We had another really good training session last night (Thursday) at the Southgate Hockey Centre with 16 players turning up (not including myself and Trevor), so we are therefore definitely going ahead with another session this coming Sunday morning at Enfield Playing Fields. We should be able to get 12 players there at least.

We will be meeting in the Ladysmith Road entrance car park from 10.15.a.m. ready for a 10.30.a.m. start.
Although we are not going to be able to use changing rooms and showers, we are going to have to charge any players attending this Sunday who were not at training last night £2.00 each to help pay for the costs of having to hire last night's facilities. We think that's only fair as it was their fault that they couldn't attend.
However, I understand that goalposts have been put up and pitches marked out at Enfield Playing Fields already, which we may be able to go on as long as we do not put nets up. (I will go over and have a look later this morning). That means paying £2.00 for training over there is not as bad as it would be normally.
Players who attended training last night will not have to pay on Sunday.

As for availability, the following players have told me (or Trevor) that they are not coming this Sunday, mainly because of family commitments & holidays:
Tem Adil (Might Not ?)
Jim Arrowsmith
Rob Brown
Stuart Dorward
Danny Smith
Tony King
Terry Brown
Jamie Martin
Darryl Johnson
Andy McGovern

We are expecting everybody else to be there (unless they inform us otherwise between now and Sunday morning), and if they do not turn up, then we will assume they are not interested in playing this season and they will not be included in the squad for our Pre-Season Friendly the following Sunday.

If any of you know any good players who are interested in joining the club, please bring them along.
More players of the quality that Oz brought along last night (Steve Sivathasan) will be most welcome !

Well...we had a really good session this morning, didn't we ?!!!
Only myself, Trevor, Loveday, Danny Hagan, Olie and Lexton turned up...so we therefore had no option but to go straight home without doing anything.
Yes, a typical Rovers Sunday morning Pre-Season Training session.
...and here is what I put on here on Friday (and also e-mailed to everybody):

That quote therefore applies to the following players, so can they please explain where they were this morning ?
(If Trev is happy with the excuse, then he will pick them for 7-a-side on Thursday and/or the Pre-Season Friendly next Sunday if necessary).

Alan Barnard ...Sent me an e-mail a few weeks back saying that he would not be available for an AGM on Saturday night due to a mate's Wedding, but didn't say anything about not being available for training today (i.e. the morning after). I know he has been on holiday all week, but I read on Facebook that he was playing cricket yesterday (instead of attending the Wedding ?), so he should have been at training this morning as far as Trevor & myself were concerned.

Steve Cokell ...Sent me a text on Tuesday saying that he was moving house 'next week', so he would try and come training 'on Thursday' (which he didn't) but couldn't play in 'the Friendly on Sunday' . As we didn't have a Friendly today, I had to assume he meant he couldn't make the 8th August because he was moving house 'next week'. I texted him back asking him to clarify, but only got a reply about something else ! He then didn't reply to Friday's e-mail/Forum message, so as far as myself & Trevor were concerned, he should have been there this morning.

Conor McGovern ...E-mailed me a few weeks ago to say that he was still injured and that he would be unavailable for Sunday 8th August and possibly a couple of other Friendlies, but should be fit to play on the 15th (or words to that effect). He didn't say anything about being away today, so it should have been an ideal opportunity for him to come along and test out his fitness. The e-mail I sent on Friday came back as an out-of-office reply as if he has gone away for the weekend, but he still could have replied to other e-mails and Forum messages regarding training today ?

Dean Assiamah ...Didn't say on Thursday that he wouldn't be there, but Lee King dropped out this morning with a bad back (which we knew about), so obviously Dean didn't come because Lee wasn't coming and neither was Tem, who normally gives them both a lift.
We need to get this sorted out, as it would be a crazy situation if we can't name Dean in a squad just because Lee is injured and/or Tem is not playing.

Ozel Ozerman ...Didn't say on Thursday that he wouldn't be there, so we were hoping/assuming he would turn up with Steve Sivathasan and the other mate who wants to join us. Again, he was e-mailed but didn't reply.
If (as I suspect) it was a case of him, Tem & others going out on the piss last night, I would rather they
just hold their hands up earlier in the week and admit they are not going to be able to get up in the morning, then we could have called training off on Friday and not wasted peoples' time this morning.

Daniel Daley ...No reply to say that he was not coming.

Robin Pryke ...No reply to say that he was not coming.

Gavin Mardell ...No reply to say that he was not coming. I know he has only signed up to play when we are short, but I would have thought he might have been interested in doing some training, and a reply would have helped.

Wosen Girma Rike ...Prospective new player who has now let us down three times by not turning up after saying he will be there. He didn't say he would definitely be there this morning, but I told him it was his last chance. We are not going to put unreliable players who we have not seen kick a ball yet in the squad for matches ahead of players who we know.

