History
Retford United FC has only been in existence for a few years, but during that time has risen steadily through the ranks of non-league football, culminating, for the purposes of this piece, with their promotion as Champions of the NCEL Premier in season 2006/07. Arrival in “the big time” of Unibond football lead a group of fans to decide that the time was right for a fans group to be formed, centralising support, and assisting the club in whatever ways it could.
And so it was that on a muggy July evening a number of individuals found themselves sat in the front room of Phil Jackson, bouncing ideas off each other as to what the Supporters Club could, and should be providing. With very little to guide them other than self-determination and an un-nerving reliance on the work of Crawley supporters, a public meeting was arranged in the Cannon Park social club with the aim of seeing if there was support from the wider Retford fanbase. And it transpired, pleasingly, that there was. At that meeting, a number of individuals volunteered themselves, or were themselves volunteered, and the steering Committee was formed. Those brave, illustrious fools were, Phil Jackson, Paul Hearn, Heidi Loughlin, Nik Myles, and Jeremy Howden. Pooling their respective skills and resources, it was only a matter of time until their labours bore fruit. A Constitution was penned, membership levels were agreed, a logo was designed, badges were ordered, and coach prices sorted. Alarmingly, we were looking professional. Between us, we sorted out who was doing what. Somehow, I got the gig of Chairman. Still not sure how! My able assistant is Paul. Phil works his socks off as Treasurer. Heidi does a sterling job a s Membership Secretary. And Jeremy is invaluable as Transport Secretary. We also took the decision to co-opt Della Ramsden onto the committee, as Fund Raising Secretary and in a very short space of time this has proven to be one of our best moves!
We went “live” at the first game of the season, at home to Gresley, after much programme stuffing, leafleting and postering. All of which would not have been possible without the willing assistance of people like Jon Knight, Annie Smith and of course Dean Vivain. The response has been 100% favourable, and we are very happy with the take-up from the Badger Collective. As time goes by, and the S.C. can provide ever more incentives to potential members, we fully expect the numbers to swell further. We will continue to arrange coach travel to away games, of course, and fully intend for this to be the major draw for members.
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