Introducing the new Gladiators…

There has been a lot of hype this year regarding the return of the popular ITV show Gladiators, as it was revealed back in February that Sky One were going to resurrect the popular quiz show.

However, since the start of the new satelite-TV based series, it has been revealed that ratings have been poor, and programming bosses believe this is down to the current new crop of Gladiators that they have got on board.  They are simply not good enough, they lack any gravitas, are not memorable, and simialrly, the contestants have been getting the highest scores in the history of the programme.

In a unique move, Sky One have decided to use a new group of Gladiators hailing from Ferndown Locomotive.  The group, recently at some pre-season training at Durley Chine, were secretly (well, maybe not) pictured flexing their muscles, and this picture has been leaked to the locoboys.co.uk web-site.

Best wishes to the new set of Gladiators ahead of the new series…

Feel free to make any comments at the bottom of the page. They WILL be published…

Recent Loco training activity

Since the start of the season, loco training has been pretty arduous.  We’ve had King George, Sandbanks, Hengistbury Head, Whitecliff Rec, the notorious Zigzag… and tomorrow (21st July), it’s the beach.

Training this Thursday will be “Around the Chines” meeting at 18.55 at the Durley Inn Harvester Car Park (actual address supplied for you TomTom freaks)

The Durley Inn
The Promenade
Durley Chine
Bournemouth
BH2 5JF

Training will entail being flogged by Trev for over an hour followed by a game of footie on the beach and dunk in the sea, so bring parking money, a running shoe, beach football shoe, a towel and Durley Inn beer money!

Unfortunately Trev is going on Holiday for 6 months again and this will be his last session until Christmas.  Even more unfortunately, John, Trevs Son-in-law “to be” (and also a Royal Marine) will be coming along instead…. and he isn’t anywhere near as gentle as Trev.

Paul Cashmore has bought Trev a little present for all his hard work (check your email for more), and this will be presented to him after the session on Thursday, so be prepared for a long lasting send off from Trev.

Anyone not signed will need to do so this week.  Similarly, anyone with the intention of signing should please show your appreciation by contributing to Trevs present (discretionary).  For those of you that have only attended a couple of sessions don’t feel obliged to give us much, but it all helps the club and I will want to buy John a present as well depending on his contribution!

Stay tuned.

Pre-Season friendlies announced

Paul Cashmore has announced the pre-season friendlies that we will be having this season.  They are:

Saturday 9th August at 4pm vs Ferndown Town
Local derby against top flight Saturday team  - they have many new quality players my contacts tell me.

Sunday 17th Hordle Spurs (Away) at 10.30am
Sunday Prem team so obviously a very good work out.

Sunday 24th vs Parley Sports (Away) TBC
Another good work out for Loco

Sunday 31st vs New Milton Town at 10.30am
A Sunday Div 2 team, and it should be a good test as its on the Wessex League massive pitch.

Unfortunately we had to juggle these friendlies a bit as three teams cancelled on us through lack of players, however we might add a midweek game if we need to.  Please let Paul know if you can’t make any of these dates ASAP.

Kit the Bed - a new strip for Loco

Ferndown Locomotive, having secured sponsorship from Cinnamon Indian Restaurant this year, are pleased to announce that we will have a new kit for the 2008/2009 season.

The Dorset based club will be sticking to its red and black colours, and will be utilising the blue kit for our away strip - as it continues to stand the test of time.

Our red and back kit was shown off for the first time two seasons ago in a pre-season friendly against Blandford HMR.  Since then, it unfortunately has become somewhat battered and bruised, and the quality and numbers of items have dwindled - not only because we retired the Number 3 shirt in memory of our Assie fan Rob Frank, but also because the material that the kit was made out of was not very durable!

We’ll have more information about our new kit in the forthcoming weeks, so stay tuned - you’ll see pictures of the kit here very soon!

Commitee Changes this year

This season there is a lot of activity behind the scenes at Ferndown Locomotive, not least with a change within the commitee.

Sam Davis has given up his role as Treasurer, he has decided he simply cannot allocate enough time towards the financial side of Loco, and despite building up a small fortune within the 2007/2008 season for the club, he has passed the baton on to Kris Legg.  Hopefully Kris can be incredibly more organised than Sam was.. and initial signs are incredibly good, with cashflow bar charts, Gannt charts, and pie charts already witnessed!

Sam is Loco’s longest serving player, and will stay on as a commitee member.  He will be involved hugely with our web-site, overseeing the arrangement of social activities, and will also have an input in looking for financial income for the club.  It is hoped we will be able to monetise this web-site much much more, and we are also seeking sponsorship deals - with one already in the bag from local Indian Restaurant, Cinnamon.

Ali Carmichael remains secretary for Loco.  He is extremely knowledgeable in this position, and has helped the smooth running of our club as it is today.  It’s a very difficult job, however Ali has done really well for us over the last few seasons, therefore continues in his role.

