Help the Hatters Update- May 2019

So ……a rare re-visiting of the old tradition of publishing Help the Hatters Updates via hedgegrower.

It`s been a busy 5 or 6 days following the Interim Schedule of Works put together by John Gaskin and Adrian Caville.

Archive pic of Adrian by popular demand !

By Wednesday of this week both the above will be sunning themselves elsewhere- on well earned breaks, whilst others slave on…..

In this respect it was great to welcome Alan back, and he was in fine form committing whole days to the task of power cleaning the Pop Side , on his own or with the redoubtable Ray. 

Alan raring to go !

 

and doing the biz!

We have already reported the start of work cleaning the seats in the Upper Tiers of the Cheadle End, where our incredulous toilers were nonplussed to find bird crap on seats even that far back!

 

Another income stream suggestion for County- they market the stuff in other parts !

It was also brilliant to receive as a County Museum exhibit a large framed photo of a County team from way back when(1929-30 we think ). 

 

Donated by Roy Taylor

This was kindly donated by Nuneaton based County supporter Roy Taylor along with some terrific correspondence twixt County players and management from circa 1934, which has been passed on to Historians Ian Watts and Marcus Heap to be added to the County archive. We thank Roy greatly for his generosity.

Saturday this week saw Help the Hatters back in Edgeley Park providing free refreshments for the 2 Academy games being played that day( who needs a money drenched FA Cup Final, with County`s future on show on our magnificent playing surface?)

Dot & Ray in action .

Ray and Dot provided the back bone of the effort which attracted a generous level of donations from the spectators that will help keep us doing what we do in the absence of  a venue for our Car Boots !

Thanks to all the specs who gave so generously, and to those Help the Hatters regulars who donated their time equally generously !

Jan, John, Dot, Ray- the early birds!

Oh…..and Saturday also turned out to be the day when we finally identified the mascot on the photo of the 1961-62 County team on the wall immediately before the bar in the County Museum.

Ian- identified at last !

Ian ( picture above by Simon )introduced himself as the young lad in the photo.

…….great stuff!

On to today then and a good turn out ensured we could do stuff that needed doing…

Ray, Alan and Keith did the Pop Side( power cleaning and gunge clearing)….

Terry and Edd `relocated`  a small mountain of items from our store room to Vernon`s Vault…… 

Kevin did the biz at the Cheadle End…………….

Archive of Kevin ( todays pic duff )

….where Dot and Broderick continued the clean of the upper tier seats.

On….on…….and the next person hedgie bumped into was Jim who was busying himself under the Danny Stand roof. He was on the phone to his lawyers as I confirmed that the photo was `in the bag` but , hedgie`s representatives ( Messrs Sue Grabbit & Run )  have a large waste paper basket for the receipt of any writs ,  swingeing or otherwise, that may result.

That left Anne and Jan who were hard at work in the corridor under the Cheadle End, prepping surfaces for another of their renowned ` paint jobs`. They also have work on JG  and the Physio`s rooms , but all that can wait until the sisters come back from Buckingham Palace where Anne`s award for volunteering work earned an invitation to a garden party to which HM the Q will be in attendance!

We await with interest a report ( and pics) of that( and a doggy bag ?) !

As hedgie sloped off ….leaving others at their labours…..he spied Mike who was dutifully mowing the pitch.

I cannot tire of saying how beautiful a playing surface we have at Edgeley Park and it is a great credit to the volunteers who have laboured hard and long to keep it so.

Grass is resilient stuff, so I am clinging to that bromide as the upcoming gigs loom large- much needed generators of income for the Club of course, but old hedgie will be on pins until its all over and Mike and company can resume their labour of love !

Archive of Mike

Oh…. And Mike was not the last one to be spotted by the writer who bumped into Ralph who had been summoned from his lunch break to resuscitate the large power cleaner- as usual Ralph responded like the diamond bloke that he is…

…..have I said  `great stuff ` yet at all?....well it all really is !

Oh....again.... and Fitzy was negotiating this that etc for us too...

More archive (guess the match ?)

Finally….action to come:-

Wednesday this week from 6pm- Working Party

Next Week our usual Monday/ Wednesday scheduling is interrupted for one week:;

Tuesday 10 am Clean Up

Thursday 6pm Working Party’

As usual you are all welcome to join us !

Help the Hatters