SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL FOOTBALL TEAM, YOUR LOCAL PUB

Printed in the final friendly of the season v Charlton Athletic U21s Tuesday 1st August 2023  We lost 4-3 in front of 470

Even the most pessimistic of football fans are usually looking forward to the beginning of the season and what might happen.

As for Slough Town supporters. Well, we ended the season on a high - safe from relegation, crowds up, new owners, a spring in our step. The last home game was just brilliant behind the goal, and the amount of youngsters and noticeably girls elbowing us old gits out the way is growing. Clubshop Sue said her friend could hear us on the Wexham Road and it sounded like a carnival - which is what football should be. One person posted. 'It was a great day out. I hadn't been to a game in a very long time and after that great experience I have no idea why I don't go more often. Fans were loud, entertainment was great and the match was pretty good.'

So while i've been sleeping more soundly over the future of Slough Town, our community pub in Brighton has been causing me more headaches, and not just from overindulging.

Years ago, the Bevendean Pub was closed by the police, and the Moulsecoomb estate like so many across the country became a pub free zone. But a group of pig headed, wouldn't-listen-to-reason residents got together and re-opened it as a community pub. That makes it sound easy, but it was anything but, taking five years of campaigning and fundraising and no doubt a lot of praying from Father John, our local charismatic vicar who backed the plan from the start.

Fast forward nine years and the Bevy has become much more than just a pub.

Everyone needs places where they can meet and pubs and football clubs provide just that. All pubs do social good, but the Bevy is turbo charged. You name it, we host it. 

Seniors clubs, job club, afterschool clubs where everyone who comes along gets free activities and free food. Disability discos, plants sales and parkrun. Health drop-in clinics, University talks, the list goes on.

We rely massively on our regulars to keep the garden looking stunning, grow fruit and veg, turn the rocket composter, fix the lights or a broken door; jump behind the bar to help out when we are busy. Exactly what a community pub should be. When i left there the other night, a bus driver was spending his time off repainting the whole of the inside of the pub for free.

In an ideal world, the money from the bar would fund all our community activities. We’ve never quite managed to do this consistently, mainly cos the surrounding area isn’t anywhere near as wealthy as the bright lights of Brighton – and we do stuff like pay staff the Brighton Living Wage, cos it’s the right thing to do.

We are a pub and a community centre. Our community activities are what we are about and what makes us different but with everyone having a lot less cash in their pocket and costs rising all the time this model isn’t working as well as it has previously.

And pubs are continuing to close across the country - even Wetherspoons are shutting down branches.

So what would you do if your football club was faced with closure? Shrug your shoulders and go and support someone else? Or get together with others to fight for its future? With that football fighting spirit in mind, we rolled the dice. Was honest with everyone about our financial predicament, publishing our accounts and asking for help.

The resulting support was overwhelming.

Seventy people crammed into the Bevy for a public meeting - while others have been sending in ideas and ways to make money. It's been hard keeping up with it all, but i'm start-of-the-new-season-optimistic we will get there in the end.

The reality is that we need to start measuring things on social good - not just solely on profits. And how much do our activities save the NHS? Not just helping tackle loneliness and helping with peoples mental health and making sure they are ok. One of our regulars came in the other night. He's not been well and the landlady rustled up some food leftover from the seniors club so he had a hot meal and promised in the morning to pick up his medication for him. How do you put a price on that? 

And just look at were being profit driven only has bought us. Take Thames Water. Imagine being allowed to pay shareholders while 25% of your product literally goes down the drain, you spew sewage everywhere and look set to go bankrupt. Or the rail companies who constantly put up train tickets while services continue to deteriorate, refuse to pay staff more, want to close most of the ticket offices – yet still find money to hand out to shareholders. If’s that’s not being rewarded for failure then I don’t know what is.

As we like to shout from the rooftops the Bevy is the only community owned pub on an estate in the UK. It was a miracle we ever opened – and 9 years later despite millions pumped into the community pub sector we are still the only one. That has to change.

Which brings me back to football.

Enjoy the season, help out when you can, get behind the team - especially when things aren't going so well on the pitch. Oh and when you go to away games, seek out the small independent pubs rather than Wetherspoons. They need our support more than ever. 

If you want to know more about the Bevy go here  or watch this short film