Save the Spelthorne five!

My wife and four others face the chop due to centralising posts in one youth centre. Its not even cost saving more as its five posts down to four with a net loss of just four hours. I know a lot have been hit by job losses but this move is just plain daft. It would be great if you could sign the petition – it may not do much but I’ll try anything to help keep these five jobs.

www.gopetition.co.uk/online/29812.html

Many thanks and please pass onto anyone else who maybe interested in showing their support.

Author interview…DAVID JOHNSON

Fellow Stoke supporter and now an author, David Johnson, whose new book ‘Tie Me To The Mast’ (my brief review is here) is one not only for Stoke fans but any lover of football (plus it has side issues such as how to stack a dishwasher and why is TV so carp nowadays).

 

How did you come to support Stoke City?

 

We moved to North Staffordshire from Liverpool when I was two. When I was three and four I kept going on at my dad to take me to a game. In a last-ditch attempt to convert me, he bought me the complete Everton kit and a “casey” ball for my fourth birthday, but it was no use. He caved in and the first game I saw was a nil-nil draw at the Victoria Ground against Birmingham. My dad says it was the worst game of football he’s ever seen, but I was hooked. We sat in the Butler Street Stand and my dad used to make me bring a bright orange, flowery cushion with me. He said it was so I could see over the people in front, but I suspect it was punishment for not supporting Everton.

 

What have been the highlights and lowlights during your time supporting Stoke?

 

I would expect to be able to reel off a list of football-related triumhs and tragedies, but I find it really difficult. Humiliating defeats against Birmingham and Liverpool of course stick in my mind, as do victories over Manchester United and Chelsea. But I’m not the sort of fan who obsesses about statistics. For me the unique beauty of football is the human drama and the camaraderie, and some of the most special memories I have come from awful, dire, depressing seasons or from games against teams I can no longer remember.

 

How did you go about writing ‘Tie Me To The Mast’ and have you been pleased with the reviews & fellow Stoke fans reactions so far?

 

I can’t tell you how much the good reaction from fellow Stokies means to me. The people closest to me have been remarkably tolerant as well, bearing in mind the mick-taking they come in for. It’s a good job, really, othewise I’d be friendless and in the divorce courts by now.

The reviews so far have been great, even from a national broadsheet like the Telegraph. I’d like to be all cool and nonchalant about it, but in truth it makes me really proud that people from every walk of life seem to like it. It’s an incredible relief after months of uncertainty.

It’s my first book, and, sticking to the cliched advice to write about what you know, I’d made some notes the season before. But, as often happens in my life, chronic laziness overtook me and nothing came of it until I needed an excuse to go to the first game of last season away at Cardiff. I told my wife I was writing the book so I had to go, and from then on my fear of Alison overrode my motivational crisis.

At Anfield last week a complete stranger stopped me and said: “Loved the book, mate.” That one moment made it all worthwhile. 

 

What do you think of Pulis’s new signings so far and do you think we have a strong enough squad at least until the January transfer window?

 

I think Kitson is struggling in the system that we’re playing and I’m sure Pulis expected to have added another genuine wide player before deadline day. As it was we missed out, leaving Kitson a bit adrift at least until January. On paper, even with the new signings, we should be doomed, but how we gel as a team is the really critical thing.

 

Your top five best and worst players you have seen in a Stoke shirt and why…

 

Top Five, in no particular order.

Mark Chamberlain – something exciting seemed to happen every time he received the ball on the touchline.

 

Mark Stein – goals, goals and more goals.

 

George Berry – commitment and a real one-off.

 

Denis Smith – broken leg? Felt nowt.

 

Alan Hudson – where sport meets art.

 

Bottom five, in no particular order.

 

Lee Chapman – I still can’t understand how he scored so many goals.

 

Dave Brammer – thought he was David Beckham but was actually David Brent.

 

Vincent Pericard – it’s a shame, but he seems to have completely lost his way.

 

You know what? I’m struggling with the other two. Any Stoke player I saw before I turned 16 was a hero and most of the players in our doldrum days just merge into so much grey crapness.

 

How did you feel when we won promotion into the Premiership and which were your player(s) of the season?

 

It was a strange, wonderful, mixture of joy, relief and calm anti-climax. After the initial celebrations immediately after the final whistle, it felt a bit like the few minutes after midnight on New Year’s Eve – shaking hands with strangers, but genuinely wishing them all the best.

I stayed up in the stands for a few minutes with my mates before heading down towards the pitch. Half way down and suddenly I was struggling not to cry. It had been an emotionally bruising season. A short while later I heard the Leicester fans applauding and I looked up to see if their team had come back on. When I realised they were clapping the Stoke fans – minutes after their own team had been relegated – it was all but impossible to stop the tears.

