21st July 2014 Welcome to the latest Club update. It has been a very eventful week at Epsom & Ewell F.C. On the field we recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over Ryman League Walton Casuals, and although status is misleading at this stage of the season, we were well in charge for much of the game and thoroughly deserved our win. We looked quite solid, and the only black mark was a late finger injury to our new keeper Michael Eacott, which will be looked after by the healing hands of physio Ken Jones! We also know our opening League matches. We travel to Farnham Town for our opening fixture on Saturday 2nd August and host Raynes Park Vale three days later at High Road. We will travel to Sussex League side Hassocks in the F.A. Cup on 16th August, while in the F.A. Vase we are exempt to the First Round as a result of our third place finish last season, so we have a draw to look forward to in early October. We have two friendlies this week; on Tuesday night at St Francis Rangers (7.30) and on Saturday for our Dave Wilson Trophy match at Horsham YMCA (3.00), who have confirmed that they will be producing a programme for the match. Both games are to be played on the main pitches, so if you have never been to either club before, now's your chance! Off the field I can report the personnel changes from Sunday's AGM. To start with, we have a change of Chairman with Pete Beddoe stepping up from Vice-Chairman and replacing Tony Jeffcoate who was in charge for just over seven years. Following on from this, our Treasurer Steve Dyke is the new Vice-Chairman. Pete is also our Secretary for this season. On the Committee front we have one in and one out as Ian Twyford has stepped down as Membership Secretary, while a new post of Media Officer has been created and I have taken this role on. My brief is to produce the programme once again and at the same time this website will become the official club site. The current site will become a photographic archive and will replace my small pitchero photographic site which will close. Additionally, I will also be responsible for club information released on our social media outlets. My intention is to keep the supporters informed much more with what is going on at our club, with the hope that you will all come along and get involved, be it as a supporter or sponsor or in any other way that can help us. We have stagnated for too long and seen many ambitious clubs leapfrog us. It is now our time to catch up. Ian's resignation means that the Membership Secretary position is now vacant. Although Ian was at many games and will, I believe continue to be so, he would advise that much of this role is done away from the club, and can therefore be undertaken by someone who doesn't have the time to be at all the games. The main tasks would be to collect memberships from our existing group of around 35 and to try and increase those numbers at least past the fifty mark. If you are interested in getting involved with the club at an exciting time in its history, please drop me a line at: richard.c.lambert@virgin.net There is also positive news in the hunt for a new ground. Towards the end of last season a Steering Committee was formed consisting of members of our Holding Company, together with a number of people both from our club and our Colts. Progress has been made on identifying a site where the people concerned have now signed a letter of commitment to a partnership. We have of course, heard positive stories before only for the dreams to die, and I won't hide from the fact that there is a lot of work still to do before we can get a spade in the ground, but this time our Holding Company are so convinced that we are about to engage with a firm of outside consultants with reference to the scheme's feasibility. They would not commit to this if they didn't believe it was substantially worthwhile to do so. In my opinion, this is a very good development for our club, and those of you who know me will understand that I won't make statements like this unless I believe them, regardless of my new role. Honesty, transparency and communication are the new words here, although obviously there is only so much I can divulge on this subject because of sensitivity and problems the club has faced previously when publicising potential new sites. Lots of good news today. Long may it continue! Come on you Salts!