Welcome once more to the members newsletter, I hope it finds you in good health.

Membership Renewals

First up this month you will hopefully all have received the communication from Reg  about membership renewals.

They will renew from the 1st July and can be done either as per the usual form behind the bar, or you can renew here if you prefer to do so online.

Family Fun Day

This Saturday 1st July we will  be hosting our legendary Family Fun Day and as you can see from the smashing advert above there will be lots to see and do and eat. Quite frankly I’m going to be disappointed if I’m not seeing footage of “Metro” Paul on that bouncy castle at some point or with a big blob of ice cream on his nose. Bring all the family down and join in the fun. Don’t forget your sun cream.

We could do with a couple more hands to help with the bar between 2 and 5, if you’ve ever seen yourself as Tom Cruise in Cocktail, don’t worry you don’t have to spin bottles and stuff.

Even if you could collect glasses and load the pot washer that would be a huge help. Just let them know at the bar, or if you’re up for serving for an hour we can add you to the rota if  you let any of the committee know.

Football Update

Pre-Season is just around the corner, can you believe how quickly that came around. I can hear a lot of people breathing a sigh of relief and I for one can’t wait to be back traversing the football grounds of the North East.

There has been one slight change to the line up as Dunston had to withdraw, but the fun starts on the 1st July when we cross the coast road to play Benfield. It would be great to see as many of  you as possible there.

Here is the dates for your diary.

Saturday 1st July – Newcastle Benfield (Away)

Saturday 8th July – Wallington (Home)

Wednesday 12th July – Percy Main (Home)

Saturday 15th July – Droylsden (Away)

Wednesday 19th July – Blyth Town (Away)

Friday 21st July – Lothian Thistle HV (Home)

Prior to the game at Newcastle Benfield there will be a match between Heaton Stannington A and Heaton Stannington Under 16’s at 12:30 on the 3G pitch at Benfield.

Our close season improvements are under way and if you’ve been up to the club recently you’ll have noticed the nice shiny new pitch surround has started going up. They’re ahead of schedule and will be completing it this coming week.

Also this week the refit of the changing rooms begins. It’s anticipated to take 2 weeks and will be a big transformation for them. Not only will it save Bill his annual painting of the floors, it will be much each to clean them. The plumber has worked miracles with the showers which will be a joy to anyone not substituted or asked to leave the field of play as the early finishers always used all the hot water previously.

Season tickets for this coming season are now on sale and we have had a very strong uptake so far. If you haven’t  got your yet they are available at the online shop here and will also be available at the home pre season friendlies. If  you’re at the club having a drink and Scott, James or Gary are there they can sell you one in person too if you ask.

Coach to Droylsden

We have a very limited number of  seats left on the coach to our pre-season friendly at Droylsden on the 15th July. As expected it’s been popular but plans have got in the way (cricket season isn’t it) and we’ve had some drop outs. I know a couple of likely lads have their eyes on two of them which would leave us one solitary seat. I won’t lie, there’s going to be drink partaken, but if you can cope with that get yourself booked on here.

Heaton Stannington Juniors

As you will know doubt have seen Heaton Stannington Juniors section have partnered with Urban Green and agreed to make Paddy Freeman’s Park the home of all the Junior teams. We’re really excited by this and there are lots of plans to improve and update the facilities for the teams there.

Urban Green are working with GMS who look after our pitch at Grounsell Park to improve the pitches at Paddy Freemans and there will be a lot of work going into the changing rooms also.

The open sessions held for the juniors were  an incredible  success with over 200 turning up to take part which has led  to a strong sign up to join the juniors. We already have a number of teams set up and ready to go with more juniors wanting to join a team. We are now looking for more coaches to enable us to make sure that everyone who wants to play for us can.

If you would be interested in becoming a coach at the club please contact neil.drummond@hotmail.com

Getting in there early our under 9’s team have already taken part in their first tournament and got us off to a flier. After 3 fantastic results they narrowly missed out on a place in the semi final on goal difference.

On that note I shall say goodbye for another month  and I hope to see you either at Benfield or the Family Fun day on the 1st.