In addition to these players 'named & shamed' above, we also had numerous players get in touch either yesterday or this morning to let us know that they were dropping out...but even so, when that happens this late for matches, it causes us a serious problem and we must stamp it out.
The only player I can really excuse for doing that on this occasion is Terry Moore, who has just become a father. Congratulations Tel. (Wife & baby are still in hospital, and that was the reason he could not come training this morning. He would have been there otherwise !).

Basically, I suspect today's debacle has almost certainly come about because it's too much hassle for players to read long Forum messages and e-mails like this on their Blackberries and i-phones when they are 'too busy' with other things. They will only read messages if they are a one-liner (like on Facebook or Twitter), so they just leave or delete any Rovers stuff like this and hope I will send them all a text just saying 'Rovers Training at EPF Sunday 10.30'...and then we have an even more time-consuming text message conversation as they try to get more details. This is a right pain for me as I only have an old mobile phone, not a Blackberry/i-phone (which are far easier to text from).
Even one of the players who did turn up (Danny Hagan) went to the wrong car park this morning.[
We must have players taking things a bit more seriously now that Pre-Season Friendlies are starting next week.

If players reply to this rant, can I have something along the lines of: 'Sorry everybody. My fault (incl. the reason). I am still committed and will be available on x date if needed' rather than throwing their toys out of the pram like they normally do ?!!!

The reason I didn't attend is that I didn't know about it. I didn’t have a chance to read / respond to the forum / personal emails on Friday, as I was too busy handing over work for my holiday. I came back from holiday on Saturday morning, arriving at my cricket match about 15 minutes before the start. Right after the game, I rushed off to my mate's wedding reception, and got back home at about 3am. At no point during the week have I been able to check my emails, or get online (since I don't have an internet phone).

Had I known about the training session, I'd have probably taken it easier last night, and come along. I'm not trying to blame anyone else - it was quite unfortunate - but given that you knew I was on holiday, it might have been a better idea to have dropped me a text, or called me to let me know about the training session (especially since I almost always reply to forum messages / emails promptly, either saying I will or wont be available to play / train).

Anyway, I'm certainly committed to playing for the club, and now that I'm back working, I'll be checking the forum regularly and attending training / matches (or giving reasons for not attending)

Cheers
Barney

That's a good enough excuse as far as I am concerned.

It's the numerous players who are not at work and don't have a computer at home but do have an internet-connected phone that have some explaining to do.
Why can't they just have a quick check on the Forum a couple of times a day to see what's going on ?
That's far easier for me than texting everybody.

I was sure that Barney would have a good excuse although I thought he'd probably been injured at cricket and rushed to hospital. I must stop these negative thoughts.

I told Trev on Thursday that I did not know and would let him know asap, I was trying to play cricket on Saturday and then come training Sunday, but with a wife and two kids that is a little difficult.

As I have said, I will be available for all the friendlies and will put Rovers before cricket........so stick that up your arse!!!!!!!!!!!

You were not at fault Jacko.
You texted both myself & Trevor and we were not expecting you to be there.

I was there training with mckenzie as i told you i would be doing every sunday in till pre season game s start, i only knew rovers had trainin when lex came over to mckenzie trainin and said hardly anyone turn up for rovers trainin

I don't remember you saying that (probably my fault), but to be honest, I don't blame you. A very sensible idea given our record for Sunday morning Pre-Season Training blow-outs.
I think Lex said McKenzies had about 20 over there, but then at least we had decent turnouts for training in midweek while they had to drop out of the 7-a-side League because of a lack of numbers, so it's swings and roundabouts I suppose.
Trouble is, we are supposed to be a Sunday morning side, not a Thursday night side !

I have been thinking about things further since Sunday morning and there is no doubt about it...I am going to have to text all players who do not reply to e-mails and Forum messages, even though it is against club rules.
I can't phone and speak to players because whenever I have done that in the past, they have either: a) Had a screaming two-year-old sitting on their lap, b) Been driving through a tunnel or sitting on a tube train (so the signal cuts out), c) In the middle of watching Eastenders d) Half-way through shagging the wife/bird, or e) On Stage...in Kizza's case the other night !? .

So...tomorrow I will text the following message to all those in the 7-a-side squad: '7-a-side @ SHC Thurs @ 8. U playin ?', then they will all text back straight away saying 'Yeah. C u there', then I will text all 20 players currently in the squad for Sunday with the message: Friendly Sunday @ the SHC 10.30.k.o. U playin ?', then again they will all text back sayin 'Yeah. C u there'.

Simple isn't it ?
Then on Thursday we will have several players bringing bladed boots, forgetting their shinpads, shorts & socks and not bringing any money with them, then on Sunday we will have a load of players bringing Astroturf boots & trainers because they didn't realise we are playing on grass !?

U w8 n c !