The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

Still Grimsby Town

16 November 2017

Middle-Aged Diary doesn't know about you, but I could do with a change of subject. It's over to Richard Hubbert for the rest of today's diary.


"My grandad Arthur Dawson's first game was around 1929. He took his place on the Pontoon amid dockers who had come straight to the ground in their clogs, a couple of bottles of beer in their pockets, who, voices like foghorns, shouted: 'Give it to Robbie!' Joe Robson seldom scored less than 30 goals a season so the chances are he confirmed the wisdom of their advice.

 

 

"One of Arthur's most vivid memories was the 1935 1-0 win against the league champions, Arsenal. The team that day featured some all-time Grimsby greats like Pat Glover ('When he went up for the ball and scored, he went in the net with the goalkeeper, the ball and the lot') and the half-back line of Hall, Betmead and Buck ('nowt escaped them. If they went past them once they didn’t next time, they were straight under them!').

"What a different world it was back then. England international goalkeeper George Tweedy (with 'hands like buckets') drove a furniture van part-time. 'Ginger' Hall worked as a joiner in Arthur's home village of South Kelsey. He'd see him on the morning of a match with his football boots tied around the handlebars of his bike before he cycled 25 miles to Cleethorpes to mark the top forwards in the country.

"With his formative days as a Town supporter having been in crowds of 20,000 watching top-flight football, it would have been easy for Arthur to become disillusioned. When Town were relegated to the Conference he could say 'I've seen it all turn right round'. He was of course delighted when we got promoted back out of the 'pigeon league' but there was a real stoicism in his attitude. His favourite expression: 'You never know in football. If we knew the result, we wouldn't turn up and watch!'

"He never over-celebrated victory or got too downcast with a defeat, never once calling for a manager to be sacked. Perhaps it was living through the war and seeing communities suffering losses that helped put football into perspective? For him, football was a day out, a bit of an outing and something to look forward to whether winning or losing. You supported your team and always got behind them, no matter what. As much as the Wembley trips he never thought he'd see, he'd enjoy an away day: his last a 3-1 win at Boreham Wood.

"He always took change in his stride and never moaned about so many things being different. He always felt that things would turn out right. Of course he never got to see us in our new stadium but I feel he would have embraced and accepted this change if and when it happens. There is something quite comforting though to think that his first and last football matches were both wins (the last against Yeovil) in the same ground, the same Pontoon end, 88 years apart."

Arthur Dawson's death, after a lifetime of memories stretching back to the most glorious of glory days, diminishes us all. You will I am sure join Richard and Arthur's family in celebrating that life at Blundell Park on Saturday. Strange to say when we are celebrating a life sadly ended, but beneath the controversies and the disappointments of any football club, some things go on for ever. As Arthur would say: "We're still Grimsby Town."