Cod Almighty | Postbag
Postbag: you write, I read
10 August 2006
Morning. Er, afternoon. Or whatever it is where you are. Hello, even. That will do. Hello. God I'm tired, and I didn't even go and watch Town be shit against Wrexham. God help all those that made the journey.Anyway, keep up the letter-scribing and send your missives to postbag@codalmighty.com. That's 'missives', not 'missus'. Although if she's nice, pop her in the post. Give her a sandwich though, I'm not feeding her...
Gay times
re: Tony B's question re: my Shrewsbury rough guide. He's right, I've not been there. But Gay Meadow is an old ground and thus has character. The charm bit can be relative, and given this is Shrewsbury's last season there before moving to New Identikit Meadow (prejuding, I know, but the odds are with me), Gay Meadow is relatively charming, and definitely the more charming of the two. Thus Shrewsbury's ground has character and charm. I stand by what I wrote.
from Andy Holt
Yay! Refwatch is back!
Yay! Refwatch is back!
from Steve McKatt
Hands up, baby hands up
Hands up who thinks Graham Rodger needs to sign more players? As it stands we don't have enough senior players to fill the bench on Saturday. I'm worried, you know.
from Harry McSwegan
Letters Ed responds: Ah, it'll all be fine. It just might take a while, that's all.
Thames water pollution shocker
They've just opened a new fish and chip restaurant near where I work in London. You can get battered cod and blinkin' salmon! Pah! Where's the haddock, eh? These 'ere southerners know nothing! Saveloy, my arse! It's no Pea Bung. I'll tell you that for nothing.
from Frank Jubilee
Letters Ed responds: Blinking fish? What is this crazy southern nonsense?
At odds with Hartlepool
The website I use for betting has us joint 7th favourites for promotion at 14/1. Seems a little stingy to me. 100/30 for promotion sounds stingy though.12/1 for relegation sounds more like it.
They've also got this weird head-to-head bet - us against Hartlepool, with us 17/20 to finish above them this year. Why Hartlepool?
from Kirk Lactovic
He who laughs last...
Almost interesting to read the comments from one Nathan Jackson in the postbag. Nearly. My brother works with the guy. We're ex-pat Mariners and young Nathan goes to every Lincoln game ever.
After last years 5-0 drubbing his attempts at post-match superiority were met with my brothers statement of "I don't care. It was just one game and we'll get promoted and you won't because we're actually better than Lincoln."
Come the play-offs and there's no smugness in Lincoln about Grimsby anymore. They couldn't laugh at our eventual defeat because their lone footballing acheivement is losing two playoff finals. And sacking Adam Buckley for stealing his teammates possessions from the dressing room.
Still, they have actually signed some players this summer, cast off the burden of big Keith and his ahem, ahem, direct approach and outplayed Leicester City and beat Nott'm Forest. Therefore I'm dreading this season.
from James Parrott
Hang on Tony, Tony hang on
Now hang on Tony B. I was at Shrewsbury last year and found it very pleasant, even when it was throwing down with rain and I was expecting the River Seven to burst it's banks and flood Gay Meadow.
The beauty of Gay Meadow is that in the face of all these new soulless grounds in trading estates next to warehouses, prefab Pizza Huts and Comet electrical super stores, here is a ground just a short, really really short walk to town. Simply popping over the bridge to the centre of a great little historical place with some really good pubs.
The ground had a bit of rustic charm to it and it's sad they are thinking of relocating, no doubt to some soulless retail park on a bypass somewhere and the only offer of a pre-match meal is in a dodgy fast food chain or a plastic pub.
Where has the heart gone in this game? I'm off to sob quietly in the corner.
from John Pakey
Letters Ed responds: Aye. It'll all be different with the Fentydome though, right? Right? RIGHT?
The legend continues
Chapman's Pond used to be a brick works. They dug so deep that it hit the water table and flooded the hole - apparently there are houses at the bottom! Or so I am told...
from lala
Shirty
What's with these two-tone Nike shirts that all goalkeepers seem to be wearing at the moment? It started at the World Cup and that's where it should have remained, thank you very much. I don't want to see that sort of continental nonsense at Blundell Park, and I'm sure you don't either.
from Ian Hairty
Letters Ed responds: Quite right. Down with this sort of thing.
There's only two Grimsbys
Ian Jackson wrote in the last postbag to ask if anyone had experience of the Grimsby here in Canada . As I live in Toronto a mere 45 minutes drive from Grimsby , Ontario I can tell you a little about it.
As Ian said it is indeed on the way to Niagara Falls and the town sign tells you there is a population of 18,000 people. Its right on the coast of Lake Ontario in an area they call the Golden Horseshoe. I know they make wine there and not too much else. I can recommend the service station though just of the QEW highway.
For those who feel the need to know more about this place: more info.
PS Although this is a pretty dull subject I wonder if there are any other international Grimsbys?
from James Booth
Butchered report
I note that Mr Butcher has attempted to freshen up his match reporting format for the new season. Myself I always think of that stand as the new Barrett. I note also that the Boston report was a mere three thousand one hundred words or so. Thus we are getting about ten per cent less words for our money.
Notwithstanding it still remains head and shoulders, arms and knees above any other written account of a Mariners game. Long may his memory remain undimmed.
from Richard Dawson
Message from the south
I would like to compliment you on a fantastic website, with very interesting and entertaining information. The report on the Boston match was great, much more interesting than I read anywhere else.
I saw my first Mariners match in 1948 and I attended regularly until I went in the military in 1956. After that I saw only a handful of games. I have lived in America since 1963, but I always tried to follow "The Town". Now, if the Mariners could only play the season as well as you report it, we have a great chance. I am now retired in Tucson, Arizona, but I will come back for one last game, if the new stadium is ever built. Trying to park around Blundell Park in 1950 was really bad, so I can't imagine what it is like now.
Keep up the great work and thanks for helping me keep in touch.
from Robby Robinson
Letters Ed responds: Thanks for the kind words Robby. Oh, and if you're waiting for the new stadium... well, just don't hold your breath.
None of your neb
Love the Grimmo dictionary, but how about adding the word "neb" in there, as in to have a nose at something? e.g. "Let's have a neb at your new car then." Similarly nebby = nosey, as in "Get lost, you nebby cow!"
Many a time I have used the word since moving to the North West 10 years ago, only to be met with blank looks. It wasn't just me who said it, was it?
from Melissa
Letters Ed responds: I'm sure I've heard it outside of Grimsby, but I'm prepared to be proven wrong.
How are you doing?
I entered your competition about shirt numbers throughout the season that Town players wear. How can I find out how I am doing?
from Steve Vigar
Letters Ed responds: Hi Steve. It's been inconveniently hidden away in the 06-07 season index which you can find here.
Dummy chucking
Is anyone else totally bored by the mud slinging between BBC Radio Humberside and GTFC? Can we go back to talking about the football please rather than giving Fenty and Burns's ego battle (it is hardly a battle of wits) more space than it warrants?
from Paul Williams
Letters Ed responds: I think almost every fan is in agreement Paul.
Lumped
Gary Jones joined us last summer. Last season he featured as a forward. So why do the pre-match club text messages still list him as a midfielder?
from Dan Brown