Forty Nights – Part 3

As this is my 40^th year I decided to raise money for charities to ‘celebrate’ forty years! I have been raising funds for the Donna Louise Trust and the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy charities online (just under £300 raised between the two so thank you all!) plus the successful Bearstock 3 gig in Feb which raised £632 for the four charities (£158 to each charity) – Diabetes UK, the Parkinson’s Disease Society, Spelthorne Crossroads for Carers and Bees United.

 

 

   Now for one final fundraiser, raising money for the Parkinson’s Disease Society, a cause very dear to my heart as my dad was diagnosed with this last year and my former boss also bravely battles PD. Now I am not after your money (although feel free if you’d like to donate!) but your help in one of four ways…

 

1. By kindly adding the link to my fundraising page to your website or passing it onto others

http://www.everyclick.com/jasonritchie

 

2. Using Everyclick for your online search engine – every search counts!

http://charities.everyclick.com/using-everyclick/search.xml

 

3. Using Everyclick to do your online shopping

http://charities.everyclick.com/using-everyclick/shop.xml

 

4. Donating a signed CD/book/t-shirt etc so I can auction this off on Ebay (100% of the final selling price goes to the PDS)

 

Top marks to Paul Stead  and the boys in Sacred Heart who have kindly donated two signed copies of their cracking album ‘Shake’ for auction on EBay.

 

More about them can be found www.sacredheartband.com and their MySpace page

Weclome to the world…

…our lovely son Kameron born today at 2.45pm weighing in at 8lbs 2oz and below he makes his debut…

 

 Tuesday update…both mum and baby fine. He kept us up three hours last night, bless his little cotton socks. Big sister is not very keen on his night time chorus but is loving pushing him about in the pram and giving him a bath. Dad and mum meanwhile seem to be on nappy duty as big sister says shes not doing it – can’t think why?

Adrian Chiles, Nugent and 17,000 fans…

Just finished reading the excellent book ‘We Don’t Know What We’re Doing’ by West Brom supporter and ‘Match Of The Day 2′ presenter Adrian Chiles. He talks to all manner of West Brom supporter from one fan who weaves West Brom related rugs, another who takes jobs to fit around the games and the touching story of a regualr supporter and his battle against lukemenia. Chiles has a very readable style that is both humourous yet manages to capture the passion of the Baggies fans, although you can insert your own club instead and it still applies. He also comments on how his passion for West Brom affects his family who have yet to be persuaded to support them (I know that feeling as my daughter is a Man Utd fan and my wife hates all things football related). A book suitable for any football fan(atic) and even fellow celebrity Baggies fan Frank Skinner makes regular appearances in the book.

Latest rumour is a £4m bid for Portsmouth’s David Nugent according to the Sentinel. John Rudge has confirmed we would be interested in Rangers striker Lee McCulloch but have no interest in fellow Rangers player Dave Cousins.

Meanwhile the club have reported record season ticket sales with over 17,000 now sold. That will mean 20,000 plus each home game at least!

Please sign the petition opposing the green belt grab in Spelthorne

Dear all,
           Currently there are submissions to redevelop areas of Spelthorne, many currently green belt sites and vital local facilities in Spelthorne including Leacroft sports/youth centre; Shepperton youth centre; land surrounding Notcutts nursery in Staines and a couple of sites in Sunbury. These are ones which certainly alarmed me!

Back in 2006 I helped run a successful campaign to stop the closure of four youth centres in Spelthorne and like déjà vu Leacroft is again under threat along with Shepperton this time around. The one thing that will always sway council/planning opinion is public opinion and getting your views known. Please sign the petition if you want to oppose these suggestions…

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Spelthorne_Greenbelt/

The possible youth/community centre closures annoy me the most as they are vital locally and if you build more houses yet take away local facilities it seems totally illogical. Plus the centres are a vital place for talented local youngsters to go be they in a band or for sport at Leacroft. Even if you are not local to Spelthorne it is again a sign of the times that well used and run local centres are closed for a short term gain – please support the petition and you can be based anywhere in the world to support it!

Also if you have time please email/write to the Planning department at Spelthorne council.

‘Representations on any of the alternative site allocations must be received before the end of the consultation period, which runs until 5.00 pm on Friday 27 June 2008, and should be sent to: Planning Policy Section, Council Offices Knowle Green Staines TW18 1XB, or emailed to:- planning.policy@spelthorne.gov.uk ‘

PS You can see the full list at -
 
http://www.spelthorne.gov.uk/environment___planning/env_planning_ldf/env_ldf_spelthorne_development_plan/env_planning_alternative_site_allocations.htm

Stoke City 0 – 0 Leicester City

YES!

