Bad news (but not unexpected) I'm afraid...The Southgate Hockey Centre have told us that we cannot be moved from 9.00-10.00.p.m. on Wednesday nights for this season as there are no other vacancies. All the 8.00-9.00.p.m. and 7.00-8.00.p.m. slots have been re-booked by the same teams that used them last season.
As I said before, those times are like gold-dust and the teams that use them are long-established clubs that are not going to fold. The only alternatives for us now are training on a 5-a-side pitch at Powerleague in Tottenham or Muswell Hill (without an 11-a-side goal), training on a Monday or a Friday night (at the SHC between 8-9), or training on the concrete car park at Edmonton Cricket Club on a Wednesday or Thursday night between 7.30-9.00.p.m.
There is absolutely nowhere else whatsoever (in the Borough of Enfield), and if anybody tells me there is, they are talking bullshit.

If we want to use 9.00-10.00.p.m. at the SHC on Wednesdays this season, we have to pay a £100.00 deposit before next Friday (12th July)...which we don't have in the club account at the moment until certain players start paying their backlog of subs .
At the moment, Terry Moore is the only player who has told me he will not be coming training unless we can start at 8.00.p.m. or earlier. George Stahlmann and some of the new players he is going to bring along cannot train whatever because they work evenings, but apart from that, everybody else should be able to make a 9.00.p.m. start (as far as I know), even though most of them will be in 'sofa mode' at that time and we are undoubtedly going to get players crying off with false excuses once they have got home from work between 6.00-8.00.p.m. and eaten something/started watching Eastenders.

If any players are the same as Terry and are not going to attend training this season, they MUST tell me NOW (or on Monday when they turn up for Pre-Season Training). If too many players are not going to turn up for 9.00.p.m. starts, then we will be wasting the club's money.

Yes, unfortunately there is a very real danger that we won't be training at all this season and we will probably finish bottom of Division One as a result, but there's nothing more I can do I'm afraid when there are not enough floodlit Astroturfs to go round.

The SHC have just informed me that they may have an 8.00.-9.00.p.m. slot available for us on Tuesday evenings this season instead of 9-10 on Wednesdays. They are asking if we are interested.

I have said yes because I am now filming for Slough Town instead of Ebbsfleet, and I think they might play their midweek Home matches on Monday or Wednesday nights because they ground-share. If they had their own ground they would be playing on Tuesday nights.

Is a Tuesday night at 8.00.p.m. inconvenient for anybody else ?

The SHC have now confirmed that we can have 8.00-9.00.p.m. on a Tuesday if we want it but I am already getting players texting me to say that is no good because they do something else, while others are saying they won't be coming training whatever time/night we have it because they now 'work nights' or do other things.

This will most definitely be brought up in my report at the AGM.
What is the point of having training at all ?
I think some harsh words and some tough decisions are going to have to be made.
The way we are going we might have to have half the team training evenings and the other half (which can include me) training during the day !!!

It was decided at the AGM last night that due to too many players having other commitments on Tuesday nights, we will continue using the Southgate Hockey Centre Astroturf on Wednesday nights between 9.00.-10.00.p.m. for 10 weeks starting from Wednesday 28th August, then we will make a further decision after that (depending on the numbers attending) as to whether to continue at the SHC or to go in a Wednesday night 5-a-side League instead.
(We have to train for 10-week periods at a time in order to have our invoice VAT-free).

I will expand on this a bit further in my next Chairman's Blog.