We’re backing Play Safe

FC Redwing is lending its full support to Play Safe – a national FA-led campaign to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.

Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.

The main element of Play Safe is a series of short films which emphasise the importance of clubs such as ours having safeguarding as an everyday reality. The films also explain to parents/carers and children themselves know what to do if they feel unsafe or worried, because nothing matters more than making sure football is safe for everyone, especially children and young people. You can see these films below.

“As a youth team coach, I will be working with my club to ensure we support the Play Safe messaging,” says FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham. “I am also pleased that the campaign has the support of the former footballers with lived experience of abuse in football, who are on our Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group. The Group has collectively said:

“Learning from the past is crucial, so that we can prevent the horrific experiences that happened to us and so many others in football, from happening again.

“As a group of survivors, we fully support the ethos and important messages that Play Safe conveys – whether to club officials, parents/carers and or vitally, children and young people themselves. Equally important is that Play Safe is not a one-off campaign – it will be used at key points in the football calendar to remind everyone in football, that children’s welfare and keeping them safe, should be at the heart of all that we do.”

As the Survivor Group points out, you’ll see Play Safe appearing at various points throughout the season to keep safeguarding front of mind in football. Together, we want to do everything we can so everyone – particularly children and young people – has a consistently positive experience of our great game.

FC Redwing Vets match report - 19/09/20

On the back of a strong pre season, which included wins against Div 3 and Div 2 sides and a well competed reverse against a strong Div 1 side, the Old Boys of Redwing took to the field for their first ever Essex Veterans Saturday league game against regular Div 4 opposition Valley Green.

It didn’t take long for them to get into their stride as goals from centre back Richard, from a well worked short corner, and new boy Rory, from a delightful move down the right, put them 2-0 up early on. A third then came before half time as a mix up in their opposition defence saw the defender pass the ball past his keeper for an OG.

Second half Valley competed better and had some possession of their own. The old boys lost a little bit of shape and the press had died down but still in the final third kept them at bay. As the half progressed though the FCR vets picked up a little and got quick succession goals as Ox was fouled in the area, getting up to convert the pen and a second strike, left footed from Rory, took it to 5-0. Midway through the half Martin then got in the scoresheet as he chased through a through ball to convert for 6-0.

The only dent was to concede in the dying parts of the game to finish 6-1 but the game was won and a solid result secured for the oldies in their first ever league game. This weekend, a home fixture v Witham Town Res another regular team from the Essex Veterans League.

Message from the Chairman

First and foremost, I hope you and your closest are well and are keeping safe. Our thoughts at FC Redwing are constantly with those directly affected by this awful virus, families, our fantastic National Health Service staff, and everyone else keeping the country going at this time of crisis.

It has been three months since we last saw football over at FC Redwing and, in that time, life as we know it has changed dramatically. At times like these, football pales into insignificance, though I’m sure that you all join me in hoping for more positive news in due course.

Whilst we have all been away from playing regular football, the committee and I have been speaking regularly to ensure that we are fully prepared for a return at some stage in the future. Our running costs as a club, like many other organisations, have not reduced over this time, so we are looking into different ways to protect the future of the club. Our biggest revenue generator - the FC Redwing tournament - will also not take place this Summer.

We are actively in discussions with a number of organisations including Sport England, Basildon Council and the Essex FA to look into the possibility of grants and have already had some success with this, which will go someway in helping to make up the deficit from the loss of our tournament and presentation. Prior to lockdown, I have also been looking at different ways that we can continue to improve our facilities. None of this would be possible without fundraising support, our volunteers and patience from my wife!

It’s been great to see a number of FC Redwing players sending in their videos, drawings and challenges, as they look forward to the return of football at the club. Clearly we don’t know when that will be just yet, but we will let you know as soon as we do. The FA have recently published some guidelines on small group training, but this needs some discussion and consideration from our committee before we can establish some next steps.

The safety and wellbeing of our players, families and friends remains our sole priority and any decision we make will be made with guidance from the Essex FA. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate in either contacting me or the committee.

