Open Letter to Residents of Hardwick

You can Download the open letter, written by Steve Chamberlain, by clicking here.

Hardwick Football Club

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that I will be resigning my position as Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary and Reserve team manager of Hardwick Football Club at the end of the current season and to enlist your help and support to find suitable successors that will enable one of your community clubs to continue and be successful in the future as well as to seek your input into what you would like from your club.

I have played for Hardwick FC since 1986 – almost 30 years – and been involved with the Committee for many of those years, latterly being Chairman for the last five or so. Due to a combination of illnesses and personal reasons I have also picked up the roles of Treasurer, Secretary and Reserve team manager in the last couple of years.

For those of you that know me you will know that I have invested a huge amount of time and effort into the club and so my resignation comes with a very heavy heart. However, I am about to take on additional personal commitments that mean I can no longer give these roles the time they need.

My successors will be joining the club at an interesting time as it has reached a pivotal point in its future. We currently have three Saturday teams in the Cambridgeshire League as well as a team playing on Sundays.

We have been incredibly successful over the last few years and have established our first team in the Kershaw Premier. This represents Step 7 of the Football League and hence there are certain mandatory requirements which strain the facilities at Hardwick. To ease this situation the first team play their home games at Girton College with the Reserves and A team playing at Hardwick Rec.

I have not been particularly happy about this and I know a number of you are not also, but it was necessary to enable the club to continue at that level. The facilities at Hardwick are not good enough to support three teams and, whilst we are working with the Parish Council to improve them, I am sure you can appreciate it will only provide a solution in the longer term.

We are planning a Fans Forum in February to enable you to come along and share your views to help us ensure we are delivering a football club that gives you what you want. I am hopeful that the process will also help us identify people that are willing to come and help run the club.

If anyone is interested in helping to run one of Hardwick’s key institutions then please do not hesitate to contact me (steve@thechamberlainfamily.co.uk). I would be delighted to hear from anyone and look forward to providing more background and context at the Fans Forum in February.

Yours faithfully

Steve Chamberlain

Chairman