Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 3 June 2008

3 June 2008

With floods when the sun should be shining, and bluebells out in February, there ain't a lot you can rely on any more in this crazy old life, but one thing Grimsby Town fans can anticipate with confidence each and every summer is an upbeat message from their club about season ticket sales. There could be tumbleweed rolling sadly through the ticket office, staff sleeping at their desks, wolves howling plaintively in the distance, cobwebs growing across the cash registers, and the indefinite suspension of professional football following a catastrophic rise in sea levels, worldwide famine and the global breakdown of civilisation, and the club would still issue a statement that season ticket sales were going well. And so it is that today's Grimsby Telegraph says "The club reported a good day of sales" when season tickets became available yesterday. If supporters really were snapping up season tickets in the thousands suggested by these relentlessly positive messages, of course, then the club would have the resources necessary to be challenging the mighty financial muscle of Manchester United, Chelsea, QPR and Darlington - but in reality it's only a matter of months before Alan Buckley and John Fenty (Con) play down the prospects of any activity in the January 2009 transfer window following lower-than-budgeted-for season ticket sales for the 2008-09 campaign.

There's something about Town's new kit supplier this week as well, but frankly, the day the Diary needs to quote a marketing executive from whichever particular faceless multinational is responsible for shipping that year's gear from the sweatshop is the day I jack it in. Who gives a shit, really?

Not, I would warrant, Clav Divs, who has emailed the Diary to enter the far more momentous recent discussions that have taken place here about ye olde rock musicke. "Wot's Rob McIlveen on about (Diary Monday 2nd)?" begins Clav. "He was right about the vintage footy in 1978, but Genesis singing a David Bowie song (Diary Friday 30th)? I don't think so. If I remember rightly, Knebworth that year was all about the impressive light show that Genesis were due to put on, and so it proved, with multiple lasers beaming up to the stars in a syncopated display of gargantuan proportions. You can get similar on a key ring nowadays. My own special memories are reserved for our drive home when our recently qualified driver, driving outside Lincolnshire for the first time, managed to get lost on the way home, missing the Newark junction off the A1 whilst the rest of us slept. We never mentioned it again of course, did we Graham?" Thanks, Clav - and everyone remember to visit the Diary tomorrow and find out Graham's excuse.