Sun, sun, sun....

Meanwhile, yesterday in St Ives.....

Do not adjust your internet.  The sky is actually blue.

Rain, rain, rain....

The rain it raineth every day.

Well thanks Shakespeare for the weather report – tell us something we didn’t know.

The rain has indeed raineth every bloody day since Christmas and it’s fair to say we are all pisseth off with it. When will it stop?

It’s something to do with the jet stream, apparently. Unbroken crap weather that would normally be funnelled up into Scandinavia is instead being directed like an incessant sprinkler at our green and now sodden land.

And with the forecast predicting more of the same for at least another week, it feels like next Saturday will be another blank and we could be heading into March with as many as 10 home games still to play. Just one late blast of winter and we could be in serious trouble. 

Is it time to consider alternatives instead of another washout? Hereford, with admittedly even more home fixtures still to play (14!), have just announced that they are switching to Worcester for at least one fixture, and probably more as Edgar Street has a major drainage problem. 

Don’t shoot me, but has the club thought about approaching Corby or even Harborough to get a game on? Better half a crowd than none at all. 

And what of Latimer Park longer term? Despite many thousands sunk into pitch improvements, it remains a liability due to the clay base. Home fixtures from December to March are basically a lottery. Chances of being on? 50/50. And winters are getting wetter. 

Saturdays wiped out means midweek rearrangements, likely now squeezed into a few weeks, resulting in depressed attendances and lost hospitality revenue. All round it’s a budget killer. 

So what’s the answer?

A new home remains a pipe dream and feels no closer than when Frenches Field was first announced. So we’re staying at LP with basically 2 options:

1. current plan – get grant funding for a 3G surface adjacent to main pitch, for training and other uses.

2. replace main pitch with 3G, ensuring certainty of first team fixtures PLUS can be used for other purposes.

I’ve never quite understood the logic behind the current plan. Why still be at the mercy of the weather? Yes, a second, 3G surface would open up a revenue stream, but so would having it as the main surface. Just because we have the spare land doesn’t mean we have to put it there. 

And please don’t anyone point out that the Football League still prohibits artificial pitches. Let’s worry about that if we get to it!

Currently about as likely as the sun coming out. 

Yep, another home game.....

I enjoy being proved correct as much as the next man.  Probably more than the next man if I'm being honest.

But when it comes to yet another blank home Saturday I would have preferred to be wrong this one time.  Come the Friday and the heavens open once again and a fallow home game period stretching back to 20th December yawns ever wider.  Tomorrow's game against Redditch has no earthly chance of being played.

Assuming the next home game against Banbury (the other perennially flooded-club), takes place, we will have gone 2-full months without a home game.  God alone knows how the club are budgeting for this inadvertent mid-Winter break, but it can't be long before our perennial nay-sayers will be whispering about the squad not getting paid and players being tapped-up.....

We all have ways of gauging whether a game will be on or not.  Whether wedging a heel into the squelchy back garden to test the softness or feeling your old bones starting to ache, we all have a fool-proof method of gauging inclement weather.  

For me, I find that this path to the rear of the appropriately named Poppyfields estate is my "litmus test".  I cannot recall us ever playing at home on a Saturday if the section of path is at all flooded on the Friday.  This was it this morning. Hmm.

See you all at St Ives next week.....

Yep, another away game.....

 

.....and another fine day and lovely Suffolk sky.
Let's see how the weather looks for our home
game next Saturday.  Hint - we're hosting
Redditch, so it's likely to be crappy in every way.

It's all getting a bit silly now!

As the Weather-Gods conspire against us once again we are left wondering what the Poppies have done to 2026 for this year to treat us so badly.  So far this year all we can guarantee is that if we are at home the weather will destroy us, and if we are away from home it is certain to be a lovely day.

3rd January - HOME TO STRATFORD and after a non-descript Christmas, meteorologically speaking, the home game to Stratford is called off after we are plunged into a new Ice Age.  Yes, that's right.  Latimer Park was more welcome to Mammoths and Sabre-tooth Tigers than fair-to-middling non-league footballers.

Brrrr.....!

10th January - AWAY TO LEISTON where the only thing raining on us were Leiston goals.  Sunny day and obligatory lovely Suffolk sunset.

Lovely in Leiston

17th January - HOME TO ALVECHURCH and after indulging a teasing matchday official we have to accept that our flooded pitch isn't going to miraculously dry out simply because we've all just bought our drinks.  Few held out much hope of a game after Thursday brought almost 10-years worth of rain to the NN15 region*

Soggy Latimer Park - fit only for ducks I'm afraid....

24th January - AWAY TO BISHOP STORTFORD and the sunglasses are out as both the weather and the team bask contentedly.

Bootiful in Bishop Stortford

27th January - HOME TO SUDBURY and after having the previous attempt to play Sudbury thwarted by Storm Bram towards the end of 2025, the rescheduled fixture is kiboshed by Storm Chadra as Latimer Park again succumbs to the waves. 

Or perhaps swans....?

* Give or take

The Kettering Town (Poppies) Popular People’s Front - by John Cecil

The Kettering Town (Poppies) Popular People’s Front is a new organisation being set up by

supporters of Kettering Town FC to provide a transparent, honest, trustworthy, sincere,

honest, innovative, reliable, honest, collaborative, progressive and honest working body of

supporters run by the supporters and accountable to the organisers of the group with the

simple aim of making sure supporters have full transparency of ongoings at our football club

with a representative gaining a place in the back seat of the Kettering Town FC Chairman’s

car at all times that he is travelling to and doing business on behalf of KTFC. We will leave no

stone unturned and will be the new voice on KTFC Chitter Chatter keeping all fans abreast of

the workings and ongoings at our wonderful Football Club.

