Cod Almighty | Postbag

Lion pedant amongst the 'Three Amigos'

20 January 2021

Tim Mosey kindly writes in to suggest the correct day of the great lion escape whilst another fan has some questions for the incoming owners.

Pedant alert

The lion escaped on a Thursday night, not on a Friday. To use the phrase: "I was there."

I was a hard up student at the time at Grimsby College, one of my mate's girlfriend worked on the reception desk so we were always in the know and first in the line when the police came in to ask if anyone could go to the police station to take part in the ID parades. For some reason (I never did find out why) they always took place on a Thursday evening. It didn't seem to bother the police too much that I'm 5ft 7" with dark hair. We went if the alleged criminal was short and bald or tall and ginger. We got £10 cash for student night in town straight away afterwards.

I remember that evening as no sooner had we left and were making a beeline for the Barge when every available PC was leaving the police station (in cars, obviously!) telling us to get indoors as the said lion had escaped. We took refugee in the P&M. I also distinctly remember one of the regulars having to get the barmaid to back him up when he used the payphone on the bar to tell his wife he'd be late home for his supper.

I think if you look at the date on the Telegraph, it's the Friday - they were doing very well to get the news out that a lion was going to escape later that day and not the day before. I could also tell you about an escaped elephant before a Vfl Bochum v Werder Bremen game. If you ask me nicely... 

from Tim Mosey

Letters Ed responds: Thanks, Tim, yes, we'd love to hear more stories about animals escaping before football matches.

All change but what will change?

Two of the Three Amigos - Jason Stockwood and Andrew Petit - turned up at BP the other afternoon. Firstly and foremost a great big thank you to all three for relieving the club of John Fenty, but what does the future hold for Town with these three?

Owners come, owners go, some leave positive memories and some negative. Whoever owns Town, be it a consortium or an individual, they are only temporary as the true owners are the fans. Without their presence or financial support over the years the club is nothing. It is the fans that have given the club 100+ years of history and the fans live on. All we know is that the preference from Tom Shutes is for a new stadium on the docks along with an associated regeneration project. The purchase is for the shares of JF and his loans, but not a purchase of the total shareholding. This would mean that they would not hold a majority shareholding and rely on others to support them at an AGM, a surprising situation given the amount of investment.

We know that the Mariners Trust own more than 10 per cent of shares and would make an ideal partner for the consortium. It is reported that the trust had been in contact with the consortium, prior to their accepted bid, encouraging them to continue their pursuit of ownership. The trust also correctly stated that their representatives in the boardroom could not reveal any details of meetings, due to confidentiality, nor have said anything about the informal discussions held with the consortium.

Where does that leave information for the fans about the future of our club? John Fenty will be soon a goner and the trust aren't saying much which leads us back to the Three Amigos - not quite mushroom talk but close.

What is their plan for the future of the club? Is there a three-, five- or ten-year plan? They should already know about the state of Blundell Park without a state visit, so what was the real purpose? The intention, according to Tom Shutes, is a new stadium but no start date has been suggested. Then we have Cheapside - the less said the better.

Finally we have the very sorry position of the club in the league. While it is fair to assume Hurst has come because of the takeover, there is no news of a future injection of cash for the team. I seem to recall reading somewhere about the consortium wanting to engage with the fans but we need them to utter some words.

This site predicted it would take around three to five weeks for due diligence to take place so that should mean a takeover in February, all being well. Too late for the January transfer window, unless the Three Amigos put in some early extra funding!

from DB

Letters Ed responds: As we don't know the full details of the takeover it is difficult to ask questions about the details and what percentage of shares they will own. Further to that, the way the proposed new owners have conducted themselves so far has impressed a large majority of supporters and we at CA Towers were pleased to see them visiting Blundell Park regardless.

Use our feedback link to get in touch with Cod Almighty