News Archive

Some of the more important news that effected Darby Green FC

(08/10/04)
PROTEST AT FROGMORE CAMPUS
Wednesday night saw over 200 people march on Frogmore campus to protest at Hart Councils decision to give away our training slots to a corporate adult 5-a-side league.
Meridian TV were in attendance and broadcast the scenes on the local news throughout the day on Thursday. Darren Jackson was interviewed and told them of our frustrations at being left in the lurch by the Council.
Stephen Parker, leader of the Council, was also on hand for the cameras and openly admitted that they had made a "mistake" in forcing the youngsters from the training pitches. He said "Come next year we will look that all our potential users are satisfied" which means nothing will happen until the new season next year.
During filming one of the adult players from a team playing on the astro-turf was heard telling our kids to "go back to your school playgrounds and train" but most others didn't mind playing a bit later and seemed to think it was fair that the boys had access to the pitches in the early evening.

(04/10/04)
PROTEST AT FROGMORE CAMPUS
Wednesday 6th October
After discussions with other local football teams who have also been effected by the decision by Hart Leisure to give our training slots over to an adult 5-a-side league it has been decided to hold a peaceful protest at the gates of the astro turf pitches at Frogmore Campus on Wednesday 6th October. We will be meeting at 7pm sharp to make our feelings heard. This is the next step in our campaign but we need YOU to be there too. Bring your children along too as the local press will be on hand to report on our problem. This is a lawful protest and the local authorities have been informed.
Managers please let your teams know and bring them along to support us.

 Many thanks to all those who turned up to the Skittles evening last Friday. Everyone had a blast as well as raising money for the club. If you didn't make it you missed a very good night so make sure you get along to the next event which is on Saturday 23rd October at Camberley Arena. We need 20 families along just to break even so please speak to your manager or any committee member for tickets which cost just £20 per family or £7.50 per adult/ £5.00 per child. The Arena is available exclusively for the use of Darby Green Dynamos which includes both Swimming pools, the larger one having the fun inflatable set up. There will also be a bouncy castle and other activities such as roller skating, badminton and football in the main hall. Not only that but we also have use of the bar with a disco upstairs so please come along and bring your friends and family to make it an enjoyable night for all.
Matt and Ali have put a lot of time and effort into getting this event off the ground so please do your bit in supporting the club.

(29/08/04)
As taken from the Star newspaper August 26 2004

KIDS KICKED OFF PITCHES
'A youngsters football club claims it is the victim of a cynical profiteering exercise by Hart Council
Darby Green Dynamos are feeling sore after being given the boot from the council-owned all-weather pitches at Frogmore Campus.
The club, which runs 11 teams, has been told it can no longer use the pitches for Wednesday evening training sessions. Instead, according to club spokesman Nigel Hunt, the pitches have been hired to a company which has taken a 52 week booking.
"The whole thing stinks so far as we are concerned," said Mr Hunt. "We are very angry about the way we have been treated. The council is quick to point the finger at youngsters when there's any vandalism, and yet it takes this facility away from them because this company is willing to pay good money for the pitches."
The village club has more than 100 members aged 5five to 18, and has used the floodlit pitches since the 1980's.
Mr Hunt said the club was also annoyed to learn that the decision to let the company take over the pitches was agreed in May, but they had not been told until last month.
"It left us in a real hole," he continued. "Fortunately Wellington College at Crowthorne has come to the rescue and provided us with training facilities." He fears the club may lose some members because parents will be faced with a longer journey for training sessions.
Council leader Stephen Parker said on Monday: "I realise our communication with the club about their application left something to be desired, and we are very sorry about that."
After a meeting with the club committee, the council had offered to provide some pitch `slots` at reduced rates in an effort to meet some of their needs.'

As you can see from the councils replies they agree that they were in the wrong but don't seem to want to do anything about it.
As mentioned in previous news the slots they offered us were just not workable and so in the end amounted to nothing. Since this article was published we have had communications from other local clubs who have been affected by the councils decision and we are now planning future steps to tread.
We would like to thank Andy Black from the u9s initially for contacting Wellington College and also to the College itself for as quoted `rescuing` our season. A link to a map for the college can be found here and on the links to the left.
Training slot times can be found here.

