|
|
King's Lynn and Local Leagues
Topic has 11 replies.
  
|
|
Sort Posts:
|
|
|
|
 09/09/2007, 9:48 PM
|
Buzzzzz
 
Joined on 23/11/2006
Posts 49
|
Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
I would like some opinion from other clubs if possible, and more so from the editors of Archant!
During the summer a little questionnaire was issued on the main pink un site regarding the site in general. Now being a massive fan of local football I took the time to fill this out. One of the questions was about what the Pink Un could do to improve its site. I replied that local football does not stop at Kings Lynn or Wroxham. I believe this to be the case with the Pink un. Far more could be done to highlight local football as a whole.
At the end of last season, a game was set up between a Business house XI against a Anglian Com XI. The game didnt materialise for different reasons (the business House XI were ready!!), but in the meantime, the organiser sent an e-mail to both editors of the Pink un and Evening news, as well as Milton Lindsey to see whether any coverage would be possible. No response was recieved, not even an acknowledgement.
Yesterdays Pink un has again highlighted the value that some lower leagues have to the powers that be. One page was given up to four leagues that were not Anglian com or Ridgeons. Just one page! I do not believe this to be adequate in any sense and completely devalues hundreds and hundreds of people that give up thier Saturday afternoons to play the beautiful game, as well as thier pound to read what was hardly anything at all about thier teams.
I just wish that the smaller leagues and divisions were given the respect that they deserve. Every player has had to start somewhere, and the look on many young faces when they see their name in ink for the first time is great, so come on Richard, make your moto of 'where football REALLY matters' true and relevant to all. We are not asking for reams and reams, just the space to highlight our leagues.
Get it right this time Delia!
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
10/09/2007, 1:43 PM
|
Thommo
Joined on 02/03/2007
Posts 16
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well Done Buzzzz! I have to agree with you.
Despite being a Norwich City Season Ticket Holder - There is too much dialogue on NCFC! Most of the features are to be found in the EDP/EEN during the week.
There should be more grass roots coverage from Leagues such as Business Houses/Central & South Norfolk/NEN/NW Norfolk & Yarmouth etc. Is it that the scribes from those league's just don't send info in?
Why are there so many pictures in the Pink 'Un? Who wants the middle pages to keep?
More Anglian Combination Clubs should send their notes in each week - there are a few 'sing when you're winning clubs'
The Pink 'Un in the 1970's was predominantly a local football paper but over the years with the change of Type, Size and Format, the content quaility has greatly suffered. For example both the front and back pages are lost for print purposes. There have only been a few improvements over the years such as a Norfolk County Page (after many years of pressure). If Don Hudson can send in two pages of youth football notes for 35 consecutive years then some other league secretaries can take a leaf out of his book!
Do we really need a What's on Guide/Four Pages of Neil Adams incl National Issues/A big colour poster of Simon Lappin/The NCFC Fixture List & Football from around the World each week?
I used to queue up and wait for the Pink 'Un to arrive years ago now I have to be reminded by my daughters that it was delivered on Sunday mornings. Come on Archant lets get in back to Local issues.
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
11/09/2007, 1:29 PM
|
Buzzzzz
Joined on 23/11/2006
Posts 49
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for your opinion Thommo, if feel the same!
I used to wait at the newsagent when returning from a game to get my copy and read about my teams exploits the previous sunday! I only buy it now to read up on local football as I like to see what is happening, I can find out about City from the other papers as you said. Unfortunately I feel that the amount of content is governed like everything else by cost and income. Archant could easily put in another 4 sides for local issues, but that costs money and unless they can get the advertisements to fill at least one of those sides they wont. Maybe one less page about Norwich would help!!
I dont think it is a case of clubs sending in their notes at all though. My club sends in its notes every week, and after doing this every week for 5 years, I thought that I had got it down to a fine art of how many words to use so as not to take up much space, however last weeks were edited down to the basics of 'yes there was a game and so and so scored'!
