MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPEN

Published in the National League South game v Chelmsford City Saturday 2^nd November 2019. We won 2-1 in front of 731

Last week I was in Hastings talking about the Bevy Pub and how we achieved the impossible. Re-opening a dodgy estate boozer and turning it into a co-operatively owned community centre which runs everything from seniors lunch clubs, kids cooking, art clubs, dementia café, parkrun etc. You sing it, we will put it on. Joining me on stage were some very impressive people.

There was Sally from Watchet in Somerset, a town devastated by the closure of their 250 year old paper recycling mill. She is part of the Onion Collective a remarkable group of women bringing investment and jobs back into their small town. Two of their team had been raised in a zoo their parents had built from scratch and so have a we-can-do-anything attitude built into their DNA. Their latest venture is working with a bio-tech company to use mushroom mycelium (the thread like material of the mushroom that grows underground) to eat plastic waste and turn that into building materials which will create the hundreds of jobs that had been lost when the paper mill closed. The Library of Things is a simple idea where equipment is lent out so you don't have to buy stuff like a drill which you will only use once in a blue moon. Repowering London put solar panels on some of London’s poorest housing estates creating training, jobs and cutting electricity bills for people with few opportunities.

What we often ignore is that most of these people and their ideas come out of protest movements. The ones like Extinction Rebellion where people dress as broccoli and octopuses, block roads and have put climate chaos back on the agenda. Of course its easy to pick holes when people protest. 'How can we take you seriously, when you're not wearing potato sacks for clothes' they cry. 'You've got a phone! You don't live in a house carved out of a mushroom.' (that will come later from Watchet).

But let's be honest 'Please Sir can we have some more' just never really washes with the powers that be.

Take the Suffragettes, who everyone now idolises but did a lot more than stop a few cars to get the vote. We all know about Emily Davison who threw herself under the King's horse in June 1913. But less so about the letter boxes they set alight, the thousands of windows they smashed, the telephone wires cut, and graffiti scrawled. They burned down the empty houses of the rich and dug up golf courses. They attacked British Museum exhibits and paintings in the National Gallery. Imprisoned suffragettes went on hunger strike and were force-fed while others started planting small bombs until the outbreak of the First World War saw the abandonment of the campaign.

As Nicholas Klein quoted at a Trade Union convention in 1918. 'First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.'

The people who spoke in Hastings have a pig headed never say no attitude that started on the streets protesting but has metamorphosed into creating something that will make everyones lives better. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

This attitude is one Slough supporters had to adopt when everyone in authority turned their back on the club and even suggested we merged with Windsor. It was the supporters who formed a Trust and started campaigning outside the Town Hall; held a red card protest during our FA Cup game with Walsall, and stood candidates during local elections. I knew the leader of the council at the time who complained bitterly that people had been rude to him on the phone because his Liberal Party brushed aside the Rebels pleas. While we plummeted homeless down the leagues, others said that no one really cared about football in Slough. Yet here we are. A mix of stubbornness, business brains and volunteer hours, which means we are already part of the fabric of the town despite only being back home for three years.  

There's so much amazing stuff happening in this country but it is drowned out by politicians simple slogans or ridiculed by newspapers owned by billionaires written by columnists born with a silver spoon. We get more in-depth football analogy than we do political. So turn off the TV news, recycle those newspapers, ignore social media and sit down with a good history book.

The politics of pointing fingers and blaming everyone else can take you down a dark road. I'd prefer to try and work with people to make things better. Sometimes that will be on the streets, sometimes that will be hunched over a computer or chatting over a pint or on the terraces. It's a lot more fun as well than moaning and waiting for others to make things happen.

CARE PLAN

Published in the National League South game v Welling United Tuesday 29th October 2019. We won 1-0 in front of 630

This year’s 10th anniversary of Non League Day saw me celebrating, not on the Arbour Park terraces but at a wedding where I bumped into Slough resident Tony Johnston who previously lived in what was the Vicarage and is now the care home right next to Arbour Park. Here's his story.

Oxford House was built around 1907 as The Vicarage for Saint Paul's Church just a few hundred yards further up Stoke Road. In the late 70's it was acquired by the Johnston family to house their growing family and was later adapted into a Nursing Home in the early 80's. The Johnston family remain the proprietors of Oxford House today and it is now a comfortable home to some 34 local elderly residents. It has a reputation for outstanding quality of care and is held in very high regard locally as one of Berkshire's very best care homes.

Tony continues the story “The current Arbour Vale site was previously the playing fields of Orchard School. When plans were first mooted for the site to be Slough Town FCs new home ground, we viewed the plans with a mixture of apprehension and enthusiasm. As a local family, we share a sense of connection with The Rebels and a number of close friends are life-long fans of the Club (some might say obsessed). Fans have long pined for a return to having their own home ground and this seemed to be a great solution after many false starts. However, we did had some concerns around security, light pollution, noise levels and increased local traffic congestion, not to mention the thought of a previous green field site becoming a potential eye sore.

“The Club, its main building contractors and Slough Borough Council's planners worked with us collaboratively to address each of those concerns. Due consideration was given to enhanced security fencing, thoughtful floodlighting, road planning and parking restrictions, so that none of our concerns have proven to be a problem. The eventual site layout and architecture has subsequently enhanced the local landscape and is now a local landmark for the town. Throughout construction, the assigned Project Manager met with us regularly to update us on progress. We think the ground looks fantastic and offers a brilliant new facility to Slough residents. Recent form suggests players feel good about the facilities too.

“The Club have been kind enough to provide Oxford House with a number of complimentary season tickets allowing our residents, and their Carers where necessary, to attend matches. These tickets are well utilised and we now run a 'book' to ensure they are used evenly across all of those residents that enjoy the game as demand for the tickets is always high. We have many family members who comment that for "Mum or Dad" the outings to Arbour Park are often a highlight in their week. Slough Town FC Staff on match days are very accommodating and the allocated viewing area is spot on. Competition amongst staff to accompany residents can often be fierce! We have some families who particularly wanted their parents to reside at Oxford House because of this ease of safe and accompanied access to match days. One of our current residents has been a huge fan since the 1930's and one of their relatives, Charlie Wakefield, was a goalkeeper with the club between 1937 – 1949 making 232 appearances. His brother, Percy Wakefield set up Upton United and Slough Villa in the late 1920's, and in 1930 when he was 19, played his first match for Slough Town but mainly paid for Slough reserves. He eventually became a ref and was later vice-chairman of the Slough Referees Association. Two brothers and two keepers!”  

So much happens behind the scenes to make a football club tick, to make it part of its community. The story of the Rebels relationship with Oxford House care home, to me sums up all that is good about the club and why it’s so important to get things right off the pitch as well as on.