Cod Almighty | Diary

Putting oral history into print

8 December 2014

Middle-Aged Diary knows that Jackie Bestall, Pat Glover and George Tweedy are three of Grimsby's greatest ever players. I know that because the record books tell me.

What I don't quite know is what it was like to watch them. Not in the way I know that Joe Waters had a habit of breaking forward from halfway, his chest bursting against his shirt, just as soon the ball would be bursting against the goal net. Or that Keith Alexander's long limbs would suddenly come under his complete control just as a ball approached at an awkward height. Or that Paul Futcher never ran but apparently strolled quicker than the quickest of strikers because he always got where he needed to be, just in time.

My grandfather might have told me about the great Town team of the thirties, but I was too young to know I'd want to know when he was alive to tell me. And there may be the odd Town fan coming upon this to whom Waters or even Alexander are as remote as Bestall is to me.

The internet, though, throws up new possibilities. We've had a taste at least of Tweedy's last years from Neville Butt. And even before Cod Almighty, before the Electronic Fishcake, we had the heroic efforts of a small group of people to provide a voice for the fan in the pages of Sing When We're Fishing. The wit and wisdom that once was so much smoke in the pub or steam rising from a teapot is now there to be enjoyed again.

It is for this reason that Cod Almighty is collaborating with the Mariners Trust on what we think is quite an exciting project: to compile an anthology of the best writing (and indeed art) that has been inspired by the Mariners. The project is to an extent a measure of how far we have come. When the first issues of Sing When We're Fishing appeared, the club's commercial manager called for the sellers to be arrested. Now the trust and the club are helping give new life to some of its features.

The aim of the project, as it stands, is to compile from SWWF, from the internet and from elsewhere a book offering a fans' eye view of Grimsby Town, from the championship season of 1971-72 to our relegation from the Football League in 2010. We'd like to read your ideas of what we should include. And if you want help sift and trawl for material, we'll be glad of the help. You can get in touch at anthology@marinerstrust.co.uk.

My son shows no signs of being interested in what it was like watching Waters, Kevin Moore, Kevin Drinkell and Tony Ford from the Imperial Corner. But in case he has a child who would like to know, I want our memories collected and ready to meet the need.