There is a tremendous amount of activity going on around St James Park at the moment - and nothing to do with the playing side of the football club either!
Pete Lavers-Mason's team from Whitehall Construction has started work on the new club shop and been incredibly busy. If you came to Saturday's game, you will no doubt have seen the hoardings covering the area under the Flybe Stand that they are working on and the shot below shows just how far they've already come. Major concreting continues later this week and will allow us to approach the shopfitting stage in a few weeks time. Thanks, Pete, for moving us along so quickly!
During the half term week the magnificent Exeter City fans that constitute our work party undertook the removal of the remaining vegetation at the away end. Ian Parsons' forestry skills were brought to the fore and the debris filled almost as much of the away end as the AFC Wimbledon fans did on Saturday. Please look out for when the working parties are taking place. It's a tremendous help to the club to have a large number of people together at one time and makes light work of tasks that are impossible for two or three to manage. It also keeps St James Park and the Training Ground looking in top condition and the envy of most of our visitors - as indeed are the work parties themselves. Visiting club officials are continually amazed at the sight of the post match clearance teams and even more so when they learn of all the activity on non match days throughout the year. The club is proud of its fans and those who take part in work parties should be proud of all they achieve too.
Also lending a hand this week with clearance and cutting back of mammoth amounts of overgrown shrubs and bushes behind the Big Bank have been the Grumbleweeds. The group of volunteers, pictured below, waged war on the undergrowth threatening to engulf the toilet block refreshement hut and, if you look behind them on the right hand side of the photo, the six or seven foot high pile is testament to the hard work they have put into the job.
Lastly, today, the club was happy to welcome a film crew from Denmark to St James Park. They came to film an interview with Anthony King, an expert in the sociological aspect of football as part of their programme exploring the impact of the World Cup this summer.
With Anthony based at Exeter University, filming at Exeter City Football Club was the obvious thing to do and we were pleased to help out. The film crew remembered our cup tie against Manchester United (ironically in Copenhagen at the moment) and promised to send on a copy of the finished documentary.
So, just a quiet week at the club. No match this Saturday so nothing to do ? Not likely!
