Yippee!

Sheffield United promoted to the Premier League and poor Sheffield Wednesday left behind!

Pleased Chesterfield recovered from a shocking first half of the season  and finished mid way in the Conference.

Wakefield Trinity RL are doing well and Wharfedale RFC are safe for another year.

Sport

Sheffield United FC 'the Blades' are on the verge of automatic promotion from Division 1, four points clear and with a better goal diference than the one club that can overtake them - Sheffield Wednesday.  Should be promotion for the Blades, but they have bottled it before in key matches.

Sadly Chesterfield FC look doomed to relegation after only one year in Division 1.

Tunbridge Wells FC have had a good season and expectation is high that the club will secure promotion next season.

Wharfedale RFC has not had a good season, flirting with the relegation zone.  However recent wins  and the points totals of clubs above them mean that Wharfedale could finish mid-table.  The club has had key players on the injury list and will be looking to strengthen the squad if it is to avoid a third year at the wrong end of the table.

Westcombe Park RFC must win the last two games to have any chance of avoiding relegation.  How the club must rue the deduction of five points for  an administrative error in registering players.  Last season they avoided relegation by winning the last match of the season against Canterbury and in the process condemning Canterbury to relegation.

Tunbridge Wells  RFC has been relegated following a thumping defeat at home to Lewes.

Accrington Stanley

Accrington Stanley FC is seeking to raise £1M by selling shares at £100 pounds each. (See link).  I wish them well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-16047253

When Accrington Stanley left the League in 1961 many did not expect the club would ever return.  Like Wigan Athletic, the club had failed to complete its fixtures and in those far off days clubs were not relegated but had to apply for re-election to the League.  Bad form not to complete a seasson's fixtures.  The 'old boys club' usually ensured re-election, but not always. 

Now there is automatic relegation and promotion from and to Division 4.  Until 1958 clubs were divided into Division 3 North and Division 2 South and only one club from each league was promoted to Division Two.  Division 1 is now known as the Premier Division. 

The Club below Division 4 is The Conference and half the clubs in the latter have been relegated from Division 4.

I remember watching Accrington Stanley in the years before the club lost its league status.  One season Chesterfield lost at home 2-3.  It was the third successive home loss by the same score for Chesterfield.  The previous home match had been against Shrewsbury Town and I remember Arthur Rowley scoring two identical goals from the edge of the penalty area for the visitors.

Wednesday's woes are no hoot.

A long suffering supporter of Sheffield United (The Blades) I have been most concerned at the poor performance of the team this season.  Yesterday's win at Millwall provided some encouragement but the club hovers just above the relegation zone.

Across the city, Sheffield Wednesday (The Owls) are performing reasonably well.  However a black cloud is looming in the form of the Inland Revenue taking the Owls to court over an unpaid tax bill of £600,000. On top of that the Co-op Bank is owed £26 million by the club. What I cannot understand is why the Revenue does not act much sooner whilst amounts owing are lower. And why do banks permit football clubs to rack up the level of borrowing as has happened in this case?

What is it about football clubs which causes individuals to throw commerical logic through the window? 

£600,000 is three weeks wages for many footballers in the Premier Division which in itself shows the ludicrous state of football finances. The sooner football clubs join the real world the better. It is not the role of government departments or the banks to shore up failing commercial organisations.

Down Memory Lane: football

The first football match I attended was in the 1950s. Chesterfield played Leeds United in a 'friendly', a benefit match for their long-serving full-back Freddy Capel. The star attraction was John Charles who was later to move to Juventus.

Having spent my early years living is Heeley it was no surprise that when I was somewhat older and could be trusted to catch the bus or train to Sheffield I became a Sheffield United supporter: the Blades. The first match I saw was a boring 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough who had a wing-half by the name of Ray Yeomans. He was as bald as a coote but a good footballer.

I saw Brian Clough play at the Lane and have vivid memories of George Best and Bobby Charlton. In one match at the Lane I somehow finished up in the away supporters end. Standing behind the goal it was truly amazing how George could split a defence apart with a few wiggles of his hips. During the match against Man U that the Blades were awarded a dodgy penalty. When the penalty was taken the ball finished up in the net. I managed to suppress my joy at the goal being scored!

