International break week, so just a quick update.

Monthly Branch Meeting

Meeting was held on Sunday at the Londesborough Club. Thanks to all who attended. Discussion about the role of Leeds Uniteds Supporters Liaison Officer (SLO) Fiona Hanley. Dave Poole complained about the telly in the North East corner being disconnected for at least a season now. Apparently the wires are still there as is the telly, but no one has connected them up. The Secretary will pass this onto the SLO. The branch has won £15 and £20 in the last two LUSC 250 draws.

LUSC Annual Dinner

Our guest of honour has been confirmed as Peter Haddock for the event on Saturday 28th October. The Chairman has agreed to reacquaint himself with Peter, and definitely not take him for another dodgy curry after the do. We have already had several confirmations from branch members for tickets. Please can anyone else wishing to attend let us know as soon as possible, so we can make our requests for tables etc.

Away Games

The Derby coach is FULL.

The Wolves coach is full, pending on members tickets on Friday.

Brighton has been moved to Friday 9th December 7.45pm kick off, the branch will be running a bus to this fixture, bookings currently being taken.

Villa has been moved to Thursday 29th December 7.45pm kick off, the branch will be running a bus to this fixture, bookings currently being taken.

Membership

Membership Secretary unavailable for the meeting, no comment

Website

Overall it is going well. The rest of the old fanzine needs to be put on. The numbers of visits has increased and we are generating a few membership requests from it. If the branch flag makes an appearance at the Derby away game, we can look to posting a newer featured picture. Anyone wishing to contribute is encouraged to get in touch, all articles will be carefully considered

Autumn – the season of mellow fruitfulness, and September – the proper start to the season.

Monthly Branch Meeting

The monthly branch meeting was held yesterday with a good number in attendance, thank you kindly for your presence (eventually Dave Poole before the search party got sent out). Amongst discussions were the acceptance of the Co Chair decision for the role of the Chairman for the LUSC, the Annual LUSC dinner (see below) and away games. There was a brief comment from Andy Yates regarding Graveleys which we will mention to the LUSC Secretary.

Annual LUSC Dinner

The date has been confirmed as Saturday 29th October 2016, after the home game against Burton, and will be held in the old Banqueting Suite ( now called The Norman Hunter Suite). The tickets for the event are £37, which includes a four course meal and disco. Presentation of our Player Of The Season 2015-16 trophy will probably be very difficult, given he is at Bournemouth now, however, there will be invites to the usual LUSC guests, and we hope to see the welcome faces of our former players and managers. The branch as usual will subsidise this for our branch members, but we will need to have confirmation of numbers as soon as possible, please. The LUSC are hoping that the current players and manager will be available (as per last event) pre meal for photos etc.

The branch has also decided to extend an invite to Peter Haddock to this event as our guest, we are looking into this at this moment in time. Please refer to the “We Are Leeds” fanzine page for the report from his testimonial at The County back in 1994, excellent write up by persons unknown.

Away Games

Bookings currently being taken for Cardiff and Bristol City games. There are only a couple of spaces on the Cardiff bus and the minibus for Bristol City has only one place left, so time is of the essence here. Bookings will also be taken imminently for Derby and Wolves, If demand exceeds supply, priority will be given according to the number of games travelled to on the bus last season.

Memberships

The Membership Secretary was unavailable last night, but numbers are up from last season.

Buoyed by the emphatic win over the Wendies and with the anticipation of one of our favourite prematch refreshment stops of the calendar, it was Wagons Roll, for the Battlebus towards Sherwood Forest.

Enter Stage Left The Chairman, or rather, just turn up..alas. The empty front seat next to Mr Poole echoed with the words “I thought it was ten past” and the sight of The Chairman, scurrying down Bilton Lane (not followed by a bear), signalled the start of looming discontent. As we left the sunny skies of Yorkshire, the cloudy horizons of Forest billowed in front of us and the heavens opened.

So, to the game itself. Defensive nightmare just about sums it up, along with the inexperience of the midfield, with Mr Hernandez as the main culprit. Failure to defend from corners notwithstanding, not being able to string two passes together was our main downfall. To be fair, I thought the signing of new boy, Ayling , would turn into Garry-with-two-Rs master stroke. His debut against Birmingham was one of the best I have seen for a while. However, like many new players that pass through our doors, they arrive with optimism and promise, and we beat it out of them with a razor wired cudgel. I can understand Monk wanting to play his own team, but the midfield just hasn’t enough Division 2 experience. In fact, Sacko, ‘just-about-back-for-good’ Bridcutt and ‘I’m not Ronaldo nor Patrick’ Vieira don’t have a full season of 1st team football between them. I like the look of Roofe, Pablo, Not Patrick and Hadi, but they may be best brought on as Supersubs at 60 minutes when we aren’t winning, rather than starting 11 material. You can’t leave them to 75th minute to see if they can make an impact on the game though! I like Murphy, he’s no flair player but I think he can hold a ball up, put in a decent challenge and his distribution isn’t any worse than any of our current players. Between him, Dallas, Mowatt and Phillips, there is a level of reading the game that gives us the upper hand when it comes to putting balls in for Antonsson to just not hit with enough conviction to get past the goalie.

On a positive note, CRACKING goal by LUSC sponsored player Kalvin Phillips.

So back to work we go….

MPO

Pre Season Friendly Games 2016

Members Andy Yates, Paul Yates and David Poole made the trip over to Ireland for the two games at Shelbourne FC and Shamrock Rovers. They were pleased to bump into the Ripon Whites,  namely Mr Kev Hunt and Heath Ochiltree, as well as other branch members Ben Simpson and Arron Grange. They were joined by John Farrell later on in proceedings.

