Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 1 May 2003

1 May 2003

Town's new sponsor is revealed as controversial engineering firm Jarvis, criticised and still under investigation after the Potters Bar rail crash in May 2002, which killed seven and injured 60 and took place on a section of track Jarvis was contracted to maintain. Earlier this week it also emerged that the firm was awarded a three-year contract in January to "disseminate good practice" to struggling secondary schools, despite having no prior experience of education consultancy - a move condemned by teachers' leaders as "shocking" and "extraordinary". Perhaps worthy of mention in the light of this is the fact that Jarvis chief executive Paris Moayedi appears on a list of donors who last year gave 'gifts' worth more than £5,000 to the Labour Party. You might like to bear all of this in mind before you buy a replica shirt or give your kid one of the Jarvis baseball caps the club hands out at the Brighton match this Sunday.

Several players are back on the Grimsby trial trail, with Cameron Jerome and Byron Jenkinson joining Middlesbrough trio Chris Garbutt, Kevin George and Andy Kelly in a reserves' outing to Stockport yesterday. The future of goalkeeping in England, Steve Croudson, continued his comeback from injury as Town's seconds ran out 4-0 winners with goals from Garbutt, Jonny Rowan (2) and youth prodigy Joe Lightowler. Far from being an idle fellow, Jerome is actually a striker with Conference outfit Halifax Town; and it appears that Town are now using reserve fixtures to put potential new groundsmen through their paces, as the only Byron Jenkinson I can find on the internet is a soil scientist from West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

Once more unto the Diary's bulging inbox, and email of supreme cattiness reaches us from a Mr Z Keeper, who writes: "You have Mat's betting tips column marked down as, and I quote (as you'll no doubt be able to see by my use of quotation marks), an "inter-species contest". Having met Mat on several occasions, I beg to differ." Saucer of milk for table one!

Richard Dawson, meanwhile, quibbles with the phrase "tricky striker Darren Mansaram", which I hold up my hands and admit appeared in yesterday's Diary. "To apply the epithet striker to young Darren is, perhaps, anticipatory given his poor scoring rate of late," writes Richard. "I think he has only troubled the opposing keeper about twice in his last dozen games. Although Main Stand inhabitants know the ferocity of his cross-shots, I'm sure." Perhaps so, but we may be opening a can of worms if we're going to come over all Trade Descriptions Act about the Town side; by that token, is there a single 'striker' on the books? "Santos is undoubtedly the player of the year (2003)," adds Mr Dawson, "although not, in my view, of the 2002-3 season." So who would you give the season award to, Rich? And what about the rest of you? Email codalmightydiary@yahoo.co.uk with your views on the whole player of the year gay hornets' nest of vipers.