February Meeting

It seems that every month since the beginning of the season we have at least 1 or 2 new member coming along to our monthly gatherings. Well the February get together was no exception with 2 new members (Stuart Dickson and Eric Davidson) coming along to their first meeting. We also invited back Dan Falkicov, who hasn’t been around for a while, and one of the club’s founder members, Glaswegian Jim Wallace who has recently returned to London from living in Scotland. In true London Hibs tradition, our new members received a ‘welcome pint’ from the treasurer (after paying their subs) and we went onto have a very positive, informative and enjoyable meeting.

Once again the club’s main social event of the season on Saturday 30 January was massive success and enjoyed by the 100 or so members and friends who came along. It was a great honour for us to have ‘God’ himself down from Edinburgh who said he had a great weekend and enjoyed himself very much chatting with all our members.

As always, our sincere thanks to everyone who worked behind the scenes to make the evening so enjoyable. In particular, I would like to thank Sonia and her staff at the Holyrood Pub for all they did to make the evening a great success. For those members who were unable to come along, the pub was decorated throughout in Scotland flags and tartan and the staff were dressed in 70s style Hibs strips, which they later sold on to our members to top-up their earnings for the evening. I would also like to thank Morton Love for donating a signed Hibs strip for the raffle. As Morton is required to work on a Saturday evening, he has not yet managed to come along to one of our Burns Nights, but for the past few years he has made various donations to the raffle which have always been very much appreciated.

During the evening we raised some money for our favourite charity by auctioning a ‘Famous Five’ collection of picture postcards in a frame. John Smith was the successful bidder and as a result of his generosity we have recently sent St Columbus Hospice in Edinburgh a cheque for �300. This was a really fantastic gesture by John and I’m fairly confident that the money will be very much appreciated and put to good use by the hospice.

Having discussed the subject at our last 3 meetings, we are now all systems go to organise group travel to the penultimate home game of the season against Morton on Saturday 24 April 1999. There are already 4 members confirmed on the trip, with a further 10 or so at the February meeting saying that they were really interested. As you can see from the enclosed note from Alex, the plan is to leave London King’s Cross on the 5pm train on 23 April returning on the 11am train on 25 April. Accommodation can be arranged at the Dean Hotel but in order to take advantage of any special rates, it will be necessary for you to confirm your requirements as soon as possible.

The four members who are already confirmed on the trip are planning to take advantage of the excellent hospitality at Easter Road before the game and have booked a table for lunch in the Forthview Suite. The cost for this all-inclusive lunch, which I believe includes a ticket to the game, is �50. Our members have also been invited to the ‘Almond suite Player of the Year presentation’, which will take place that evening. The presentation will be held in the Almond Suite from 7.30–12.30am with tickets priced at �10. I will have more info at the March meeting..

Although it would be nice for our members to travel together for the game, we appreciate that this is not always possible as the method of travel and times/dates for leaving/returning to London will not suit everyone. However, the most important thing is that we attend the game as a club, so if you are planning to go up for the match or if you are at a loose end and would like further information on the proposal, then you should contact either Alex Lindsay or Tony Connor.

London Hibs Merchandise

Can I remind you that there is still a few items of our Autumn/Winter Merchandise available to purchase, so if you are looking for a birthday present for your family or if you have friends in Edinburgh who may wish to buy something, then can you please complete the enclosed form and send it to me  (with cheque). We already have some good ideas for a ‘spring collection’ but until we have sold our stock of fleece jackets (3 left) and Coach Jackets (10 left) we will not be investing in any new stuff.

London Hibs on the Internet

You may remember in our August Newsletter that I mentioned we had our own pages on the World Wide Web courtesy of Stuart Crowther at Erin Web. Whilst these pages were a great starting point for us, Stuart was unable to update them regularly enough due to work commitments, so Mike Inglis, who is another Wokingham based member, volunteered his services to take the project one step further and add his personal touch.

I’m very pleased to say that Mike has taken the ‘bull by the horns’ and done a fantastic job so far by creating the following pages that we can all be very proud of.

I believe this makes us the first Hibs supporters Club to have their own pages, and to give you some idea of how effective the Internet can be, within 24 hours of the Burns Night, Mike had created a page with 15 or so pictures from the evening and some sound files of Pat Stanton’s speech and Stuart’s address of the haggis. Hibs supporters viewed this from all over the world and the response to Mike was very positive. We have also recruited 2 new members and have sold quite a bit of our Merchandise to people checking out what London Hibs are up to.

I will bring along a computer to the next meeting to show those of you who do not have access to the Web the great work that Mike has done. In the meantime we would be very grateful if you could help us make these pages a lot more up to date with our members information by completing the enclosed ‘Members’ profile’ form and sending it to Mike at the address shown with a photograph of yourself. If you have access to a computer, Mike would prefer to receive your profiles in electronic format. If you have any other ideas for what we could include on our pages then please pass them onto the London Hibs Webmaster, Mike Inglis  at [email protected]

Tickets are still available for the St Mirren game on Saturday 17^th April so if any member is planning to be in Edinburgh that weekend and would like to use them, then they should give me a call. Between now and the end of the season, Andy Bell has both tickets for the Airdrie game on 20th March, Martin Longland and myself have them for the Morton game on 24th April and Les Rennie has both for Hibs final home game in the 1^st Division (ever again hopefully) against Falkirk on 8 May.

In our August newsletter I committed to the club producing 2 issues of Hibees Here Hibees There before the end of the season and I’m pleased to say that we are currently on track to print our 2^nd issue in time for the home game against Morton on 24 April. The response I have received so far to issue 21 has been immense and I pass on my sincere thanks to everyone at the club who contributed articles or ideas. However, I will be asking for the same response from more of our members over the next 5 weeks to ensure that issue 22 of HHHT is equally as good and as well received.

To ensure that we have the fanzine on sale for the 25^th April, the deadline for submitting articles, letters, ideas for issue 22 is Tuesday 13 April, but it would be greatly appreciated if you did not leave it to the last minute and send your contribution to me ASAP.

QUICK QUIZ

Name that team:

Answers on a postcard to the above address:

 Mike McSherry

Club Secretary