Cod Almighty | Postbag

Postbag: now taking bungs

21 September 2006

So, er, yeah - if you want your letter to appear here I'm sure we can arrange a 'deal'. You know. Sweeteners. That sort of thing. I'm a big fan of Andy Todd - so yeah, I'd take Toddy any day.Send your brown envelopes stuffed with cash to postbag@codalmighty.com. Strictly used notes only.

Damn Humphreys

re: Dan Humphreys. I Grimsbyfied his name with the obligatory added value 's'. Such subtlety is lost in blank verse.

from Tonys Butchers

Why Blundell Park?

Why Blundell Park? Why is Blundell Park called Blundell Park? For the past 50 years I've never been able to find out. But at last I think I have the answer.

I believe the home of the Mariners is named after Peter Blundell a sixteenth century wool merchant from Tiverton, Devon. Blundell was a very rich man and a staunch Puritan who left considerable sums in his will for the benefit of educational establishments. Blundell School in Tiverton still exists today and he was also a substantial benefactor of Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge University where one of the college buildings is called Blundell Court.

The College owns a large amount of land in Cleethorpes and Blundell Park is located in Sidney Sussex Ward. Quite obviously Sidney Park and Sussex Recreation Ground were named by the college and so, I contend, was Blundell Park.

But this raises another question. Why was Sidney Park, where I happily sailed my model boat as a child, not called Blundell Park? Which would have meant that the home of the Mariners would have been called Sidney Park or even Sussex Park. Does anybody know? I haven't got another 50 years.

Not surprisingly I have not been able to locate any image of Blundell so a Cod Almighty T-shirt is sadly not possible.

from John Hicks

Maternally yours

So you were born in Cleethorpes in the Croft Baker Maternity home? Well, it so happens so was I - 42 years ago with my twin sis. My brother was born there 44 years ago. One of our distant ancestors, Croft Baker, lived in the place before it became a maternity home. We all lived in Old Waltham when it was a little Village. We left and moved to the South West many years ago. The place has changed a great deal. There are lots of fond memories I have about the place and it's nice to go back every now and then. I now live in a place called Milborne Port Sherborne. Have you ever heard of that?

from Jo Gardner

Letters Ed responds: Er. No, I haven't heard of that. But then geography was never my best subject. So what else do we know about Croft Baker?

Mash. Bollocks. Sky.

Hearing that the Diary hasn't got Sky TV is something I salute. I personally feel annoyed at having to pay over the odds for television and therefore I am happy to live a life of freeview. So sod Sky, and their money grabbing ways that saw them create the Premiership and stuff so much cash into football that it's crippling the smaller teams and turning the stuff at the top end into a grey boring mish-mash of superclubs that have no identity in their uber-stadiums that lack any atmosphere. Bollocks to them, and their stupid mucking about of the football fixture list. Play it all on Saturday at 3pm, like it bloody well should be.

Come the revolution brothers!

from John Pakey

Letters Ed responds: Ah - a call to arms. Superb. Who's up for a military coup? I think I have a spud gun somewhere...