The team I watched in the 1960s included Hodgkinson, Coldwell, Shaw G, Richardson, Shaw J, Summers, Hodgson, Russell, Pace and Simpson, Allchurch L and Kettleborough. The manager was John Harris. In later years we were entertained by Woodward ,Currie, Hope, Badger, Shaw B, Dearden and Hockey.

Happy days.

Sport reigns supreme today

British Formula One Grand Prix from Silverstone, followed by World Cup Final. Won't be doing any gardening, or much else for that matter today!

World Cup

Can't say that I have been gripped by World Cup fever. Apart from the USA I don't know which countries are in 'our' group.

I follow in the press the fortunes of the soccer, rugby league, rugby union and cricket teams I support. Rarely do I attend matches, except when Wharfedale are playing within fifty miles of Tunbridge Wells.

World Cup

World Cup fever will no doubt grip some of the population of England in the next few days. Already cars are sporting the George Cross. Whilst I hope England do well, indeed win the FIFA World Cup Trophy (The Jules Rimet Trophy England won in 1966 was nicked in 1983), I am not confident to the point of placing money on the outcome.

We could do with some good sporting news in the weeks ahead as austerity grips the nation and European economies try not to fall apart.

Well done Fulham FC: Liverpool woe, Owls reckoning

Fulham FC has reached a European final with a 2-1 aggregate win over Hamburg. Well done and in particular congratulations to the club's manager, Roy Hodgson.

Poor Liverpool. Lost at home and might not even qualify for European competition next year.

Sheffield Wednesday (The Owls) play Crystal Palace at Hillsborough in the final game of the season. If Wednesday win they are not relegated, if they draw or lose Palace stay up. What a nail-biter! As a Blades supporter (Sheffield United) I hope Wednesday win. Seasons without derby matches and the associated bragging rights are far less interesting than those when we play the old enemy.

Cricket

Good to see Yorkshire are top of the County Championship table. Probably won't last, so I'll crow whilst I can.

London Marathon

I doubt if I could walk the marathon distance, let alone run it, so I take my hat off to all the brave people setting off today.

Ray Ellis is being sponsored to raise money for the Bridge Trust. All the best Ray.

Matters soccer

Since the age of 12 I have supported Sheffield United Football Club 'The Blades' - well we all have one cross to bear! Rarely travelled to away matches, although I remember visits to Scunthorpe and Leicester and of course to the enemy in the north of the city.

On Sheffield United's away Saturdays I would watch Chesterfield 'The Spireites' at Saltergate. One season I even made trips to three of Chesterfield's away games: Chester - now closed down, Bradford Park Avenue - closed down but restarted in some lowly division and Rochdale - the worst ground I have ever visited.

Going to 'the match' was a weekend ritual: discuss the forthcoming game in the pub on Friday night, meet up with your mates before the game, watch the match: Bovril and pie at half-time, buy the Green 'Un; a special Saturday paper produced by the Sheffield Telegraph on all matters football and sold after 6.00PM. Sunday lunch: down the pub and pick over the previous day's football events.

I stopped going to matches sometime in the late 1980s when commercialism really took hold and clubs stared importing players from all over the place. When I watched football most of the team would have consisted of local lads and the football club was part of the community.

A football tale

When I lived up t'North I spent a few years as a committee member of a village football club. My key role was to put up and take down the nets, pleasant enough on a warm sunny day, but rather different on a cold wet day with a gale blowing in from the Pennines.

The reward for this endeavour was to meet every Tuesday evening in the village pub with fellow committee members to select the team for the next match. Usually this took about five minutes, yet strangely the meeting would last for three hours.

The pitch the team played on had been levelled by a local contractor who had made a fortune from opencast coal mining. It was often waterlogged and an inspection of the drains established that they were the driest place for miles around. A site meeting was arranged with said contractor and a groundsman. The groundsman established to the great indignation of the muck-shifter that the problem was that clay just under the surface acted as a barrier to water reaching the drains.

What does tha' know abart pitches? said the muck-shifter.

I have just done Elland Road (Leeds) and Wembley, came the reply. Oops.

Cricket Tales (6) A day of tragedy

One ground I visited often as an umpire was close to a lake. When standing at the non-pavilion end the lake was on the off side. When the umpire moved to square leg the lake was behind him.

