There will be no training over Christmas weekends: 21^st, 28^th or 4^th.
First training of 2003 will be January 11^th.
Have a great Christmas and good luck for 2003!

If it is raining, or has been raining heavily, we may have to cancel training.
We make the decision by 8:00am on the Saturday morning and then let the age group managers and coaches know by 8:15 so if you want to know if training is cancelled please ring your age group manager between 8:20 and 8:50. Please don't wait for them to ring you! The age group managers are:

• U6 & U7: Jeff Brydon
• U8: Derek Chalmers
• U9: Neil Saunders
• U10: David Clarke
• U11: Robert Pitchers

We need an electrician as we have an electrical trip problem in the clubhouse.
Please let Jeff know if you are willing and able to help us out!

The Dynamos Christmas party for the younger age groups will take place in Activity World (Wycombe) on the 1^st of February 2003 from 6:30 - 8:30. Tickets will be available from 10^th January at £2.00 each. Brothers an sisters will be welcome (although we have an upper limit of 90 places!)

The Dynamos U8 match against Chalfont Youth on Sunday 17th November will not be taking place as apparently there is no longer a Chalfont U8 team!

What a Brilliant day Downley Dynamos had on Saturday 19^th October...
...The players who took part were: Luke Woodward (GK), Oliver Beckingham, Marcus Shallow, Charlie Chalmers, Rory Labron, Sean Pulley, Bradley Lonsdale, Jake Kelly, Daniel Ridgeley, John Pitchers, James Piggin, Jack Stotter, Amy Cobbler, Sam Haynes, Emily Clarke, Chris Sutton, Thomas Gray, Jordan Layne, Chow San Lo (GK), Samuel Harris.
Read the full match report here!

MARTIN O'NEILL visits one of his former clubs next week when Celtic travel to Wycombe Wanderers to play in a testimonial for defender Jason Cousins. The game takes place at Adams Park on Tuesday 8th October, kick off 7.45pm. Cousins was a member of the very successful Wycombe side managed by Martin O’Neill during the early 1990’s and as a mark of recognition of his services to the club has agreed to bring a strong Celtic side for the match.

Tickets are available by calling the club ticket line on 01494 441118 or by visiting the Commercial offices to purchase tickets. Normal Nationwide prices apply for all parts of the ground (£14 Adults, £10 Juniors). This has been declared an all ticket game and supporters will not be able to gain entry on the day of the game.

We'd like to support this event as a club and encourage as many of our youngsters to attend as possible. Jeff is investigating the possibility of a photo opportunity with some of our kids in DD kit along with the visitors (also green and white hoops!). Talk to Jeff for more information.

Thanks to all who helped last week clearing up the field and hedgerow and the mums who cleaned up the clubhouse. One last area of the field remains to be done down by the trees! This season we groundshare with Hithercroft FC and to keep the fees low we have agreed to help with the upkeep. We still do need some willing people that may be able to help with the roof. This will have to be done by those experienced in roofing. If you are, or know someone who would do it for us please let me know.

Thanks very much to all the parents who help me with the coaching. I am sure you saw how the more help we have with coaching and training the better it is for the youngsters. Please do not wait to be asked to help, come and tell me you would like to help. You have seen with the younger ones that it is about showing them and then getting them to practice. We need you to keep them focussed on the practice and stop them losing concentration or wandering off. You do not need to be a footballer to do this, mums are usually very good at helping the players to help themselves.

If you do play football then your help will also be welcome in the more technical practices such as dribbling, turning and shooting. If you are really keen we can arrange for you to take the basic FA coaching qualification for youngsters.

We always need help with funding and fundraising. We need a new kit for the Under 7’s and the Under 8’s for matches and tournaments. This costs about £400 a kit. Any offers of sponsorship, a firm that may buy a kit or even a small donation for new training bibs would be great.

We can take more players at under 6, 7, & 8 (school year 1,2 & 3). If you know of other parents who are looking for a club for their youngsters invite them along. There are vacancies in the older age groups too, speak to me or the other team managers. We are especially keen to encourage girls to play, so please ask girls to come along.