 

After a nervy nil nil draw Stoke City are back in the top flight for the first time since 1985. Absolutley magnificant feeling I can tell you

Well done Tony Pulis and the team plus chairman Peter Coates for backing Pulis in the transfer market this season. Big task ahead this summer especially with seven loan players (of these perhaps Carlo Nash, Chris Riggott, Shola Ameobi & Stephen Pearson will be signed in the summer) now returning to their respective clubs. I am sure if we keep the core of this team plus a few key new signings we will do ourselves proud in the Premier league.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	West Brom	46	12	8	3	51	27	11	4	8	37	28	33	81
2	Stoke	46	12	7	4	36	27	9	9	5	33	28	14	79
3	Hull	46	13	7	3	43	19	8	5	10	22	28	18	75
4	Bristol City	46	13	7	3	33	20	7	7	9	21	33	1	74
5	Crystal Palace	46	9	9	5	31	23	9	8	6	27	19	16	71
6	Watford	46	8	7	8	26	29	10	9	4	36	27	6	70
7	Wolverhampton	46	11	6	6	31	25	7	10	6	22	23	5	70
8	Ipswich	46	15	7	1	44	14	3	8	12	21	42	9	69
9	Sheff Utd	46	10	8	5	32	24	7	7	9	24	27	5	66
10	Plymouth	46	9	9	5	37	22	8	4	11	23	28	10	64
11	Charlton	46	9	7	7	38	29	8	6	9	25	29	5	64
12	Cardiff	46	12	4	7	31	21	4	12	7	28	34	4	64
13	Burnley	46	7	9	7	31	31	9	5	9	29	36	-7	62
14	QPR	46	10	6	7	32	27	4	10	9	28	39	-6	58
15	Preston	46	11	5	7	29	20	4	6	13	21	36	-6	56
16	Sheff Wed	46	9	5	9	29	25	5	8	10	25	30	-1	55
17	Norwich	46	10	6	7	30	22	5	4	14	19	37	-10	55
18	Barnsley	46	11	7	5	35	26	3	6	14	17	39	-13	55
19	Blackpool	46	8	11	4	35	27	4	7	12	24	37	-5	54
20	Southampton	46	9	5	9	26	27	4	10	9	30	45	-16	54
21	Coventry	46	8	8	7	25	26	6	3	14	27	38	-12	53
22	Leicester	46	7	7	9	23	19	5	9	9	19	26	-3	52
23	Scunthorpe	46	7	8	8	31	33	4	5	14	15	36	-23	46
24	Colchester	46	4	8	11	31	41	3	9	11	31	45	-24	38

Dr Who update

Well the Sontaran are back aka the baked potato head aliens that had me hiding behind my sofa back in 1976

I love their names like Undefeated and Bloodbringer – they would love Manowar that’s for sure! Some neat twists which will doubtless reveal themselves fully in part 2 next week including the Martha clone. Plus we get UNIT back but alas no Brigadier…

Yes Martha is back much to the delight of my daughter who upon hearing the latest rumour one of the Doctor’s assistants may be killed off later in the series is now firmly rooting for it to be Donna. My daughter can’t stand Donna and her shouting – that is the only thing that goes against her character for me as this makes her too close to her Catherine Tate Show characters. Audience figures are holding up as well, over 6m watched Saturday’s episode.

The week before saw the return of the Ood and another strong episode with Tim McInnery (Blackadder) in the lead villain role (and he meets a suitably deserved punishment!). For once an alien race that thanks the Doctor as he freed them from slavery.

Still to come are the Doctor’s child, Agatha Christie, more Rose Tyler and if rumours are to be believed a right old reunion towards the end of the series with Sarah Jane, K 9 and Captain Jack!

Oh and the Digital Spy website reports the Cyberman maybe back for a Christmas special…

Do it for my dad and granddad…

To borrow from Pottermouth’s battle cry ‘Do it for my dad and granddad‘. Why? Well back in 1974 they took me, a mere six year old along to my first ever Stoke game – myself and my dad are not sure who we played but I seem to think it was Wrexham. Sadly my granddad passed away back in 1995 but I know he would have loved to see Stoke back in the top flight.

I remember my dad taking me along in the 70’s along with my school pal Andrew Cawthorne (now a Reuters reporter) to see Stoke at the old Victoria Ground in the Butler Street Paddock. My dad always got the rough deal as each dad was supposed to take turns in taking the two children along to the games but somehow he seemed to end up taking us each time!

