It's a lovely sunny Friday afternoon in August. England are 320-odd for 2 in the fourth test against India, Surrey are in the semi-finals of the CB40 and another summer is drawing slowly to a close. One sure sign of the approach of autumn is the start of the football season. Chelsea have installed this year's manager, Wegner is promising that this will be Arsenal's year (again) and Man City have signed three thousand blokes I've never heard of.
Meanwhile, down at the War Memorial the soap opera that is Carshalton Athletic FC continues with ever-more outlandish plot lines.
The story so far...... (wavy lines, wavy lines, wavy lines) ......... owner Paul Dipre sacked manager Mark Butler in the spring, citing poor performance of the team. Having run through one manager per season since taking over the club in 2008 Paul appointed himself boss and then over the summer made some impressive signings including Dean McDonald, Craig Tanner, Scott Chalmers-Stevens, Billy Crook, Francis Quarm, Dean Lodge, Paul Vines and Laurent Hamici. A mixed bag of pre-season friendlies followed but the recent capture of Tom Davis from Sutton may be significant as a midfield enforcer was clearly lacking.
So far so good. However, in the background a row with supporters has resulted in 10 of them being banned and the start of a campaign which seems to be affecting attendances including sub-250 crowds for games against league one Charlton Athletic and local rivals Sutton.
The ten are accused of swearing and singing offensive songs in the games that followed Mark Butler's sacking and on one occasion bringing alcohol onto the terraces. However, not all those banned sang and swore and not all those that sang and swore have been banned.
Personally, I disagreed with the way they went about protesting Mark's sacking and some of those I have spoken to agree that their behaviour was wrong.
There are currently moves afoot to bring the sides together and I hope that common sense prevails and those that want to return to the terraces at Colston Avenue are allowed to do so.
I have relinquished my roles as programme editor and PR officer, largely because of the poor atmosphere at the club and I know I'm not the only volunteer to take such a view. Many of the regular supporters will not attend home games until the bans are lifted.
Paul Dipre has done amazing things at Carshalton Athletic. For example there are now 34 junior teams, a thriving academy and a growing women's section; the ground is looking its best for years and the business is being run as a business. The first team really needs to take the same leap. Hopefully I'll be at home games to watch it happen.
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