So...no players seem to be willing to make any comments regarding whether training on the 3rd July or playing in the Risden Wood Tournament on the 17th, 24th & 31st July are good ideas or not.
What a surprise !

We really need a Management Committee decision on this but I can't see us being able to do that because too many of them have other commitments at the moment.
It therefore looks as if I am going to have to make these decisions myself.

As far as Training on Sunday 3rd July is concerned, I am going to say that this is definitely ON and if any of these prospective new players don't turn up on that date then we should take it that they can't get up on Sunday mornings and they will be no good to us.

For the Risden Wood Tournament, as far as I am concerned we can easily find a squad of 16 players for each of those three dates in July...and beyond if we progress into the knockout stages in August.
However, deciding which players to give preference to for playing in this Tournament is a MASSIVE problem !

If we give priority to all those who have not been playing 7-a-side (e.g. Paul Ellerker, Del, Kizza, Dedman, Barry, Peter Murphy, Chris Morrish, Peter White, Adam Barker and numerous new players who want to join us...including various asylum seekers), we will have no teamwork whatsoever and could suffer some heavy defeats which will put people off joining us...or staying with us !

If we decide to field our strongest available side each Sunday, half the First Team will probably be unavailable at this time of the year due to family commitments anyway and other First Team players will then drop out at the last minute when they realise we are fielding the sort of line up that lost 10-1 to Enfield Rangers Old Boys last season or that we are going to try out asylum seekers who might be absolutely crap and can't speak a word of English.

If we make it a 'first-choice' Reserve Team entering the Tournament, maybe with one or two First Team regulars who don't mind playing with 'inferior' players, it could result in a situation whereby we have too many wanting to play and we don't get a chance to see what new players are like...although if players volunteer NOT to play on a Sunday because they are playing 7-a-side the following night, then that might help. We will definitely have a situation some weeks though where we are short of Reserve Team players all round and will struggle to field a 7-a-side team on a Monday because too many have played the day before in 90-degree heat.

The quality of opposition in the Tournament varies from Premier Division-quality right down to Division Six. (The Accies are one of nine teams from our League who have entered).
We could field a First Team for one match, then a Reserve Team/triallists the following week depending on the opposition and/or availability of players for any given week. All players should then get a chance of playing at some stage in the Group stages in July.
If we get through to the Quarter-Finals in August, then we field our strongest side each week, and if we get through to the Semi-Finals on the 14th August, I have worked out that we can still field a half-decent side even though numerous players are going up to Manchester for the cricket that weekend.

This is my favoured option but it all depends on First Team players committing themselves NOW, which they are not prepared to do (as usual).

I have to make a decision NOW, otherwise we will not get in the Tournament.
Also, if we do not go in the Tournament, we may not have any Pre-Season Friendlies at all in August as we cannot find any pitches elsewhere. The Riverside Club in Turkey Street has now closed down for football for a start, so even Northmet are asking if WE can find a pitch for a Friendly in August.

This is your last chance to state your opinions.
Don't blame me if I end up making the 'wrong' decision.

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I'll play whoever it's with - the spazzers or the good players!

I have now entered us in the Tournament as they needed a decision tonight otherwise we would not have got in.

I know that Trevor will be working on Sunday mornings in July and Russell will be up in Manchester, but I don't HAVE to video the games, much as I would like to.

I will therefore be Manager/Club Linesman for all the matches if necessary...much as I hate doing that !

We will worry about how we are going to decide which players to pick nearer the time. We have three weeks in which to discuss that.

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It has now been confirmed that we will be in Group B along with Burnt Mill (from the Harlow League) and Dysons Rovers and Enfield Crusaders from our League, both of whom we have played before.
Burnt Mill will be a mixture of their First Team (who finished near the bottom of the Harlow League Premier Division last season) and their Reserves, who won the bottom Division.

Presuming I am Manager and having now found out who our opponents are, I will be looking to field a squad for each of these three matches consisting of at least eight 'quality' First Team players (including Terry Moore, Nugget and the ex-Everest players if they are all interested), no more than two new players of unknown quality (i.e. these asylum seeker-types that keep e-mailing us) and 5 or 6 Reserve Team players.
That will then be good enough to give all these three teams a decent game.

I will also look to give different players a game each week wherever possible, although this will probably happen anyway due to work & family commitments and holidays.
However, players who don't get a game on a Sunday when they want to can then be given preference to play 7-a-side the following night ahead of others.

I will hopefully have full details of these matches on the Fixtures and Latest Club News pages by tomorrow morning.

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I would have preferred team selection to be based on the Donald Rumsfeld method:

Players that we know we know
Players that we know we don't know
Players that we don't know we don't know

I thank you.