Paul Phillips is chariman of the club.  A previous championship winning manager, Phillips continues to oversee the running of the club - and will be ensuring each commitee member does their job.  Very active in the Ferndown community, Paul has some strong links with local businesses and establishments, therefore often has some useful input for the rest of the commitee to feed off.

Finally, the manager once again this season will be Paul Cashmore.  Paul successfully got us up last season, keeping the Loco tradition of “promotion every two seasons”.  Paul has big ambitions for this team, and also has good links with footballers of an excellent calibre - all of which hopefully will be brought on board for Loco this season.

New web-site is here

The new Ferndown Locomoive web-site has finally arrived!

The new site was launched on 7th July 2008.  This web-site has been the home of Ferndown Locomotive since the beginning, and the new change will give us the opportunity to become increasingly famous around the world.  Under the new system, people will be able to update their own profiles, more news stories can be added from more people, and you’ll even be able to read our match reports in German!

Changes are being implemented to this site bit by bit.  All the old content is going to be merged into the new format by the end of August, so we’ll still have player statistics, videos, pictures, and Pant Compeition galleries.

We’re doing away with a “forum” as such, however we will be offering the ability for players, fans and rivals to make comments on every single one of the articles that we post.  Similarly, if you want to find out about our next opponents, meeting times, monetary fines, social events, or any others aspect of the club - the web-site will be the first port of call - because it will be updated by all commitee members on a regular basis.

Other improvements to the site include:

• RSS Feeds - be emailed every time the Loco site is updated
• Easily share articles from here with friends on Facebook, Myspace, Bebo etc.
• Opinion polls, from September weekly polls, and the ability to vote for GIMPs and MOM’s online
• Read our web-site in 11 different languages
• Improved photo gallery pages
• Video section, with video being a more prominent feature on the web-site

There are more ideas on the way - however we thought we’d give you a taster of what is going to be appearing on this site in the forthcoming weeks.  Please bear with us while the integration is complete!

Cheers.

Training gets underway with pain galore

Ferndown Locomotive have officially started training for the 2008/2009 season.  Once again we have secured the services of the man they called “Trev”, who is putting us through our paces at venues across Dorset, in order to improve our endurance and stamina.

Trevor made a huge impact on last season, and it was his input that saw us go unbeaten into the New Year - fitness was good, team spirit was excellent, and the club was really thriving.

Well he is back this year, but it has been (and will be) much much harder.  It all started with a bleep test at King George in Ferndown, where Keith Jackson excelled, getting up to around Level 13.  Then followed some torture over at Sandbanks, where the squad travelled over on the chain ferry, only to find themselves running up and down sand dunes for the rest of the evening.

Sam, Luke and Simon were all guilty of being sick that evening, however it was “good sick” - if ever there is such a phrase.  All of the squad, including the puking three, felt the benefit of such a tough session with Trev - and we feel it is only going to help rather than hinder us!

Stay tuned to the web-site as time goes on for more information on forthcoming Thursday and Saturday sessions.

2008-2009 Season Starts here!

Loco continued their promotion every two seasons routine again last season. Now in Division Three, the re-building process begins. We’ve got the latest…It may be hot outside, but it’s not going to be as hot as some of the training sessions that we’ve got planned over the summer!We begin on Thursday June 26th at 7pm at King George V Fields in Ferndown. This will be a fitness training evening.

We then get started on Saturdays with some morning football, at the same venue, kicking off at 10am in the morning. People who attended last season will know how arduous but fun these pre-season sessions can be. Once again, we have acquired the use of Big Trev, the man who cycles 300 miles a day, in order to try to get us in to shape in September - it should be interesting.

Since the beginning of Locomotive T&D, the club has gained promotion into higher divisions every two seasons.  Guided by the wizardry of Paul Cashmore, Loco did it again last season, and next year we will be competing in the fourth tier of BFA football. Cash was the person who instigated the training routines, and they certainly paid off towards the end of the season, where Loco put in some astounding performances, one of which helped our friends (and rivals) at AFC Verwood grab the title from the league-leaders for most of the season, Burns Lettings.

Please note, we are a dedicated football team!  Although we do like to have fun, our main objective at Loco is to play football and play it to the best of our ability - through this, we gain a strong team ethic and good friendships form between our fellow players and supporters, as we’re all striving for the same goal… This helps Loco stand out from any other football team in Dorset.

That said, you don’t have to be Christiano Ronaldo to play for Loco (although it would help!). For the first few sessions we’d really love to have as many people coming along to our sessions. If you’d like to get fit, then Loco is the place to be!  If you’d like to have a kick-around, then Loco is the place to be!

Please see the right hand-side of the web-site for the training schedule…

Good luck to Loco in the 2008/2009 season!