Cod Almighty | Postbag
If football be the food of love, we're getting poisoned
18 January 2010
This week, more feedback on "A model professional", reminiscences of Port Vale and a fresh angle on the Grimmo Dictionary.
More thoughts on postbag). We had a fun day out at Vale in 1991 or some far off Buckley season; both teams needed a win to stay up . The pub we went in Burslem was rather unfriendly and we were pelted with coins at the end after Paul Reece had repelled the Port Vale attacks, Town won and Vale went down. Despite some unsavoury scenes at the end we were congratulated by some nice Vale fans. Idiots on both sides of course. Great day out ended with celebrations at the Jubilee Pub Disco some time later... What is it about Stoke/ Burslem that seems to scare me though? I remember some great cup matches at Port Vale around this time when they beat Spurs and they seemed to be top dogs in Stoke. Hope we are playing them next season...
On the subject of Sid Wheelhouse and Ian Jackson's letter regarding Cigarette Cards showing Town players, there might be some info about this subject at the GTFC exhibition that starts on the 3rd March at the 'Monkey and Pie Gallery' - Fishing Heritage Museum on until 28th March.
Also can I recommend 'My father and other working class football heroes' by Gary Imlach, it's about his father Stewart, a Derby and Notts Forest player of the 50's and it really captures the social conditions and the hold the clubs exercised over the players and their families, supplying them houses to live in , then turfing them out when it suited them. It's a real eye opener of a footballers life in the 50's, up there with Damned UTD and Fever Pitch as a great footie book.
Brill site just get's better.
from Martin Robinson
Letters Ed responds: Thank you Martin, and while we are doing book recommendations, it might be worth reminding you that the Wheelhouse article grew out of author George Myerson's book Fighting for football, published in April 2009 by Aurum Press.
More Martin
After Codalmighty's Gong in WSC, now WSC's latest edition's 'Season in Brief' is Division 3 - 1979/80 and Town featuring prominently; used only 18 players all season. My first match was January 1980, home to Blackburn Rovers. I've got the programme somewhere, Howard Kendal player-manager, Duncan Mackenzie playing for Rovers, and Town lost 2-1, one of only 3 home defeats all season.
Looking at the team photo, from memory - John Fraser, Steeples, Wiggington, Crombie, Batch, Wainman, Stone, K.Moore, D.Moore, Booth, Ford, Drinkell, Cummings, Waters, Brolly, Mitchell, Kilmore, don't know where George Kerr was.
Gates regularly of 10-12,000, having to get to the ground at 1.30 pm to get the right place in the Barrett Stand, with milk crate to stand on! (jumpers for goalposts!) So thirty years watchin' Town and still waiting my first win of the season...
from Martin Robinson
A dictionary from Europe's food town
Dear Mr postbag,
Changing the subject from the Grimmo Dictionary, I have occasional problems explaining food items to my non Grimsby aquaintances.....are these local or regional? They don't appear to be national.
Starting with 'scollops', as my mum would call them, which are, as far as I'm concerned, flat disc like deep fried potato....chip thickness and chip fried, but crisp shaped.......... Savoury Duck, which I remember being squares of something savoury out of a flat tin from a butchers, but it certainly wasn't duck.....fried in a pan and tasty, but not seen much nowadays? or is it............ ....and this, as far as I'm concerned baffling 'bread bun' thing that I hear a lot. I usually call a bread bun 'a bun'. It seems locally, a bread bun is a bun made from bread, any other bun seems to be a cake confection such as an iced bun or even a small plain sponge cake in one of those pleated paper baskets......... ...beef tea, not Bovril, used to be sold at BP in the late 80's early 90's.
...and does anyone else in Grimsby, on Christmas Day, have a breakfast of pork pie and pickles? or is it just me?
Cheers
from Ian Jackson
Letters Ed responds: Grimsby delicacies, ... sounds like there might be mileage in that idea.
Write in with your dietary tips.