As usual, the trio kept to the low, publicity shy profile that they are renown for whilst they were there, at least that’s what Andy said, you can make up your own minds about that.

The branch would like to extend a thank you all the people who they met out there, who made the trip so enjoyable. Andy would like to make a shout out to the Navan Whites, who he tried to get in shot for the photo but failed miserably ( see below).

We are obviously disappointed that we failed to get Statler and Waldorf to sign up to the branch, there’s always next season. The newly washed branch flag has been safely returned in one piece, as have the Yates brothers.

Unlike last season, Andy failed to secure at least one picture of himself and the current Leeds manager. Last preseason I believe he chased Uwe Rosler half way around the pitch, along with a load of people in balaclavas , to get the photo. It didn’t bode well for Mr Rosler, as he was sacked not very long into his tenure. I can’t say what happened to the people in balaclavas either.

Here’s to the start of another season, hopefully we will go up as champions.

Thanks to Andy Yates and Paul Yates for the pictures as ever, please follow us on facebook at Harrogatewhites for any further updates. Anyone wishing to join the branch, please use the form or contact the branch secretary directly at pjmcmanus2011@yahoo.co.uk

MOT

Football is back!

Welcome to old members and new, we will try to keep to a monthly update as much as possible this season and potentially have an away match report ( depending on availability of said reporters).

Monthly Branch Meeting

Branch meeting will be this Sunday 14th August 8pm at the Londesborough Club. We will be taking bookings for future away games at Sheffield Weds, Notts Forest and Cardiff. We will also be discussing plans for Cardiff away and other long distance away games. The minutes of the branch meetings and those of the LUSC exec meetings will be continued to be emailed out this season to all branch members who have provided us with a valid e mail address.

Away Matches

Pre season games in Ireland were attended by various branch members, pictures and reports in progress as we speak. The Guiseley and Peterborough games also had branch representation.

Buses have been run to both QPR and Fleetwood Town as joint ventures with other supporters groups. The branch will be running buses to Sheffield Weds, Notts Forest and Cardiff, but we have no plans to run transport to Luton Town in 2nd round of the League Cup.

LUSC 250  Draw

The 250 draw is held every two weeks at the LUSC exec meetings. All branch members can buy a share in the draw, at the cost of £26 for a full season. Normal draws are for three prizes of £20, £15 and £10, with special draws every 10 weeks with prizes of £300, £200 and £100. All proceeds of the draw help towards supporting the LUSC. The branch holds shares in this draw and any winnings go towards branch funds, which help subsidise coach travel and any events which branch members attend. We are pleased to report that the branch won £200 in the last draw and the Secretary won £15 in the previous draw. Any branch member wishing to buy any shares in the 250 draw should contact the Secretary.

LUSC Sponsored Player

It has been unanimously agreed that the LUSC continue with the sponsorship of Calvin Phillips this season. Whilst our branch does not have sufficient funds at present, it is hoped that should we ever achieve a good financial position, this may be something that we can consider in the future.

Monthly branch meeting

Meeting was held earlier this month. Issues discussed included Sponsorship events, LUSC Annual Quiz. Chairman Charley Megginson thanked the branch for all the messages of sympathy on the passing of his mother, Pat. Decision taken to have the last branch meeting of the season on Sunday May 1st. The decision regarding the date of the branch AGM will be taken at this meeting.

LUSC Annual Quiz

This will be held on Thursday 5th May 8pm at Billys Bar, Elland Road. The branch has so far entered 2 teams, but we are looking to increase numbers to support the LUSC. If anyone else wishes to attend, please contact The Secretary as soon as possible. The branch will fund transport from Harrogate to this event if there is sufficient demand. The Secretary has urged Chairman Charley to attend as the branch has won the competition before when he was an integral part of the team. If anyone wishes to further encourage the Chairman, please can I ask you to do so as soon as possible?

Players Sponsorship Events

The Thorp Arch training day event has been won by Jack Pedel. He will be attending Thorp Arch on Thursday 28th April with his mother, Makaela, to meet the players and hopefully give them a few tips! Jack has so far never seen us lose away this season. We probably need to make sure he travels more often.

Raffle tickets for the Hospitality for the last game of the season on Saturday are still available from The Secretary for £1. However, the draw will be taking place THIS Thursday 28th April at the LUSC exec meeting, therefore if you want to have a chance at winning this prize, you need to contact us before the draw takes place.

The last draw is a free draw and all LUSC members have been automatically entered in. This is a lunch date with the players. The lucky recipient gets to sit with our sponsored player at the event. The winner will be drawn on Thursday 28th April at the LUSC exec meeting.

If any member wishes to attend the fortnightly LUSC exec meetings along with the Secretary and Media & Publicity Officer, you are more than welcome. The meetings are held in The Legends Lounge, which is above Billys Bar in the South Stand at Elland Road. Please contact us for a list of dates.

Sad news

As many of you are aware, Tommo Paul Thompson is sadly not with us anymore. There will be further posts when the information is available, and possibly a tribute page at a later date.

The service is at 12.20pm, on Friday 6th May 2016 at Stonefall Crematorium. Chrissie has asked that attendees dress in the signature sartorial style that was favoured by Tommo as a mark of respect. She has suggested cool shirts, linen jackets, LUFC attire and Willy Rushton hats. I have assumed that beards will be optional.