Look forward to seeing you back at FC Redwing in due course.

Steve

Club statement - Coronavirus

Hi All,

As Chairman of the club I want to put all discussion around this subject to bed, fulfil my duty as lead officer of the club, make a decision (with my fellow committee members support) and not leave that open to interpretation and/or questioning.

Simple fact is we have a pandemic situation for which the World Health Organisation, governments, businesses and all sorts of community and club bodies are taking action against and we as a committee cannot ignore that.

First and foremost we are a community club and the safety and care of our members in the community as part of that club is paramount.

Right now we do not know where this pandemic will ultimately go or at what level it affects our community but we do know that the actions we take will determine at least part thereof.

With this in mind our action as a club, with immediate effect, will be one of acknowledgement of a pandemic, and mitigation through NO FOOTBALL GATHERINGS AT ALL at our ground or in representation as Redwing until further notice which will be at least until we have a better understanding of scale and risk.

I thanks you all for your support and adherence.

Regards

Steve Richardson

Chairman

Merry Christmas 2019 from all at FC Redwing

Merry Christmas to all FC Redwing players, coaches, committee members, parents and friends. Hope you all have a fantastic day! Looking forward to welcoming you all back to the pitches in the New Year.

Below are some of our FC Redwing teams celebrating prior to Christmas.

Kids Inspire charity

This Christmas, FC Redwing are going to be supporting the charity Kids Inspire.  Kids Inspire are collecting hampers for children and families in Essex this Christmas. They support children who have been abused and help them turn their life around.

These hampers tend to make up the majority of the Christmas Dinner with the added treat of a little bit of chocolate. To many of us, this doesn’t seem like much but to those on the receiving end it means everything.

As you will be aware, our club recently attained the accolade of Active Basildon’s Community Club of the Year, whilst our very own Mark Gordon made it a Redwing brace winning the Coach of the Year.

We are going to be using the £100 awarded to the club to help support the Kids Inspire charity.  As per the flyer sent by all managers this week, we are also asking for contributions to the hampers from parents and players ahead of the deadline next week. The list of items are on the flyer (see inset) – please could you donate one item from the list and bring along to the club this weekend?  You can either pass them to your manager or leave them with our Chairman, Steve Richardson, who will be co-ordinating on behalf of the club.

Any help that you can give would be greatly appreciated and will go some way to help spread Christmas cheer to families in need.  You can read more information on the charity here.

Club statement

FC Redwing is pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Richardson as Chairman, with immediate effect. Steve steps into the role with a wealth of experience playing, coaching & as an active member of the committee at the club.  Following his role as Vice-Chairman, where he has been instrumental for a number of years alongside our previous Chairman.

Steve succeeds Derek Maslen who, alongside Steve, has been responsible for the club growing to where it is today.  Derek will still be involved with the club moving forward, but is taking a step back to spend more time with his family.  

As well as Steve, we also welcome Ray Cornish who becomes vice-chairman at the club.  Ray steps into this role from within the committee where he has been for a number of years alongside running the senior team at the club.

Congratulations to both Steve and Ray on their new roles at FC Redwing.  To get in contact with them both, please visit the committee page. Finally, a huge thank you to Derek who has worked tirelessly within the club since its formation.  We look forward to welcoming him back to the club in due course!

Club golf day

Last Friday saw the eighth annual FC Redwing golf day take place at Stock Brook Country Club, near Billericay. As always, it was an extremely successful and well organised day that helped to raise money to help develop our football teams. In attendance were several FC Redwing managers and coaches, as well as some regular supporters & friends of the club.

Despite the bleak weather forecast, 44 keen golfers arrived to a warm welcome of coffees and bacon rolls hosted in the Rosewood Suite. After scorecards were handed out, mulligans purchased and last minute warm ups finished, the first of the groups tee’d off on the 1st & the 10th.

It’s fair to say that there were some contentious handicaps declared & some even more questionable outfits worn! Once the golf had finished, the golfers gathered back in the clubhouse for refreshments and prize-giving.