That isnt really my issue though. I feel that as a local sports 'news' paper, there is a certain responsibility to cover in some respect all local football whether it be Business house, Crusader, Youth or Ridgeons. Of course a team from junior football would never expect to get the same coverage as Wroxham, Lynn or the senior Anglian com teams, but at the same time the lower leagues are so important to football as a whole as it is generally there, that people learn their craft and then move on. Grassroots football is important, but so is the advertisement of it. Smaller teams need to get a say every now and then even if it is to just plug their sponsor, but more importantly to show off their achievements! They want to stress that they are not just a pub team, they want to promote junior football (well I do) and they want to see their reports in print for scrapbooks and stuff.
Get it right this time Delia!
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
03/10/2007, 10:17 PM
|
Buzzzzz
Joined on 23/11/2006
Posts 49
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks Lil'welshman, but I disagree on one point and will give you an example, I run a team with 22 squad players, and I know for a fact that more than half would buy the pink un if there was a better write up each week and better representation of the lesser leagues. I have been running teams now for over 6 years in the 'lower' leagues and the level drops each year. As previously stated, the NCFC stuff you can catch up on in the evening news anyway so spending £1 for 22 pages doesnt seem good value UNLESS the news was more representative of what is really going on as it used to be.
If you think about it, there is the Business house league, the Crown Central and South Norfolk league, The North Norfolk League and Notley's Lowestoft league that each have around four divisions each, so lets say for sake of arguement, 160 teams with 20 players per squad! Thats alot of potential customers that Archant are snubbing and in fact there are more clubs competing outside of the Anglian com on a saturday than in it, yet 1 page on average is all we get.
Last week the four smaller sattelite leagues to the Anglian com got a two page spread, and that must be applauded as long as it continues, but I dont think that I will be holding my breath! As for the results, the norwich Power league gets more coverage.
Come on Archant, at least give us a response on here!
Get it right this time Delia!
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
08/10/2007, 3:25 PM
|
Thommo
Joined on 02/03/2007
Posts 16
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No Noise from the Archant Boys????.......................................................................................
Come on let's have a response Archant!
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
08/10/2007, 4:29 PM
|
Richard Willner
Joined on 09/10/2003
Norwich
Posts 7
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What exactly would you like to see in terms of coverage? Obviously, we already print results, league tables, match reports and league round-ups and endeavour to get team photos in as and when so if you give us some details then maybe we could help.
Obviously, any requests need to be realistic as we solely rely on team secretaries, chairmen, captains etc for local football coverage. Unfortunately, we haven't got an army of sports reporters to provide us with coverage (oh, how I wish we had though). But if you know of anyone who would like to cover a 'match of the week' type of feature for the local leagues then please let us know.
The Pink 'Un is dedicated to local football - last Saturday 15 pages were devoted to it - and the vast majority of our Norwich City coverage in the print product is fresh so I am not quite sure about the 'you've read it all in the week' argument.
Richard
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
09/10/2007, 9:39 AM
|
Web Team - Celia Sutton
Joined on 11/08/2003
Posts 843
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you for your comments. Firstly, an apology, we should obviously have replied when you wrote to us previously, somehow we've let it slip through the net. I'm sorry.
The Pink 'Un (both the newspaper and website) aim to provide the best possible coverage of local non-league and Norwich City coverage. But we do need your help.
Unfortunately, we simply don't have enough staff to cover all matches. Clearly it would take dozens of reporters to do the Norfolk sports scene full justice and we simply don't have those kind of resources.
However, you can help us. We are always keen to carry contributions and reports from matches. Anyone interested in providing reports can contact Pink 'Un editor Richard Willner (richard.willner@archant.co.uk) and have a chat about how this might work.
We know the Pink 'Un is a vital part of sporting life in the county and, trust me, we want to do all we can to make it as good as possible.
Tim Williams, acting editor, Evening News
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
09/10/2007, 10:24 AM
|
Buzzzzz
Joined on 23/11/2006
Posts 49
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
Richard, Tim and Celia.
Firstly, thanks for your replies. Feedback whether negative or positive is always appreciated, and again I thank you for your time to do this.
