It’s Easter weekend and amidst the current Coronavirus lockdown and what feels like a stream of constant bad news, we thought we’d bring you something for Hull City supporters to feel positive about. Whilst principally we are a Supporters Trust and therefore football matters attract most of our attention, we view our role in the local community as an important one and have been able to support many local good causes.
With the donations made from our recent charity retro shirts, HCST with the support of our members and the wider City fanbase, have made donations to charities and good causes of more than £20,000!!
The 92/93 mock-up shirt in partnership with World Retro was a huge success and allowed us to donate £500 to two of our charity partners, Dementia Friendly Hull & East Riding and MindHEALTH whose logos featured on the shirts. The success of the shirt also allowed us to make a further £500 donation to another of our charity partners Mind Hull & East Yorkshire. There remains £500+ from these sales retained by HCST to use for future good causes and donations. The shirt is still available to buy here.
HCST chairman Geoff Bielby, Vice Chair Graham Cannon and John Uttley (World Retro) present a cheque to Mind Hull & East Yorkshire
We have since been able to launch four more shirts in collaboration with World Retro, all of which can be purchased from their website here. Due to the current Coronavirus epidemic, we have decided to support charities that may be suffering during this period of lockdown: Dove House Hospice, Help the Aged and Emmaus. Your support in buying these shirts is greatly appreciated and will help us to make donations to these three fantastic charities.
1947-57 Home Shirt
1988-89 Home Shirt
1984-86 Home Shirt
1988-89 Away Shirt
Previous Charity/Good causes Donations
Tigers Co-Op and CTWD Merger
On the merger of the Tigers Co-Operative and City Till We Die to form HCST, the funds held by Tigers Co-Operative due to members donations over the years were donated to appropriate charity and community projects in keeping with the aims of the newly formed Trust.
A pot of £18,000 was split into three equal donations and Tigers Co-Operative chair Frank Beill presented the first cheque for £6,000 to the Hull Boys Sunday Football League (HBSFL) with the money to be used to set-up a grant scheme to benefit teams and players who are struggling financially. The grant is still in operation and details of how to access can be found here. A second donation of £6,000 was given to the Teenage Cancer Trust. The Trust was Hull City AFC’s official charity partner for the 2014/15 season and was a deserving recipient of the money. The third £6,000 was used via the East Riding Football Association (ERCFA) to help disabled people in the area. This helped meet the costs of some disabled football sessions, enabled a wheelchair football team to purchase a chair (which can cost around £2,000) and was also used to help disabled supporters to attend Hull City games.
Emmaus
Over the past couple of years HCST has supported homeless charity Emmaus by sponsoring their annual football tournament.
Hull City Ladies
HCST has been a proud sponsor of Hull City Ladies players for the past three seasons. The first two years, we sponsored goalkeeper Amy Halloran, before this season moving outfield to sponsor Emma Westmorland. City Ladies receive no support from Hull City and therefore your membership subscription allows us to provide funds to keep women’s football going strong in the local area.
Book Launches
HCST has helped with two charitable book launches in recent times. Firstly there was former Trust Director Ian Bunton’s book ’46 and Counting’ where Ian attended every game of the 2015-16 promotion season and funds were raised for Dementia Friendly Hull & East Riding. Secondly we helped Richard Gardham with his launch of ‘The Decade’, a book documenting the 10 years that transformed Hull City AFC which raised money for Dove House Hospice.
Your HCST membership fees allow us to keep supporting these local charities and good causes and therefore we must say a big thank you to all our members. If you are not a member and would like to support the good work the Trust can do, please join the trust!
Sorry for the delay in sending this out, but events have somewhat overtaken us.
If seems alot longer than 3 weeks since City’s abysmal ‘performance’ at Stoke, but football doesn’t seem that important at the moment.
But it will resume one day and we will (hopefully) all be back cheering City on.
And remember people – #StayHomeSaveLives.
HCST Annual General Meeting Postponement With the postponement of City’s game against Charlton on 14th March, The Trust Board took the decision to postpone the AGM planned for the same day.
We will reschedule the AGM as and when we know what is happening.
New Replica Shirts Launched In conjunction with World Retro, the Trust have launced 4 new Retro City Shirts.
Following the recent success of our 1992/93 iconic Tiger Stripes retro Hull City shirt, we are delighted to announce the launch of four new retro shirts from the 1988/89, 1984/85 and 1947-57 seasons.
Shirts can be purchased directly from World Retro here.
The Trust plan to make donations to the following organisations from monies raised:
Help the Aged Dove House Hospice Emmaus
More details can be found here on the Trust website.
Tiger Programmes Digitisation Project Tiger Programmes are looking for volunteers to help with their project.
The aim is to digitise all Hull City programmes ( Home and Away ) and convert them into ‘flippable pages’ so that they can be read just like a real programme.
An example can be seen here ( best viewed in landscape mode ).
The project currently requires people to help convert the scanned programme images into a format suitable to make them ‘flippable’ – so if you have some spare time at the moment & can edit & rename .jpg images, please help.
Details can be found by contacting Tiger Programmes on Twitter or via email.
Hull City Ladies The season is over for Hull City Ladies.
The FA Women’s National Leagues (tiers three to seven) are to end with immediate effect with all results voided.
HCST’s Partners of the Week In this week’s Partner of the Week section, we have an in-focus look at a HCST Partner – Hull Kingston Radio.
