Cod Almighty | Postbag

History, ancient and modern

7 March 2012

The Postbag. Its got interesting stuff in it, and you write it.

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More Southend memories

Regarding the away game at Southend in April 1990 (See the Diary entries for 17 and 20 February). This game was also a monumental game for me but for a variety of reasons! We were on a roll and I had been convinced that we would be promoted from the start of the season.

I was living and working in Peterborough at the time and had convinced a mate that Town were worth watching. We decided to attend the match but my car was in the garage who promised it would be ready by 4. It wasn't! At 6 we decided to give up and go in my mates ageing VW Scirroco. We left at 6.45 for a 7.30 kick off. 100 miles to go but the car didn't let us down. Despite torrential rain I think we only dropped below the ton twice. Arrived at 7.45.

The turnstiles were closed and locked! We roused the gateman from his fireside and cup of tea who pocketed our cash and called a steward who escorted us down the tunnel. Alan Buckley and Dave Webb on the touchline both shouting instructions as we passed by. Through the mud on the side of the pitch and into the away fans enclosure which was wet sand because of the rain and building site behind the goal. We were there much to the relief of another mate waiting for a lift back to Lincolnshire for a job interview.

The match was won with goals from the much missed King Alex as only he could. The first was invisible at the far end and I'm still convinced the second came off his upper thigh. Celebration, as we were almost up.

After that we went onto the front for fish, chips and beer. As we stood outside the pub we witnessed the surreal sight of "Essex" man wearing sunglasses at night driving his XR3i up and down the front in convoy with stereos blasting. In their midst were Town fans hooting horns and waving scarves who we saluted with our scarves every time they passed by.

Great memories! Lets hope that some more have been created tonight after the 2-1 win! UTM

from Steve Winn

The children of Croft Bake

Hi all,

Hope you're well.

Nice letter from Anne-Mette about Croft Baker (See Postbag of 20 February). I was also born there in 1971 so would be interested to hear how she got on. An article would be great.

Regards,

from Richard Mills

Letters Ed responds: Your wish is our (and Anne-Mette's) command. Anne-Mette has sent us an account of her return home which we will publish as soon as possible.

An evening with Rob Briggs

On Tuesday night me and a mate spent an unusual evening at St.Andrews Church in Albion Street GY. The author of 'Mariner Men', Rob Briggs, was giving a talk on the early history of GTFC. We only found out about it by seeing a advert in GY Library.

Rob gave an interesting talk about the formation of the club by Grimsby Pelham cricket team, playing at Clee Park and Abbey Road. His talk was interspersed with unusual stories of players and board members, including the FA Cup Semi Final of 1939 where the Town keeper George Moulson was carried off and Town played with 10 men. Of course Old Trafford's record gate was achieved that day. Rob had some interesting memorabilia - old cigarette cards of Bestall and Glover, and the programme from the famous semi. Rob didn't really need his notes as he spoke and he really is the unofficial Mariners Historian. His details of the great team of the thirties where we had internationals in greats like Pat Glover and Jackie Bestall were especially interesting.

After a delivered fish and chip supper, we then strangely watched a video on the pink tv of Town v Wolves from 1984, a match I attended as a 13 year old. You can probably watch it on You Tube, but Rob had kept the video in good condition so we watched John Helm enthusiastically introducing an hour's highlights package. Frankly Wolves were appalling in this Second Division clash, with the past his best Tommy Docherty as manager. Town, with Lund and Wilkinson up front and pace down the wings in Emson and Ford, had just put 6 past Rotherham and with Phil Bonnyman bossing the midfield we ran out 5-1 winners. We were that strong up front that Drinkell was only on the bench and he netted as a sub. What stood out was Fordy's excellent supply of crosses, that Nigel Batch looked a bit wobbly and Chris Nichol and Kev Moore, the centre backs, took no prisoners. Oh and the pitch was not up to today's high standard. Docherty, who had a car accident on the way to the match, was adamant the scoreline was unjust, and seemed loth to compliment 'the likes of Grimsby'. He looked a manager living off past glories (were there any?) Dave Booth looked cool and calm with life as Town entered the top 5 and had hopes of promotion to Division 1, a under rated manager in my mind. Hard to believe we were scaling such heady heights then.

Pity that the audience for the evening barely numbered a dozen and a number of them were only their for the fish and chips! It was poorly advertised, but well worth the effort.

By the way Rob couldn't answer the question of the Town Line ups v Stoke as requested in the last Postbag by Paul Snape. However he suggested a visit to the reference section at Grimsby Library to access the pages of the 'Grimsby News' from those dates to see if they reported the games.

from Martin Robinson

Have you lost a diamond locket?

After the final whistle at today's game against Braintree I found a diamond locket in the ladies toilet of the Pontoon End. I am not even sure its real, but would like to see it reunited with its rightful owner.

Anyone who thinks they know who it belongs to can email me at sandii.lou1@googlemail.com.

Thanks ever so!

from Sandii Lou

Thanks Sandii Lou, and also to Steve, Richard and Martin for your letters. postbag@codalmighty.com.