As has been tradition, the season has not properly ended without sending out a thank you message.
Normally this message starts with ‘I know it has been a disappointing year for Charlton, but...’ and then a load of spin rhubarb that Alistair Campbell would have been proud of to try and emphasise the positives.
However....
There is no need this season! Thank you Chris Powell and the lads for lifting what was starting to feel like a ‘CL curse’. Six years we have been going and the first five of it could not have picked a worse time!
Whilst there is generally a lot of hot wind and insaneness to fill the time, the site remains built around what happens on the days around a matchday. So in no particularly order:
Thank you to
@WSS and
@Henry_Irving for the provided the bulk of the
excellent previews that start the ball rolling, and
@StubleyAddick for helping out when they are drunk busy.
For those not at the game though, the
Matchday threads are a brilliant way of keeping people connected, and
@RedMidland, supported by wing commander
@PaddyP17 do a brilliant job in relaying the action and leaving a written record that conveys a sense of the drama of each and almost every match. Thanks to those two, and to the various others (
@Oriental,
@LL,
@Johnny73,
@Seth_Plum amongst others) who have filled in and discovered just how bloody hard a task it is!
The unique
Statbank is in its third season now, and it’s the first one
@Lancashire_Lad has crunched all the stats on his own. Many thanks to LL for helping provide such a valuable, quality service that believe me takes a hell of a lot of time and patience. We are both working on the Bumper End of Season Statbank, which will be published in the next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Whilst on the subject of time consuming,
@Shirty5 continues to do a brilliant job with the
Predictions League and we are all extremely grateful for the work he does with that. Congratulations to
@CAFCSinger on your impressive victory.
Additional thanks
@Sadie for organising the regular poker nights, and to those of you (willingly or unwillingly) how helped provide some
articles, or wrote such good posts they got promoted to articles.
@GrumpyAddick in particular deserves a special mention for his brilliant writing.
Fundraising to support club issues during tough times, and continued support for good causes such as
Demelza and the Upbeats Programme have always been one of the key things we wanted to try and get out of this site. In the last five years we’ve raised
in excess of £55,000 for good causes, and raised
over £7,000 in shirt sponsorships to help sponsor 18 players. That is fantastic commitment, from so many people that use CL as not just somewhere to have a moan up. Thank you all for embracing these aspects so positively.
The
Shirt Sponsorship Scheme this year got an amazing response this year, with over 150 members contributing. We started in 2008/09 in sponsoring two players, and this has grown incredibly to EIGHT players this season. This is a direct way where we can pool together to benefit our club, and massive thanks go to
@Curb_it who organises the whole thing, and tries to bump up the prizes we have to offer so it gets shared around as much as possible. Thank you too, to others who donated prizes or dinner seats they could not attend, and to all of you who participated.
The
Auctions have also been a brilliant success this season. Thank you to all of you who have donated prizes and bid in the auctions.
@Henry_Irving does a terrific job organising these and would not have been anywhere near as successful without his co-ordination, so thank you Henry for this.
The money raised this season from the auctions (donated, the excess sponsorships, and the recycling sponsorship prizes) is approaching
£6,000. From what has been allocated so far, over £3,500 went to club-related donations (sponsorship of Youth team minibuses, first team train travel, gifts for the Young Addicks party), while so far the money raised for the Charlton Upbeats programme is circa. £2,000, and we’ll be liaising with CACT over the summer on how they can best utilise this.
And finally, thanks to every one of you who helped complete the
Survey we ran earlier this year. The results provided a good insight into Charlton, and the fellow supporters who use this site, and equally we are grateful for the honest feedback you supplied. As stated at the time, the volume of traffic CL now receives and the amount of work and finance it involves means that it simply isn’t possible to continue on as a costly hobby. The site will change ahead of the new season one way or the other, and let’s hope a new era for CL brings with it a new, successful era for Charlton. Given the inevitable changes, we will work very hard to ensure that nothing impacts the strong sense of community we have all built here and the positive impact we have all had on making supporting Charlton something we are all incredibly proud of.
Have a great summer guys!
AFKA and Lookout
Comments
I was genuine in my offer of support in my survey response. At the very least I get more out of this site than I do cafcplayer and as I subscribe to that I would be happy to pay an annual subscription here.
I couldnt begin to guess the amount of work involved on this site, and would probably have to look for a new job if this forum was ever blocked from my work PC !!!
many thanks to all involved.
Charlton is the glue that binds us and sets us apart from the great unwashed.
Congratulations and many thanks to all those responsible whose sterling work make CL what it is.
We sometimes lose sight of the fact you all have regular jobs and family's to keep you busy so well done all for the time and effort to keep CL a part of what is now everyday life.
Back as a season ticket holder next year, after a year off on my football management sabbatical .i.e Saturday mens league, which seemed like hard work to me......, so of course back to the Valley for every home game, and hopefully a few selected away games.
;D
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.
I'm thinking of the days,
I won't forget a single day, believe me.
R.Davies
Thanks for providing the platform for the reviews, the auctions and my other ramblings. And thanks to all the bidders. Even if you didn't win you helped drive the price up.
As others have said thank you for making lives much more enjoyable and SOME games more bearable!