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LOCALS STAY IN POLE POSITION


-PAGE 79 Thursday, August 24th, 2006 with your sports team of Edward Lee, Chris Boden, Phil Simpson and Adrian Capstick Z to A in four weeks! By Adrian Capstick


THE chairman and committee of Clitheroe Football Club have made their reasons quite clear for the departure of manager Mark Smitheringale. During pre-season, it came to


their attention that the club was in danger of having a lack of play­ ers for the'new season, as only four had signed terms a month ago. Several existing players were


imwiUing to commit as they could­ n't see where the rest of the team was going to come from, and the committee were equally concerned


'th a t Smitheringale "hadn't brought anything to the pre-sea­ son programme". Former assistant boss Neil


Reynolds had landed several new players for the new season. And new acting manager Chris


Stammers brought in the rest - leaving very little in the middle _ from Smitheringale. Chairman Carl Gamer explains:


"Five weeks ago when Neil Reynolds left, it appeared Mark was incapable of putting a squad together, let alone a team, on his own. "Simon, Pete Collinge and Craig


Sargeson refused to accept terms as they had no confidence in Mark bringing in players for the season to


strengthen the side, or have a team’ able to compete. They didn't want to become the laughing stock of the league. That was the start of it. "Mark then brought in Chris


Stammers, and the side went from Z to A in four weeks, and in the two weeks Mark was away on hol­ iday, the side came on leaps and bounds. "He hadn't brought anything to


the pre-season programme, the players were demotivated and we felt it wasn't right to credit the person who hadn't done the work. "The committee and I totally


stand by the statement released by the club. Our reasons for his dis­ missal were solely down to him not being the right guy tor the job, the key point being his inability to attract players." In regard to Smitheringale choosing Sargeson over his son as


captain being one of the reasons for the manager's departure. Gar­ ner called it "playing the lowest card, the cheapest trick in the book". He added: "If people think I'm


that shallow, then the work I've put in at this club means nothing. Simon and Sarge play golf togeth­ er and are good friends off the pitch, and I know Simon was the first to congratulate him on the captaincy. "Ironically when Sarge was sub­


stituted on Saturday, it was Simon who got the arm band. He's just tmmed 24 years old and he doesn't need that yet, it's not even an issue. "It's hard enough for Simon as it


is playing in the side when his father is chairman as he's never going to get the recognition he deserves. He's had umpteen offers


m


THE decision to end Mark's time at our club was purely a football one. The standing executive group of the committee, comprising senior people at the club, felt that he had taken the football side of Clitheroc FC as far as he could. We thank Mark for his efforts last season with us through a difficult time and wish him well for


his future in the game. A small group of people have moved this club a million miles in six months and everything is now


in place to support success on the pitch. We pay a decent salary to our first team manager and we are looking to appoint somebody worthy


of that reward in terms of coaching ability, contacts and ability to motivate players. Since last Friday, Chris Stammers has been placed in temporary charge of all football affairs at


the club and he got off to a tremendous start on Saturday at Kidsgrove. This will remain the situa­ tion until a full review at the next scheduled committee meeting on September 18th. Carl Garner, Chairman, Clitheroe FC


from other clubs and has consid­ ered them all to make the situa­ tion easier." Garner concluded: "There's


never an ideal time to make these decisions and the catalyst was me having to find a keeper for Satur­ day after Pete Collinge signed for Bury. "Mark knew of two that he admitted were less than ideal, and I knew of Martin Fearon at Accrington Stanley. He asked me if I could make the arrangements and I spent all of Friday rushing around to sign him on with the league - missing a day at work in the processl "Mark had taken us as far as he


could and Saturday's comfortable win without him indicated that. “ The future of Clitheroe is bright without him."