It is important that the umpire at square leg does not follow the movement of the ball when it goes behind him. His job is to watch the batsmen and check they ground their bats behind the crease to complete a run, as well as looking for run-outs when the ball comes in from the outfield.

Part way through the first team's innings a batsman stuck the ball past me. Suddenly, all the players on the field started running towards me. I turned round and saw a man thrashing about in the water on the far side of the lake. Some of the players swam across the lake towards him, others ran round the lake. All to no avail. the man drowned and the inquest verdict was that he took his life whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed.

The umpires had to decide if the match should be abandoned. We decided to ask the captains what they wished to do. It was agreed to play on after a further half-hour break to give the players time to recover from their physical exertion. To this day I think some of the players suffered mental scars which took a long time to heal, so probably playing on was the correct course of action.

Cricket Tales (5): A Day at Lords

A friend was a member of MCC and could get tickets for test matches and one-day finals. Although tickets wouldn't admit us to the pavilion, it didn't really matter as a day at a cricket match at Lords is an experience to savour.

I recall one match when we were seated near a charming country parson who was accompanied by his middle-aged, single, very well padded daughter wearing a straw hat and an ill-fitting floral dress. At the tea interval my friend suggested we visit a nearby delicatessen which we duly did, bringing back a sumptuous spread.

The food attracted the attention of said parson's daughter and we spent a couple of happy hours plying her with food in return for bottles of Beefeater gin & tonic, of which she had a seemingly inexhaustible supply.

Another friend acquired tickets for a test match against Australia. He worked for the police in the West Midlands and knew the landlord of the Lords Tavern. We parked in the pub's garage and naturally went in to repay the landlord for his kindness. During the course of our drinking session, the doors flung open and in walked members of a West Midland police serious crime squad. More drink followed. I became curious about the role of one member of the squad who seemed a bit slow on the uptake, so I asked him what he did. What he did, he said, was knock the door in when the squad was raiding premises.

Cricket Tales (4) Trigger happy umpire

After a few seasons umpiring I agreed to become the umpires' fixtures secretary. Basically I had to allocate umpires to matches. Easy I thought. Wrong. Some umpires demanded they had the same partner for every match. Some wouldn't travel more than a few miles. Others believed they had a right to umpire only first division matches. Clubs sent in comments about umpires to the Management Committee which wanted the best umpires to stand at the most important matches.

I decided I had to forgo umpiring and instead spent my Saturdays travelling round grounds to look at umpires, particularly those who had come in for caustic criticism! I was accused in no time at all of spying on umpires. However, using my diplomacy skills sic, most problems were smoothed over and in any event I had the Management Committee backing me to the hilt.

Umpires got to know club secretaries well. Not only did this fine body of people hand you your match fee, they also had to deal with any problems you might bring to their attention: boundary not marked out, crease required painting, pitch not prepared to the required standard and so forth.

I visited usually three grounds each Saturday to cast an eye over the umpires. I visited one ground, stayed for about ten overs, then moved to the next ground where I would normally expect to see up to ten overs before/after tea and then on to a third ground for a few overs.

On one afternoon I arrived at the second ground and was surprised that so few runs had been scored and overs played until on closer inspection of the scoreboard I noted that the first team to bat was all out and the second team was batting, yet it was no-where near the usual tea-time.

One club secretary came up to me in a highly animated state. Apparently one of the umpires had given a lot of lbw decisions in favour of the bowlers. Indeed whilst I watched, a ball clearly going down the leg side hit the batsman on the pads and the lbw appeal was upheld.

The match ended at tea-time and the umpire in question made a quick getaway before either I or the club secretaries could interrogate him.

The other umpire was as bemused by the events of the afternoon as the club secretaries. Then the light dawned. The offending umpire enjoyed horse-racing and he had booked to go on a coach trip to an evening meeting at Pontefract racecourse. He needed an early finish if he was to catch the bus and keep his match fee!

Cricket Tales (3) All a blur

One year the League Management Committee decided to appoint me to stand in the Division 2 Knock-out Final. The two teams were from a mining village and rural village and there was no quarter asked or given between miners and farmers.

