Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 16 June 2005

16 June 2005

As Frank Zappa once put it so memorably: Woke up too early; it was a terrible mistake. He went on to sing about horribly foreshortened cornflakes and then ended up as the minister for culture in what was Czechoslovakia. Well actually, he ended up dead to be pedantic. What will happen to your Guest Diarist is anyone's guess but he was thinking about Nigel Batch in the cold grey light of dawn today. Nigel (for any younger readers) was a great keeper for Town in the early eighties. But I seem to remember him having a parallel career as a decent local cricketer. Are goalies forced to be wicket keepers, I wonder? Although footballers don't warm up for the match with a game of tip'n'run very often, it seems that cricketers like nothing better than to start off with a kickabout. The (admittedly very old) news that professional cricketers lost a total of 164 playing days to footballing ailments is presented to you, gentle reader, as a sort of philosophical thought for the day. Yes, you've guessed it; Town news is thin on the ground at the moment.

So it's a good job that I didn't finish reporting all the stories yesterday, being able now to report that the second Grimsby snubee was in fact Imps defender Kevin Sandwith who has verbally agreed to stay with Lincoln. Of more interest to me was this telling quote from Keith Alexander who said of Matt Bloomer: "Matt, meanwhile, is one of those players who everybody wants in their squad. He is a good pro who can play in a variety of positions and will do you a job whichever position you ask him to play in. I'm very happy these two players have agreed new deals and want to be part of what we are trying to achieve next season." Bloomer was a great squad player at Town - can anyone remember the slightest reason why we let him go? It seems to me that Town bring on youngsters, let them go, and then end up signing young released players from other clubs who are probably much more of an unknown quantity. And who have no affinity with the club. What is wrong with this picture?

Meanwhile Mr Slade has had a chat with the official site reporters and told the little scamps his feelings about the story linking him with loyal Southend keeper Darryl Flahavan: "It is a load of rubbish and I haven't had any interest." So there. In fact, goes on Slade, talking about his real goalkeeping target: "He is on holiday at the moment but that should all be going through on the fax. He has experience and with John Lukic that would be a relief for us to get that position sorted out." But what number does he bat, Russell?

Going back to cricket and the Nigel Batch era, am I right in remembering seeing Ian Botham standing in the open corner twixt Pontoon and Barrett watching us play Scunthorpe one time? I was rarely sober in those days but that memory stubbornly persists. Let me know if you were there. Tomorrow will see another guest diarist you may be relieved to hear. Let's hope they are able to share some good news like, oh er, Stacy's signed! See yer.