Our Partner of the Week is Hull Kingston Radio.
10% DISCOUNT TO HCST MEMBERS
What will £26 per week do for boosting your business potential? Not a lot normally! But that’s where we come in to help.
It’s never been a better time to get on your business noticed by radio advertising with Hull Kingston Radio 107.4FM.
Here at East Yorkshire’s biggest community radio station, we can slash a nice 10% off our normal rates on advertising & sponsorship packages for trust members. £26 per week will get you 8 adverts plays per day, 365 days a year, that’s 2912 advert plays in total, and at just 46p per advert play to Trust members it won’t burn a hole in your pocket! But that’s not all! We will give you a FREE website link, FREE business interview, and connect with your business on our social media platforms.
Plus, we have show & feature sponsorship that starts from just £25 per week!, and that comes with 10% off as well.
All our adverts are produced by the multi-award winning local company Engine 7. It’s commercial radio standard advertising, at a community radio price!
For more information call Pete Mills on 01482 715105 Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, or email him here.
Terms & conditions apply.
Stop the front page! HCST are looking for new contributors to our website.
These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested please email us here.
With 3 consecutive defeats and teams below us winning, City have dropped to 19th in the league, only 3 points off the drop zone.
More disconcerting seems to be the lack of any aparrent plan or co-ordination on the pitch – with all due respect to Barnsley we made them look like Barcelona.
We also have another batch of injuries – do questions need to be asked about City’s coaching methods?
With 3 of our next 4 fixtures against teams below us in the Championship, March could well be a deciding month on which league we are in next season.
Crowd Incidents at the Leeds United Match The Trust wrote to the club this week asking for their comments on the incidents at the Leeds United match last Saturday (29th February)
Specifically we have asked:
1 – Why were away fans found in the home section not ejected, as the club had stated they would do per ground regulations?
2 – Why were the Leeds fans from East/South stand walked in front of home fans in the East Stand, putting both sets of fans and the stewards at risk?
The Club/SMC have issued a statement regarding the matter – you can read it here.
HCST Annual General Meeting We are pleased to confirm that our Annual General Meeting will take place on Saturday 14th March in the concert room at the William Gemmill Social Club.
The meeting will start at 12.30pm and all members are welcome. (Please remember your membership cards to assist the signing in process for meeting attendees)
The agenda and pre-reading can be downloaded here from the Trust website
Nominees for Trust Board Saturday 15th February was the deadline for nominations to be received for our Board election process.
This year, we have 6 board positions available, and received 3 nominations by the deadline set.
On Thursday (February 27th), our Secretary, (Jean), and the Election Management Group (EMG) met under the watchful eye of an independent observer to verify that the 3 nominees were all full members of the Trust and their applications matched the requirements of our Election Policy.
All 3 nominees have been approved to stand for election at our AGM on Saturday 2nd March.
Our appreciation goes to member Tom Irvin as well as independent chair person Brian Hardy for conducting a thorough and transparent process as part of their EMG duties.
Good luck to all candidates standing for election.
Charity Football Match Hull’s only Charity Football Team, AFC Yorkies are holding a Charity Football Match at The Sirius Academy on Saturday 7th March k.o. 13:00.
The game is against a team of Hull City Legends and any monies raised will go towards their final Donation to the Stroke Unit at HRI in memory of former Hull City legend Peter Skipper.
More details can be found here on the AFC Yorkies Facebook page.
We urge as many prople to attend in support of this worthy cause.
Hull City Academy The Under 23’s team beat Sculcoates Amateurs 2-0 to reach the final of the East Riding Senior Cup last Tuesday (3rd March).
Second half strikes from Oliver Green and Billy Chadwick proved too much for the Humber Premier League team.
This win continued a successful week for the U23’s having beatedn WBA 2-0 in the Premier League Cup on Friday night (28th February) – the goals coming from Stephen Kingsley and Billy Chadwick
Tonight (Friday) the U23’s take on Birmingham City in the PDL, at the Roy West Center kick off at 7.
More details on the Academy can be found here on their website.
FSA Away Fans Survey 2019/20 The Football Supporters Association (FSA) are running their annual survey of the experience of fans who attend away games.
The survey can be found here and should take only a few minutes to fill in.
We encourage all travelling fans to complete the survey to allow the FSF to measure the experience of the away fan. Remember you can fill it in for each away gameswhich you attend.
Hull City Ladies The Tigresses lost 0-4 to Sunderland Ladies on Sunday (1st March).
Sunderland Ladies, who are top of the league, proved simply too strong, but the result is an improvement on the 9-1 defeat for the Tigresses in the previous meeting between the two clubs.
The ladies are next in action on Sunday 8th March away to WBA Ladies.
HCST’s Partners of the Week In this week’s Partner of the Week section, we have an in-focus look at two HCST partners – Country Golf& Fudges Den Luxury Holiday Cottage.
Our first partner of the week is Country Golf.
Located at East Carr Road, Hull HU8 9LR
HCST members will receive a 10% discount off par 3 course rounds and also driving range balls on production of their membership card.
Newly refurbished 22 Bay Driving Range
12 hole par 3 “Long Course”
6 hole par 3 “Short Course“
Pro Shop
Coffee Lounge
Resident PGA Professional on site.
