgware) crowds, it wasn't just my imagination that the whole town seemed to support them and get behind them (remember that in the 40's they were regulary drawing crowds of around 4000 for league games !!!)

 

That Edgware team from 78/79 was a great side with Beasent in goal, the superb Shoedindie up front and yes there were lots of us kids who used to invaded the pitch after a goal had been scored to the ammusemt of the older supporters.

 

What became of them? well I guess many such as yourself moved away from the area, or grew up and started watching spurs/arsenal for eg. The area has changed a lot since those days in the 70's and more importantly there is no real community feeling anymore, outside of the Jewish community or the rapildy growing eastern european, both of whom have no interest in a non league club.

 

Sadly, Edgware were only ave 90+ for league games in the first season after winning promotion to step 4, and even if they had of owned the WLG would have found it hard to sustain that level of footbal with those crowds.

 

Paul Gregory & Ken Batten were not interested in my plans to attract support tot the club much in the same way that Wingate & Finchley have done with open days and soccer schools.

 

Paul Greogry had already thrown in the towel after Harrow Council voted for planning permmison as he was looking forward to his reteriment in Greece, as for Ken Batten, the man was little more than a figurehead at the club.

 

Whilst I found Ken Batten to be a nice guy, as a chairman he didn 't really appear to go 'that extra mile' to save the club,

 

Just in defence of Ken, imagine seeing a tsunami bearing down on you, and trying to take seriously someone who wanted to stave it off by holding a quick "fun day"!

 

 

 

[Tiger Man]

It really amazes me what has gone on with this club, and also how little outcry there has been from the wider public. If you contrast it with the situation at Hendon FC for example, there has been a lot more public outrage at the situation and over how badly they have been treated, but I have not seen any of that for poor Edgware.

 

I was a regular attender at The White Lion Ground in the late 70's in the days of Brian and Eddie Stein, Martin Sperrin, Dave Beasant and Ray Fulton amongst others, not to mention the enigmatic Peter Shoedinde. During that period, just after the floodlights were installed, we were averaging probably around 300-400 for Athenian League games and quite a bit more for FA Cup games (I remember about 850 for a 3rd qualifying round replay with Leyton Wingate and about 1,600 for the next round against Barnet). I am estimating that during that period probably around 80% of our support was in the 14-20 age bracket. Therefore a good few hundred of us must be aged 40-50 like me right now. Surely amongst this group there must be enough of us with sufficient business nous and capital to drag this carcas off the table and bring it back to life. It was an important part of our lives in our transformative years so why should we be denying the youth of future generations in the area to enjoy the life affirming experiences that we had and that come from the joys of following a local non league football club.

 

Someone needs to grab the bull by the horns and inject some life into this sleeping giant. I agree that Harrow Council needs to do more. I am not going to criticise them for building a new mosque as I am sure that this also plays an important role in the local community (and as a muslim I would say that you can never have too many mosques!!) but a local football club also contributes just as much to an areas social cohesion and can also raise its profile on a national basis in a way that few other vehicles can. The handling of the Prince Edward playing Fields fiasco has brought little credit to the council and the current state of the site is a joke. My preferred option would always be for Edgware to somehow return to the White Lion Ground and whilst the land remains derelict and unbuilt on this always remains a possibility, although past experience tends to suggest that the longer a site remains derelict the less likely a return there becomes feasible (Scarborough the most obvious recent example).

 

If anyone wants to conatct me off list on this they can e-mail me at dawudislam@hotmail.com . Although these days I live some distance away In Bradford I am nonetheless always looking for signs of hope in an Edgware revival. Sadly I have seen little in recent months to give me any optimism. The days of us persuading the coach driver to allow around 20 of us to either stand or sit in the aisles on an away trip because so many wanted to travel seem a long time ago.

 

Dawud Islam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to hand it to Gavin for his fanatical loyalty to Edgware Town, pictures of the once proud and now sadly derelict White Lion Ground, such as these, breaks our hearts so imagine how he must be feeling:

 

http://www.derelictl...ortsgrounds.htm

 

http://edgwaretown.blogspot.com/

 

http://hoppysnaps.bl...-june-2008.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent post and it brought back a number of memories when I first started watching Edgware back in 77/78 as a kid. They club did indeed get huge (for Edgware) crowds, it wasn't just my imagination that the whole town seemed to support them and get behind them (remember that in the 40's they were regulary drawing crowds of around 4000 for league games !!!)

 

That Edgware team from 78/79 was a great side with Beasent in goal, the superb Shoedindie up front and yes there were lots of us kids who used to invaded the pitch after a goal had been scored to the ammusemt of the older supporters.

 

What became of them? well I guess many such as yourself moved away from the area, or grew up and started watching spurs/arsenal for eg. The area has changed a lot since those days in the 70's and more importantly there is no real community feeling anymore, outside of the Jewish community or the rapildy growing eastern european, both of whom have no interest in a non league club.

 

Sadly, Edgware were only ave 90+ for league games in the first season after winning promotion to step 4, and even if they had of owned the WLG would have found it hard to sustain that level of footbal with those crowds.

