Cod Almighty | Postbag

Postbag: lots of good stuff

26 January 2011

With no ado whatsoever, the first Cod Almighty postbag of 2011.

To appear in the second, send your thoughts via the feedback form (Use the Contact us link on the bottom left hand side of the page)

Laughter (and booze) is the best medicine

Greetings from North Norfolk,

With nothing much happening news-wise on 'Town, my attention was drawn to the appointment of Stuart Gray as caretaker at Burnley following the announcement of Lawlessness (geddit?). Could this be the Stuart Gray who played for 'Town in the 70's? No, but close as it was Stewart Gray.

This in turn reminded me of a stay in Scartho Road Hospital (The 'Infirmary') in 1973 when I was drifting in and out of consciousness after an operation. When I did eventually regain my senses I thought I had actually died and was in heaven, for a new patient had appeared opposite - Stewart Gray, and he was surrounded by 'angels' including Harry Wainman (goalie) from my beloved 'Town. Stewart had been admitted for an appendix op. His team mates had filled his locker with packs of beer and few days later those of us who were semi-mobile gathered one evening at the end of the ward for a booze-up. We were all on all sorts of medication, but we had an understanding ward sister!

Let's all hope for a much happier year.

Best wishes,

from David Elvidge

Ephemeral and eternal

Hi,

I found this poem in the Oxford Book of Local Verse.

A poem to the Grimsby Town football team, for the Cup competition, 1936 Here's wishing luck to Grimsby Town In their effort to attain The greatest honour and renown In England's national game.

Hartlepool, Port Vale and then Manchester they had beat, Middlesbrough came to stem Their tide, but met with defeat.

No fancy price has Grimsby paid For any of their players, But classic teams have been dismayed By our ninety-minute stayers.

So, when these Arsenal cracks, you play, Just give the crowd a treat, Show 'em your as good as they- You simply can't be beat.

There's thousands saving up with zest To swell that great assembly And add their voices to the rest The day you play at Wembley!

Then all the critics you'll confound- Of this they dare not dream- That in the Final could be found An 'unfashionable' team.

To Bestall and his gallant men The very best we'll sup, For, as certain as these words I pen, You're going to win the Cup.

Its amazing how little has changed when it comes to hope and optimism. We've lived in hope for so long, maybe the 7-2 victory over Mansfield is the first of many.

Best regards for the New Year

from Felix Oliver-Tasker

All these people that you mention, yes I know them, they're quite lame

Please put me out of my misery - I've spent too long trawling through my mental list of abject and uncommitted Town players of the last 10 years. Its a long list actually. Who is the player on your Christmas gallery page - in the middle of the bottom row between Conlon and Toner? Also, what is so wrong with Paul Warhurst that he doesn't merit inclusion?

Cheers,

from David Wagstaff

Letters Ed responds: The people featured, in full are, from left to right and top to bottom: Ashley Sestanovich, Adam Proudlock, Thomas Newey, Jason Crowe, Lewis Gobern. Tony Crane, Disco Des Hamilton, Ben Futcher, Terence Cooke, Gary Montgomery. Chris Llewellyn, Peter Beagrie, Mike Newell, Darren Barnard, Nathan Jarman. Dean Gordon, Mickael Antoine-Curier, Peter Sweeney, Danny Boshell, Martin Butler. Nick Colgan, Barry Conlon, Ronnie Bull, Ciaran Toner, Curtis Woodhouse. My predecessor as letters editor adds: "

The return of

Dear Pete and all,

For all I know, you may have considered the dictionary to be a near defunct item now, but I've only just found it. I was surprised to find the following terms not included, but this is perhaps because me and my dad are the only ones to use them: 'Slack 'andful' : A generous proportion. The opposite of tight-fisted. As in: 'Eh oop, our Ant, give us a slack 'andful of midget gems will yer'. 'Benny on' : see 'monk on' 'To cobble dogs with' : suggesting a (super)abundance. As in: 'He doesn't need any more toys. He's got enough bloody Action Men to cobble dogs with'. I think this is based on the assumption that, were dogs to be fitted with shoes, they would require four, rather than the standard biped requirement of two. but I could be corrected...

Cheers

from Tony Dabb

K.O.'d

Check this out.

Grimsby has actually held the title as best team in England 12 times if you use the boxing rules...

from Jostein Jensen

A proverb fulfilled

This weekend spare a thought for Paul Cornell who runs the Grimsby/Cleethorpes YMCA who has organised and is taking part in an outdoor sleep over at Blundell Park to raise awareness of homelessness in the town and raise cash for the YMCA.

Paul has been publicising the event far and wide and so far they have raised over £6000. There have been collections at the matches against Mansfield and Kettering and you can still support them by e-mailing Paul at paul.cornell@gcymca.org.uk or by going to their website at gcymca.co.uk

As it happens (it's a pure co-incidence) Paul and I are doing an OU course together and he publicised it on the forums there. I think he was a bit taken aback to find that someone might actually know how cold it can get! Anyway it's a good cause and even if people don't feel flush enough to donate cash we ought to spare a thought for those spending Saturday night on the boards of the Main Stand.

I shall be at Eastbourne though.

Many thanks

from Paul Ketchley