Our second Partner of the Week is Fudges Den Luxury Holiday Cottage in Filey
Stop the front page! HCST are looking for new contributors to our website.
These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested please email us here.
After trying out different formats for the newsletter, we have decided to return to the previous e-mail format, but will be initially be coming out every two weeks rather than weekly.
Grant McCann’s team have had a rollercoaster of a season so far – going from within touching distance of a play-off place to being in 17th place all in the space of a few short weeks.
The last-minute sale of Jarrod Bowen & Kamil Grosicki in January, coupled with a huge number of injuries has not helped City’s situation, but hopefully the return of a number of players can help stop the rot against Preston this weekend.
HCST Replica Shirts. The Trust have teamed up with shirt producers Minster Sports (now World Retro) to produce a replica of the Hull City 1992/1993 Tiger print home shirt
Some of the proceeds from shirt sales are in aid of HCST community partners Mind Health and Dementia Friendly East Riding.
The takeup of this shirt has been excellent and we have recently been able to donate £500 to each of the charities, plus another donation of £500 to Mind Hull and East Yorkshire who are another HCST Community Partner.
Further details of this can be found here on our website.
More replica shirts are on the way – please watch this space.
HCST Annual General Meeting We are pleased to confirm that our Annual General Meeting will take place on Saturday 14th March in the concert room at the William Gemmill Social Club.
The meeting will start at 12.30pm and all members are welcome. (Please remember your membership cards to assist the signing in process for meeting attendees)
The agenda and pre-reading will be sent out in advance of the meeting.
Charity Race Night Hull’s only Charity Football Team, AFC Yorkies are holding a Charity Race Night on 29th Feb at Fair Maid in Cottingham.
Money raised will go towards their final Donation to the Stroke Unit at HRI in memory of former Hull City legend Peter Skipper.
HCST are proud to be sponsoring one of the races.
More details can be found here on the AFC Yorkies Facebook page.
We urge as many prople to attend in support of this worthy cause.
Hull City Academy The Under 23’s team beat Hall Road Rangers 5-2- in the East Riding Senior Cup last Tuesday (18th).
An Ahmed Salam hat-trick, along with a brace from Harry Wood secured progress to the semi-finals.
Tonight (Friday) the U23’s take on WBA in the U23 Premier League Cup, at the Roy West Center kick off at 7.
Prior to tonights game there will be a minutes applause in memeoy of Kris Blakeston (see below).
More details on the Academy can be found here on their website.
Kris Blakeston RIP The Trust were saddened to hear of the recent death of Kris Blakeston.
Kris had been a Coach at Hull City Academy for many years, focusing on the development of the younger players
The Trust Board would like to extend our condolences to Kris’s family, his colleagues and all the many players who have been coached by him over the years.
Hull City Ladies The Tigresses scheduled game on Wednesday night (19th) was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
The Game, vs Huddersfield Town Ladies was to be sponsored by the Trust – details of a re-arranged date have yet to be announced.
The ladies are next in action on Sunday 8th March vs Stoke City Ladies- k.o. 2 p.m. at the Dransfield Stadium, North Ferriby.
HCST’s Partners of the Week In this week’s Partner of the Week section, we have an in-focus look at two HCST partners – Fitness Digital Marketing & Photo Express.
10% ON EITHER A WEBSITE COMMISSION OR DIGITAL MARKETING PROJECT. 20% IF YOU BUY BOTH!
Finesse Internet is one of the longest established Web site, Mobile and E-Commerce companies in the region, and along with its newer sister company Finesse Digital Marketing has an excellent, effective track record of providing a wide range of web related services to individuals, businesses and organisations of all sizes, both locally, throughout the UK and also abroad. Our depth of experience and resources mean we have a similarly impressive track record of delivering significant results for our clients. As a commercial partner of the Hull City Supporters Trust, we are offering members the opportunity to take advantage of these services at a discount rate. The offer – if you commission either a Web site (or Mobile or E-Commerce site) or book a Digital Marketing project/campaign with us (encompassing any aspect from SEO to Social Media to E-mail Marketing) , we will offer a 10% discount to members. If you book both together, we will offer you a 20% discount off our normal rates. Please contact us directly for further information or to discuss your own specific project.
163 Chanterlands Avenue, Hull; Tel 01482 448594 Facebook
10% DISCOUNT FOR ALL GOODS AND SERVICES
We have been providing photo processing services since 1989 and have the experience, equipment and expertise to give you the best quality results every time. Our friendly staff are always willing to offer information and assistance, and we invite you to visit our store and browse through the many products on display in a bright, warm and friendly atmosphere.
Stop the front page! HCST are looking for new contributors to our website.
These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested please email us here.
Further to the recent notification relating to our next Annual General Meeting on Saturday 14th March, we are now able to confirm that 6 Board positions will be available for election or re-election at the AGM.
Any fully paid up member aged 16 or over can be considered for nomination but will need to be nominated by 2 other fully paid up members. It is recommended that any members potentially interested fully read and understand the Trust Election Policy, (available via our website), and pay particular attention to points 13-22 of that Policy.
As you will be aware, 2019 proved to be a very busy and influential year for the Trust Board, which at times led to feedback generally positive, (and occasionally negative), but if you feel you have the desire and capabilities to enhance the Board and drive HCST to greater heights, then get involved.
We welcome applications from all Members fulfilling the criteria above and taking an active role in one of the many sub-groups we have in place working on our key areas of focus and development.
