On behalf of the senior Bulldogs team and management, can I thank every one for their support over the season, especially the few of you that travelled to our away games.

For the supporters that came to see the Billingham game yesterday, where have you been all season!! Support like that really does make a difference.

A big thank you to all the volunteers who took on the off ice official jobs – with out your help our games would not have been able to take place. Thanks to all involved with the programmes and raffles, the small amount of revenue that this brings in helps contribute towards the ever increasing costs that occur with a senior game.

Special thanks goes to Katie and her box office staff who over the season have collected entrance monies to the senior games, as well as putting up with much verbal abuse from certain supporters from our own club and other clubs. Thanks also to Ahab’s and his security staff for all their help both on the ice and off, they’ve put up with a lot of hassle from people over the season on our behalf.

We now have to start planning for next season.

Over the next few months, we will be on the look out for senior players who would like to become part of our team and to be part of a close knit club. If anyone knows of any players who might be interested, please let us know.

If you are interested in getting involved with the Bulldogs, either as an off ice official, fund raising or even starting a supporters club, please get in touch. We really do need your involvement. The off ice jobs that need to be covered are: Clock, game sheet, penalty box, and 2 goal judges. For these positions you will need to be registered with the league and a quick lesson on what the job entails. We also need volunteers to sell programmes and raffle tickets. A position that we are looking to fill for next season is for an announcer/dj. This would be a role that requires either 1 person or 2 people working together to develop this role, but you must be over 16 years old and able to get to as many home games as possible. The position requires you to announce both teams before line up, give out details of goals and penalties etc, and also to encourage support for both teams on the ice. The DJ part of the position would require someone with knowledge of music to match tunes up to teams etc, and stopping and starting music during games.

With the close season approaching I am starting to get details through for coaching courses, linesman courses and manager’s courses. If you are interested in any of these, again please get in touch.

This might seem really early to start asking for the above positions filling, but we need to know everything is in place before the 1st August, and with some of these roles requiring courses/lessons, we have to be sorting out from now.

We are also on the look out for sponsors for next season. If any one knows of a business that would like to get involved, let us have their details so we can approach them. The team would also like to find people or businesses who would be interested in sponsoring our man of the match at home games, either a single game or the full season if they wish. This would help provide the ‘traditional drink’ that is awarded to both teams at the end of the game. We are the only club that presents a trophy rather than a ‘drink’ so if anyone could help solve this one for us, I’m sure the lads would really appreciate it!

Although this is a request for the senior Bulldogs team, these positions are also vital at junior level. As parents, you really want to watch your child play and therefore the same people end up doing the jobs week in week out. If enough parents are interested, we could set up a rota thereby covering all the off ice official jobs and still give parents time to watch their child play. If you are interested, can you see me, Barbara or your team manager who will pass on your details to me.

The club can only keep going forward with your help, so please help in what ever way you can.

Yvonne Roberts
Senior Team manager