Cod Almighty | Postbag
A litter of letters
15 January 2017
Your letters range far - like Paul Groves covering the pitch - and wide, like Tony Crane's waistband. Enjoy.
Hernon and Daley
Jimmy Hernon was signed for £2,500, not £10,000 as stated. He made his debut in a home derby against Lincoln City when Town lost 2-3 after goalie Stan Hayhurst went off with a broken finger. George Tweedy replaced him, injured his leg in the next match, and paved the way for the 17-year-old Tom Daley to be called up for the return match at Lincoln, where he kept a clean sheet as Town reaped revenge in a 2-0 triumph.
Tom Daley was an apprentice plumber for F A Woulds and was at work, covered in putty – plumbers having to do glazing in those days – when he received a call from Bill Shankly telling him he was playing at Lincoln and to be at the ground at 3:00 to catch the team bus. So he had to ask permission from the foreman to take the time off. How times have changed!
I was speaking to Tom on Christmas Day and his memory is still sharp at 83 years of age.
Thanks for Neville's nostalgic fare. I was a regular attender at Blundell Park and was even present when Stoke City came on a Good Friday with 26,000 plus in the ground eager to see Stan Matthews and suffering the double disappointment of Mountford playing instead of Matthews and Moulson deputising for the very popular George Tweedy. Town let in 5 goals on that far-off day when the wooden crash barriers were audibly creaking!
By the way, I saw my first game in December 1946 when Town drew 0-0 with Manchester United!
Kind regards
from Harry Buck
Youth progression? Blame Thatcher
There is a difference between Town youthers not progressing into regular first teamers and youthers from Grimsby not progressing to be regular first teamers. These are two different matters.
In terms of local lads there have been only two splurges of stable progression in the last forty years: the mid-70s set of Ford, Moores, Drinkell and Mawer; the mid-80s double bonus of Wilkinson and Lund. In this century the local lads who done goodish are really only North and Bore, which is a bit of a dead cat bounce.
The late 80s/early 90s revival (coinciding with Buckley Mark 1) of Watson, Lever, McDermott, Oster, Croft, Lester and (stretching at a languid jog into the later 90s) Butterfield, were all bought in cast-offs from other clubs' youth squad. As were Bennett and Wood. That's not a bad thing, just a fact.
The real question is why local lads don't make it anymore. The answer is clear – size. Look at the size of the youth teamers who made it in that first batch compared to the players who followed. You know why?
Milk.
Up to the Lund/Wilkinson school year we had free school milk in infant schools and so grew heartily into strapping lads. After that very year of school intake, no milk today and our youthers went away. Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher is to blame. As always, of course.
Facts. Incontrovertible facts.
Free school milk for a functioning Town youth team (in time for the 2027/28 season)
from Mr A Butcher
Letters Ed responds: Personally, I blame Brexit, the sacking of Alan Buckley, and John Fenty. But I compile the letters page for Cod Almighty. That's my reply to everything.
From Hartlepool with love
Congratulations on today's weekend diary. Especially on the excellent description of Hartlepools' equalising goal. I had forgotten it but I think you got it dead right!
Yours in sport
from Chris Hallgarth
More of our favourite netbusters
I loved Rich's Omar Bogle graphs and the graphs for other great Town goal-scorers. When we get to the third quarter I should have learned how to prepare graphs to pinpoint a few more of our favourite netbusters. No one will disagree with your selection but there are quite a few players who have also hit the headlines with their scoring prowess.
In 1949-50 my own recollection is of a rampant Tommy Briggs' contribution of 36 goals in 41 league game that has rarely been bettered. From the start of the season in 1948-49 he had scored 26 goals in 34 matches, of which 17 were scored in the second half of that season from 19 games. He bagged four in a cup tie at Luton on 7 January 1949. Briggs' prowess earned him an England B cap but like most players he had a barren spell. His lasted for ten matches in the second half of the 1949-50 season when he purloined but two goals. Was the absence of inside forward Jock Shearer for seven out of ten games a reason for the sudden decline?
It is said the best strikers hunt in pairs and with Billy Cairns grabbing 17 goals from 42 games there is no wonder we were second highest scores in Division Two. We did have the second worst defence but we will keep that quiet. That was one of Billy Cairns' most prolific seasons but can we honestly take away the 16 goals he scored in 31 matches during our season of relegation from the first division?
Over the years we have had some super strikers and of course Pat Clover will have been the best. We did have our share of goals in the roaring twenties and Jimmy Carmichael was the leading Football League scorer in 1921-22 with 37 goals, a figure he almost matched with 33 goals out of 39 games in 1925-26. Jimmy was highly thought of but after promotion in the 1925-26 season he was dropped after notching a mere four goals from 16 matches. He never coped with life outside football and there must be enough material for an in depth look at his life.
