Top of the league
Plus a parish council by-election special, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more
Gillingham Football Club is currently top of League 2 after a strong start to the season, in an unusually positive development. Will they be able to maintain the momentum, or will it all fall away like it has so many times in the past? Our Gills columnist Ben Hopkins assesses the situation further down. Ahead of that, we have a report from the most important biggest only by-election in Medway yesterday, where voters in Grain chose a new member of the parish council. And of course, we have our weekly events guide and news in brief.
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The lesser spotted parish council by-election
We don’t often get an opportunity to write about parish council elections at Local Authority Towers. There are often not enough candidates for seats, so many parish councillors are elected unopposed, then seemingly stay there for decades, with others being co-opted into seats to ensure they have enough numbers. Even when we had hope of a by-election in St Mary Hoo earlier this year to fill three vacancies, only three candidates came forward.
Imagine our excitement when a by-election was called for the Isle of Grain, with not one, not two, but three candidates were on the ballot paper. We were the only local news team on the scene for the count last night, and are here to report the results of local democracy in action. Due to ongoing works at Gun Wharf, the count was held at Medway Park, but unlike recent elections, it occurred in an upstairs side room.
The Isle of Grain (from the Old English ‘greon,’ meaning gravel) is on the Hoo Peninsula, and the furthermost point of the Medway Council area. Interestingly (he says, stretching this out another 25 words), Grain had a population of 1731 in 2001, which decreased in 2011 by 83, only to return to 1730 for the 2021 census. At the General Election last year, 1255 people were registered to vote, but that number was recorded as 1234 for this by-election.
The candidates were all Grain residents. The first was Lorraine Giddy, who has never been a member of a political party or stood for election before. Lorraine is also... checks notes… this writer’s step-mother, and so it was nice to see her and his father at the count. Next on the ballot was Mark Hardingham, who was not present to provide any biographical information and is not a member of this writer’s extende family. Finally, Sarah Malone, who has also not been a member of a political party or stood for election before. Sarah was also… checks notes… in this writer’s year group at school, so it was nice to catch up after a horrifying number of years.
With polls closing at 10pm, the one ballot box would need to travel all the way from Grain. With the Medway Tunnel closed, this meant travelling through Strood, Rochester, and Chatham around the one-way system of Medway, arriving at the count for 10.55pm. With postal and additional ballots already verified, the arduous task of counting the ballots by Medway’s professional election team began, overseen by an Acting Returning Office.
The result was declared 25 minutes later.
St James, Isle of Grain parish election results:
Lorraine Giddy (independent) - 76
Mark Hardingham (independent) - 16
Sarah Malone (independent) - 188 (elected)
The turnout was 22.8%.
As a result, Sarah Malone has been duly elected to Grain Parish Council, potentially lowering its average age by several decades. She spoke exclusively to Local Authority: “I feel that if it went to co-opted, I don't think I would have been chosen. I'm different, I'm verbal. I've got a voice, and I want to use my voice for the village.” Sarah has, for over a decade, been a governor at the local primary school, but with her children long since left, felt it was the right time to move onto a new position and challenge.
Now that she has been elected, Sarah says she is aiming to bring about positive change for the village. “I just want things to change, a little bit more modern. I don't see a lot of nice things said about our parish on Facebook. Grain is a lovely village, but I want to try and change that aspect of the way people think about the parish council. Whether that's just changing the way we communicate, getting back to people, responding about the things we do, just to try and change people's opinion.”
In brief
🧱 The Mess Room are doing a Lego Walk Challenge to raise money. Ten people will be walking barefoot across thousands of Lego bricks.
🃏 A playing card from the 1700s has been unearthed at Chatham Historic Dockyard as part of ongoing works to the Commissioner’s House.
🗣️ ‘cene magazine has interviewed Medway writer Sarah Hehir.
Events this week
🔦 Sat 6 Sep - Shorts Tunnels Tour // Guided tour of the extensive underground World War II bunkers under Rochester. Shorts Reach, Rochester. Tickets £28.
🎸 Sat 6 Sep - Theatre Royal // Local janglepop as band play from their new album and extensive back catalogue. Three Sheets to the Wind, Rochester. Free.
Top of the league
by Ben Hopkins
Gillingham are top of the table after six games and are currently on the second-longest undefeated league run in their history. Is Gareth Ainsworth’s team the real thing, the essence of the truth? Or is this a false dawn that comes before fresh darkness? Ben Hopkins has been wearing prescription sunglasses all season because the future’s so bright we’ve gotta wear shades (he hopes, uncharacteristically)...
