CONTENTS
Team Mat Notices
League Info
Fixtures
Training
Thursday FootbALL
40+ Is Back
GDFC Mag
Membership Full
GDFC Main Club Policy
Social Sec Update Re: Pubs
Players of the Day
TEAM MAT NOTICES
Who to contact? Please remember to contact team Mat for queries if any questions are not answered in this newsletter. Ideally, queries should not be directed to other committee members. Team Mat is Martha Godfrey, Ciara Robinson and Annabel Baldwin. Whilst any Mat can answer questions, the relevant Mats have been added to the tables below for leagues and training.
Team allocations? Just a little reminder that Team Mat does not automatically get a notification when you sign up to a league. Where teams are allocated and you have newly signed up, please let Team Mat know and we will add you to a team.
Training allocations? If you have not already, please let us know if you live in a household so we can factor that into training bubbles.
Sunday 5s/7s? At the end of this season, the structure of the Sunday leagues is changing. We will be entering teams outlined in the table below.
We will be holding a poll for you to express a preference over which league you wish to play in shortly.
You can only sign up to one for the season and must stick to that league.
LEAGUE INFO
FIXTURES
TRAINING
THURSDAY FOOTBALL
Calthorpe Community Pitch
Size: 5-A-Side
Surface: Flat AstroTurf (no moulds)
Time: 8.15-9.30pm
Location: 258-274 Grays Inn Rd, London WC1X 8LH
MIXED ABILITY KICK-AROUNDS
After the huge success of Thursday’s Kings Cross kickaround we will be doing these sessions every other Thursday from May onwards. We believe these sessions are a fantastic way of offering more football to our members, whilst also providing an inclusive & enjoyable environment for all ability levels to play on the same pitch. Bring on 6th May, we go again!
Ps shout out to Dee & Jane Cahill who were the Thursday night players of the week - fantastic play.
40+ IS BACK
Our next three 40+ sessions are:
29th April
27th May
24th June
All sessions are from 20.15-21.30 at Calthorpe Community Pitch. The address is 258-274 Grays Inn Rd, London WC1X 8LH. The session is pay what you can, with a suggested £5 fee. Players can sign up here.
Please tell your friends/colleagues/mums!
GDFC MAG
We are reopening submissions for GDFC Mag issue 4!
The theme is 100 years, to mark the FA’s ban on women’s football a century ago. Submissions don’t need to be about the ban or football related. You are welcome to interpret the theme closely or stretch it to its limits.
The deadline for submissions is Sunday 9th May.
If you have any ideas or would like to contribute to issue 4 as a writer, illustrator or in any other way, please email me at mag@goaldiggersfootballclub.com.
We are looking for:
NEWS AND FEATURES
A longer-length piece (max 1750 words) related to the theme, however tenuously. Think football over time and the evolution of the game.
For example, this could be a profile piece on someone who inspires you or a select footballing history. It could be sharing footballing memories, a piece on football songs through the ages, or a look at what your local pitch was used for previously.
CREATIVE
Creative writing, poetry, art, drawing, photography, cartoons.
COLUMNS
Short form opinion pieces.
FOOD
Cookery tips and recipe ideas. Do you have a new take on a recipe from the last 100 years? Would you like to challenge yourself to eat like it’s 1921 for a week and write about it? Do you have any favourite pre-match or post-football meals?
LIFESTYLE
Fashion, health, fitness, football. Would you like to cover an intriguing local business, or a friend’s lockdown side project?
GDFC CRUSH
Do you have a GDFC crush? Tell them anonymously here. Please, keep it clean.
AGONY AUNT
Do you have a problem for our agony aunts to solve? Are you a dab hand at offering advice? Let us know.
ENTERTAINMENT
Reviews or recommendations (books, film, music, podcasts, online theatre, TV, activities, things to do - you name it).
QUIZZES/PUZZLES/GAMES
GDFC Mag is written for and by the community. Everyone is welcome to contribute, regardless of experience. You can read our previous issues here: https://www.goaldiggersfootballclub.com/store.
Do you know anyone who would like to contribute? Please share this if so!
MEMBERSHIP FULL
Just a quick update from us:
We want to give back to our members who have had a disrupted year of football and now have a higher appetite to get back on the ball. We have decided to limit the membership cap this block to 160 players. This includes our new members Asante, Komal, Terri, Jackie, Dee, Aliya, Tovah, Errin, Emily, Nhoon, Adday & Seren! Welcome!
Moving forward, anyone who wants to join the club will be added to the waitlist. Those who qualify for one of our access spots will be prioritised at the top of the list. Note that any players who are taking a temporary break (pregnancy, illness etc) from GDFC are automatically included at the next block.
MAIN CLUB POLICY
As voted on by members at last year’s AGM, membership spaces are only available to those who consider GDFC to be their main football club. GDFC should be the club you spend the majority of your footballing time playing with or for in the block you are joining. This is in order to ensure membership spaces are fairly allocated to those who do not have alternative opportunities to play football. We do not police this currently, but we ask members to be realistic about this.
We have reviewed the feedback from this year’s AGM survey and have the following comments:
We actively want current members to stay a part of GDFC. Please let us know if there are any issues stopping you from remaining at GDFC as your main club. We cannot accommodate those that want GDFC to have ability-based football options. This runs against GDFC’s fundamental ethos of ‘availability not ability’.
We need to prioritise the needs of our newer members and members that do not have access to football elsewhere. This means we need to ensure our community, both footballing & off the pitch, is welcoming & friendly by keeping it for members.
The ‘old goals’ membership has had no interest as it stands and so we will no longer offer it.
If you have any concerns about the above, please get in touch with Gaia.
SOCIAL SEC UPDATE RE: PUBS
We are very aware that pub gardens are re-opening their doors on Monday to tables of six. We as a club have taken the sad decision not to organise any post training pints, because our session is for over 6 people, but we understand that some members will be keen to socialise after training. What we would ask of our members is to please:
Try and stick with goals who are in your training bubble
Be aware of who you are going with - invite those outside of your usual friendship circle so everyone feels welcome
In the meantime we (Social Secs Ellen & Katherine) are working on exciting plans for socially responsible socials in May/ June. Any ideas please get in touch with us via the app.
PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Tuesday 7s Coach Amy and Beth Miles
Tuesday 7s Captain Flo and Maggie Hayes
Tuesday 7s Captain Millie and Ally Temple
Tuesday 7s Coach Amy and Natalia
Wednesday Training Coach Amy and Niamh
Wednesday Training Coach Amy and Seren