Author: Mike Birchall

by Mike Birchall

BALLERS PROJECT RESTART – UPDATE

Afternoon current / former / future Ballers, we hope you’re all still well and plodding along. When we went into lockdown scarves and wooly hats were still part of the Ballers nightly uniform! Here’s a quick update on what our restart plans currently are…

It remains unlikely we’ll be given the go ahead to start up full contact football for a while, but as soon as government guidelines allow we will be going ahead with our previously proposed Longies League which allows for us to manage social distancing (https://skballers.com/2020/05/06/ballers-longies-league/ for details).

We’ll keep a close eye on what Boris has to say in the coming weeks, and will look to get something started within 7 days of any change that allows us to. This effectively means that if the lockdown is eased this Sunday, 31st May, we could be getting started on Sunday 7th June, which is just over a week away! We will start initially with Sunday, and will be happy to run leagues at pretty much any time of the day. We hope everyone understands that half the number of players at any one time means we will only be making half the money, so we won’t be able to justify coming entirely off furlough full time just yet, but we obviously want to give people the opportunity to start kicking a ball around again in a semi-competitive manner. So in an ideal world as many teams as possible will find a suitable time on a Sunday to play. We will look to roll out alternative nights once we’ve got Sunday started, based on demand.

What we need you to do now is have a chat with your lads (or in the case of any potential new teams, round up some lads!) and let me know your thoughts. I could do with answers off all potential teams on the 4 following questions:

  1. Are your lads up for it, or would they rather wait until we are back up and running fully?
  2. How many lads are up for it, and therefore how many teams you will be wanting me to find space for (if there’s 6 or 7 of you, that will presumably be two teams!)?
  3. Can your lads do Sunday, and if so what would be your preferred time of day? We would entertain running leagues in the early afternoon (2pm-4pm), early evening (4pm-6pm) and later evening (6pm-8pm), so please let us know of any times you definitely couldn’t do. These times are just examples…
  4. If Sunday is a no go, what other nights between Monday and Wednesday could you do?

Please understand that this is effectively going to be like starting up a brand new business, and we don’t know how long we will have to do this for. There will also undoubtedly be teething problems, so a bit of patience would be appreciated.

Please help to make things as simple as possible for us!

by Mike Birchall

We have a plan…

We’ve had 7 weeks to come up with something that can get people kicking a ball around again, and we think we may be getting closer to being able to do something.

We’re not suggesting for one second that we’ll be able to get fully competitive football back on the go for a good while yet, and we certainly don’t want to play any part in putting anyone at risk, but if we can find a way to get lads back on the pitch and kicking a ball round sooner rather than later, why shouldn’t we do it?

We don’t want to give too much away about our plans as we don’t want anyone nicking them, but if you want to know what we’re up to, you only have to ask!

Get in touch on 07809252658, email [email protected], fill in a ‘Join A League’ form from the homepage, or message us on any of our social media pages.

by Mike Birchall

Coronavirus Update 17/03/20

So here we are…

It is with a heavy heart that we feel that now is the time to put Ballers on hold for the foreseeable future. This has not been an easy decision to make, Ballers is my only source of income and we really don’t know how long this is going to go on for, but the health of the local community has to come first.

Yesterday the FA responded to the governments half hearted call for people to maybe consider not doing some things, by taking the decisive action to cancel all grassroots football.

While we were hoping that the governement would provide the required guidance in this situation to create a scenario where we had no choice but to shut our leagues down for now, they provided several shades of grey and effectively put the onus on small business owners (pubs, restaurants) to make a call with two possible outcomes.

You could choose the first one, where you remain open in an attempt to survive financially, but come across as putting short term profit ahead of the health and safety of your customers and the wider population until forced to do otherwise, or choose the second one whereby you voluntarily close down and have no money coming in at all and no government support.

In my opinion, it’s a disgrace. What small business owners needed more than anything at the minute is clarity and support, not difficult decisions that can affect their long term chances of financial and (potentially) literal survival.

Thankfully the FA have stepped up, and we support whatever needs to be done at this time to ensure that as many people as possible have the best chance of coming out of this on the other side.

Other businesses out there who offer something very similar to us may intend to carry on regardless, however we absolutely do not want to be seen as being irresponsible. This thing is just getting started. We had a number of teams cancel their games yesterday as they had lads who were ill or in self isolation, and it’s only going to get worse. If we were to continue running leagues you can pretty much guarantee that within a week we’d have lads playing there who had the virus, whether they knew it or not.

Hopefully when this is all over and we are ready to get going again, people will remember who it was that put their customers health first!

We will be back, hopefully sooner rather than later. Let’s face it, there’s not going to be any other suitable jobs out there for anyone like me at the minute!

