Sudden cardiac arrest has been headline news at football matches with the Euros marred by Christian Ericson’s sudden cardiac arrest and the recent incident of a supporter having a life threatening attack at a Newcastle match, both, thankfully, with positive outcomes. Beacon Hill always put the safety of our members and visitors at the top of our priority list. The Club has now obtained a second defibrillator: a device which is an essential part of the process that can save the life of someone who is having a cardiac arrest. Each device has a built in voice instruction system to guide the operator.

Our current defib is just inside the door of the main Pavilion, the new one will in the hut on the Top Field and will be taken to the Pit when we move youth training there soon. We have ordered an external box so we can fit one defib to the outside of the main Pavilion making access easier and available to the general public. All our coaches have undertaken the FA’s “Emergency Aid Course” and we are collating a list of all other Club members who have relevant training; please pass your contact to your team manager if you want to be on this emergency list. In addition some Club members have undertaken the FA’s “Sudden Cardiac Arrest Course” which is a free 30 minute online course at thebootroom.thefa.com, if you find time to do this, you could save someone’s life, let us know and we can add you to our list.

Results at the weekend were a definite test of our resilience as scores often did not reflect performance. Both First Teams put in good shows but came away goalless and pointless: the Women conceded two late goals at Southend Utd after looking on for a hard earned point whilst the Men gave away a soft early goal at Herongate and couldn’t force an equaliser, two strikes of the woodwork unfortunately not counting towards points. At the Hill, Rovers’ Reserves certainly had the best of the play in their County Trophy fixture with Sheering but 2-2 became a loss on penalties, 3-5, and an exit from the competition.

The weekend’s Youth matches started on Saturday with one set of the u7s squad (pictured) showing off their new kit in a Festival at Hadleigh and sponsors Anglian Landscaping can certainly pleased with the first outing: two wins, one narrow defeat. The other u7s set of players meanwhile were beating Coggeshall Town back at the Hill. Working up through the ages after a full set of fixtures the 8s comfortably beat Wilvale Rangers, the 9s went down at Danbury, the 10s beat Ilford 3-1, the 11s had a brilliant match against Perry Street u12Girls eventually losing 3-4, the 13s lost 2-3 to Chigwell and the 15s went down by the same score against Brentwood.

This Friday the Clubroom will be showing the England match, contact Ryan Harvey on 07557 764351 for details followed at the weekend with Beacon Hill’s Reserves at home to OCs at 2pm on Saturday and a busy set of Youth fixtures on Sunday morning.