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Diary - Wednesday 20 July 2011

20 July 2011

Fans of classic British TV comedy theme tunes are divided on the issue of Ronnie Hazlehurst's greatest hit. Some would say the plaintive tones of Last of the Summer Wine. Others prefer the tiptoeing whimsy of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. But for many, Hazelhurst's finest hour came immediately after his death in 2007. In penning their obituaries, journalists turned quickly to the composer's Wikipedia entry. This had been playfully doctored by persons unknown, to include the untruth that Hazlehurst had been the co-writer of a certain popular chart hit from several years previous. A number of journalists failed to check the veracity of this item before including it in their copy. And so several newspapers were highly embarrassed after printing obituaries of Ronnie Hazlehurst which gave him a songwriting credit for 'Reach' by S Club 7.

You'd expect newspaper journalists to have learned their lesson after that. But you'd be reckoning without the Grimsby Telegraph. In its preview of Town's friendly against Sheffield tonight, the Telewag refers to the opposition as "Rhys Wynne's Northern Premier League Division One South outfit". Had the author checked Sheffield's official website, or indeed any other authoritative source, he or she would have learned that the manager of Sheffield is in fact Mark Shaw.

So who is Rhys Wynne? Rhys Wynne is a Colwyn Bay and Liverpool fan and author of the excellent football blog You're Supposed To Be At Home. He also has a workmate who went on Wikipedia and made him Sheffield manager, for a laugh. Work is already under way to create a ground-breaking renewable energy centre at Riby Square, powered by all the red faces at the Grimsby Telegraph.

Your original/regular Diary would like to thank the nameless but very good author of Too Good to Go Down for that story. And remember: they're not lazy journalists - they're actually trying to do the work of three people each since the media owners sacked most of their colleagues.

So what of tonight's game? James McKeown, aka That Lad From Peterborough, will debut between the sticks, it says here, after getting international clearance. Peterborough might feel like another country, but this is in fact because he played briefly for a Dutch side in between. Town's superb new official website adds that Lee Ridley and misspelt youth Darran Kempson are out injured, while Liam Hearn, Scott Garner, Bradley Wood, Frankie Artus and Damian Spencer are "all major doubts for the trip to Yorkshire". Everyone knows Sheffield play in Derbyshire, though, right? Cuh. You could have found that out on Wikipedia!