Away trip to Torquay

At last I have something akin to the good old Travels days to write about - last weekend Colin Beton, my Dad and myself travelled the 219 miles down to Torquay for the Southern League AGM. Torquay I hear you cry! Yes, really, Torquay...

I really am unsure as to why the AGM takes place in Torquay, like many clubs it is certainly our longest league trip of the season, but one that has to be made because we have to have two delegates at the AGM on Saturday morning and we must buy 4 tickets for the Saturday night dinner at £50 a time. Throw in the 219 miles and one could be forgiven for questionning if anyone had realised there is a recession on!

Not to be deterred, we headed off down the M4 as far as it went, then the M5 as far as that went before sitting in traffic around Newton Abbott and then eventually finding our Bed and Breakfast's in Torquay in ample time to stroll the full ten yards from the front door to the nearest pub. As it happend, the pub was very pleasant, good enough for us to spend many an hour over the course of the weekend at.

Later that evening we ventured further into town for a couple more pints, a very nice Chinese meal and then hailed a taxi up to the Palace Hotel where the Conference weekend was taking place. As we entered the hotel we met our very own Brian McCarthy (not allowed to count as a Chesham United delegate as he counts as a Southern League Director for the purpose of this weekend) chatting to a certain Dennis Greene - ex-Chesham manager, current St Neots boss. By now we had partaken in a sherbert or two so restricted ourselves to a brief chat with people and a couple more very expensive pints at the hotel before getting a taxi back to the cheaper B&B end of town where we were residing.

The followng morning we opted for walking back to the Palace hotel for the AGM at 11.00am. Somehow it never clicked the fact that a £10 taxi the previous night probably constitutes a fairly long walk - just over an hour in fact, pre-dominantly uphill as well! Can't say Chesham didn't arrive in style! Puffing and panting as we walked through the car park of personalised number plates and expensive cars.

I don't know how secretive the AGM discussions are supposed to be, so I had better be careful. There were a few things about the whole weekend that were excellent, there were others where there is some room for improvement. As of yet I have not received any format to feedback on the weekend, though I did contact the League Secretary with some feedback and suggestions, as yet I have not heard anything since.

Of most interest to supporters is of course the situation regarding Rushden & Diamonds; it appears things are no clearer, though the league have stipulated some conditions were they to join our league and if they do, we will play with 23 teams rather than 22. That does leave a lot of question marks over things, some logisitcal, some practical and some basic principles...Having in recent years had Nuneaton, Salisbury and Fanborough drop from nowhere into the league to steal promotion places - is it really good to think that might happen again? The reality is I don't think they will be in our league come August, but I may be wrong and I am certainly none the wiser after last weekend.

The other big announcement was the year's worst kept secret - Evo-Stick are the new league sponsors. I think their presence will be good for the league and you will certainly see their name all around the grounds as we go on our travels. There were some fantastic pictures of what has been done with some of the clubs from the Northern League, including a competition to win £10k worth of materials for ground improvements - Chasetown, in fairness, had put together an excellent 3-minute video. I guess it was slightly disappointing to think that they didn't actually say they will be doing the same with our league and in fact there was no real mention of anything the club's may get directly from the sponsorship.

The AGM business was done by soon after midday. We headed back into town on the 32 bus amusing ourselves with some of the going-ons of the morning. By 1.45pm we were back in the pub opposite our B&B - The Bull & Bush - for a couple more swift pints and a discussion about the days events. Indeed, around 4.00pm we concluded that we ought not just spend the whole afternoon in the pub before heading up to the Gala Dinner and a night of, well, drinking I suppose. To take a break from the pub we wondered a hundred yards down the road for a game of crazy golf and then, well, back to the pub.

We left the Bull & Bush in time to give ourselves half-an-hour before picking up the 32 bus again for the journey back up to the Palace Hotel. The evening was enjoyable, marred only really by the expensive drinks from the bar, but the company on our table was good - Beaconsfield SYCOB and Northwood - and the entertainment was reasonable, including an entertaining and informative speech by Brian Lee from the Blue Square league.

Then on Sunday morning we were back on the road for the long journey home, eager to get back to our kids on Father's Day - another strange bit of organising in my mind, unless I am a bit of an exception who tries to put my family first?

For the next few weeks it is all about bringing in money ready for the season ahead, I'll keep you posted...