Along the way I have witnessed the lows…seeing us lose to Blyth Spartans in the FA Cup, relegated from Division Two (now the Championship) and the worst manager I have seen at Stoke Kris Kamara. But then there have been the highs…seeing us win two Autoglass Trophies at Wembley, beating Brentford in the play-offs at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff and watching players like Alan Hudson, Sammy McIllroy, Mark Stein, John Ritchie (RIP), Peter Shilton, ‘Big’ Brendan O’Callaghan, Jimmy Greenoff, Liam Lawrence, Ricardo Fuller, Mike Sheron, Sir Geoff Hurst (thanks Brian – see comments) and Dennis Smith to name but a few all play in Stoke’s colours. But I have never been as nervous or excited as I am feeling now! I have spoken to Arsenal and Liverpool fans at my workplace (sadly no fellow Stoke fans here in Staines!) and they just don’t get these promotion nerves. They compare it to cup finals but it is not at all like a cup final as they don’t have to wait 23 years to possibly experience top flight football.

Tomorrow Stoke play Colchester Utd and for the latter it is their last ever game in their current ground Layer Road, so it will be an emotional day for their fans. So the Stoke players need to go out and make sure they get the win we need as Colchester’s players will be fired up to ensure they go out in style. Stoke fans will also be closely watching Hull City’s game against Palace because if Hull draw or lose and Stoke win we are up! Most importantly though Stoke need to focus and to get a win no matter what and not worry about other results.

But whatever happens I will be eternally grateful to my dad and granddad for taking me to see the only decent team in the Potteries and not that other ‘team’ Port Vale.

Be loyal, be proud, be Stoke.

GOOOARRRRN STOKE!

A poem by my daughter…

Guilfest – more bands announced

A fantastic festival and one I have attended each year since 2003. A great way to induct yourslef into the festival scene or if you want to take your family along. The Kid Zone comes highly recommended by my daughter!

Reviews 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Bowling For Soup, Dodgy, Richie Havens, The Aliens, The Damned & Dreadzone have all been added to the 17th annual GuilFest, alongside the previously announced line-up of headliners Blondie, Levellers, The Australian Pink Floyd Show, plus Kula Shaker, Cerys Matthews, From The Jam, and Freak Power.

Texan punk rockers Bowling For Soup will headline the Ents24 Stage on Saturday night.  Following the release of their UK hit singles, “Girl All The Bad Guys Want”, in 2002, and ‘1985′ in 2004, they have built a huge live following and enjoyed massive chart success, selling well over a million albums in the course of their career.

Recently re-formed, following a fantastic early tour of 2008, the incredible power-pop rock trio Dodgy will perform on Saturday evening on the main stage sponsored by Commercial Radio.  With 12 top 40 singles and 3 top tens including the catchy “Staying out for the Summer” and “Good Enough” – the latter still a staple of radio playlists – GuilFest are delighted to welcome them back to the 2008 festival.

Legendary American folk singer Richie Havens will also perform on Saturday, bringing his internationally renowned intensely rhythmic guitar style to the festival for the first time.  The man who opened Woodstock in 1969 to continuous ovations, Richie’s unconventional style has inspired generations of musicians the world-over.

Mad psychedelic rockers The Aliens – formed from three ex members of The Beta Band – hit the Ents24 stage on Saturday, while taking to the Main Stage (sponsored by Commercial Radio) on Sunday, original goth-punks The Damned make a more than welcome return to GuilFest. Dreadzone also return to perform their unique blend of roots influenced dance music on Sunday on the Ents24 stage.

The vibrant and eclectic bill for Guilfest, held in Guildford’s idyllic Stoke Park on July 4th, 5th and 6th 2008 which boasts seven music stages, will continue to grow over the next few weeks, with top performers due to be announced for both the comedy and theatre tents. Further great onsite facilities include the Kidzone, (which helped win GuilFest the ‘Best Family Festival Of The Year’ Award in 2006), a mammoth real ale bar, various funky cocktail bars, a fantastic range of food stalls, let alone a huge variety of stalls selling everything you could ever hope to find at a festival.

Folk legends reunite for one night only!

Nice pic here of my dad (he’s on the right – the good looking one as he always says!) and his two best friends from his school days back in St Andrews. They all played in a 60’s folk band called the Ranters, who despite a world tour (well Ireland) never made it big. Since then Rod Sinclair (in the middle) has had a very successful musical career in Denmark playing with Sula and releasing solo albums. Rod also plays a 20 second snipet of banjo in the Volbeat video featured on the Vodpod on this blog. Great band and after a quiet start this song really kicks in!

On the left is Davey Stewart who carried on his love of folk music and helps organize an annual festival in Fife, the latest of which was held in April. My dad still plays and sings at home (and don’t tell him but he isn’t half bad!) and all three friends recently met-up at the Wee Spoon festival in Kirkcaldy.