Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Friday 24 June 2005
24 June 2005
At last, the news football supporters have been waiting for all summer. Liverpool have drawn TNS of Wales in the first qualifying round of the European Cup. Hi there by the way. Last But Not Least Diary here while the other stand-ins fight to save the planet.
If you choose to support your local team (and if you don't you can stop reading) there's news of a cup your team is participating in, all forms returned and properly completed pending. The north/south division of the draw makes sense, if only to stop the likes of Norwich complaining about spending valuable time on the road to somewhere far away like Boston. But seeding? Sounds like a way to give Championship teams a greater chance of pulling a "big club" and "away day pay day". Or give false hope to one exiled fan who live near to close to Burnley and Preston. Got me thinking. Are there any non-London based fans out there who have more than two seeded grounds within easy striking distance? Is your level of anticipation or dread that much higher? I'm sure the Diary won't object if you let him know.
650 season ticket sales have the club declaring the "going extremely well." All this talk of making more money quicker and breaking previous records - wasn't that inevitable by raising the price of the season tickets? Still not too much for 650 souls willing to be tortured from August until next May. Dedicated fans for you. Good on you. Or dimwits who think 300 quid for a polo shirt with the odd day at the local shit-hole of a ground as a bargain. Or just misguided full stop. I wish I could join you, but the traveling prevents me. I will make at least ten home games - could the club not sell "flexi tickets" like Boston are?
Speaking of talking heads stop making sense, a quick flit to the messageboards. (Quiet news day.) There's a new signing due. Newsflash! Not going to start the season with a midfield of Bolland, Parkinson and my hero Tony Crane nor a squad of fifteen first-teamers are we? Usual nuggets of Alan Pouton and John Oster are being branded about. Shame Nicky Southall has just joined Nottingham Forest. He could have been useful.
There is some news of a big move to Grimsby, but we're just talking a seafood company. Hopefully uplifting news for the local economy. ""There is no doubt as far as fish is concerned this is where the action is." Take note those seeded big fish in the league cup.
Henman crashing out of Wimbledon (albeit not like the porcelain players in the BBC trailer). England losing to Australia. Town signing players. The fixtures being announced. It's starting to feel like summer now. All that is needed are rain clouds, in the meteorological rather than metaphorical sense. Dazzling mornings like this remind me of the scintillating day heading up to Darlington for last season's opener. A referential point for most of the season, a game we dominated, should have won but didn't. A chap called Ian Clark came on, scored, game over. (Not enough to warrant a new contract for the lad. He's moved on.) The drive across England reminded me of my younger days cruising the roads of Lincolnshire (not Yorkshire). My point? I'm not alone when it comes to being reminded of 'our county' as a quick flick through a book in my office revealed. "Oh deary me, I thought, I'm on the wrong jet. The pilot's gone mad. We've been flying around in circles for eleven hours. That's not Texas. That's Lincolnshire. For as far as the eye could see - and from 15,000 feet on a crystal-clear day, that's a very long way indeed - it was flat, unrelenting and dull beyond even the ken of a party political broadcast speech-writer." Can you guess whose flat, unrelenting and dull writings these were? A hint - the back sleeve notes more on "foxes, 70's rock music, Germans, cricket and everything else in the The World According to" this man. And it's not Garp. A prize to the first person to guess it right by emailing in.
Upon which is time to call it a day and load the golf clubs into the car for an afternoon round, before the rains descends and it really does feel like summer. Thanks for reading.