Ottery St Mary Football Club chairman Mikey Ringer could not be happier with how things are developing at Washbrook Meadow.
He says: “Of course it remains a real frustration not knowing when we might be able to start playing friendly matches and indeed planning for the 2020/21 season.
“However, things are really starting to hot up now as we have had out first batch of players putting pen to paper and with one notable difference this year.”
He continued: “It has been so positive to hear team management stress to all players that when they sign for the club they do just that.
“They are not signing for a particular team - and we will have three men’s senior teams in the coming season. No, the management have made it very clear that they are not interested in a player who insists they are here to play for any one particular team.
“We have had well over 60 players at the training sessions and, fortunately given the amount of room we have at Washbrook Meadow we are able to accommodate such numbers whilst comfortably adhering to the social distancing guidelines.”
One thing that has really pleased the Ottery chief is the way the players, old and new, are clearly committed to working with the club, all working together to achieve on and off the pitch ambitions.
“Hopefully, it will not be too long before we are in a position to be able to announce when we can get the clubhouse fully open and show off what are a number of new improvements that we have been able to get done during the past few months. The amount of work that has been done by the guys and girls really does deserve to be show cased. There has been some seriously hard graft put in with paint brushes, nail guns, saws, as well as the plumbing and electrical skills. Yes, I have witnessed what I shall call a ‘United team effort’ in terms of the off-the-pitch work over the past few months.”
He continued: “There are more projects in the pipe line and indeed some we will keep up our sleeves until football returns, Suffice to say, at this stage, that there are things afoot that will enhance the experience of players at Washbrook Meadow.”
The Otters chairman then turned his attention to his own ladies team - the Ottery chief remains the manager of the Otterettes.
He says: “Our new club goalkeeping coach Sty Fraser put our Otterettes goalkeeper Sharon Newman-Davies through what looked a brilliant session last week. The feed back I received was top drawer and I know that the work Stu did with Shannon was really appreciated and I also know that Shannon took an awful lot out of it.”
He added: “We have spent some time over the past week reviewing the youth girls section which is building fast and continues to be a superb basis and foundation for the well-being of our ladies team going forward.”
In terms of additional off-the-pitch news, the Ottery chairman is hoping that the guidelines and restrictions are eased to enable a rather special social function to go ahead at the end of August.
He explained saying: “We are putting together a ladies night at the end of August. The event is, of course, subject to a relaxing of current restrictions, but, if it can go ahead, it is going to be an event the like of which has not been seen before on a local level.
“Those attending will be in for a great nights entertainment and there will be a few surprises from the management and players. Can’t release any more details than thus, but suffice to say that I fancy a few ‘alter egos’ could be on show.”
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