We all have our interests and hobbies, and as I have got older, they have changed for me. When I was younger I just wanted to play these sports and be competitive, but now, the legs don’t quite have me playing as I once did, however I will quite happily have a game of [insert just about any sport going, other than swimming, where’s the fun in that?]. So, my attentions have expanded to coaching and enabling others to also get this enjoyment from sport; whether it be developing a skill or socialising and meeting new people over a common interest.
This interest has gone further of late, and I am now Chairman of a grassroots football team, called Warwick Wanderers, who are based a couple of miles east of Carlisle. The Club is based at one site which is a community field, and we have over 30 teams ranging from U6 to U18, and the teams cover both girls and boys. This means we have just over 400 children registered, which makes us one of the biggest clubs in the area.
So why step up and be Chairman? The Club has been established for 28 years and has only ever had one Chair, so I am only the second person to ever have the job. I think this goes back to my earlier thoughts, in that I want to help enable others to get enjoyment from sport, and this is immensely satisfying. There is the element of children getting enjoyment, but also adults who coach, and giving them something to focus on and develop. Whether scaffolders, solicitors, accountants, plumbers, beauticians, farmers and everything in between, it is great to see people from different backgrounds pull together for the same cause.
This was no more evident than the recent weekend when we hosted our annual gala. This saw approximately 2,500 children take part over the two days, and whilst we don’t have precise numbers, we think there were close to 6,000 people in attendance in total over the weekend. I’m not going to lie, it is blooming hard work as I (along with several others) spent circa 27 hours on site over two days, but the feedback, smiles, enjoyment, money raised, and support is well worth it.
It is also brilliant to get support from local businesses, whether this be with advertising hoardings or by supplying vital resources such as refuse collection or a local farmer lending his field as an overflow car park. I am also incredibly grateful to my own employer, Paramount Legal Costs, for sponsoring a pitch and supporting me with my commitment, and to understand that sometimes I do need to take a call to decide about how the car park is laid out!
Being Chairman is tiring, but it is also immensely satisfying, and we’ll have a debrief in the next few weeks about what worked and what maybe need to alter for the better. This self-reflection is used at work, and it is something that I am keen to bring to the Club. So, we have 51 weeks off and we will host it again, but the planning will start much earlier, and we will go again. It cannot be done without the support of each and every volunteer, and I am incredibly grateful and proud of the team that made it happen.
Tom Brocklebank is Head of Litigation at Paramount Legal Costs and can be contacted here.
