Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 5 November 2010

5 November 2010

Nine more games in 2010 is today's Cod Almighty useless statistic. Nine more chances for the Town team to try harder and be better. Nine more faint possibilities for Neil Woods to have a full squad to pick his best first team from. Nine more games for Mr Gobern to produce that dog-eared sick note from his mum. Nine more chances for Mr Colgan to get over his sulk. And nine more times for Town fans to wonder whether our expensive squad will start to reliably win games at last. Your Guest Diarist, facing up to an ITV weekend of FA Cup action without our beloved Town, has briefly contemplated going to Boston to watch their reserves play Grimsby Borough reserves. If only to watch it from the Fantasy Island stand.

But, meantime sad news has come in of the death aged 75 of Town stalwart Ron Cockerill who played left-half for Town for ten years from 1958 until injury forced his retirement. I was a nipper of ten when I first saw him play in the mid-sixties so any assessment of how good he was is dodgy to say the least. So if you are older than me and have memories, please drop us a line.

Sheffield-born Ron, who had converted from centre-half when he joined Town from Huddersfield, was a right big hard bugger who played 294 games for Town and banged in 27 goals. I say banged in because his nickname was Cannonball, apparently, (although I remember it as Rocket Ron, which has a much better ring to it) - when he hit them, he really hit them (shots or opposition players). But he could pass it as well as wingers like Brian Hill would no doubt attest. Younger readers of course will know more of his sons John and Glenn, who both had successful playing careers. It's a sad day for the Cockerill family, and for Town. I gather Ron still used to regularly watch Town until his declining health stopped him. So let's mourn the passing of one of our legends. I hope we get the chance to give him a clap at the next home game. See yer.