Bury FC have been told to leave the Football League stage...

I can't say that I am grieving over the demise of Bury FC. The press and television coverage being far more demonstrative than when we played out our last game at Ninian Park, back in March 1992...although I'm sure our efforts to keep going when we had simply nothing 'left in the tank', perhaps left us with feelings that would one day lead to our resurrection.

Up until we were told to leave the Football League in 1992, Aldershot played Bury on 22 occasions. Honours were pretty even over the years, with really very few memorable games.  Perhaps our 3v0 away win in 1983/4 will be remembered by some, and the 4v1 home win in our 1988/9 Div 3 relegation season will also no doubt stick in a few minds.

But the loss of Bury did stimulate my thoughts in a very odd way....for some reason I conflated my work and driving through Wales, with Boris Johnson and Bury FC. And at that point I was off in search of the following....something that I wrote after we played Bury at the Recreation Ground in 2008.

''I was driving through mid-Wales a couple of weeks ago with Radio 5 as my front seat passenger. The mountains a towering contrast to the ‘studio audience’ that were being encouraged to comment on the Conservative Party Conference.

It was nearly time to stop for a roadside coffee when the presenter asked the assembly to compare the leadership qualities of David Cameron with those of Gordon Brown.

A young Manchester University law student, at a guess, was the fastest to the microphone….’well the best you can say about Cameron is that he would make a great neighbour’. He sat back and waited for the laughter that would confirm in his own mind the power of his thought.

I stopped alongside a tea bar and considered his view. Brilliant, after too many years of working with politicians, Government and Ministers, at last I have a measure to determine my own vote. ‘Would I like him/her as a neighbour?’

Politicians are, after all analysis, the same….a change in political party leading the Country only resulting in a different set of losers. From Community Charge to local Income Tax, no more than a shift of the sand, and a new cohort of those worse off.

And all Politicians have the same in-built survival kit. The one that would guarantee a place in a lifeboat on the Titanic.

But to be my neighbour would demand something that would lift them above the political killing fields.

Peter Mandelson is a survivor and someone to sit next to on a cruise ship, if icebergs are about, but, ‘come round for supper Pete’. No, I can’t see it working. Ken Clarke however would do a great Bar-B-Q and with real ale no doubt….and Boris Johnson…perhaps a bit noisy but I think I could trust him with my collection of Aldershot Town programmes. I sense honesty in his behaviour not evident in Mandelson and, with breaking news, Sarah Palin….

Last Saturday Aldershot Town failed to get out of the trap and League leaders Bury cruised to a 3v0 lead without breaking sweat.

Rob Elvins scored a consolation goal with about 20 mins to go, just as my thoughts were turning to the long drive back to Wales.

Then a penalty in front of the East Bank….the usual scrummage and a booking for the Bury goalkeeper, Brown. Now I have to say I didn’t see the incident that led to the booking, but television and my brother, confirm that he appeared to be taking his horticultural NVQ seriously and was attempting to plant daffodils under the Recreation Ground penalty spot……Scott Davies scored. Danny Hylton made it 3v3 and the cheating Brown would not be welcome as our neighbour.''

Postscript

Sorry Boris, but I think your mind is now engaged elsewhere and I can't rely on you to look after my archive of Aldershot 'stuff'... and given the state of the UK and European political landscape, the collection is now probably safer under the charge of our Exmoor Ponies.