Balague: I salute Biggeswade United's band of volunteers

Warmest greetings of the season to everyone involved in any way with Biggleswade United not least our volunteers, that magnificent '˜band of brothers' - and sisters, without whom nothing that takes place at the club both on or off the pitch would be possible.
Guillem Balague.Guillem Balague.
Guillem Balague.

I really don’t know where to start in paying tribute to the small band of people who do so much for the club.

It is because of the efforts of people like Steve Grenfell and Geoff Hancock that players and fans alike arrived to a clean and tidy ground and to a sparkling dressing room.

The players’ sweet smelling, laundered kit was in place because of the efforts of Heather Rennie and the teams walked out onto a pitch marked out earlier in the day – as it always is – by club secretary, Tracey James.

Anyone that enjoys a beer at half time does so thanks to volumtary bar and cellar services offered by John Titmus while Tracey and Heather are also on call either serving drinks, coffees, teas, hot dogs and at the end of the game both teams are served up with a hot meal.

If you look around at some of the recent pictures taken at the club then they were more than likely taken on a pro bono basis by Matt Burling while if you managed to watch the game on our Youtube connection that was because of the voluntary efforts of Steve Farrell while commentaries are the unpaid work of Cameron Hazzard and Matt Lang.

If you bought a programme then the person to thank for co-ordinating that is Elliott Brown who was probably also the person you saw at the gate when you came in.

If however you found about our fortunes via the local newspapers such as this one then it was the unpaid words of Leon Waite you can agree or disagree with while if it was social media where you read about us then it was Jordan Rowsell that you have to thank.

People like Cheryl Farrell and Peter Dean also look to ‘grease the wheels’ that help move the Biggleswade United train along the tracks by selling raffle tickets on match days and nagging local people and businesses into backing the club they love, as does the seemingly tireless, William Glasswell on a daily basis.

My gratitude to all of them is incalculable.

But the club is for everyone in the community and I would love to see our clubhouse used more for all manner of functions be they weddings, parties, anniversaries or whatever. I would also love local bands to be given a space for them to be able to strut their stuff (licences and permissions permiftting) and would urge to them to contact the club to see if we can do something together.

Back to football and the news that we neither said goodbye to the old year, nor welcomed in the new one as we would have wished, with back to back away defeats at Leighton Town (4-0) and Crawley Green (3-2)

We now look to get back to winning ways with three home games on the bounce starting with Wembley tomorrow (Sat k.o 3pm) and then an unbeaten Welwyn Garden City on Tuesday night (k.o. 7.45pm).