The Election Nomination form can be accessed via the link here for Word and here for PDF and needs to be received by our Secretary by Saturday 15th February 2020 (So you have plenty of time to consider applying).
Should any Member wish to receive further details of the role and activities as a Trust Director, then please drop an e-mail to secretary@hullcityst.com or come and find us prior to any Hull City home game in the William Gemmell Social Club on Anlaby Road. (Details of all our meetings and activity can be found on our website).
Since Minster Village Sportswear presented to the HCST Board in July 2019 we have worked together to produce a striking replica Hull City shirt in an initial effort to mark the 20th anniversary of The Tigers Cooperative, our legal entity, which was established in December 1999. Three designs were suggested but a majority of the directors chose the 1992/93 iconic Tiger Stripes shirt. During the design stage it was decided to replace the club crest with the HCST logo, partly because we did not want to run any risk of breaching copyright with the club, club crests can be considered copyrighted to the club, but also because this shirt was a HCST homage to the 92/93 shirt, not an exact replica.
Charity Involvement
We were asked about the sleeves as the sleeve patches were also removed leaving plain black. That’s when the idea of raising awareness for two of the Trust’s Community Partners was suggested and in doing so raise the important subject of Mental Health awareness and Dementia which are huge topics of discussion nationally as well as locally. We offered to help raise awareness by adding the logos, at no cost, of two local Charities, Dementia Friendly East Riding, a charity we’ve supported since Ian Bunton a former HCST director raised awareness and significant funds with his book 46 and Counting. The second charity is MindHEALTH, a new charity supporting both men and women locally with two chat groups, #BlokesUnited and #MindfulWomen.
Sales Success
On 26th November we announced shirts were available to order at a cost of £35, a payment for each shirt sold is made to HCST and the board decided to make donations to the charities from the funds received. With the help of local media the shirts proved popular and around 80 shirts were ordered in the first few days which guaranteed delivery by Christmas. By mid-January we were approaching 200 shirts sold enabling the Board to agree to make donations of £500 to each charity plus make an additional donation of £500 to Mind Hull and East Yorkshire who are a third HCST Community Partner.
The Future…
Chablais Sports, the parent company of Minster Village, have been delighted with the response from Hull City supporters and value the partnership with HCST therefore have now announced we will become ambassadors of their newly acquired business World Retro Brand who will work with HCST in developing new replica shirts for HCST. In addition they have agreed to continue making a contribution to HCST for products sold which will boost the Trust’s funds and enable HCST to continue, and hopefully increase, its work within the community, for Hull City Supporters and its hoped directly with Hull City in the future.
We have to thank all fans who’ve bought shirts so far and especially Chablais Sport, Minster Village. Hull City Supporters’ Trust now looks forward to working with World Retro Brand to offer more shirts for sale in the near future.
How to buy!
You can buy the 92/93 tiger print retro shirt here.
You can also watch the YouTube video of our cheque presentations here.
A couple of weeks ago HCST announced we were supporting Minster Village Sports in their release of a mock-up of the classic 1992-93 Tiger print home shirt. This was in aid of HCST community partners Mind Health and Dementia Friendly East Riding.
We have been overwhelmed with the response with over 150 shirts already purchased by supporters, meaning the charities will benefit to the tune of nearly £400 each so far!
We’d like to thank every supporter who has already bought a shirt. If you would like to order a shirt please follow this link for details (please note guaranteed Christmas delivery has now passed).
You can also find details on Mind Health and Dementia Friendly East Riding on our partners page here.
HCST has teamed up with Minster Village Sports to offer fans the chance to buy a mock-up of the memorable (or infamous depending on your view!) 1992/1993 Tiger print home shirt. Minster Village have collaborated with many football clubs and supporter groups in the past to bring back to life classic retro shirts.
For every shirt sold by Minster Village Sports, HCST will make a donation to our two charity partners Mind Health and Dementia Friendly East Riding. The shirts will retail at £35 including delivery.
Any supporters wanting to order the shirt should do this from their website www.world-retro.com or via Minster Village Sports directly by using the following contact details:
fans@chablais-sport.com
Please specify the following details; name, address, size (based on this size guide, long or short sleeves, name and number (optional).
Hull City Supporters Trust Newsletter September 2019
Here is your update from the trust, it’s been another busy period with two book launches, following on from our hugely successful launch night for Richard Gardham’s ‘Decade” book.
We were delighted to be able to assist with the launch of the debut book from tigers fan Alfie Potts Harmer entitled “England’s Greatest Defender, The Untold Story of Neil Franklin”.
Franklin played for Hull City and Stoke amongst others and the book was launched at Waterstones in Hull. You buy a copy at Waterstones or online at
Our second book launch was for a debut book from Greg Whittaker.
A former Trust board member and huge City fan. It’s a coming of age football memoir with many references to Greg’s relationship with Hull City. Here is Greg at the launch held at the WM Gemmell in Hull.
You can buy the book here
COMPETITIONS
We recently re-launched our LMS competition and the winner of the book “Booked” from Pitch Publishing was Mark Wilson. Look out for our next LMS starting soon.
We’ll be giving away copies of the books by Alfie and Greg as prizes.
OTHER NEWS
Chairman Geoff Bielby attended the latest FSA meeting in London for EFL representatives on the 19th September.
