It’s not very often I come on this forum as well you know ;) ok I joke of course. I live on here and when I’m not on here, I’m on Twitter, Facebook etc keeping updated with the football club and it’s goings on. The reason I do this is love, passion and commitment to the club I’ve loved since I was a boy. Many people love this club the same way, more so even. But only one man exemplifies all of those things with cold, hard backing. One man has taken Chippenham from a standard of football beneath what we’ve come to know. One man had a vision to build a club. That man is Neil Blackmore. There were countless chairmen before him and this is not to diminish any of their work but Neil sits in the throne now, so imagine my disappointment to hear fans of the club, people I stand with on terraces, sing with in bars and travel the country with have made horrendous comments about the man who’s work has put Chippenham where it currently lies.

We have covered this topic in a previous post but I think it’s become a little more than just an innocent conversation where people’s opinion can reign supreme. When Mr Blackmore is having correspondence fed back to him of supporters “threatening to rip up season tickets” over the change of the name of a stadium and accusing Mr Blackmore of “vanity” this really upsets me as a supporter of not the man, but the club.

Now there can be no accusation here of me being a board member under alias, the alias has been here too long. Most people know who I am, I’m Simon Lawrence, a self confessed passionate loud mouth from Allington Way residing in Portsmouth and travel week in week out to follow the club that I have always loved. Total marmite character at the club. I know some that I can call the best friends in the world, and I know there are some that smile sweetly and humour me with a begrudging nod as their views do not coincide with mine, and that’s absolutely fine.

I have known Neil Blackmore a long time, I was at school with his boy Lee, primary school so going back some 25 years and back then Neil was a man who just lived his football, came to our school games like any other and his family are a lovely, helpful and generous bunch. He is the last man who could ever be accused of vanity, he is a man who has shunned the spotlight as Chippenham under his guidance have won league titles, embarked on Cup runs, signed players, let players go but has always, ALWAYS ran the club in a way that people can’t help but respect and admire.

Neil came to me personally a few years back after a little controversy and asked me in person, man to man to curb certain aspects of what a few were doing, knowing that I was surrounded by them and had the ability to coerce them to stop, to make the club support a little more PG and I think most would concede this a successful venture.

That’s the kind of chairman Neil is, a decent, honest, hardworking chap who quite honestly we are lucky to have at the helm. So for people who don’t understand business and think this is about a man’s ego, an ego that from the stories above I can personally guarantee isn’t there.. let me spell it out for you.

In business, everyone has a boss, even MDs. To an MD their bosses are the shareholders, the customers and as always, the accountant! With the amount of money Neil puts through the club, for what little commercial gain hisself and his business get out of that affiliation. Can you honestly not join the dots here?? Is it probably to appease some other business concerns.

So the change of the name to The Thornbury Surfacing Stadium offers a little extra bang for the buck in which Neil and company put through this football club. Anyone who is in defiance of that, needs their heads checking. Feel free to bang underneath this post just how grateful, how lucky and how privileged we are to have Neil Blackmore as he does this for love, appreciation and his own passion for the club and the town.

I’ll start.. “Thank you Mr Blackmore, despite all our obvious differences as characters and men we have something in common, we love this club. The difference is you have given me a better club to love, better football to watch and more than I could ever have dreamed of as a Chippenham fan. You are the heartbeat of this club and if you ever want to know how respected you are, I even stopped swearing for you. Thank you again Neil, without you, we are just not the same club”

#Blackmoresarmy

Last edited by TheVoice (30/10/2019 8:35 PM)