Executive decisions: Bognor fundraising club still going strong quarter of century on

There’s been much focus on the fundraising side of life at Nyewood Lane lately, but it’s nothing new.
Ongoing work at Nyewood Lane - one of many projects the Executive Club have helped pay for / Picture: Tommy McMillanOngoing work at Nyewood Lane - one of many projects the Executive Club have helped pay for / Picture: Tommy McMillan
Ongoing work at Nyewood Lane - one of many projects the Executive Club have helped pay for / Picture: Tommy McMillan

In fact an initiative designed to secure funds to help the club prosper has just passed its 25th anniversary.

In 1994 Jack Pearce, Stan Rowlands and Maurice Warner were looking for new ways to raise money for the club – around the time the newly introduced National Lottery took people away from investing in the Rocks’ own lottery.

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After sifting through a number of ideas they formed the Rocks 100 Club. The idea was that this scheme would have its own identity and be separate from the football club with funds raised going to help improve the facilities at the ground.

Warner was appointed administrator, with the idea to try to get 100 people to form the club paying £10 per month. There would be three cash prizes each month, with two monthly prizes of £1,000, two of £500 and £200 for the first prize the rest of the year.

There were additional prizes of £100 and £50.

There was a good take-up on membership and Warner did a fine job of keeping membership at a steady 100. Eventually Tom Martin, then club chairman, became administrator.

The club had slipped into the lower part of the Isthmian League and attendances fell, as did numbers in the 100 Club. When Martin left, a new 100 Club administrator was needed and Peter Helsby was asked if he would be willing to take it on.

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Helsby takes up the story... “This was in 2004 and I’m still at it today! I think I inherited around 75 members, so I set about trying to recover the numbers.

“Fortunately, the club enjoyed better times and after a couple of seasons we had a promotion and with it, increased interest and attendances. This was my time to strike and we were able to get the number back at 100. During the next couple of seasons, the figure stayed at around that number with some movement

“We then got promotion to the new national league, then called Conference South. As a result I had quite a number of new additions, so we changed the name to Rocks Executive Club and increased the number of monthly prizes by one, to a fourth prize of £25.

Since then the number has fallen and risen, depending on just how well each season has been going, but it has never gone under 100.

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“We allowed the balance to rise and when we had the terrible experience of the fire in the clubhouse in 2008, some funds were utilised to pay for the new furniture for the new clubhouse.

“As time went by it was decided to knock down the old canteen at the main gate and build a new centre, incorporating the canteen, club office and supporters’ club shop. The Executive Club and the Supporters’ Club both paid substantial amounts to pay for this major improvement to the ground.

“Many of the club’s fans make up the backbone of the membership but some come from far and wide. We have one in America, one in Scotland we have one member, a few in London and Kent and others all around Sussex and Hampshire.

“Last year there were discussions by the club management to draw up plans for major improvements to the ground for the benefit of the supporters.

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“A new stand will be completed by September. New floodlighting has been installed, There will be a new loudspeaker system. And the new covering at the clubhouse end, severely damaged beyond repair in the gales, will be replaced by a new cover for the relief of supporters in poor weather.

“All of this will make Nyewood Lane a much more comfortable place for supporters. Of course, this has to be paid for and the Exec Club is proud to have given two substantial cheques as a donation towards the cost of the developments, something its members should be justifiably proud of.

“Added to that are funds raised by the club and wonderfully supported by fans and members of the public around the area during this awful time in which the club have had to survive the awful effects of Covid-19.

“Executive Club members will always be able to look around the ground and realise what they have been able to achieve through being a member – and long may it continue.”

Want to join the Exec Club? Email [email protected]

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