Cod Almighty | Diary
All the fun of the fair
10 July 2023
Miss Guest Diary writes: After a week of watching quite a few sporting events I was searching for a handy way to describe how I felt about it all when the phrase "swings and roundabouts" popped into my head. To me this has always meant that in the grand scheme of life you win some battles and lose others, which got me wondering whether it was the swings that represented a win and the roundabouts a loss, or vice versa, neither of which makes any real sense. So I turned to Mr Google to help me out.
It seems that the actual saying, originating in fairgrounds, is "what is lost on the swings is made up on the roundabouts" meaning that life balances itself out with the losses on one thing being offset by gains on something else. So, did my sporting week balance out?
On the loss side we have Andy Murray going out of Wimbledon after a very close second-round match, Mark Cavendish retiring from the Tour de France with a broken collarbone and Notts Outlaws losing by five wickets to Somerset in the T20 quarter-finals. In the winning column there is the England U-21 team's victory over Spain in the Euros (did anyone else spot the Town flag right behind the goal?), the win over the Aussies at Headingley in the third Ashes Test and Town winning their pre-season games against Grimsby Borough and Cleethorpes Town, with goals from three of the new forwards and no injuries to key players.
I would say that the sporting balance from all that is very much on the plus side except…except…someone has started a rumour that Harry Clifton is being sold to Barnsley. It's no secret that Harry has been my favourite player over the last two seasons and I had hoped to see him continue to improve in a Town shirt. If that's not to be, I will be very disappointed but of course wish him well in his future ventures. Favourites all leave in the end, whether that's because they move onto better things, fall out of favour with the manager or simply get too old. I'll get over it – like I did the departures of players like Gary Croft, Wayne Burnett and Carl Magnay – and find a new player to admire. What's lost on the Harry Clifton swings may well be made up on the Evan Khouri roundabout.
We haven't had an official update on season pass ticket sales for a few days but I had a snoop on the ticket website at the weekend and there were less than a dozen seats available in the Pontoon. If that's repeated elsewhere in the ground then we might even exceed last year's sales. Enthusiasm for all things Town is still very high with pictures on social media at the weekend of fans queueing round the car park and down Neville Street to get their hands on a new shirt.
Having originally decided to open only the Pontoon and Main Stands for the pre-season games at Blundell Park, the club took on board feedback from fans and you can now buy tickets in the Findus. I can't wait to see all the new signings when they run out against Hull at Blundell Park next Saturday, though not from the Findus – I sat in the Upper once for a pre-season game and it took me 24 hours to thaw out!
UTM