Cod Almighty | Diary
In which we empty our post sack and a moth flutters out
4 April 2019
We have another Town teacher, to join Paul Agnew, Mike Brolly, Joe Cooper, Rod Fletcher, Harry Kitching and Max Holmes. This email from David Burton explains.
"Alec Brader was on Town's books in the early 1960s. He played two games but didn't force his way in as a regular first-teamer. In the late 1960s he taught at William Lovell school at Stickney. While there, he ran the district football team, which I became a squad member of. A well-respected coach as I remember, and although I haven't seen him at Blundell Park this season, he has regularly attended home games for a number of years. Once a Mariner always a Mariner."
The book Mariner Men credits Brader with spotting John Oster and Danny Butterfield, so definitely a teacher well worth his end-of-term apple.
The discussion of Town teachers has probably run its course, at least once we note that the manager of a teachers' team could be either Haydn Price – Grimsby's first manager – or Russell Slade. But to broaden the theme, which ex-Mariner has taken up the most surprising post-football career?
Cod Almighty has also received an email from Rich Todd:
"I've been reminiscing with some fellow old Town fans about when we used to go out to a restaurant in Grimsby or Cleethorpes and they offered (statutory) prawn cocktails and/or melon balls. In a throwback to the 1980,s these things can still be found – in a retro kind of way I presume – at McMenemy's."
For younger readers wondering what a prawn cocktail is, book yourself a place at Town's end-of-season awards bash at McMenemy's on 4 May.