Smitheringale reeling from shock of sacking By Adrian Capstick


MARK Smitheringale was left reeling from the shock of being sacked by Clitheroe FC on Friday afternoon - less than 24 hours before the start of his side’s new Unibond First Di’vision campaign. According


to I.'T,'-


Smitheringale - who only took over the role in Feb­ ruary following the dis­ missal of Tommy Lawson - he was relieved of his duties when chairman Carl Gamer cited complete dis­ regard tor one of the play­ ers, lack of judgement and inability to recruit quality new players from the local area as his key reasons. The club's unilateral


decision was all the more staggering


since


Smitheringale was only appointed to the role at the end of last season after successfully guiding the club to safety, earning 20 points from the last 16 games on a shoe-string budget following an earlier


mass player exodus. The playing side of the


club has developed signifi­ cantly during the summer, a fact acknowledged by the chairman, following a com­ prehensive 3-1 victory over UniBond Premier League side Witton Albion in last week's friendly. And the much aggrieved


manager was naturally very excited and quietly optimistic for his team’s chances of success this sea­ son, only to be left com­ pletely gob-smacked at los­ ing his job without even kicking a ball in anger. Smitheringale said:


“When 1 spoke to the chairman on Thursday evening before training, everything was perfectly fine and normal. ' “ I then received a text


message from him at 9-45 p.m. which outlined his disgust and disappoint­ ment at a footballing deci­ sion 1 had made in my capacity as first team manager. “The text said that the decision had ‘kicked him in


the teeth’ and ‘ shown a complete disregard’ for one of the players. “Most people close to


the club will he aware that, in addition to holding the position of chairman, Mr Gamer is also the father of one of the first team play­ ers. “Following a series of


earlier incidents, I had hoped and believed that he would respect the bound­ aries of our respective roles at the club, especially given his obvious conflict of interests. "1 am deeply shocked


and disappointed by my sacking, but ultimately, I will not compromise my own professional standards and personal integrity for the erratic and irrational behaviour of one particu­ lar individual. “ I still believe that this


particular decision was in the best interests of the team. “1 have always tried to


welcome his views on play­ ers, tactics and on who should captain the side.


but ultimately I felt the final decision should remain' mine.” Smitheringale added:


“ In over 20 years of being involved in semi-profes­ sional football as a player, coach and manager, 1 thought I ’d seen every­ thing, but this really beg­ gars belief and I ’ve been left absolutely dumb­ founded. - "I feel extremely frus­


trated at being denied the opportunity to prove myself due to the ego and own personal family agen­ da of someone else. “ It’s very hard to accept


being dismissed for foot­ balling reasons without having yet even played a game this season, let alone losing one, and when there is simply no logical argu­ ment to support this knee- jerk decision. “My only regret is that


I didn’t listen to one of the many early warnings I received about this partic­ ular individual from people in the game whose knowl­ edge and experience I


respect. "I've never had anything


against Carl as I think he has done a fantastic job off the pitch, which I have told him, and nobody can take away the great work he has done in getting the club in such fine shape. "I had thought with me


managing and him chair­ man we had a great part­ nership for the season. I was wrong. “ I leave with my con­


science completely clear and my head held high since I know I have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of or embar­ rassed about. “However, I do feel it’s


important that the rest of the club officials, players and loyal supporters alike know the real truth behind this unbelievable scenario since I’m certain they will be as astounded and mys­ tified as me. “ I would like to wish


them all the very best for the forthcoming season.”


r Jack Dewhurst. (s) Impressive |


Jack gets the call!


CLITHEROE CC’s Jack Dewhurst has been named in the North of England squad to play in a four-day festival at Taunton. The Chatburn Road


and Clitheroe R oy al Grammar School Under 13s all-rounder has under­ gone a series of coaching sessions and trials at New­ castle, Bradford and Headingly to achieve his goal, and will now line-up against the Midlands, West and South in Somer­ set. So far this season with


Lancashire he has taken 21 wickets at an average less than 10, and has a batting average of almost 50.


He has scored a century


for the Ribble Valley Dis­ trict side, and half-cen­ turies in both the second and thirds at Clitheroe. Playing for the Ribbles-


dale League Under 15s, he scored 58 and opened the bowling.


He has recently made


his league d e b u t ’ for Clitheroe’s first team.


SPORT IN ASSOCIATION WITH P3 COMPUTERS; CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF SERVICE


m H-


scoring 14 runs at Baxen- den in a top of the table clash, helping the local side win an important game to maintain their title chase. He also played in the


CRGS team that beat the MCC, scoring 30 runs. To add to his achieve­


ments, Jack recently played five games for Lan­ cashire at Taunton, scor­ ing 200 runs in the week and taking seven wickets cheaply. Jack has also played


two games for the North of England, again at Taunton. Despite not getting a


chance with the bat, he opened the bowling and took two wickets for few runs, and received his cap from former England opening bowler Andy Caddick.


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ROVERS MAKE RRIDGE DERUT


-PAGE 78


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