Back to Stevenage.....for the first time in just over twenty years

It’s hard to keep a balanced view of British politics when we have such idiots in power, and so many more idiots in waiting.

And my wife thinks I have been too hard on poor Gordon. ‘Why no comment on the boy David’, she asked this week. Well ‘it’s difficult to comment on nothing‘, I replied.

A bit of a flounce around the stage at Blackpool earlier this week seemed to me, at least, not quite enough substance to capture my vote. So how come 2 million voters switched their favour from Gordon to David on the back of a sixty odd minute speech…..?

Ruth Kelly on Question Time last night was drooling over Cameron’s ability to speak for an hour without notes. Well Ruth, let me tell you, I have seen Billy Connolly in concert and he did two hours.

And all of this being played out as Aldershot Town sent Exeter City back to Devon, pointless.

Not the most convincing of performances from the Shots, but the victory was sealed with two of the best goals that I have witnessed at the Rec in nearly 50 years. The pace and power of Aldershot in the last twenty minutes of the game was just too much for the worst Exeter side that I have seen. The 2v0 result secured by way of good substitutions from our manager and plenty of pace on the bench to take advantage of a pedestrian Exeter defence, made slower by the tireless work of Rob Elvins.

But the 'big news' this week has been the comment over the possible departure of our keeper Nikki Bull. Will he go in January or at the end of the season?

Quite clearly Nikki is giving his best for the Shots….he is a good keeper and it is in his best interest to perform well, if he genuinely wants to get away.

So how can we lose? If he stays we retain a good keeper, and if he goes it is because…… he is a good keeper.

His ambition is admirable but I would caution him. After so many years at the Rec he may find the outside world a hostile and somewhat unfamiliar place.

Despite the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961 a number of players left England for Italy in the early sixties. ….lured by the Lire…..Dennis Law played 27 games for Torino scoring 10 goals, Jimmy Greaves 14 games for AC Milan scoring 9 and both were pre-dated by Joe Baker at Torino and John Charles at Juventus.

Of course they were all truly great players. But only Charles with 93 goals in 150 games, between 1957 and 1962, made a success of the move to Italy. For all of the others the end result was no different than the experience of Ian Rush in 1987.…..when asked how he was getting on in Turin he replied, ‘it’s like living in a foreign country’. He came home pretty quick, following the same path as Law and Greaves before.

And when talking of the lure of the Lire….let’s not forget Jack Howarth, who came to Aldershot from Swindon Town…he played out six seasons at the Rec before moving to Rochdale, only to return within the year. He then went on to play another four seasons with Aldershot.

So I guess my observation to Nikki is….’foreign country…think carefully‘.

Despite getting to 43 league and cup games last season….and not missing that many matches in the previous Conference seasons, I have never been to Stevenage. Business meetings or the dread of tangling with the M4 and M25 on a midweek evening have always been pretty good reasons to keep me away from Broadhall Way. But tomorrow I will be returning to Stevenage for the first time since September 1986.

I had been invited to give a presentation at a Conference organised by the Eastern Council for Sport and Recreation, held at Stevenage Leisure Centre. I arrived at the theatre in time for lunch, and was greeted by ‘Sir’ Trevor Brooking, Chairman of the Eastern Council for Sport and Recreation. Yes, just two years after his retirement from playing for West Ham, where he made 636 appearances, Trevor was finding his way through the political maze of sport.

Trevor took me to one side just as I was about to check out the vol-au-vents and told me that there had been a bit of a change in the running order. My keynote presentation after lunch was to be put back by half an hour to fit in a session by the Chairman of the Hertfordshire Keep Fit Association.

‘No problem Trevor’ I replied with out a moments thought.

Trevor hadn’t been totally honest with me….Joyce, the Chairman of the Keep Fit body, had contracted stage fright the night before the conference. The thought of delivering a thirty minute presentation to an audience of 400 people was just too much. The answer was of course a practical demonstration.

Her session…..’Bridging the gap - young women’…delivered with 30 scantily clothed ‘fit’ women certainly went down well with the mature male audience .

‘Thank you Joyce…we all enjoyed that…no time for questions…our next speaker is….please welcome…..’

What a warm up act…..

Stevenage will be well organised on Saturday…….

And finally….It’s good to have you back Jim……a personal note.