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Diary - Thursday 17 December 2009

17 December 2009

I hate to say I told you so. Except when I'm talking to Notts County fans, when I enjoy nothing more than saying I told you so. But right now we're talking about Ben Wright for the first time since he joined the Mariners on loan on 27 November, when the Diary wondered aloud: "Will he play more than about 40 minutes before we send him back and forget he ever existed?" The answer is clearly yes, because he played 67 minutes against Macclesfield a day or two later, but the complete absence of the O'Peterborough forward from Town's first team since that heady day has prompted Neil Woodses to state publicly that both Wright and new midfield saviour Mark Hudson should have no cause for concern. After Hudson spoke to Sky Sports earlier this week about the debut he is yet to make, the rookie GTFC manager has chosen the more homely environs of the Grimsby Telegraph to issue a perfectly weighted, diplomatic and generally textbook reassurance that both players remain in his plans. Indeed, if Woodses next proves as adept at building a team that can score goals as he is at issuing reassurances, his side will be nearer the play-offs than the relegation zone in no time at all.

The careerist mainstream politicians failing miserably in Copenhagen to meaningfully tackle the most important issue facing humankind in a century might as well just give up and go home now, because the world is about to end regardless of their dubious efforts. Today the Grimsby Telegraph has published one of its regular reports on games involving the Mariners' various teams for younger kids, which is the Diary's cue to shake my head in astonishment and wonder exactly what Grimsby parents were thinking when they decided their children should have two surnames and no forenames. Our old friends Caine Winfarrah, Cole Mills and Robson Burnett are still doing the biz, and are now joined in the ranks by both a Reece Moody and a Reece York. The under-13s' 6-3 win over Notts County was lit up by the appearance of Oakley Luddington, which is actually a really quite fabulous name rather than a silly one, but the arrival in the youth system of a player named Blaze Kerr can surely only be read as a sign of impending global apocalypse.

The Diary's inbox has turned up a sterling answer to yesterday's query from John Harding about allegations that Arsenal players deliberately injured Town's Jackie Bestall at a match in 1937. An email from Antony Chapman refers us to page 108 of Charles Ekberg and Sid Woodhead's The Mariners, but adds a quote from the text for those without a copy at hand: "Jackie Bestall, Grimsby's tiny schemer-in-chief, was almost kicked off the park and was limping on the wing after 20 minutes. The Grimsby News had to pay libel damages after naming the players responsible." Antony continues:

So did the Grimsby News name the wrong players, or did Bestall fall over himself, or was the judge (to put it nicely) biased?

As bad, or worse, was the '38-39 FA Cup semi-final against Wolves. With George Tweedy (Grimsby's best ever goalie) injured, George Moulson took his place, but was carried off with severe concussion after 20 minutes when the Wolves centre-forward Dickie Dorsett crashed into him. With no substitutes allowed in those days Jack Hodgson went in goal, but the 10-man Mariners lost 5-0. This was the Wolves team managed by the infamous Major Buckley, who had introduced monkey gland injections as an aid to fitness, and was reputed to have made his players take oxygen before our semi-final. Perhaps something for Woodses to consider?

In case you ask, the answer is NO, I wasn't there, I'm not that old. My first game was in September 1948, when we lost 1-4 to Wolves in our last season in the first division.

Many thanks, Antony, for answering John's question and more; it's quite a thing to have seen the Mariners 'live' in the old first division all that time ago. If any other Diary readers can offer first-hand reminiscences about Town's time as a top-flight side, please do email diary@codalmighty.com and share!