The Trust were delighted that the club honoured David Meyler at the home game with Wigan. We were all sad to hear that David has retired from playing and wish him every success in the future.
We also send our support to Tigers centre back Angus Macdonald at this difficult time.
Well done to the Hull City Academy U13’s who won the Keith Alexander Memorial Trophy recently. The team were unbeaten throughout the whole tournament, a tremendous achievement.
Watch out for our forthcoming fans survey. We want to know what you think about the club we all love and how we at the Trust serve our members. The survey will be open to all Hull City fans and we hope to receive a good response.
You can often spot the Trust directors at home and away fixtures. If there’s something you’d like to discuss then come and have a chat or contact us via our website.
REMEMBER WHEN
Back in September 1978 the Tigers had made a strong start to the season and new signing Keith Edwards was making his mark having scored a hat-rick in the previous home tie with Chester.
The Commodores topped the chart with “Three times a lady” , Hull’s very own Maureen Lipman was starring in the ITV show “A soft touch” and Enid Blyton’s famous five had its own tv series.
On this Tuesday night new Leeds united manager Jock Stein was in attendance at Boothferry Park to watch Walsall striker Alan Buckley, but it was Edwards who caught the eye when he netted a sensational goal running from inside his own half , rounding two defenders to slot home at the South Stand end. Edwards lived in North Ferriby and my school friend Ian Frazer and I took great joy in asking to walk his dog for him.
Mally Lord weighed in with a superb volleyed goal as City saw off the Saddlers with ease. Eagle Eyed City fans will note Rob MacDonald listed as No4, Rob stepped into play centre-back in the absence of Stuart Croft and Ian Dobson.
The tigers squad included Derek Hood who went onto to be a good servant to York City and was last known to be a BT engineer. Paul Haigh was capped by England U21 whilst with City and left to play for Carlisle and Hartlepool and is now a financial advisor.
John ‘Charlie” Farley signed from Wolves and went onto play for Bury before retiring at 29. Farley was last known to be working in the building trade and was settled in the Hull area.
Here courtesy of @tigerprogrammes are some pages from the matchday programme.
Nominations close this week for the inaugural Fans for Diversity awards, which will take place at the conference on 20th September in London.
They’re looking for recommendations of fan groups or initiatives that have done great work on diversity or inclusion – particularly in Leagues One and Two, Non-League and the Women’s game, but they want to hear about good work at all levels.
The nomination process is short and painless, and can be completed here. And yes, you can nominate yourselves – don’t be shy.
If you’d like to come along to the free event (they’ve got 200+ registrationsso far) it’s being held at Amnesty International’s HQ in London on 20th September, from 12pm to 4pm. You can sign up here.
HCST caught up with former Trust Director and author Greg Whitaker to find out all about his new book…
1. What was the inspiration to write your memoir on football?
My main inspiration was Nick Hornby. Last year, I read his fantastic football-inspired memoir Fever Pitch and it struck a cord with me. I knew I’d never be able to write a similarly original book with such mass appeal. However, I thought I could give it a go. The past 20 years of Hull City’s history has been remarkable, but it’s been a story which had largely gone unrecognised in terms of the national interest. I thought if I could combine the story of the club’s dramatic rise – from bottom of the Football League to European football – with my own changing relationship with the modern game I love, there might be an interesting story in there somewhere. Luckily a publisher agreed!
2. Tell us about the book?
I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You offers a personal, heartfelt yet tellingly critical survey of the changing world of football fandom. It provides an emotional insight into the modern game from the perspective of a bona fide fanatic who has experienced all the highs and lows of football’s last 20 years. With City at its core, I started writing this book for selfish reasons – almost as a form of cathartic therapy with the aim of better understanding my changing relationship with football, love and my hometown club. Yet, I hope the reader may be able to take something greater away from my story. While the memories I write about are clearly very personal to me specifically, I hope the exploration of the transforming face of football, and in turn my own changing relationship with my own passion, is relatable and at least of some interest to other fans.
3. You ask the question has our love of football developed into an addiction? Did you find the answer?
I like to think an answer to this question was broadly reached. Of course, the subjective and divisive nature of modern football dictates I would be foolish to give a certain answer one way or the other. However, readers of the book will likely be able to tell which side of the argument I eventually come down on.
4. Why should our members purchase a copy?
The book tells the story of a once fanatic football, and specifically Hull City, supporter who is now questioning his love for the modern game. The HCST was set up as an organisation designed to protect and represent loyal City fans in the complicated and murky world of modern football. I know I am not the only one who, despite still being fanatical about their football team, finds themselves dreaming and yearning for past days. Days when you were a fan because you loved football and your club unconditionally, and not just because it’s become a habit you cannot break for a fear of missing out on an unlikely return to the glory days. I know many members of the Trust feel the same way and I’d like to think my story rings true with a lot of these fans.
5. Where can fans purchase a copy?
‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You’ is available in all good bookshops – WH Smith, Waterstones, Blackwells etc. It is also available online on Amazon or direct from the publisher’s website at pitchpublishing.co.uk.
