1. "Who were the last five Grimsby-born players to play for the Mariners?"
2. "How many former Town players are currently playing in a higher division than the Mariners?"
3. "Who has scored the most goals for Grimsby Town in the 21st century?"
4. "Who were the last ten players to appear in goal for the Mariners?"
5. A daft name game
6. Discipline
7. Two defenders, scoring, same game
8. Ex-players coming back to haunt us
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16 February 2005
The question
Isaiah Rankin is the inspiration for the next question. Because? Last weekend he scored in the FA Cup for Brentford. When I saw the goal on the television I thought: "Could we swap him for Andy Parkinson?" That's not the question, by the way. I also thought: "Hmmm, I wonder how many former Town players are currently playing in a higher division than the Mariners?" I suppose we can include ex-loanees in that as well. Whichever way, that doesn't include Matt Bloomer. Well, not yet it doesn't...
And to think Arsenal let both Rankin and Jason Crowe go, and still won the League without them. Astonishing.
The answers
Isaiah Rankin was man of the match in some newspapers for his cup performance for Brentford versus the Saints. Goes to show...something.
Last week's runner up Pat Bell was first to respond to my second question. He got into double figures before throwing in a query of his own: Is Jamie Lawrence still playing? Apparently so, at Brentford along with the aforementioned Rankin and Chris Hargreaves. A total of 12 points for Mr Bell. A good start, but surely not an exhaustive answer?
My fave part of Pat's answer was "I don't know how you rate the Scottish Premier League, where Simon Ford is." You've answered your own question there, mate. Simon Ford versus Craig Bellamy, that'd be interesting...
Young Steven Young was next, clearly with too much time on his hands at work as he listed over 20 names. Steven boasts that he knows former loanee Jason Gavin has been let go by Bradford, but forgets Hargreaves of Brentford. Widdrington? Hmmm. Hyldgaard? Never played for Town despite being on loan so he does not count. Hold your horses - Widdrington HAS gone up a division to play for Port Vale. How desperate are they?!
Young wonders how his choices would line up. A defence "would be like a brick wall", midfield with bite and flair, and forward options from "Rankin, Boulding, Lester and Kabba would be pretty handy as well." (We'd need to employ another physio or two first.) The team would be unrecognisable to us Mariners fans. Our defence is as mobile as a brick wall I suppose.
Duncan Butler enters for the first time [insert your own innuendo - Ed] at number three. He mentioned someone I and the others had forgotten about, Alan Neilson, who reminds me of the dismal run under Lennie Lawrence, so I'll move on...
'sue1town0' is a weird name, very twenty-first century perhaps. Her entry is also into the twenties and throwing up more queries. Dave Beasant? How about half a point, since he's registered for emergencies. But then 'sue' went on to mention Craig Armstrong who scored for us this time last year in the Jevons game - a 6-1 win on my birthday, against the Tykes. Nice one! 'sue' looks like becoming this week's winner.
But then Mike Shelton included Nick(y) Daws in his choice, but the website I checked said he's not played this season. Sorry Mike, you ain't having that....
And then up popped tipster - ha-ha! - extraordinaire Mat Hare. He emailed me every time an ex-player popped into his head, but only amassing 9 points - not even a full side!
A full run down of the answers? I've listed all the entries below with invalid players removed:
Craig Armstrong, Dave Beasant, David Beheral, Michael Boulding, Marlon Broomes, Danny Butterfield, Danny Coyne, Gary Croft, John Daly, Aidan Davison, Chris Hargreaves, Richard Hughes, Steve Kabba, Michael Keane, Jamie Lawrence, Jack Lester, Alan Neilsen, John Oster, Alan Pouton, Isaiah Rankin, Georges Santos, Nicky Southall, Andy Todd, Paul Warhurst, Tommy Widdrington Chris Williams, and Darren Wrack.
But how does that massed data collecting leave our researchers in the standings?
Bell: 13 points
Young: 23 points
Butler: 17 points
sue: 23 & half
Shelton: 21 points
Hare: 9 points
So, by a Dave Beasant - or half a point - 'sue' nicks it!
Nip by in a couple more days for my next poser.
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