There was a big crowd at the match which exacerbated the nervousness I felt about the day. The match was at MCC - Marehay Cricket Club. The ground has a major advantage over many other grounds. The local pub is by the side of the ground, indeed french windows lead from the bar onto the ground.

Umpires have to arrive early to inspect the wicket, ensure the boundary is marked and that there are sufficient cricket balls of appropriate quality. This we did and we adjourned to the bar. About ten minutes before the match started there was a bit of a stir, as who should arrive but none other than the League's President, the Duke of Rutland. He insisted on buying the umpires a large stiffener as it was a cold overcast day. Big mistake. Come the start of the match I wobbled out to the middle in more or less a straight line.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. I recall one run-out decision greeted with approbation, indeed acclamation, by the crowd and a not out to an appeal for a catch which resulted in some rather rude banter!

Cricket Tales (2) Pavilion punch up

I spent a few years umpiring in a Derbyshire cricket league. It was most enjoyable - you had the best view of the game, received a free tea and payment. In the event of your fellow umpire not turning up the fee was doubled as you had to officiate at 'both ends', rather than marching off to square leg alternate overs.

One match I stood at was a cup tie which brought together Hundall First XI against the same club's second XI. My fellow umpire that day was Cliff Gladwin who had been a fine bowler of cutters for Derbyshire CCC. Cliff eyed me up and said something along the lines of:

Now then lad, first team has a bowler called XXXX. Thinks he's good, but needs bringing down a peg or two. Make sure you no-ball him early in the first over.

Well, what could I say! Needless to say Cliff knew which end XXXX would bowl from and made sure I got that end. Third ball in XXXX oversteps the crease, out comes my arm and a shout of
no ball just as the ball hits the middle stump and sends it cartwheeling towards the pavilion.

At the end of the over Cliff saunters towards me and exclaims: well done lad. You learn fast.

XXXX went on to have a miserable game. However the fun was not over. A Second XI batsman was out of his crease tapping the wicket, when in comes the ball from a fielder who had been inspecting said object. Off come the bails. Decision had to be 'run out' as the ball was not dead.

The tea interval arrived and wily Cliff suggested we hang back. Good job we did. A fight erupted in the pavilion between the two teams. We never got our teas, but we had pocketed our fees before the match started!

Cricket Tales (1) Gone for a Burton

I enjoy watching cricket. Unfortunately I was not very good at playing the game, although I held on to a few catches at first slip: dropped a few as well!

In the 1970s I was employed as a lecturer and had plenty of time during the summer holidays to watch cricket.

I used to take my friend Dennis Webster, who was the paid agent for the Labour Party in Chesterfield, to watch matches at the county ground in Derby. The stand at Derby is an old racecourse stand. Games were often brought to a premature close in the evenings by sunlight reflecting off the glass roofs of factory buildings on the opposite side of the ground.

We would visit Trent Bridge and spend some time in the Trent Bridge Inn, strategically located between Trent Bridge and the cricket ground.

Our favourite trip was to Burton-on-Trent, which was always made by train. The cricket was sponsored by one of the breweries and a fine time was had by all drinking the excellent local brew. One year we set off in rain for Burton and when we reached the ground play had been abandoned for the day. Nothing daunted Dennis set course for a street-corner pub (there were a lot of these in Burton) at which he was greeted like a long lost friend. The rest of the day was spent visiting a host of pubs all run by members of the same family. I met grandfathers, uncles, nieces, sisters, nephews, mothers: you name it we met them! Best day not watching cricket I had spent in a long time!

Pulling away?

A closely contested Boat race yesterday with Oxford, the bookies strong favourite, losing to Cambridge by under two lengths. It was only well towards the end of the race that Cambridge secured an unassailable lead. It was the most exciting race for a long time.

Chelsea's 2-1 away win over Manchester United prevented the latter going five points clear of their nearest rival. Indeed Chelsea are top of the table. The title could be decided on the last day of the season.

On the election scene the Conservatives now have a 10 point lead in one poll and 11 in another. However this is due mostly to the Labour Party losing points to the Liberal Dozycrats. The Tories need to breach the 40% barrier. Should they achieve this, I believe the floodgates will open and the Tories will be swept to a comfortable overall majority. Who is the Tories' Barnes Wallis who will bounce the party to victory?