The scores on the doors
Accrington away (1-1) certainly didn’t look like a promising start to the season, but a battling 1-0 at home to Walsall and a late equaliser at Tranmere (1-1) indicated that this Gills team has more cojones than we’ve seen in years. And then brute force gave way to beautiful ferocity as hotly-tipped Chesterfield took a battering, the highlight being an EAT MY GOAL wonder moment from debutant left-back Lenni Cirino.
Another late show earned a 1-0 win versus Crewe with local lad Sam Gale’s first-ever goal. By the time the rain flooded down away to Oldham to give Ainsworth’s tousled locks a biker bar slickness, Gills’ fans were already singing about being top of the league. And then! A looping Max Clark corner was headed in by Sam Vokes for a 1-0 win, the veteran striker grinning even more maniacally than when he scored against Belgium in the Euro 2016 quarter-finals.
Rewind: When the crowd says goal
But jump in a hot tub time machine back to this time last year, and the year before it, and you’ll see Gillingham in a very similar position. And if you don’t know what happened next, a slight spoiler: it wasn’t pretty.
Yet there are some omens that this isn’t a flash-in-the-pan. Gills have scored in 17 of those 18 unbeaten games, in the process keeping 8 clean sheets. What’s more, Chesterfield, Crewe and Walsall are all teams that the majority would expect to be at least competing for the play-offs.
How will the transfer window change things?
After anticipating a fairly low-key closing day, everything went haywire. First in was Watford youngster Travis Akomeah on loan, coming to the club to boost defensive options following early doors damage to Conor Masterson and Shadrach Ogie. Next up was winger Jonny Smith, on loan from Wigan, who looks like the type to offer the trickery and thunderbolt firing from out wide that this team perhaps lacks. Finally, Garath McCleary joined after being released from Wycombe, another veteran who should provide more options from attacking midfield or on the right.
Jack Nolan’s bizarrely unsuccessful Gills era came to an end as he went in through the out door, while youngster Joe Gbode was sold to Luton for a fee rumoured to be £300,000. Personally, it feels like a shame to lose him just as he was beginning to make an impact, but a reasonable fee for a player who wasn’t even an automatic first choice is hard to argue against.
In short, would I have taken Smith and McCleary in over keeping Gbode? Yes.
Dad’s army and the likely lads
A common complaint this time last year was that Gills lacked leadership. Now everywhere you look there’s a veteran: goalkeeper Glenn Morris (age 41), McCleary (38) and Vokes (35) plus another two who have played to a much higher level with midfielders Bradley Dack and Jonny Williams. And that’s before you get to captain Armani Little and the steely mentality of Robbie McKenzie.
Perhaps that’s part of why this side seems to possess an almost lunatic work rate, or as everyone is already bored of me saying, “grind and score, grind and score.” If you’re an opposing defender, seeing a so-far rejuvenated Josh Andrews or Elliot Nevitt storming towards you is going to weaken your commitment to non-panicked passing, and the rest of the team seems to press with similar determination.
It is rubbing off on the younger side of the team, with Gale and fellow defender Andy Smith two of the standout performers so far. The mentality is spreading towards them too: Gale appeared to restrain Cirino when his goal celebrations could have resulted in a second yellow card, and Andrews encouraged Vokes - at present his main competitor for a place in the team - to soak up the applause following his goal at Oldham. That game provided another sweet moment when teenage debutant Cruz Beszant was encouraged to lead the post-match celebrations.
Possible pitfalls?
There’s still plenty to be wary about. With Vokes likely to primarily be a super sub, can Andrews and Nevitt (or back-up Marcus Wyllie) finally score the goals that any promotion contender needs? Will the presence of Jonny Smith and McCleary help spark the indifferent form of Williams and Dack? How much of a problem would an injury to, say, Gale or Andy Smith or Morris cause? And will the players who have slumped after strong starts in previous seasons be haunted by the possibility of a 2025/26 redux?
There’s enough doubt in all of those to say the jury isn’t just out, but they’ve adjourned for the day and gone for a pint.
What’s next?
September 6th, away to Bromley. Bromley are the only other unbeaten team in the division this season, and are third, two points behind Gills.
September 13th, home to Notts County. As it stands, Notts County have made an indifferent start but will surely improve.
September 20th, away to Newport County. Currently on a run of four consecutive defeats and 20th in the table, this will be an away that Ainsworth and gang believe they can win. But Gills haven’t won there since Newport’s return to the league in 2013.
September 27th, home to Harrogate Town. In a meagre history of just six games, Harrogate are well ahead of Gills with three wins. If the unbeaten run is still ongoing after this, it’s time to believe. If this turns out to be Gills’ fourth winless win in a row, forget anything positive I said in the above.
Footnotes
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