 

Paul Gregory & Ken Batten were not interested in my plans to attract support tot the club much in the same way that Wingate & Finchley have done with open days and soccer schools.

 

Paul Greogry had already thrown in the towel after Harrow Council voted for planning permmison as he was looking forward to his reteriment in Greece, as for Ken Batten, the man was little more than a figurehead at the club.

 

Whilst I found Ken Batten to be a nice guy, as a chairman he didn 't really appear to go 'that extra mile' to save the club,

 

Just in defence of Ken, imagine seeing a tsunami bearing down on you, and trying to take seriously someone who wanted to stave it off by holding a quick "fun day"!

 

 

 

 

 

The 'fun day' was just the start of thing''s that were planned to attract more support to the the club and bring a wider rang of people in gthe club.

 

The people involved at Edgware like many that I met at that level of the game who 'ran' the clubs were NOT interested in getting their hands dirty, they just wanted the plaudits, Ken Batten was one of those men,.

 

He may have been a lifetime supporter of the club, but what did he really do for them? did he reach into his pocket to buy a player or fund the club NO Galliard homes did that, and we know why, because they had other motives ie to get their hands on the lease that was owned by Edgeware developments..

 

I have no doubt that from time to time Ken Batten did put his hand in his pocket, but he was nothing more than a figurehead chairman, who as far as I'm aware did litle to lift a finger when the club went down and out of buisness.

 

Despite outside fractions, Paul Gregory's & Ken Batten's legacy will be that they were the men who let a famous non league footbal club die.

Edited July 18, 2011 by Tiger Man

[Tiger Man]

There really has been no support to bring the club back, so called suppoters decided to follow steve newing's Edgware team to the various clubs he pitched up at and others took to following Edgware's rivals from the SSML

 

There was some ray of light last summer when a consortium of south american buissnmen wanted to bring the club back but it turned out that they were looking for a vechile to bring players in from south america football schools and nothing has been hearrd since.<BR><BR>It will be four season's next month since Edgware last played football and there seems little hope of them ever kicking a ball again, and the WLG falls into depladitaion with every day that passes, I would much rather they knock the whole place down now, rather than see it wasting away as it is.

[Horace]

 

 

Despite outside fractions, Paul Gregory's & Ken Batten's legacy will be that they were the men who let a famous non league footbal club die.

 

You clearly do not know all of the history leading up to the loss of the lease to the ground. The tsunami was already bearing down on Ken and Paul but to their credit, they didn't run away to higher ground when they saw it coming! Ken Batten was a miserable complaining git whenever he came to Hertingfordbury Park, so don't think that he's a mate of mine. But it's not right to malign people who's fault the demise of Edgware Town it was not..

 

Surely you know the story of the temporary "chairman" who disposed of the lease and had it away with the money?

[Tiger Man]

Despite outside fractions, Paul Gregory's & Ken Batten's legacy will be that they were the men who let a famous non league footbal club die.

 

You clearly do not know all of the history leading up to the loss of the lease to the ground. The tsunami was already bearing down on Ken and Paul but to their credit, they didn't run away to higher ground when they saw it coming! Ken Batten was a miserable complaining git whenever he came to Hertingfordbury Park, so don't think that he's a mate of mine. But it's not right to malign people who's fault the demise of Edgware Town it was not..

 

Surely you know the story of the temporary "chairman" who disposed of the lease and had it away with the money?

 

 

Yes, your refering to Rossier? http://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/news/498075.0/ who's grand plans were to take Edgware into the conference within 5 years of him joining the club. As far as I was made aware it's during his chairmanship that the club's lease changed hand's though I was also led to belive that the club NEVER owned the ground at any stage and it was the brewery who owned it as the ground stood next to the site of the White Lion pub.

 

Once the pub was demolished sometime around the mid 80's? maybe that's when the problems started, Edgware could have been living on a long lease only meant for football, but once that lease was sold it was always going to rear it's ugly head in the future as was proved.

 

I actually had a phone call from Rossier whilst I was involved with Edgware and the [censored] was hitting the fan, and he was basically saying he was clean and that he had nothing to do with the situation that the club found themselves in, and blamed it all firmly at the feet of Paul Gregory.

 

I guess we may never know what really happened other than what I managed to find out, which could be a smoke screen of sorts, but I think if you put the pieces together then you can get a pretty good idea of what went down.

 

Money and greed ie that of selling a club's lease and then that club willing to take on a sponsor who they know is only after the lease in hindsight is not the best of ideas.

 

It may have helped to have those sponosrs on board and the SSMFL treble bears teastement to that, not that Edgware brought the league, they WON it through hard work but we did have a reasonble size budget for that league.

 

I dont really hold any hope of the club coming back, because there just doesn't seem to be many that care if it never comes back, whereas at least Wealdstone & Hendon have a fanbase with enough numbers willing to fight their cause, Edgware sadly didn't.

 

BTW....I wanted to delete a post.how do I do that as I can find anyway to, and also, is there a spellchecker on here...I know I need one LOL

Edited July 18, 2011 by Tiger Man

[Tiger Man]

Check this out.......

 

http://www.newsshopp...s/442971.print/

 

http://www.newsshopp...s/451509.print/

 

Edgware Town are on the brink of extinction.

