Biography

Hugh is now in his 4th term of office, & has been a great addition to the club. His professional background has proved to be a great asset, as has his calm head.

CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW 2010/11 SEASON

The Club has had another excellent season.

The Mini Section have all finished strongly.

The Under 7's and both Under 8's teams have performed brilliantly, and had they been in competitive leagues, would have done extremely well.

The Under 9's had to rebuild their team after losing many players to professional clubs but still managed to finish runners up in their league.

The Under 10's did very well, finishing 3^rd in their division.


The Youth Section had a mixed season for results. 

By far the greatest achievement was the Under 11's victory in the Hampshire Cup. No other Greenfields side has ever done so well in this competition for which literally hundreds of teams enter - not even in the legendary days of Jamie Redknapp. Many congratulations to the players, Manager Brian Meek, and coach Billy Salter.

The Under 12's won their BYFL first division league, again a first for this club since 1986. A great effort by the players and Manager Adrian Chambers.

The Under 13's were unluckily relegated from Divison 1, in a nail biting finish. 

The Under 14's maintained their position in Division 1 for their age group.

The Under 15's achieved their best finish, 4^th in Division 1, since they started playing 11 a side.


Off the field the Club has continued to develop and thanks to Paul Raney we have an excellent range of kit available on the website-do take a look-prices are very competitive.

For the footballing future ,we have once again proved very successful in recruiting for next year’s Under 7's, so successful that we will be running two teams at this level next season, in the BYFL and the Dorset league.
The present two Under 8's teams will also continue in both leagues as Under 9's.
Running parallel at the mini level is very helpful when players are lost to professional clubs and we need to consolidate into a full side at Under 11.

We have cemented our relationship with the adult Ferndown Town Greenfields FC team, now to be managed by Matt James, our head coach. Several of our players have made a successful transition from previous season/s Under 16's to the adult side.

All this does not happen without a lot of hard work and support. We are very grateful to Seward, who over the years have been by far our biggest sponsors and who continue to give great support.

I should like to emphasise that we are a club that believes in loyalty. The Committee and Managers do a great deal for the children not just to play but to get excellent coaching. In return we ask for your loyalty to the club and to support your manager for all the work and effort they put in. Inevitably managers will make decisions which not everyone will agree with and this has to be accepted as a normal incident of any competitive team game. I am sure this is recognised but if parents do have an issue with a manager do raise it with him at an early stage. Good communication coupled with an appreciation of the difficulties a manager has in meeting everyone’s demands is essential.

I thank all the managers upon whom the success of the club is more dependant than anyone. I also thank the Committee for all their hard work during the year especially my fellow officers.
Paul Raney is stepping down as Vice Chairman but has done an amazing amount for the club as previous Chairman, Team Manager and Vice Chairman. He is always taking initiatives and this year alone has established the club’s range of ancillary kit, taken responsibility for the website and in conjunction with his son become manager of the Under 7's Dorset league side for next season. The presentation to him of the Alf Harrod award for exceptional service to the club for an unprecedented second time was richly deserved.
Special thanks are also due to our Treasurer, Lesley Champion for ten years of great service. Officially she is Treasurer but she takes on all sorts of other duties including Kit Manager and organiser of all the awards given out on Presentation Day.
The most demanding job in the club is that of Secretary and I am most grateful to Carole McNeil for giving us such an efficient and conscientious service during the year.

We do, though, need more help on the administrative side-particularly in fund raising and organising social events. I do urge parents to become more involved and if you would like to volunteer to help in any way-not necessarily as a Committee member-do speak to Carole, Paul or myself-our details are on the website.

Finally, it only remains for me to wish everyone an even better season in 20011/2012.

Hugh Craig

Chairman