6. Hull City play a huge part in the book, when and how did your love for the tigers develop?
As I describe in some length in the book, my love for City started when my dad first took me to Boothferry Park in 2001. City were playing Halifax Town and our 3-0 victory represents the first live football match I ever witnessed. From then on I caught the bug, barely missing a home game for the next 15 years. I’m lucky enough to have witnessed City’s most successful ever decade during this period, but I’d like to think I’d have turned up regardless. Something happened on that cold autumnal day in 2001 and I’ve never looked back. Supporting City is a habit impossible to break. While the recent few seasons have seen me stop attending Home games all together, the love for the club has never diminished. I cannot wait for the day the club is under new ownership and I feel I can comfortably return to the KCOM as a week in, week out regular.
7. What are your thoughts on City at the early stages of a new season?
I’m quietly very impressed with the start we’ve made. Another summer of complete upheaval and a spate of unproven players did have me worried, but I think we’ve found a good young manager in Grant McCann. That being said, I would take 21st place if it was offered now. Anything other than relegation would be a success in my eyes. Championship survival and a new ownership would prove a dream season for me.
8. Can you name an all time Hull City XI?
I’ve been incredibly lucky as a City fan, seeing some of the best players in the club’s history. I think I’d go with a diamond formation – 41212:
Myhill
Rosenior, Turner, Maguire, Dawson
Ashbee,
Barmby, Elliott
Geovanni,
Windass, Hernandez
9. What lies ahead? Will there be more books?
I love writing and am now fortunate enough to do it as a full time career. I’d like to think I certainly will write more books in the future. Will Hull City or football be the subject once again? Who knows?
10. Finally if you could re-visit one Hull City match, which would it be and why?
Without a shadow of a doubt it would be Sheffield Wednesday away in December 2004. There were 8,000 travelling City fans in the Leppings Lane end that night, (depressingly a number not far off our average home attendances this season) and I was lucky enough to be one of them. After 19 years in the bottom division, it seemed like City’s biggest league fixture in a generation. Thanks to a Barmby screamer it was a night to remember. In the future, if I could experience a City atmosphere even half as good as the one that night I’d be a happy man. Incredible match.
The Trust would like to an announce the following update on its Board members.
Firstly we would like to thank Richard Mathers who departs as Secretary. Richard has been Secretary for over 3 years and has worked tirelessly on various Trust projects whilst also being the key person in making sure the Trust’s rules and policies are adhered to. Richard has also gone to extraordinary lengths to attempt to communicate informally with the club over the past year.
Also departing the Trust Board are Ian Bunton and Bobbi Hadgraft. Ian has played an important role as part of the finance and membership working groups over the past 18 months whilst Bobbi has represented the Trust on local radio and social media.
All three depart the Board with our best wishes and we would like to thank them for their efforts on behalf of members and the wider fan base.
There are however three new faces joining the Trust. Firstly Jean Cannon will take over from Richard as Trust Secretary. Mike Raynor and Matthew Frampton also join the Board as co-opted Directors. We would like to welcome our new Board members and look forward to working with them.
We continue to work with the FSA who are pressing the EFL to seek dialogue with the Club on behalf of HCST, seeking acceptance of our reasonable compromise to allow Directors to participate in formal meetings with the Club and represent our members.
We also continue to work closely with the FSA on both National and International campaigns as well as ensuring HCST are represented at FSA meetings where we play an active role working with other affiliated supporters organisations, as well as being represented at their EFL Supporters Engagement meetings.
The new season is a week away & LMS is back with a new host – David Batte.
The format remains the same as last season and the opening weeks fixtures can be found here.
Just select a team to win it’s opening fixture to progress to round two. The competition rolls on until there is just one player remaining. Should all the Championship teams become used then another division will be selected. Selections need to be made by 6pm on Friday.
The prize for this opening competition is a great book from Pitch Publishing – ‘Booked’ – a humorous look at footballers autobiographies featuring Windass and Bullard amongst many others.
All entires and any questions please email david.batte@hullcityst.com
You must be a member to enter. Not a member? Sign up here
An opportunity has arisen to join the board of HCST as Secretary. Due to personal reasons, our current Secretary Richard Mathers who has served for the last 3 years with distinction, will be stepping aside. This is an exciting opportunity for someone to become involved with the Trust and would ideally suit someone with experience in administration, although this is not essential. Below is an outline of the main responsibilities of the Trust secretary. If you think this is something that would be of interest to you, or would like further information then please contact us via contact@hullcityst.com.
1 – Board meeting agenda, minutes and actions 2 – Control in/out of 2 email accounts ( secretary@hullcityst.com and contact@hullcityst.com) 3 – liaison with FSF/SD/FSA 4 – Control of the Election Management Group (EGM) to ensure a fair and transparent annual election process 5 – AGM agenda & minutes. (inc Members postings for rule changes, election process etc) 6 – Collate annual report 7 – Club contact and correspondence 8 – FA/EFL contact and correspondence 9 – Administration/set up for new partners 10 – Updating Trust Rules and Policies on a bi-annual basis (inc version control) 11 – Annual return to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 12 – Stock levels of membership merchandise (ie cards, badges, car stickers as well as stamps etc) 13- Written correspondence to/from registered address 14 – Monitoring suitability of social media postings on official Trust channels 15 – Representing HCST as required at local and national level 16 – Head the Membership sub group (inc documenting minutes, actions etc) 17 – Offering guidance & advice to the Chair and other Directors as required to ensure Trust Rules & values are adhered to at all times
For much of last Saturday’s contest in Wales it looked like a typical end of season performance from a lethargic City side as they trailed 2-0. However goals from Jarrod Bowen and forgotten man Nouha Dicko meant City stole a point.