There were a number of prizes handed out; both to the winners and to those that had drawn their names in the sweep. Well done to the following:

• Team - Dave Wernham, Charlie Wernham, John Wernham & Paul Phillips

• Singles - Jack Tyson

• Longest Drive - Steve Smith

• Nearest the pin (7th) - Charlie Wernham

• Nearest the pin (15th) - Dan Tatam

• Wooden spoon - Rachel Watson

A big thank you to Dave Wernham and Ray Cornish for organising another great golf day at Stock Brook Country Club. The day generated over £650 for the club, so thank you to Dave and Ray, as well as everybody that participated on the day.

We will be organising another event for next September. To register your interest, please click here and include ‘Golf day’ in the subject field

FC Redwing Golf Day - now fully booked!

The 2019 FC Redwing Golf Day - https://fcredwing.co.uk/events/fc-redwing-golf-day-2019 is now fully booked, with 48 golfers now confirmed for our annual fundraiser next month at Stock Brook Manor. With further interest already registered, we are now looking into the possibility of a Festive event later in the year.

First option will go to those that have missed out on the Summer event. If you would like to register your interest in this, please contact us here with the subject ‘Festive Golf Day’.

Ford Community Day

It’s with great pleasure that we can announce that Ford Motor Company are supporting our club with a Community Day on the 19th September 2019.  Very kindly organised by our U11 Falcons manager, Rob Byrne, 60 members of staff from Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre will be coming over to FC Redwing to generously give their time to do work at our ground.

Some of the work that they will be doing to improve our facilities includes painting the containers, recladding the changing rooms, building a storage area for our gang mower and building benches, as well as other remedial that the management team have agreed on.

In order for this work to be completed, we are looking to source donations of various building materials. Items that will be required include:

·     Sheets of plywood

·     Exterior paint

·     Wooden posts

·     Bolts and hinges

·     Timber for benches

If you are able to source any of the above, or know anybody that could help, please get in touch with us ahead of the Community Day in September.  Alternatively, if you’d like to make any suggestions or donations, please let us know.

Any help that you can give the club would be hugely appreciated as we look to improve our facilities.  Thank you in advance and a big thank you to Rob Byrne for organising.

FREE Child Entry to Barleylands this Summer

Barleylands are kindly offering all FC Redwing players a FREE child entry to the Farm Park this summer.

All you need to do it visit our website- https://shop.myonlinebooking.co.uk/barleylands/buy.aspx?tid=2&_ga=2.142345970.1767263962.1563176089-764248215.1544450999

Select a date between 26th July- 2nd September, then chose the “Kids Club Offer- 1 free child per paying adult” ticket,  then enter your special code on the attached poster and the price of the child’s ticket will be taken off.

FC Redwing 2019 tournament

A fantastic weekend, at the end of June, for the 2019 FC Redwing Tournament. 100 teams from across the county, from U6s to U10s, took part and played some great football.

Huge well done to all of the teams that took part and congratulations to the U8, U9 & U10 winners; Benfleet Youth, SSG & Braintree Town.

If you have any pictures or videos that you’d like to share with us, please send them over and we’ll include them below.

FC Redwing achieves Charter Standard status

FC Redwing is proud to announce that after years of hard work the club has achieved FA Chartered Standard status.

FA Charter Standard status is a clear demonstration to all parents, sponsors and the public, that the club: 

- Is well-organised, safe and offers opportunities for all
- Has FA-qualified coaches as standard
- Adheres to FA Respect Policies and Codes of Conduct
- Prioritises Child Welfare
- Maintains appropriate levels of discipline
- Has access to the County FA and FA regional workforces
- Can use the coveted FA ‘Three Lions’ FA crest on its marketing and business materials

To achieve this every single volunteer had to hit a strict criteria which as you can imagine across a club our size is a massive undertaking when done from scratch.

A massive thank-you must go to all the Redwing coaches in achieving this award. 

Special thanks must also go to Club Secretary Colin Jopling who spearheaded this application.