Attendance

There was another healthy attendance at the last mid week meeting of the 98/99 season with 17 members along to catch up with what has been going on at the club over the last month. Apologies were received from David Smith, Kevin Robertson, Dave McBain and Martin Longland. We also welcomed a couple of new faces along with Mike Hennessy attending his first meeting (although he was at the Burns night) and Ian Nicholson who was visiting London from Edinburgh. We welcomed John Scott who was a member of the branch for a number of years before moving to Glasgow to live. John was also on a flying visit to London on business.

Fanzine

Issue 22 of the fanzine has been a MONSTER MASSIVE success. So successful, in fact, that we have had to print an additional 100 copies so we could forward them onto our regular retail outlets in Edinburgh to sell.

As I messed up on the inside front cover recognising those who contributed, my belated thanks to everyone who submitted articles, including Stuart Crowther, Iain Tully, John Inglis, Dave Shanks, Brian Rogan, Dave Smith, Steve Bellet, Gavin Watson, Dave McBain, Gregor Campbell-Hewson, Andy Bell, Mike Inglis, Jimmy Wallace, Kevin Robertson and Pete Mahedy. Thanks also to Martin Longland (and family) Mike Inglis, Paul and Dean Goodfellow and Tony Connor for selling a record 500 copies before the last game of the season.

If we manage to sell the remaining stock, then this fanzine will not only be a best seller (900 copies) but it will also make the club a small profit of over �250 which will go towards our club funds for the new season.

Football Team

As expected, the football team has finished in a very creditable 4^th position in their first season back in the APFSCIL top division. As you can see from the final league table, we ended the season ahead of Rangers (the only other Scottish team in all 3 Divisions) who you may remember we beat in the league. Once again, congratulations to Kevin Robertson for his hard work over the last 10 months organising fixtures etc and to the team for another great season.

Click here for Final League Table 1998/99

AGM

You are reminded that the club’s Annual General Meeting will be taking place in the Holyrood on Saturday 19 June starting at 4pm. If you are one of those members who do not normally make the midweek get together due to work or family commitments, then this will be a good opportunity for you not only avoid a day’s shopping with the wife/girlfriend, but also to catch up with our members.

The schedule for the day will be to meet in the pub from 3pm onwards for a couple of pints. The meeting, which should take approximately 1 hour, will commence at around 4pm and will include the following topics,

• Summary of the last 12 months activities at the club
• Review of the club’s finances
• Review of committee members for the 1999/2000 season
• London Hibs Player of the Year for last season
• Easter Road Investment Community Trust
• Football Team
• Fanzine
• Plans for the new season
• AOB

If you would like to put you name forward for one of the committee posts (Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, Fanzine Editor, Entertainment, Hibs Liaison, Football Team or Travel Co-ordinator) then please let either Brian Rogan or myself know before the meeting. The current committee have all been in place for a number of years so I assure you that no one will be offended if someone else feels that they could do a good job in one of these posts.

As I mentioned in the April update, we will also be showing a very special Hibs video after the meeting, which will be a real treat to all Hibbys and a bit of a video nasty for any secret jambos who may be amongst us!! In addition to unique footage of classic Hibs games from the 60’s and onwards (Real Madrid for example) there will of course be another chance to take yourself back to New Year’s Day 1973 and collectively laugh at Jam Tarts.

This videotape has been loaned to the club for a weekend only by Tom Wright, who is a great Hibby and Chairman of FARAC, which stands for Friends and Relatives against Cancer. Tom recently raised over �1000 for this charity by holding a very successful video night at Easter Road and charging supporters’ �5 a ticket to watch the video. Whilst we do not anticipate raising this kind of money; in return for this kind gesture (the tape is a one off and may not be copied) we will be taking a collection from members as a donation to FARAC, and London Hibs will at least match the value of the collection. Let’s hope for a good turnout and the usual generosity of our members.

Guess the Score Competition

At the beginning of the season you may remember that we ran a competition for our members to predict Hibs scores throughout the season. Andrew Murray will run through the results and the prizes in more detail at the AGM, but for the benefit of those who will not be able to attend, the final results are as follows:

Nominations for your Player of the Year

If you have not already sent in your nominations for Player of the Year then can you please do so by completing the enclosed form and return it to me. Alternatively, you could e-mail me your nominations or give me them over the telephone. Thanks mainly to the Internet, we already have a record number of votes this year with Russell Latapy currently the run away leader followed by Mixu Paatelainen and then Olli Gottskalksson. The presentation will take place in Edinburgh sometime in October/November once we have details of the fixture list.

Marathon Man

In case you ever thought that being a member of London Hibs was all boozing and eating fast food, then I’m afraid you are quite wrong. Following some health and fitness advice from the youngsters of the Club, like Brian Rogan, Pete Mahedy and Pat McKinney, Grant Ramsay (our APFSCIL man) ran this year’s London Marathon in a very impressive 2 hours and 57 minutes. Congratulations to Grant on what is without doubt a very ‘reasonable’ time with plenty of room for improvement next year!!!

Mike McSherry

Club Secretary