(19/08/04)
Darby Green Dynamos Football Club have now received a revised calendar for slots at Frogmore Leisure Centre from the Corporate Director at Hart District Council, Cathie Powell.
Despite managing to find  3 additional slots on a Wednesday evening they have not come up with the Tuesday times that we need. Other slots offered on a Monday or in the sports hall are of no use to us as a club because of several factors, including safety, size of squads playing in a small hall, the fact we play matches on a Sunday and then are asked to train the following day and not least slot timings.
Because of this we are now considering our actions to take the matter further, a response is being drawn up immediately, the outcome of which will be posted here as soon as we know more. Your support of Darby Green Dynamos FC is more important now than at any other time, please help us by speaking to your managers for further advice on what YOU can do in the coming weeks.

(13/08/04)
Firstly a big thank you to everyone who took the time to write a letter to Hart District Council, it certainly has had an impact and has meant that we are now in contact with Cathie Powell, Corporate Director at Hart District Council.  One of Cathie’s responsibilities is Leisure Services and she now personally looking into our complaint.  In fact she was kind enough to attend at very short notice a DGDFC Committee Meeting held on Thursday 12^th August, where we were able to raise all our grievances.  The meeting was very constructive and although nothing was resolved, Cathie understands that timing is critical and has promised to come back to us with a solution by the end of Monday 16^th August.  However it was disappointing to hear that it was the Council who contacted Pitch Invasion to set up the league at Frogmore Leisure Centre and this was done way back in February without a thought about the potential impact on other users of the centre or even a phone call to let us know about their plans.

Should we not get a solution that is workable for the club on Monday then we are ready to contact the press and will be raising the profile as high as possible, even to the national level if we have to.  We have also been working on an alternative plan for training pitches and we will have more on this next week.

Finally we would like to thank everyone for their continued support.

(12/08/04)
Amended..... It seems there has been some confusion as to who is actually in charge at Hart Leisure but we have now been informed that The Head of Hart Leisure is in fact Cathie Powell, sorry for any mistakes but your letters addressed to Jean Hounshaw should still get to its intended target.

Following on from the EGM......
The club would firstly like to thank all those that showed up for the meeting of 5th August 2004. Your support is of the utmost importance to Darby Green FC.
Firstly a little history on why the EGM was called - towards the end of July the club discovered that our training slots at Frogmore Leisure Centre had been taken away from us because of a corporate company, namely Pitch Invasion (strangely apt), had offered the campus a deal whereby they would block book the astro turf pitches on a Wednesday night for 52 weeks to host adult 5-a-side competitions. The centre under pressure from above to increase revenue accepted the deal at the expense of clubs like ours who have been using the facility since it was built. On top of this the centre then gave away our slots on a Tuesday evening without warning. The effect of these changes means our kids currently have no where to train once the nights draw in. This has an obvious knock on effect of parents moving their children to other teams and so threatens the very existence of Darby Green FC providing youth facilities in our area. The Leisure centre have come up with alternative times/days for us to consider but they are inadequate and at times when 7 to 10 year olds are expected to train from 8pm or where we are being asked to train the day after matches or where we are being expected to train indoors.
The committee unanimously felt that these alternatives were not workable and called the EGM to decide on the way forward to regain our slots. Thanks to work going on in the background we have been in discussions with Frogmore Leisure and have also drafted in the help of local and county councillors who are sympathetic to our plight. We also have a petition to sign that will be passed on to all parents by their respective team managers. More importantly we urge YOU to write a letter to Cathie Powell Head Of Hart Leisure stating your protest at the way our club (and others in the local area) have been treated in this matter. Last year alone Darby Green FC paid fees of over £6000 to Hart Leisure for training and pitches yet our loyalty to them has been ignored. The local councillor who attended our meeting, Bob Harward, has stressed how important a hundred hand written letters has a bigger impact than a petition of 500 names.
These are the first steps on the way to making sure Darby Green FC survives and providing over 200 six to eighteen year olds with somewhere to play football but we need your help to succeed. We have been providing football to the local community for 22 years and do not want it thrown away by others.

Pre-season 5-A-Side.
Once again Darby Green Dynamos have had to cancel the forthcoming 5-a-side tournament which was due to be held on the weekend of August 21st & 22nd. Due to lack of support from local teams we felt it would be better to concentrate on having our own special day on the Saturday instead. So now we are holding a BBQ Day which will feature games for everyone including football (of course), running races, sack races, tug-of-war, rounders and penalty shoot-outs for young and old alike. Please support us in this latest venture by coming along with family and friends. As well as the fun events we will also be hosting a BBQ for all as well as a tea stand and music, if you want alcohol you are welcome to bring your own along.
We will also be running is a second hand football boot stall. If you have any out-grown boots that you would like to donate please speak to one of the managers who will happy to take them off your hands but please make sure they are in a reasonable condition to pass on to fellow footballers.

If you have any news you feel we should let the world know about then contact us at news@darbygreenfc.com