 

This is the stark warning from outgoing chairman Anthony Rosier who has quit the club this week citing the community's lack of support as his main reason for leaving

 

"Nobody seems to really care about this football club," said Mr Rosier. "I don't see the point of losing up to £50,000 a year if the people of Edgware aren't interested in supporting the club."

 

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2011 by Tiger Man

[Savagebee]

and the WLG falls into depladitaion with every day that passes, I would much rather they knock the whole place down now, rather than see it wasting away as it is.

 

I can understand that!

 

A football ground not being used and wasting away is a [censored] horrible sad sight!

[Rhodes]

Just in defence of Ken, imagine seeing a tsunami bearing down on you, and trying to take seriously someone who wanted to stave it off by holding a quick "fun day"!

Horace - I rest my case

[Horace]

Just in defence of Ken, imagine seeing a tsunami bearing down on you, and trying to take seriously someone who wanted to stave it off by holding a quick "fun day"!

Horace - I rest my case

 

What case is that? I'm confused now.

 

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

Case of special brew is my guess

[ref off ref]

It is a crying shame to see sides fall by the wayside, who is to blame f**k knows but it just seems to be the norm these days.

As the bloke earlier said, and Rhodes, in the 70's crowds of kids turning up week after week to support their local side, as I did in them days when Enfield played at Southbury Road, difference is though times change.

In them days you had Match Of The Day and the Big Match, not a game at 8.05pm on a Thursday evening from the Faroe Isles, 3 channels on TV, no X-Box, no Playstation, Wimpy Bar and Fish and Chips, Light Ale and fags at an affordable price no ponsy politics about where you can stand and where you should sit.

Offside was easier to understand, you could tackle from behind, shinpads were for poofs, goalkeepers didn't need to wear gloves, you played on pitches that resembled the north sea or a farmers ploughed field, the ref was a fat little t**t but let you get on with the game.....the point is the youth of today have it so easy, why go and watch a local game in the freezing cold when you can simulate yourself in your warm bedroom on the psp or X-Box to be playing up front with Lionel Messi for Barcelona.

Every community should have a football club......but it's getting the community to support it

[Horace]

It is a crying shame to see sides fall by the wayside, who is to blame f**k knows but it just seems to be the norm these days.

As the bloke earlier said, and Rhodes, in the 70's crowds of kids turning up week after week to support their local side, as I did in them days when Enfield played at Southbury Road, difference is though times change.

In them days you had Match Of The Day and the Big Match, not a game at 8.05pm on a Thursday evening from the Faroe Isles, 3 channels on TV, no X-Box, no Playstation, Wimpy Bar and Fish and Chips, Light Ale and fags at an affordable price no ponsy politics about where you can stand and where you should sit.

Offside was easier to understand, you could tackle from behind, shinpads were for poofs, goalkeepers didn't need to wear gloves, you played on pitches that resembled the north sea or a farmers ploughed field, the ref was a fat little t**t but let you get on with the game.....the point is the youth of today have it so easy, why go and watch a local game in the freezing cold when you can simulate yourself in your warm bedroom on the psp or X-Box to be playing up front with Lionel Messi for Barcelona.

Every community should have a football club......but it's getting the community to support it

 

Great post ref-off! Likewise, many of those lads who do want to play footie prefer a weeknight 6 a side on a 3G surface and a few beers in the bar afterwards. Weekend then free for whatever her indoors says you want to do!

 

 

 

[Karen Browne]

It is a crying shame to see sides fall by the wayside, who is to blame f**k knows but it just seems to be the norm these days.

As the bloke earlier said, and Rhodes, in the 70's crowds of kids turning up week after week to support their local side, as I did in them days when Enfield played at Southbury Road, difference is though times change.

In them days you had Match Of The Day and the Big Match, not a game at 8.05pm on a Thursday evening from the Faroe Isles, 3 channels on TV, no X-Box, no Playstation, Wimpy Bar and Fish and Chips, Light Ale and fags at an affordable price no ponsy politics about where you can stand and where you should sit.

Offside was easier to understand, you could tackle from behind, shinpads were for poofs, goalkeepers didn't need to wear gloves, you played on pitches that resembled the north sea or a farmers ploughed field, the ref was a fat little t**t but let you get on with the game.....the point is the youth of today have it so easy, why go and watch a local game in the freezing cold when you can simulate yourself in your warm bedroom on the psp or X-Box to be playing up front with Lionel Messi for Barcelona.

Every community should have a football club......but it's getting the community to support it

 

Great post ref-off! Likewise, many of those lads who do want to play footie prefer a weeknight 6 a side on a 3G surface and a few beers in the bar afterwards. Weekend then free for whatever her indoors says you want to do!

 

 

 

 

Can only echo Horace's response. Nice to see a well drafted comment posted here Ref Off Ref.

 

 

 

[ref off ref]

To add to that from a different perspective it could be asked do clubs do enough within the local community to get people out of their warm houses on a freezing cold evening?

Are clubs selling themselves enough, it's the clubs who need the fans these days and not the other way around so are club members out there doing there bit?