This Sunday the Tigers face Bristol City who need a win to keep their play off hopes alive. It may be the last chance to see Jarrod Bowen, Kamil Grosicki and numerous others in the Black and Amber before their expected departures in what is looking like a summer full of change…
Here’s your update from the trust this week…
Club Tributes to Peter Skipper City are planning a number of tributes to ex City player Peter ‘Skip’ Skipper at the Bristol City game on Sunday
Members of the Skipper family will be at the KCOM Stadium on Sunday, where many of Peter’s former team-mates will form a guard of honour in his memory ahead of a minute’s applause before kick-off.
A Book of Condolence has been opened by the club and the matchday programme will have a special cover.
More details can be found on the club’s website here.
The Trust Board congratulate the club on these wonderful gestures to a much-loved player.
“The Decade” Book Launch We can confirm that the launch of Richard Gardhams book will take place at Mr Chu’s, St Andrews Quay at 7:30 on Saturday 4th May.
The book, which concentrates on the unbelievable period of transformation at City from 2000 to 2010, contains contributions from ex-City staff and players, many of whom will be in attendance at the launch.
All profits from the sale of the book will go to support Dove House Hospice.
A Question and Answer session will be hosted by the venerable Brendan Smurthwaite.
The event is ‘walk-in’ but please contact Mr Chu’s directly if you wish to book a table for the buffet – but don’t hang about as this is likely to fill up fast.
Emmaus Portland Cup Sunday 30 June sees the Emmaus Portland Cup being played at Goals in Hull again.
Emmaus is a charity working with homeless people around the country, through local community properties, giving them a home, meaningful work in a social enterprise and an opportunity to get back on their feet again before getting their own place. More details of their work can be found here.
Once again the Trust will be providing sponsorship for the event as well as entering a team for the first time. Teams from Emmaus communities across the country will be competing, as well as a side from Aunt Bessie’s (the current holders) and View From The Allotment End (The North Ferriby FC fanzine).
This is a great opportunity to represent the Trust, play a bit of five-a-side football and learn about the work they do at Emmaus. We will be taking on not only sides on the pitch but also socialising at a barbeque back at the Hull Community premises down Lockwood Street after the football has finished.
We can field a team of up to 8 so if you are interested in taking part and playing in the tournament then please get in touch with Board member Peter Fleming in the coming weeks.
Ferriby Phoenix From the ashes of North Ferriby United has risen a new club – North Ferriby FC!
North Ferriby Football Club will play out of the Church Road ground next season and take the place of the now defunct North Ferriby United, who were liquidated last month due to unpaid debts.
The new club, led by former United chairman Les Hare with the backing of a number of high-profile local residents and businessmen, will begin life next season in the Northern Counties East League.
*** Stop Press ***
There is a lot of work to be done to tidy up the Church Road ground – can you spare some time this Saturday (4th May) to help? Contact them on Twitter for more details…
The club have also set up a Crowdfunder page for more long-term development of the ground and facilities. You can contribute here.
HCST Last Man Standing Competition City and Dicko accounted for one of the two casulaties this weekend, seven left…
If no single winner is declared this Sunday, then we’ll carry on with the play offs.
Remember, Championship teams only, and you can’t pick a team you have already selected.
HCST Board Meeting The Trust held a Board meeting on Monday 29th April at the William Gemmell.
The minutes of the meeting can be read here (along with all previous Board Meeting Minutes).
EFL / MIND Badges The EFL and MIND have launched a campaign entitled ‘On Your Side’ to raise awareness of mental health issues.
Part of this campaign includes the sale of ‘On Your Side’ badges in the colours of all the 72 EPL teams.
Hull City badges are still available and can be bought from the MIND on-Line Shop here.
HCST Policy Amendments As was noted at the AGM of the Trust, we are busy updating our rules from the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 – 78 under which it was incorporated to comply with the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 which it must now operate under. These changes are minor but necessary to be compliant.
The Trust accounts are currently unaudited and at the next AGM there will be a vote put to members giving them the choice of continuing with the accounts being unaudited for another year or appointing external auditors (at the Trust’s expense).
This will then become a standing motion at each AGM thereafter giving members an annual vote on the matter. The Trust will also make some changes such that the accounts fully comply with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities which represents best practice and make the Trust more professional in its activities.
Hull City Ladies The Tigresses complete their fixtures for the season with a home match against Nottingham Forest Ladies in what is effectively a play off for a respectable 9th place.
Kick off for the match on Sunday is 2pm at the Hull University Sports Ground on Inglemire Lane but its also the Ladies family fun day with the gates opening at 12.45pm.
Admission prices are also reduced to £2 for adults, (or just a quid if you’re wearing black & amber), with U-16’s getting in for free.
So if you don’t fancy the uncertainty of not knowing if you’re sat next to an excitable Brsitol City fan at the K.Com, then pop down to cheer on the Tigresses in what will be their final home game at this ground.
We’d like to pass on our congratulations to Rachel Gay and the team in what has been a very solid season overall and their first at this level in the Ladies game.
HCST’s Partners of the Week In this week’s Partner of the Week section, we have an in-depth look at two HCST partners – Dinostar – The Dinosaur Experience & The William Gemmell.