The original post was put up as a reaction to what many of us who not only run teams in the lower leagues, but give up time, money and efforts to partake in something that is dear to us and crucial for football in whole, saw as bit of a snub.
The smaller leagues in the region outside of the Anglian combination actually produce alot of football and great teams that could compete tomorrow in the Com and win things. In reality, it is only when teams hit division 2 or 3 upwards in the Com that the better teams compete. This can be seen easily when teams from the Business house, Crown or Lowestoft leagues step up. They normally walk divisions 6 and 5. Easton, Marlingford and Freethorpe are great examples of this in recent years. I am not devaluing the teams that compete there, but how many are reserves or 'A' teams as opposed to clubs and teams that have one squad and play their best XI each week without worry of having players taken to the first team or players dropped. A settled squad is worth 10 points a season. How would Earlham have done? Dereham Posties are a cracking side. The Anglian com are doing their best to keep the smaller leagues down as it is by not recognising the value that we offer, yet they are more than happy to accept our clubs into their league when one of theirs drop out, the farxce with UEA proved this.
My side for example may 'only' be a new team starting out at the bottom, but in our squad I have 4 players who play Prem or 1A sunday football, 3 ex jewson league players and 3 ex senior anglian com players! Its not all kick and rush. There are dozens of lads out there on Saturdays who have packed in Com football due to the excessive travelling involved. My point is that when we open the pink un to see only one page given up to all of the smaller leagues, it devalues the efforts of everyone who compete in them, especially when we see that FC Reserves from division low in the Anglian com has match reports that havent been edited, yet ours are cut down to two lines!
For 5 years I have sent in my match reports on a regular basis and have always encouraged other teams to do so too, however why would they when sometimes they turn up cropped and squeezed in to one page. The last two weeks have been great as we have had two pages which gives the clubs good coverage and gives the league write ups space to include detail and I sincerely hope it continues.
When I write my notes, its not just a match report, but its the opportunity to promote the level of football that can and does get played, an opportunity to name players that deserve credit, an opportunity to introduce some dodgy nicknames into the side and an opportunity to give the younger lads some scrap book material.
Away from the notes though, I understand that you have certain commitments and have to get the balance right, however the balance has not been right for a while in this respect. I did feel that when I set up the Business House game against The Com, that not even an acknowledgement of my initial e-mail was very poor, but from three people? That was shocking! How hard would it have been to give up a few column inches to us? How hard would it have been to send a reply saying thanks but sorry we cant?
We dont want to tell anyone how to run anything, but we will voice our opinions if we feel ripped off. Its your paper after all, but I can get Norwich info anywhere and yes it may be 'fresh' news in Saturdays edition, but nine times out of ten its on this site as well, and this doesnt cost me £1!!
So again, I thank you for your replies and hope that you can see our side of the coin. We dont want much really, but we do want enough to promote our league, teams and players. Thanks
Get it right this time Delia!
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
11/10/2007, 7:19 PM
|
Steve
Joined on 19/08/2003
Posts 43
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for the reply Richard, good to get feedback from the editor.
I think things are moving in the right direction, the Norfolk FA page is always worth a read and keeps coaches etc informed.
But local club secretaries or just normal supporters need to sumit more reports, club news etc. I think the continuous NCFC player posters could do with a break though.
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
05/11/2007, 4:28 PM
|
Jossys Giants
Joined on 05/11/2007
Posts 2
|
Re: Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Personally I don't see the point of Neil Adams section and would be happier seeing these pages devoted to the local leagues and less column inches given to his pointless rambling and often badly researched inane views. His opinion on NCFC is the same tired old cliche's every week, and given that he's employed by the club it's no surprise he gets splinters. Other than that it's stories about his mates - who cares?
Nothing against the fella but it's two pages wasted as far as I'm concerned, and losing this would mean less 'editing' required on the local reports that it seems people, including me, would like to see more of.
Just my opinion
|
|
|
|
|
Report
|
|
|
|
|
pink'un » Have Your Say » King's Lynn and... » Poor Local Football Pink un coverage
|
|
|
|