Cod Almighty | Postbag

Festive funbags

22 December 2013

Christmas time, mistletoe and wine, people drinking and er, buying presents and that.

Welcome to your pre-Christmas bumper Postbag - guaranteed to keep you busy until your turkey is well and truly roasted. If you failed to write to us recently (we're keeping tabs), you can make it your resolution to send us a letter in the new year.

It's very easy: either email us using postbag@codalmighty.com or use our handy feedback form if you wish to send us anonymous abuse.

Why Widdowson?

Too Good To Go Down has recently run a piece extolling the virtues of our old left-back Joe Widdowson. Now I've seen some top full-backs in my time watching Town. I've also seen Sam Hatton and Joe Widdowson.

Opinions on Widdowson seem to vary depending on where at BP you sit. From our vantage point at the top of the upper, he was nothing short of hopeless. We all thought we had unearthed a gem after his debut, but from there it just went tits up. Pretty much all the goals we conceded came down our left (and that was a lot of goals under Mike Newell's 'on the pop' superstars); he never once even attempted to cut out a cross; and was more often than not caught out of position – to the despair of the rest of the team, who wasted their breath constantly berating him.

He is what some might call the modern full-back in that he's great going forward but can't defend. Tom Newey is another that polarised opinion, but did you ever see him get skinned? As for Widdowson being "one of our better left-backs" of recent years: well, it's a game of opinions.

from Kris Richardson

Letters Ed responds: I can't say I was huge fan of Widdowson, but your claim that Tom Newey never got skinned is pushing things a bit far. At the time I looked back at videos of our goals conceded in his last season with us and most goals game from his side where he'd failed to close down his man.

I also reckon Hatton gets a bit of a rough ride at BP and I'm not sure why. Also, you've completely forgotten to mention Ronnie Bull to add some proper context.

There's always one nobber

Hi. I saw your website and have a simple proposal for link exchange. Your link will be placed on a related page inside our links section. Our homepage is currently pr 5. The site has huge traffic with an average of 240,000 unique visitors per month [blah blah... cut]

from webmaster

Letters Ed responds: Oi, "webmaster": cock off!

Concentrating on the stats

Given all the talk in recent diaries of people hoping we get knocked out of cup competitions to concentrate on the league, and Mardy Diary's complaint about the lack of stats on the subject. I thought I'd try to help out.

I've not really got time at the moment to gather loads of data, but I have had a quick look at Town's league performance since 1990 compared to the amount of cup games played, and attached a scatterplot.

Vital stats are: the correlation is positive. So, on average the more cup games we've played in the last 20 years, the higher we've finished in the league. I could bore you with figures but suffice to say that the stats are significant enough to make it into a report of my findings.

What we can conclude: this does not mean that playing more games causes a team to do better in the league, more likely being a 'good team' means you perform better in both competitions. What it does show is that in the last 23 years, an ability to 'concentrate on the league' has not helped GTFC.

If people would like more of this statto silliness, you'll have to help me get the raw data as that part of the task is too time-consuming right now.

from Joe Mooney

Letters Ed responds: Cracking stuff Joe. Many thanks. We'll see if we can get some better data for you in the new year.

Batmuting

I don't really go in for this club batmuting normally but... good to see the NSNOS has upped its game by editing the FA Trophy draw to omit whether we are home or away.

[Received 18 November]

from Lloyd Baker

Letters Ed responds: Batmuting? Is that a thing?

Smoking fish

Yesterday I listened to the Food Programme on Radio 4 about Grimsby's equivalent of the appellationel controlee only for traditional smoked haddock rather than for wine. It was very good with a gentleman owner of a smoke house talking about how this status was achieved and how important it was for the town as a whole that this important food status should be marketed in much the same way as Melton Mowbray pork pies has been for the good of the town. However I personally reckon that Petitt's pies are as good if not better.

It was also rather sad because as there are only six smoke houses left it appears to be a trade that is becoming moribund. I can remember my father, who worked on the pontoon all his life, bringing home prime smoked haddock from Bill Cox's smoker. It was fantastic. My mother cooked and served it with crisp streaky bacon and poached eggs. Absolute heaven.

It was with my dad that I went to my first match at Blundell Park. It was a reserves game, a Midland League fixture against Frickley Colliery and we got kicked off the Park. From that moment I was hooked and have followed Town ever since.

Listening to the programme brought it all back and tomorrow I shall get some proper undyed smoked haddock and have it for tea with streaky bacon and poached eggs just for old times' sake.

from Felix Oliver-Tasker

Letters Ed responds: Actually quite hungry now...