Please take care of yourselves and each other, and please treat this situation with the seriousness it deserves. The one plus point for us is that by the time this is all over we can only imagine that everyone will be busting for a game of football!

In the meantime I’m going to pick up that dusty guitar and spend the next few months seeing if I can actually get any good at playing it…

See you all soon!

Mike

by Mike Birchall

Covid 19 Update – 15/03/20

With the current pandemic doing the rounds, things could literally change on a day to day basis. As of today, Sunday 15th March, here is where we currently stand.

All games remain on as normal, and in some parts are being actively encouraged as partaking in excercise helps protect the body from viral disease. If and when the government make the step up to the next level, that’s when things will almost undoubtedly change.

The current understanding is that you have to be within 2 metres of someone who has the illness for a period of 15 minutes in order for you to be in danger of picking up the virus. We don’t believe that happens in a game of football, and therefore games can go ahead as normal.

What we do ask is that any players from any teams who are displaying the symptoms of a dry cough and a fever should not come down to the centre as a precaution. If this means in the short term that we end up losing a few more games than normal as teams struggle to find the numbers, so be it.

One other thing, in an ideal world we would want as many players as possible to either pay by card or contactless payment, or to bring the correct payment to avoid potential transfer via handling of money. At least at the end of the night we can wash our hands after we’ve done our banking!

We are determined to be as responsible as we can throughout this difficult time. In the short term future people may not have the freedom to do as many things as they normally would due to the risks involved, but for now we think that what we offer doesn’t offer up the same level of risk as some of these other things, so fill your boots!

by Mike Birchall

NEW LEAGUES – STARTING SOON!

As we head into March with the lighter nights on the way and the recent spate of storms hopefully out of the way, we have some new leagues starting soon that may suit the fair weather footballers out there!

REDDISH SUNDAY LEAGUE

The biggest Ballers league night will be starting up it’s latest new season as spring kicks in, with new campaign starting on 29th March.

Spaces are already at a premium, but we’re always happy to try and accommodate more teams.

Games are 50 minutes long, priced at £5 per player per game, with matches kicking off between 5.30pm and 8.30pm. We try our best to accommodate teams requests to avoid certain kick off times, so if you would struggle for the earlier or later games, just let us know when you sign up.

WOODLEY THURSDAY LEAGUE

A few days later the Woodley Thursday league will be getting underway. The first league night of the new season will be on 2nd April, and we currently have spaces for up to 4 new teams.

League games kick off at 7pm, 7.40pm or 8.20pm, and are priced at £30 per team, per game. Again, we will try and accommodate any requests for kick off times.

CURRENT LEAGUE VACANCIES

If Sunday and Thursday don’t do it for you, here’s what spaces we have on the other nights for an immediate start

REDDISH MONDAY LEAGUE – ONE SPACE

REDDISH TUESDAY LEAGUE – TWO SPACES

WEDNESDAY REDDISH LEAGUE – ONE SPACE

WOODLEY WEDNESDAY LEAGUE – TWO SPACES

FOR MORE DETAILS, TO REGISTER YOUR TEAM, OR TO BOOK IN A ONE OFF TRIAL GAME – GET IN TOUCH!

by Mike Birchall

SOMETHING NEW! TEAM PROFILE VIDEOS!

⚽🆕SOMETHING NEW!🆕⚽

We hinted at this last week on our social media channels, but here we go!


Following discussions with Alex at Viaduct Video, our Ballers promo video is going to be made up of INDIVIDUAL TEAM PROFILE VIDEOS! The first of which will be filmed NEXT MONTH.

For the first one, we are looking for a team made up of lads who are mostly aged 21 or under, who have been with us for at least a year, and already have or are currently due a set of Ballers loyalty shirts (which we will make sure we get ordered before the night of filming).

We’ve got some teams in mind, but if you genuinely would love to be the first team involved, get in touch and let us know. The profile will involve:

⚽ A team interview before a game (would involve your team getting to us an hour earlier one night)

⚽ The filming of your game, potentially with a player or two mic’d up to catch some of the in game chat

⚽ Quick post match interview with individuals after the game

Alex will then trawl through the footage and put together a kick ass final video which we’ll use to promote Brand Ballers!

We’ll be doing two more team profile videos at a later date (hopefully quite soon after), and these three will go towards completing the full promo video.

That won’t be the end of it though, as team profile videos will become part of what we offer up to our long standing teams as time goes by…!

by Mike Birchall

NEW YEAR – NEW LEAGUES!

The start of a new decade sees the restart of a number of our current leagues with brand new seasons! As part of the standard news years resolutions to get fit, lose weight etc, make sure some weekly Ballers action is part of that!

