Cod Almighty | Diary

Carry on Abroad

25 July 2022

Miss Guest Diary writes: This might make me a bit of a traitor to my gender, but I just can't get excited about the Women's Euros. I have watched England's games and the standard has undoubtedly improved since the last time I did. They've scored some cracking goals too, and I hope they go on to win the tournament. But it just doesn't grip me – the play somehow lacks the intensity of the men's game and there's something about all those ponytails flicking around which I find really irritating. Not to mention the crowd holding up pieces of paper with the word "Goal" written on. That's up there with those trumpet things at the World Cup in South Africa, or people doing Mexican waves, or singing along to Sweet Caroline.

I appreciate that the organisers want to make the experience enjoyable in the hope of increasing the popularity of women's football, but I'm not on board with reducing a sporting contest to mere entertainment. The increasing emphasis on spectacle misses much of the point of supporting a football team and seems just another way in which Britain is being negatively influenced by American culture. Heaven preserve me from trick or treating, school proms and the degradation of the language. If I overhear one more person in a café saying "Can I get" instead of "May I have", I swear I'll scream.

Rant over, back to Town. Except Town are not in town, they are sunning themselves training in Tenerife. I've been to the Canary Islands a few times in the dim and distant past, but always in the winter months when the temperature was bearable. I can't imagine what it's like in July. Oh hang on, yes I can, because it was pretty much the same temperature at Blundell Park last week – the first evening game I have ever attended where I didn't have to reach for a jumper at some point. Also the first time I've ever been to Cleethorpes when there hasn't been a breath of wind.

Town have left behind a couple of YouTube videos: one is of them messing around while having their official photos taken, and the other is a game of head tennis from which I gained the impression that Kieran Green is definitely a player not to be messed with. The news out of Tenerife is that on Saturday they beat Club Deportivo Tenerife's B team 4-0, with goals from Pearson, McAtee, Kiernan and Efete. Knowing how good that result is would take more research than I'm prepared to do on a Monday morning.

I am hopeful that we will eventually get a Town-squad-abroad film along the lines of those films from the 1970s where the entire cast of a sitcom went on holiday to some punningly-named Mediterranean resort and disaster ensued. Anything to keep us occupied while waiting for the real action to begin on Saturday.

Here's something else to help pass the time – another excellent Guardian article from Chairman Wow in which he reflects on both the highs of promotion and the importance of the club in the local community.

UTM