Cod Almighty | Diary

The calm before the storm

8 September 2015

There are three bits of Town-related news today. That obviously excludes the idle speculation that a player might join the Mariners founded on no better grounds than a Humberston birthplace and citing "personal reasons" for leaving his last club after just seven days. It also excludes some long-forgotten talent show contestant saying something about Grimsby.

So, in ascending order of chewability, the reserves play Notts County at the ground of Arnold Town at two o'clock this afternoon. The Town squad features several first-team midfielders, Richard Tait and Jon-Paul Pittman. With Northern League club Ashington managed by the former Durham and England fast bowler Steve Harmison, Arnold have gone a step further, naming their entire municipaility after a 1970s trundler.

Erstwhile Grimsby winger and meanwhile commercial manager Dave Smith is getting on his bike in August, riding from Land's End to John o' Groats to raise money for the GTFC Youth Development Association. Unless you are a fan of middle-aged men in lycra, it must be said the picture illustrating this story is not entirely safe for work. Middle-Aged Diary can say this without hypocrisy having never touched a stitch of lycra, or indeed a bike since teaching my son to ride many years ago, when the conference was just the last piece of fruit left in the bowl. My guess is that actually Dave is super-fit, but has stuffed some padding around his waist. That will gull us into a more generous sponsorship, thinking he won't make it past Penzance.

Yesterday, original/regular Diary reached for the word 'nuanced' to describe Paul Hurst's post-match analysis of the Boreham Wood victory. Let's use it again for his remarks on the once and future social media hero Omar Bogle. Bogle is "the sort of player who beats himself up when things aren't going well, and it has a negative impact on his play at times". We all recognise Omar's potential, and five goals already should buy an awful lot of patience. And frankly anyone wanting to try and beat up Omar must have a death wish.

On a match-less Tuesday, we cannot hurry the turning of the pages on the season, but the next few matches hold beguiling possibilities. Let's strap ourselves in and prepare to enjoy the ride.