When you arrive you must sign in at the gate so we know who is here. You can also pay your fees here, £1 for the first 3 weeks to see if you like it, £10 for the term.

Kit for the players! Trainers are OK in good weather but you will need boots and shin pads once they get serious and certainly for matches. Sport & Ski have a reasonable range of inexpensive kit, boots and shin pads. Dynamos kit is available from JC sports (above Mothercare )in the Octagon. Once the wet and cold weather arrives lots of layers please, and hats and gloves. Nothing puts youngsters off football more than being cold! And make sure everything is labelled with names if you want it back!!!

Matches are organised for our players to learn, and help identify areas for coaching. We will only play those who we think are ready for matches and we do not always ‘play the best’ all the time. For the younger age groups especially it is about developing a complete squad of players. Once we consider players are ready to benefit from matches all players do get involved.

Jeff Brydon - U6 / 7 Coach

These are the proposed dates for junior training until the end of the year:

• Sept 7, 14, 21, 28
• Oct 5, 12, 19
• Nov 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
• Dec 7, 14, 21

We urgently need someone with a lorry, pick-up or trailer to help transport the 'big' football goals (11 a-side) and smaller 5 a-side goals down from The old Downley School (School Close) site to the Pedestal. Volunteers please contact Jeff.

Welcome to the Pedestal. We will be playing almost all of our small-sided home matches and holding most of our Saturday morning junior training here this season.

We are paying to play here and to keep the costs low have agreed to help with upkeep of the pitch and field, and to do some maintenance work on, and in the clubhouse.

We need volunteers for this work. If you have some building skills we need you for some external repairs. Those with plumbing skills could help by replacing some of the valves and taps to ensure they all work OK.

If you are good at DIY then a bit of basic building maintenance please. Painters will also be needed to brighten up some areas and get the repairs re-painted.

The kitchen and kitchen area will need a ‘springclean’ so if you are able and willing please bring your own bucket, sponge, cleaning ‘stuff’ for that.

The pitch does suffer from moles, and use by the local kids so wear is a bit of a problem. If you could help us to patch up the worn areas (turf is being ordered) and help by clearing up the general areas and hedges that would be good.

All of the above work can start next Saturday (16th) between 9.00 and 11.00, i.e. whilst training is going on. It means we will be ready for the first matches here.

Please let Jeff Brydon know if you are able and willing. Your club need's you!

As you know we are using Hithercroft's ground at the Pedestal for training and matches (and for the older age groups Desborough Rec).

As part of the groundshare deal we are helping to get the pitches and clubhouse in good order for the start of the season.

The first part of that starts on Friday 30th August, 7.00 - 8.00 p.m. when we need volunteers to move the goalposts out of the ground to the clubhouse and then repair the goalmouths. Please bring a garden fork and spade / shovel if you can.

Please come if you can and also ask around for help and turn up at 7.00 on Friday night for an hour.

The Pedestal ground is adjacent to the Garage on the junction of the West Wycombe Road and the Princes Risborough Road.

Fair Play came up at the SBMSC AGM with several adverse comments on the U11s final score - the team that had created a lot of issues at U11 having won it. It appears that a couple of factors, combined with an 'extra' card from an unplayed game contributed to the 'wrong' club winning. Very regrettable.

This week the age group reps and two of the committee met to review Fair Play for next season and we have come up with several important changes.

* Clubs will be asked to score 5 (in each of the three categories) as their satisfactory mark and give more or fewer points around this. Excellent could be 10, issues such as you encountered could be marked 0. This should more accurately affect reality. It is hoped that clubs award an overall average mark through the season of 15.

* Clubs can only win the Fair Play Award by having the most points and NO SERIOUS adverse comments or complaints against them (subjective but the committee will take a considered view).

* Cards to be sent in by both teams for postponed matches so cards can be checked against actually played matches, and this loophole closed.