Hi All,
I am pleased to report that the Club has had a very successful summer with some notable achievements by many of our teams at the various tournaments and events at which the Club has taken part.
However, before I tell you about these and other Club news I would like the community to be made aware of an incident involving one of our U13 players, Curtis Rowland. Unfortunately while playing at one of the recent tournaments, Curtis suffered a double break of his leg. On behalf of the Club, I would like to recognise Curtis for his bravery and the manner in which he conducted himself. I am proud that such a fine young man plays for Shinfield Rangers and we are all looking forward to him making a full recovery and playing for the Club again as soon as possible.
On to football matters and our U14 team won another trophy at the Westwood Wanderers tournament; our U13 team collected their NEHYL Division 2 runners-up trophies and our U9 girls team won the Wargrave trophy.
In addition to this the Club would like to congratulate Eden and Katie from our Girls U13 team, who have been selected by Reading FC as ball-girls (persons ?) for all of Reading’s home games this coming season. During the summer we also started a series of technical football skills training events with Matt Minnis (a supremely gifted freestyle footballer) and these will be rolled out across the Club from September. Matt does a lot of work with Reading FC and the skills that he is teaching the children (in addition to the weekly training programme) will not only improve their football, but are a lot of fun too.
As part of our ongoing community club development programme with the FA, the Club has also been attending futsal training sessions through the summer and this activity will be expanded as the new season starts in September. Futsal is a fast-moving and dynamic indoor version of football and is a superb way in which to develop children’s skill levels and fitness. We will be making further announcements regarding our greater involvement in futsal in due course.
Football training will return to our home ground at Millworth Lane from 3rd September and if there are any children who wish to attend a few training sessions to see what it’s like, then they are more than welcome. Please note that we have now started new U7 and U8 teams and there are still places available (we have two new coaches, James and Martin and they are both keen to get training as soon as possible !). There are also a few places available in other age groups – just contact the Club through the website if you are interested in joining.
It has been an interesting summer with the Club now expanding to 12 children’s teams and 1 adult team. I would like to thank the Committee and particularly Mike Perrett (Vice-Chair) for the work they have done in further developing the Club and dealing with the various minor inconveniences that invariably arise in the close season.
To all the children, adults and parents associated with the Club – thank you for your continued support of Shinfield Rangers FC and I wish you all a great 2013/14 season: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
James A. Roth-Chairman