Eltham Rugby Union Football Club

After some spirited discussion amongst the professional and amateur club bean counters, a modest target of 60 trees was set for the third weekend of sales. As a result, a skeleton crew of three- Alan Steel, Ben Hurdle and Elah Pilinis – took the club’s trailer on the familiar journey up the M39, returning later with one of the best collections of Christmas trees we have seen in recent years. We have been very fortunate to have been supplied with quite a few big trees this year for which there has been strong demand. Talking of demand….people were turning up at the club early on Saturday to purchase trees even before the trees had been delivered to the club! In scenes similar to the previous Saturday, a long queue soon formed and by 11am all trees had found a home. Unfortunately, a number of latecomers turned up only to be told we had no more trees and were not planning on another shipment. While we could have sold more trees, it was nice to be able to give our marvellous volunteers an early mark and Sunday off. A big thank-you to Alan, Ben and Elah for collecting the trees on Friday, and Ange Southwood, Sylvia Metcalfe, Alan, Russ and Ben Hurdle, Ari, Alana, Ava, Harvey and Eli Su’A, Rob, Issy and Jonny Sprackman, and Bronsin Hatfield for sales and deliveries. All up, 510 trees sold over the three weekends and on track for one of our highest profits. Thank you to everyone over the last three weekends who were so generous with their time, staff, vehicles etc. in ensuring that we enter 2025 in a very strong financial position.

Tim Adams – President