We should not be confused with the newly formed Kettering Town (Poppies) Supporters

Truth who, in turn are nothing to do with The Kettering Town (Poppies) Supporters Trust

and sound nothing like them as their aim is to privately monitor the ongoings and financial

decisions of The Trust and will be open, honest and transparent with their findings.

One of the aims of The Truth is to explore the possibility, with the club, of raising the

concession age at The Turnstiles to 67 in line with the DWP. Our expert financial board

member suggests that if just 2.5% of our 800 diehards fall into this age bracket that will

amount to 20 x £5 x 42 games over 2 seasons raising £4,200 for something like improving

the Poppies bar toilet facilities, although work may have already begun on this as at the last

Saturday home game there was still blue paper towel in one of the dispensers at 2.20 PM.

A suggestion by Chairman, Blain, is that also some elder people continue in full time work

beyond 67 therefore he is suggesting that people have a digital copy of their P60 on their

phones to show at the turnstile to prove that they are not receiving a regular wage.

When asked to comment on the above a member of the Kettering Town (Poppies) Travelling

Supporters Army (Broughton division), PT, said “Well, I dunt really know much about that,

me ol’ duck. I were pissed at the last meeting as air Rich was late turning up. I do know we

got a car up for Needum Market next Satdy.”

The Kettering Town (Poppies) Supporters bar 1966 committee have put forward plans to

introduce a Membership scheme with a one-off payment of £20 entitling members to 5%

off all drinks consumed on a Tuesday lunch time between Noon and 1400 hrs. All profits will

go towards the Football Club’s initiative to install a side pond at the South West corner of

the ground to allow the pitch to permanently drain into during future tropical downpours.

The Kettering Town (Poppies) Litter pickers Association, who’s membership has recently

doubled, have pledged the £5 note they found at the back of the Tin Hat Stand recently to

club coffers and have obtained 73p in loose change that will also be redirected to the club

once rounded up. We thank them for their transparency and integrity.

In other news Terrapin Christian of the Pitcairn Island branch of the Kettering Town

(Poppies) ANZAC supporters Alliance has requested scarves (Preferably Poppies) to be sent

to him so that they can decorate his new bar on the island.

Finally, and rather unfortunately, Gee White, representative of the Kettering Town (Poppies)

Digital Online Media News Agency has had to issue the following brief statement.

“The recent tweet on our very public Snapbook page in no way represents the views of the

group and was sent out in error. When we posted “Go get those pesky Inuits” it was just one

of us trying to explain how World War 3 could be initiated. It was not intended for a wider

audience and we will be issuing a full apology to The Kremlin once we have found somebody

that had absolutely nothing to do with the original post and speaks a bit of Russian.”

"Oi, no standing on the yellow lines
- we can't see owt!"

The above article was created, composed, originated, written and produced by John Cecil, based on an original idea by John Cecil, so if you feel slighted by anything you have read, please feel free to give him the evil eye in the social club and not me for once....

Time to dump the jinx

What with loitering at Latimer Park waiting for the referee to piss or get off the pitch last week while the great and good former players were held hostage in the hospitality lounge, can we finally agree that all variants of the Kettering Tyres shirts are utterly jinxed and should be pulped and buried in a deep landfill pit as soon as possible?

The famous 'tache and the infamous shirt

Bad news for all those who have just shelled out fifty notes for the latest iteration, but I won't be swayed on this.  And neither will you once you recall: -

The original shirts back in the 70's served only to wind-up the Football Association against us decades before they re-visited us with similar ire over Imraan's "Palestine Aid" shirts.  Other than garnering a few headlines the original shirts probably ended-up costing us money, what with printing costs, unpicking letters costs, replacing shirts etc.

I don't recall the Kettering Tyre shirts raising their shifty heads again until 2012 (if we've missed any recurrence before then please let us know) during the darkest of dark days at Nonce Park.  Come March in 2012 we were somehow just about holding onto our (admittedly lowly) place in the National League, competing (well, sometimes) against the likes of Wrexham, Fleetwood, Luton, Cambridge United, Grimsby, Barrow, Stockport, Lincoln City, Newport County and not forgetting, Hayes & Yeading.  

For reasons beyond understanding, Betfair thought it would be a bumper wheeze to sponsor our game against Stockport by reconstituting the Kettering Tyres shirts for this one game, but with their own logo front and centre.  National League sponsors, and rival online gambling company, Blue Square took immediate umbrage and various threats were handed down sufficient to encourage the club to say "thanks, but no thanks" to Betfair.

The only positive to come out of the entire affair was this promotional video produced by Betfair, which is by some margin, the highest point of our Non Park misadventure.

Betfair Big Match

Ten years ago the club put on a special day to mark the 40th anniversary of the Kettering Tyre shirts and numerous former players dutifully trooped up to Latimer Park to try to recall 90 minutes from 40-years previous.  Unfortunately, this was Latimer Park of 2016 vintage when games could get rained off on our pitch if someone as much as spilled half a pint of beer.  In the clubhouse.  The "new" old shirts had a run-out or two and were consigned to the bargain bin, having missed their "Big Day".

Fast forward 10 years with all of us huddled in the "Fan Zone" or in the Social Club waiting the Referee's leisurely calling off of another special "Kettering Tyres" commemorative game.  The former players, fully 10 years older than the last time they were dragged here, puffed their way up to the Hospitality lounge only to watch the rain with the rest of us.

By my (admittedly shaky) reckoning, this bloody shirt has raised its head four times.  Twice to threats of litigation and twice to abandoned fixtures.  Surely even WE are finally going to accept the inevitable and permanently bin this bloody jinx of a shirt?

A big tyre, chalk and cheesy smiles
Never let it be said "The Doog"
wasn't ahead of the game