NEW REDDISH SUNDAY LEAGUE

Our biggest league night is the first of the new year to start up as the Sunday evening league kicks off on 5th January. You can get straight back into it by registering a team for one of our 4 divisions, which ensures we can find a standard to suit all teams. Games kick off between 5.30pm and 8.30pm, but we do our best to accommodate any issues that teams might have with the earlier or later times.

NEW REDDISH TUESDAY LEAGUE

Our Tuesday league was a highly competitive division last season with all teams capable of taking points off each other and the title going down to the final night. The new league kicks off on 7th January, and we’re currently a couple of teams away from being able to split the league into two divisions. Games kick off at 8pm or 9pm.

NEW REDDISH WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

A day after the Tuesday league restarts, the Wednesday league follows suit. One division with all games kicking off at 9pm, this is the ideal league night for anyone who wants a fixed kick off time with shifts that suit a later game. One space available for the new season which kicks off on 8th January.

All Reddish leagues are 50 minute games priced at £5 per player, per game.

NEW WOODLEY WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

We then have a couple of weeks gap before the brand new Woodley Wednesday league kicks off on 22nd January. The current season is the first one that Ballers have run at Woodley, and after a great start a few teams struggled in the run up to Christmas. We expect a strong start to the new season as everyone gets back into it, so don’t waste any time in registering your team. The Woodley Wednesday league is 40 minute games at £5 per player, per game, with games kicking off between 7pm and 9.15pm

FOR DETAILS ON THE NEW LEAGUES, OR ANY SPACES AVAILABLE ON OUR OTHER NIGHTS, CALL 07809252658, OR EMAIL [email protected]

by Mike Birchall

The Wednesday Ladder!

Who fancies something new…?

The Reddish Wednesday league came to an end this week, and with a couple of spaces to fill as we head into December we are going to try something new for the next few weeks…

Strictly limited to 6 teams per week, for one hour from 9pm every Wednesday for the next three weeks

The Rules:
Effectively it will be a weekly 6 team tournament with all 6 teams playing across all 3 pitches.
Pitch 1 is top of the ladder, pitch 3 is bottom.
If you win, you move up the ladder, if you lose, you drop down.
There will be 5 rounds of games, each game 8 minutes long, with the two teams on pitch 1 playing out a final in the 5th round of games.
Winner stays on rule applies, so if you are on pitch 1 and win, the next challenger needs to beat you to knock you down to pitch 2. In the event of a draw it’s the challenger that drops back down.
YOU HAVE TO WIN TO CHANGE YOUR MOMENTUM!
In games on pitch 2, in the event of a draw the team who previously won on pitch 3 would advance to pitch 1 (winners continue to move up while losers continue to move down).
If you drop onto pitch 3, you need to win to move back to pitch 2. So if you’ve previously lost on pitch 3, then draw with the team that has come down from pitch 2, you move up to pitch 2.
Teams will start the tournament through a random draw, with teams 1 & 2 starting on pitch 1, with the teams drawn as number 1 going in as the first ‘winners.’ Similar with teams 3 & 4 startin on pitch 2, and teams 5 & 6 starting on pitch 3.

On week 1 you might have to bare with us, it’s complicated but it could be a bit of fun…! We think this is a little something different to see us through the December months.

First one next week – get in touch to register your team!

by Mike Birchall

Christmas Cup 2!

We didn’t even get chance to advertise the first Christmas Cup tournament on here before it was full!

With the first tournament, in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust taking place on Monday 23rd December, we are toying with the idea of running a second Christmas Cup a week later, on Monday 30th December at 7pm.

All cleared proceeds will be donated to a nominated charity, with the chosen charity for the second event still to be clarified.

In order to make it a viable option, we need teams… You can dictate whether we do it or not by letting us know you want to take part.

If we get the interest we will make it official within the next week, so to force our hand, get in touch.

by Mike Birchall

JOIN THE NEW REDDISH MONDAY DIVISION!

We have a bit of free pitch space available on a Monday evening in our Reddish leagues, so what else are we supposed to do other than start a new division?!

This means we have spaces for 6 new teams to get involved in a BRAND NEW DIVISION that will filter in with the current Monday league at the end of the existing season.

If you’re new to us or haven’t played at our Reddish venue, here’s what you need to know…

Super long 50 minute games

Just £5 per player, per game

Kick offs at 8pm or 9pm weekly (we’ll always do our best to accommodate kick off requests…)

Full results, stats and player profiles housed on this very website

For more details or to register your team, click on the ‘Join A League’ link from the homepage, send us a text on 07809252658, or email [email protected]

Do it. Now.