ONE CHILD ADMITTED FREE IF AN ACCOMPANYING ADULT SHOWS A MEMBERSHIP CARD
Dinostar is Hull’s interactive, hands on dinosaur museum. Highlights include Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex skulls, Triceratops bones you can touch and our Dinosaur Sound Box. Open every Sunday and school holidays, see web site for details.
The William Gemmell club on Anlaby Road is a welcome addition to our partnership scheme. As part of this arrangement, all HCST members will become affiliate members of the Gemmell, and the Trust will have a presence there on all Hull City home match days with membership applications and renewals as well as Trust merchandise available for purchase.
Merchandise Offer For this week’s offer, City / HCAFC scarves are £4. Buy yours from the storehere.
Stop the front page! HCST are looking for new contributors to our website.
These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested please email us here.
It was a disappointing Easter Monday for the Tigers as a poor performance allowed Sheffield Utd to stroll to a 3-0 victory. City were very disappointing and some of the defending was woeful.
The last away game of the season sees City travel to Wales to face Swansea City. Realistically neither team has anything to play for so it’s anyone’s guess whether both will go for it or if it will be a drab end of season affair. Safe journey to all travelling
Here’s your update from the trust this week…
Sheffield United Crowd Trouble After concerns expressed by our members and the wider Hull City fanbase, the Trust have contacted the Club regarding the crowd trouble at the Easter Monday game against Sheffield United.
A large number of Sheffield United fans had bought tickets in the Home areas, particularly in the North Stand and after David McGoldrick’s opener for the visitors on 10 minutes, their celibrations led to confrontation with the home fans.
We have asked the club/SMC to look at two main areas which concerned the fans..
How were the Sheffield United fans able to buy tickets in the away end?
Once these fans had been identified by home supporters, was the situation dealt with timely enough and adequately by the Stewards/Police?
We hope that the review by the Club/SMC will be made public as soon as possible & will address the fans concerns as stated above.
We understand the the FA have also opened an investigation into the events at the match.
Peter Skipper RIP On Tuesday we heard the sad news thet ex City player Peter ‘Skip’ Skipper had passed away aged just 61.
Peter, a Hull-born central defender who made 338 appearances for City in two spells during the 1980’s – including two promotions, was a great favourite amongst players & fans.
Phil Buckingham from the Hull Daily Mail has written an excellent tribute to him with quotes from many teammates and other ex-City players. You can read it here.
The Trust Board extend our condolences to Peter’s family in these difficult times.
HCST ‘Kids for a Quid’ One of the proposals passed at the recent AGM was that junior members will now only pay £1 for Membership.
Previously junior (non-voting) members had paid an annual fee £2, now it will be a ‘one-off’ payment of £1 for junior membership until they reach their 16th birthday
The aim of the proposal was to encourage more engagement with a supporter organisation connected to the club, to retain awareness and interest during a period when some families cannot afford to take children to home matches due to the club’s current pricing model that does not cater for concessionary age groups.
So, if you have children (or grandchildren) who aren’t junior members, or know of anyone who does, sign them up online here or alternatively download a paper application form here.
“The Decade” Book Launch We can confirm that the launch of Richard Gardhams book will take place at Mr Chu’s, St Andrews Quay at 7:30 on Saturday 4th May.
The book, which concentrates on the unbelievable period of transformation at City from 2000 to 2010, contains contributions from ex-City staff and players, many of whom will be in attendance at the launch.
All profits from the sale of the book will go to support Dove House Hospice.
A Question and Answer session will be hosted by the venerable Brendan Smurthwaite.
The event is ‘walk-in’ but please contact Mr Chu’s directly if you wish to book a table for the buffet – but don’t hang about as this is likely to fill up fast.
FSF Away Fans Survey 2018/19 The Football Supporters Federation (FSF) are running their annual survey of the experience of fans who attend away games.
The survey can be found here and should take only a few minutes to fill in.
We encourage all travelling fans to complete the survey to allow the FSF to measure the experience of the away fan. Remember you can fill it in for each away gameswhich you attend..
Hull City Ladies No game for the Tigresses last weekend as the scheduled game against Nottingham Forest Ladies was postponed.
The game has bee re-arranged for Sunday 5th May
As usual it’s a 2pm kick off time at the Hull University Sports Ground on Inglemire Lane.
10% DISCOUNT ON YOUR FIRST INVOICE FOR ALL NEW CLIENTS ON PRODUCTION OF A MEMBER CARD
Dutton Moore are one of the largest independent firms of Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers in Yorkshire, we offer a complete range of support services to a wide spectrum of business, organisations and individuals. With our Hull city centre practices and two regional branches in East Hull and Beverley, we can service our clients business, accountancy, will and probate needs across the region, from start up advice through to selling out we have the experience and ability to lead your business upwards.
10% DISCOUNT ON YOUR FIRST INVOICE FOR ALL NEW CLIENTS ON PRODUCTION OF A MEMBER CARD
ITForward help local businesses in Hull and East Yorkshire who need sound, strong computer packages and proper hands-on back-up service. ITForward offers a full range of payroll services and support including weekly or monthly payroll, together with year-end processing. ITForward also provides a full range of IT consultancy services and support across the region.
Merchandise Offer For this week’s offer, City / HCAFC scarves are £4. Buy yours from the storehere.
Stop the front page! HCST are looking for new contributors to our website.
These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested please email us here.
