Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 9 March 2005
9 March 2005
The slow drip-feed of information about Town's latest batch of trialists has begun, with the club's official website offering just enough tantalising snippets about today's reserves squad to, er, tantalise you a bit, really. If you were wondering who that "Sterling" chappie was who, reported the club, turned out for the stiffs at Darlo last week, then your raging curiosity will only be further aroused by the knowledge that he is in fact Jude Stirling, a defender from Dover Athletic. It falls, as ever, to the Diary to satisfy your needs, and my keen detective skills have overcome the obstacles thrown up by the OS spelling his name differently twice within four lines to discover that Jude began his career with Wimbledon, played a dozen or so games for Luton four years ago, and trained with the England under-18 squad at roughly the same time. He contrived to be sent off half an hour into what seems to have been his professional debut, moved on to Stevenage Borough and St Albans City before joining Dover, and is known in Isthmian League circles for his Challinoresque long throw. Still only 22, Stirling believes his boss at Dover, famous FA Cup baldie Clive Walker, is just the man to help him realise his ambition of returning to the professional game.
And that's not all. "Included in the Mariners line up is much travelled keeper Danny Naisbitt," adds the OS. "He has played for several Football League teams, including Walsall, Barnet, Carlisle United, Brentford and Cambridge Utd." A list to which the Diary can add the non-League luminaries of Dagenham & Redbridge, Hendon, Welling and everyone's second club AFC Wimbledon, for whom Nezzy (as they call him at Kingsmeadow) has been first-choice stopper this season. A 26-year-old Geordie, he stands six feet two inches tall; his favourite film is Goodfellas and his favourite drink is Guinness.
Oh, you wanna know where the reserves are actually playing, do you? And who against? Easy. Notts County away. This afternoon. Probably. Oh, and now that I've done all that research, the Grimsby Telegraph has just gone live with most of the same stuff. They didn't know about the Guinness though. Ha!
"Hi there," writes Mike Gresham in an email to the Diary. Hi, Mike! "Just to make all Town fans aware," he continues, "that Friday 22 April has been allocated as this year's day for wearing your Town shirt with pride at work - the idea is that you get colleagues, family and friends to sponsor you, with all proceeds going to Grimsby's St Andrew's Hospice. The football club are right behind the event which is now in its third year. All good fun and a chance to show your allegiance to the famous black and white stripes, wherever you are in the world and whoever you work for!" Sounds almost worth having a job for. For more details or to request a sponsorship form contact Mike at St Andrew's Hospice, Peaks Lane, Grimsby DN32 9RP, or phone 01472 350908 or 0781 588 6929.
Today's last word comes from Paul Moran, who yesterday not only read the Diary but read the Diary's mind. Yesterday, you will recall, we featured a link to a sponsor website where you could win some money for both yourself and the Town. The Diary, however, declined to enter the contest for reasons Paul has anticipated. "The following piece of terms and conditions stuff," he points out, "could be quite useful for all of those people wanting to support the club by endeavouring to win a player (doesn't say which player), but not wanting to receive texts about fancy new tooth-rotting drinks: If you do not wish to receive any further text messages from Coca-Cola, please text the word STOP to 80089, this will stop all text messages other than confirmation replies to entries into Win a Player' or texts to notify you if you are a winner." Thanks, Paul. We'll take their cash, but damn their marketing and their splice commas.