AS a result of a recent meeting at the Camrose to find dedicated supporters willing to assist and take action in areas of the club which needed improving, the trio of John Gray, Peter Woods and Julian Walker have been co-opted onto a committee of volunteers who are to examine and implement different ways of advertising the club.

The loyal fans, in conjunction with Town chairman Dave Knight, commercial officer Chris Richardson and press officer Ian Trodd, are bidding to encourage more of the Basingstoke public to attend home matches through a better advertising programme.

The programme began in earnest on Saturday before Town's match against Bishop's Stortford, with the distribution of A5 and A4 size flyers and posters throughout the town centre and local area to attempt to get people to the Camrose ground.

Gray told Talk of the Town: "It has been said for a long time that we need to market the club in the town to make people more aware of home matches.

"This is the ideal opportunity, now that we have the design in place to make it work.

"Initially, I worked on everything at home for the flyer and, after we all agreed on the design, I paid Staples to put together all of the flyers and posters for £40 on Friday.

"We then spent an hour throughout the town on Saturday morning distributing the lot, and Peter handed out all 100 flyers he took to Festival Place.

"We had 391 people at the game on Saturday, which is better than average so far this season, so we were all very pleased and it shows it can work. I have been overwhelmed by the very good reaction we have had.

"Already we are getting people to distribute and places to advertise in for future home matches. So far, BCOT's sport department is going to put up posters and another fan, Dave Stratton, has the Sainsburys depot on board too.

"Steve Hemmings' mum and dad at Turnergraphic are going to help us produce our flyers as well, which is a real bonus."

Gray added: "I know that if enough fans really want to make it work, we can start getting the publicity and crowds that we deserve at Basingstoke Town."

Woods said of the reason behind his involvement: "I have been a long-time fan who used to spend a lot of time writing letters to The Gazette trying to get more of the community to take an interest in the club, but it got very disheartening over the years when the club never listened to fans' ideas anyway.

"So I wasn't expecting too much at the meeting, but what happened and the way it was conducted to give fans a say really enthused me to get involved like this."

Walker added: "There was a real buzz about the meeting and the fans afterwards. We are full of ideas of how to get people into the Camrose and we hope that we have really set the ball rolling."