Fear the Reaper I

I recall being at Ayresome Park (in 1981, I think) – a very wet night. We stuffed them 4-0, Drinkell and co. running havoc. The next day Bobby Murdoch (ex Middlesbro' and Scottish international) was sacked. We go back a long time in being the Grimsby Reaper!

from John Oglesby

Fear the Reaper II

Brian Laws' sacking this week prompted me to check out an omitted victim from your excellent list, from way back in the early 80s.

Jimmy Melia, manager of Brighton, had received a lot of upbeat press coverage for getting them to the FA Cup final in 1983, but was "sacked" a few days after a 5-0 defeat at BP on 15 October 1983. This link tells the story.

from Ian Smith

Under cooked

Andy Cook is not fit: he needs to seriously look at himself. Perhaps he should follow John-Lewis' diet/training regime, he looks fit and strong, a good pro.

Cook looks like he's narked through lack of first team football. If he doesn't pull up his socks soon it's that graveyard of ex-Town players he's bound – Alfreton Town.

from Martin Robinson

Letters Ed responds: I'm not sure he's ever looked particularly athletic but I do agree he's not really performed this season. Time for him to prove us wrong yet though.

Match feast

There is a family: Nanna, Mum, two kids, who sit in the lower Findus. They kept us entertained with a 'man v food' type feed on Tuesday night.

Course 1: Fish and chips eaten out of the paper, and shared around the family. How did they get it past the stewards?

Course 2: Home made sausage rolls

Course 3: Flask of soup

Course 4: A steady supply of chicken legs

Course 5: A variety of boiled sweets

It kept us amused during the dross that was served up in the Welling game.

from Martin Robinson

Letters Ed responds: I think I might have to change stands. Or marry into this family, at least.

Huddersfield

Huddersfield Town – a proper club, it's a decent draw.

Many memories of games from the past, but mainly at Leeds Road which was a big, big ground, huge open terrace behind the goal and Town fans scattered accross it on new year's day in the 80s. After a defeat in the cup early 90s Iffy Onuora bought drinks for the Town fans afterwards. Never seen us win there, Birtles missing a sitter seems to come to mind.

At home I remember a huge Huddersfield contingent present for a 5-1 hammering and Bobby C getting a hat-trick. Yep, looking forward to it...

from Martin Robinson

Letters Ed responds: That 3-1 defeat in the FA Cup in the 90s was my first ever Town away game. I don't remember much about it other than standing on a vast terrace behind the goal and the rare feeling of disappointment in seeing Town lose (as we tended not to back then).

A fairytale of Humberside

Can anyone pin down the much repeated statement that Grimsby and Hull had a special dispensation to play matches on Christmas Day?

This fact, if it is a fact, has started surfacing regularly in the last few years. It appears on the Wikipedia pages for both Grimsby Town and Hull City, with almost identical wording:

"Grimsby Town and Hull City were the only two professional teams which had official permission to play League football on Christmas Day because of the demands of the fish trade. That tradition has now disappeared following the dramatic reduction of their trawler fleets in recent years."

The source given for this statement is a trade article from 2006 about the opening of the Grimsby Fish Market during Christmas week. That article repeats the same assertion, without giving any source for the information.

It is confusing since, as your recent quiz made clear, football was once played on Christmas Day across Britain. It only stopped happening in the late 1950s in England and there was a full programme of Christmas Day matches in Scotland as late as 1971. Apparently, in 1983 Brentford tried to schedule a match for 11am on Christmas morning "to revive the old tradition of husbands going to football on Christmas Day while the wives cook the turkey" – a statement sufficiently crass that even our own major shareholder could be trusted not to make it.

The Wikipedia references to Grimsby and Hull's official permission both occur in the sections on the clubs' pre-World War One history. A look at the record books does indeed confirm that Grimsby were playing on Christmas Day in those years; but the fixtures included away games, so the idea that Christmas Day matches were unique to the fishing industry seems wide of the mark. Hull of course did not have a professional team until 1904, so we cannot be talking about any very long-standing arrangement in any case.

If anyone can throw any further light on this "official permission", it would be good to know what truth there is in the idea.

from Bill Partridge

Letters Ed responds: Can anyone out there help Bill with this? Let us know via the usual means.

Many thanks to all those that wrote in and if you want to appear on these pages in the new year just drop us an email or use our feedback form. Have a good Christmas.