Carmichael was followed by "Give it to Robbie" Joe Robson, a neat and tidy yet strong footballer with an eye for goal, never afraid to have a shot. 31 goals in 41 matches was his return after this post-promotion season in 1929-30 of which 14 were scored in the first half of the season.
It is time to move on to the late Ralph Hunt. He managed to score 33 goals from 39 league games in 1959-60 of which 21 were scored in 20 games before the end of the 1959. Hunt was down as an inside left but by then he and Ron Rafferty were effectively strike partners with Ron hitting 24 goals that season from 46 games. There was a strange list of final of scorers that season. Only seven players scored goals. Johnny Scott had 14 from 45, a perfectly respectable return for a winger. That left Don Donovan and Peter Laverick on one each with the busy Mike Cullen on five goals and Jimmy Fell on six.
Enjoyed the read very much.
Best wishes
from Neville Butt
Letters Ed responds: Rich is thinking about how he can incorporate some of these names in his records.
Not only a local team for local people
Dear Cod Almighty,
Congratulations on your entertaining and thought provoking website. You once asked if Cod Almighty was the first port of call for GTFC news; maybe not but it is certainly the first port of call for opinion. I was therefore a little perturbed by the implications of the diary of 16 December last.
As a Town supporter since 1971 and the third generation of a Town supporting family from Lincolnshire I was not sure how to take what was in the diary. Grandfather and father from North Thoresby and I was born in Louth. Do we qualify as "real" supporters or are we from the bit of Lincolnshire that you seem to say should not support Town as it is from a different area. Where do you draw the dividing line? Is it Toll Bar? Then there are my two Town-supporting nephews. Both born in Grimsby (after maternity services were axed in Louth) both brought up and educated in Louth, one living in Skegness and the other in Grimsby. Where do they stand? Not to mention two good friends from Alford!
I have come to expect Cod Almighty to be inclusive (except where the Premier League is concerned of course) not drawing an artificial dividing line. I also didn't expect clichés about flat Lincolnshire. I can assure you Louth is hillier than Grimsby.
I hope that this is not a sign of things to come. I have continued to read the Diary and Mr Butcher's excellent match reports. He does seem to see the same game as I do.
By the way I am very proud of the Dambusters and 617 squadron's contribution to the defeat of Nazism.
Heres hoping the rest of the season will be successful under MB and we meet at Wembley again in May.
Regards,
from Steve Winn
Letters Ed responds: Thanks for your kind words about Cod Almighty. However, I fear Russian hackers must have been at work when you read Retro Diary on the 16th. Nowhere does he state or even imply that only people born in Grimsby or Cleethorpes are entitled to support Town. If anything, he was doing the opposite, skewering the snootiness of the southern half of Lincolnshire about "the top bit" of the county and arguing that they should be backing us against Yorkshire's Doncaster. We used Twitter to defend the right of non-Grimbarian Town fans to tickets in the run-up to that Doncaster game and have since published an article by a Mariner who confesses he has never lived in the county at all.
A win and a safe car
Oh yes, surrounded by Toffees.
Peter Reid et al – can't remember us getting out of our half until that last minute.
What elation – but just permitted myself a wry smile as any outward sign of joy could have resulted in dire consequences to my person.
Car still intact having parted with a couple of quid blackmail to the scallies.
Previous best giant killing witnessed at Maine Road years before when Ron Cockerill scored a couple of long range efforts in the fog to dump Man City out of the cup.
Ahh, will these feats ever be repeated? I still live in forlorn hope!
from John Hannath
Community involvement in a community stadium
I have been following CA diaries’ comments about the proposed new ground, and noted that Wicklow Diary tells us that Fairhursts Design Group has been appointed to design it. I like the name, and just hope that the Fair Hurstses will keep us shape.
I appreciate that most of CA is doubtful about any new ground, and I shall be very sorry to see the back of Blundell Park, but it looks as if Peaks Parkway might really happen. Diaries have commented many times on soulless new grounds and the occasional acceptable new one, and have carefully explained the reasons for their feelings.
Perhaps the time has come for the chairman and directors of Cod Almighty Towers Ltd to be positive and take action while there is still time to influence things.
Write a report clearly stated to be from the point of view of supporters, not wealthy directors and shareholders.
Detail the reasons why a good stadium matters. List those new stadia which don’t fit the bill, and those which do – with photographs. Draw your conclusions. Then send it to Richard Sagar, Managing Director of Fairhursts Design Group in Manchester, and ask for a meeting with him at which you will explain your ideas in greater
depth.
Consider copying your report to GTFC and the Mariners Trust.
Happy to help drafting the report.
Just a thought.
Best wishes,
from Antony Chapman
Letters Ed responds: We've forwarded Antony's letter to the Mariners Trust, to encourage discussion about how fans and the community can be involved in developing the design for a new ground. And Cod Almighty's contributors will certainly be taking part in whatever consultation happens, with Antony's help, and with yours. Please send us your thoughts.
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