Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 26 June 2012

26 June 2012

Readers of a certain vintage will recall the Blue Peter totaliser. In the low-tech 1970s and 80s this proved a spectacular enough display device to keep viewers interested in the programme's regular appeals for charitable donations to build wells in drought-afflicted regions of Africa and such like.

Readers of Grimsby Town's superb new official website this month will already have encountered the above totaliser-like summary of season ticket sales this summer. A graph is unavailable giving figures for 26 June, so here's one they made earlier. Again, remarkably, the numbers do seem to be up, despite the Mariners having ended their second season of non-League lower down the Conference league table than at the end of their first. Still, it's of a piece with those distant days of second-flight football, when all we used to do was moan. GTFC are optimistic of shifting 2,000 season tickets this summer in all, despite an elephant called Barry Conlon having emptied its bowels onto the floor of McMenemy's.

This mood of optimism is manifest in a playful aside on the SNOS whereby visitors can watch a few minutes' footage of the grass growing on Blundell Park. A wry little comment on the frustration we all feel over the summer while waiting for news, this has met with a predictable response in some quarters. It reminds your original/regular Diary of when those pretty Cleethorpes signs went up along the seafront with the childlike painting and lettering style and the population screamed venom and hatred. Or when I wore a pink shirt to Havelock school and got the living shit kicked out of me.

The Shorty manager has "expressed his delighted" at the signing of Sam Hatton, according to today's Grimsby Telegraph. Diary reader Phil Watson, meanwhile, has weighed in on the issue of Sam's soubriquet to suggest "Thesunhasgothis". Thanks, Phil. It takes me back to the day Nicky Southall made his GTFC debut, had to go in goal when Paul Crichton got sent off (Brian Laws having sold him short with a back-pass), and was instantly rechristened 'Neville' by the wags in the lower Findus.

Finally, another email comes from Rich Mills, on another new signing. "So Colbeck's a winger?" he asks. "Which sport exactly? He looks the same build as Ben Cohen." Interesting you should mention it, Rich - it's only a day or two since I was wondering by what criteria James Milner meets the same job description. T'ra for now.