All credit to Footsie Grutchfield. 

He and his Hadleigh Old School team are really getting into their stride now. At first, some of their exhibitions tended towards the predictable and twee, but in recent months their multimedia, I think the word is, events have been very impressively curated indeed. 

Ian Grutchfield at Hadleigh Old School

Last weekend I put my foot into the doorway (sorry, couldn't help myself) to join the assembled gathering for the launch of Small Town Duty. This is the detailed and dedicated work by local historian Nigel Crisp about the Hadleigh men who returned from the various First World War theatres of conflict and their subsequent lives back home. 

Later this week, I see that Footise is hosting a three-day exhibition of monochromatic chalk works by my current successor as Dean, the Very Revd Jo Delfgou.

There may be some folks who think it unfitting that a priest should take such an interest in the female body. I disagree. And from what I've seen, the pictures are both affectionate and metaphorical representations. 

And then, if all that excitement wasn't enough, Footsie has gone and booked the Hadleigh Community Choir to give a blast to some favourite arias in their What's Opera Doc? concert. 

Whilst more familiar with madrigals than Mozart, and more of a can belto than bel canto-type of singer, I'm looking forward to finding out more, not least as the promo blurb promises a lounge-style setting (whatever that is). 

One person who should probably do more lounging around is councillor Rolf 'Astroturf' Beggerow. 

There is no doubt that he is a dedicated advocate for Hadleigh United. But I fear that he is somewhat tripping himself up in trying to hurry through upgrades to the set-up at the club, of which he is also the treasurer. 

Whilst results on the pitch have been very good for the Brettsiders this season, the performances off it have started to look like the latter days of Marcus Evans at Portman Road. 

Plans for the installation of a 'full sized' 3G pitch were recently put on hold when it was discovered that there wasn't enough space for it. Astroturf, who in addition chairs the Layham Road Sports Ground sub-committee,  then 'fessed up that he'd known that this was the case a while back. 

This is all very embarrassing as the project is back to square one (not sure how many squares make up a less-then-full adult pitch), reputations have been called into question and costs incurred, not least in staff time. 

Rolf 'Astroturf' Beggerow

Then, Astroturf finds himself on the wrong end of an official investigation which concluded that there was a clear conflict of interest in him being both the footie club's money man and chair of the said sub-committee. 

As a result, yet further time and expense will be needed to revisit each and every one of the decisions taken by the sub-committee about the Layham Road operation at which Astroturf was present. 

This will also cost in terms of reputation and staff time. 

Two questions arise from this unfortunate sequence of events. 

Firstly, what was the advice given to Astroturf by Town Council staff regarding this all-too-obvious conflict of interest? Was Astroturf given advice which he chose to ignore? Or was he given no advice at all? Or just plain bad advice? 

'Jilted John' Gordon Mcleod mayor of 'laughting stock' town council

As per, Mayor 'Jilted John' McLeod is keeping shtum. I was minded to raise the issue on Saturday as he supervised the various erections of the High Street Christmas trees. But he looked so happy and butch in his Village People construction man gear that I didn't have the heart to do so. 

The second question is how long can Astroturf remain both as a town councillor and as the football club's treasurer? 

As I floated around MillField during Hadleigh's game against Walsham Le Willows, there were one or two arch comments made about the 3G debacle. And it appears that a number of the committee members are especially worried about the club's reputation. Yet they are hoping that Astroturf will see the graffiti on the wall and voluntarily step aside. 

Whilst the Town Council is, in many people's eyes, a bit of a laughing stock, the football club isn't. 

In fact, it remains the epitome of a real community club, supported at all levels by enthusiastic coaches and parental goodwill. 

Yet its reputation is in danger of ending up in the debit column. It may be time that someone else made the sums add up.