Arcticterntalk.org
The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
Archive for the month “October, 2013”
Pointless Celebrities Strictly Come Dancing. Do they?
Without giving away too many of my views this shot of the TV programmes amused me. Surely not a single programme……..
Rant Against Banks, Not Bankers
Seems a negative kind of week, far too many rantings on here but here we go. What seemed like a simple request for my wife became ” not possible”. To open a new bank account. No need for boring details but something I thought simple and normal and needed doing today. The first bank Abbey National said not possible, but could be done midday thursday? ” Sorry have to work”. Next option midday friday “Sorry have to work”. So exit Abbey National and into The Halifax. Seem to recall they ” give something Xtra”. Certainly do, an extra time to contemplate, have a holiday or even spend all one’s money. The first opportunity to meet the wonderful person who could deal with the complexity of opening a bank account was in one weeks time. Bizarre.
So Lloyds bank to the rescue, yes possible and all done in minutes. I do wonder how exactly The Halifax and Abbey National expect to do business. Have a guess where our family will not go to?
A quite extraordinary story really.
Carshalton Athletic. Sad Times
To give some context, I am a Brentford supporter of almost 50 years who until recently travelled both home and away. Recently this has changed and on a number of saturdays in the season I go to local non-league games and photograph them. As such I have visited Walton , Met Police, Tooting and Carshalton, amongst others. Without any doubt the most friendly welcome has been at Carshalton. Not only has the club been kind enough to allow me in and use my photographs but the general football enjoyment has been very high. We are not watching Pele or Messi but are watching a group of motivated and for many of them talented players. Behind all this has rumbled dissatisfaction with management and owners, not totally unlike what happens at many clubs to be frank. But this has gone in my opinion too far. Last season a group of ” fans” thrust leaflets at fans coming to games and indeed boycotted games and this season the personal abuse that has been visible to any watcher on Twitter has been unacceptable in my view. I do not pretend to know all the facts and in fact why should I. I do not fund nor run this club, but merely turn up 6 times a season and enjoy my saturday. In fact the game versus Billericay was the single football game I have enjoyed the most this season. But now things have turned very dark, unacceptably so. Last week there was managerial change, again for reasons not fully known to me but the club made a decision and that is that. The team then were losing 5-0 at half time away at a good Ryman Premier team, Lowestoft and since then I have followed a string of tweets that lead me to writing these short opinions. It would seem that some fans who travelled were abusive over and beyond what is acceptable. This below comes from the Carshalton AFC website verbatim and I would encourage anyone to follow this story on there.
I will make only one comment. At some stage if fans become so negative that they harm their club, they cease being fans. Personal abuse against anyone in non-league football is not acceptable. This is a game and not a business at this level. It is here to be enjoyed. My own view is that I have always enjoyed watching Carshalton and would regard myself as a supporter now. These events are sad and need to end now.
http://www.carshaltonathletic.co.uk/cafc2011/firstteam.asp
Below is what is written on the website above
On Saturday evening Ian Hazel rang to tell me of the abuse he was subjected to, by a small number of people, claiming to be Carshalton Fans, who stood behind the dugout during the game against Lowestoft.
Ian rang again on Sunday morning and explained how he had discussed the situation with his family and was not prepared to continue. I asked him to think about it over night.
There have been various discussions during the day including with Paul Williams and myself. Clare Dipre and Kelly Anscomb also met with Ian when the effects of of the abuse became clearer. This evening Ian wrote to me by email including a statement:
“Having been a player , coach ,manager & supporter of Carshalton Athletic i have no choice after being asked to manage the 1st team to step down after Saturdays disgraceful scenes .
I will not stand there and listen to the abuse that was aimed at myself as it was on Saturday. There was no need for it and it was vile , obscene & personal and was not very nice for not only myself but staff and the group of young players we have at the club.
I do not believe anyone should be subjected to this and i certainly will not just sit there and take it. I will however stand in temporary for 3 weeks or sooner to enable the club to find the right person to take the club forward .
I feel i have been very loyal to Carshalton Athletic and have worked hard for 7 years where others have just walked away including numerous players last week.. I have had to step in 4 times as Manager as a caretaker before to enable the club to find the right person.
It is a big shame to have made this decision as i feel as an ex professional footballer , ex manager of 6 non league clubs , ex Premier League Academy coach & UEFA “A” Licence coach i am sure my experience and knowledge would have only benefited the club long term.I know all the players from Under 18s to 1st team and given time would have got the right blend of youth & experience .”
The club has no choice but to accept his position and I have apologised to Ian on behalf of the club.
In my opinion, the events of Saturday were unacceptable on every level.
There was absolutely no reason for Ian to be the target of anything. He was committed to making a success of the first team and just wanted to get on with the job.
It appears that the sole purpose of the abuse was to try to make Ian resign in order to damage the first team and the club. To that extent it has succeeded.
Two well known individuals have been named by on-looking Carshalton fans as those responsible for the alleged abuse. The club will be investigating the incident.
Ian is, and will remain to be, an integral part of the club. I do hope for the next three games the fans can show Ian the overwhelming support he deserves and enjoys from every part of the club.
The club wish to stress that the allegations of abuse apply only to a maximum of two people.
Paul Dipre
Should Brentford sack Uwe Rosler now?
Football fans are basically and usually inherent kind souls who although ranting away on a saturday with murderous chants, often then reflect, and certainly turn up the following saturday. At Brentford there has been much discussion about what our expectations are this season, what our budget is and hence what should the manager be doing to achieve this. My own humble view ( n=1), is that Uwe Rosler is not the man. I have become disenchanted gradually over the last year. Nothing specific. no one thing. Others do not agree, some vehemently disagree. Anyway I pulled together a few thoughts this afternoon and posted them on Beesotted ( the most excellent and balanced of fanzines/websites). Here I repeat them with a poll. I genuinely want to know am I wrong?
My own views differ. It is not about Stevenage nor 3 defeats. It is about the poor management at the end of last season and the continuing poor management this season. Combined with some abysmal signings. Let us recall we have scored 4 home goals the lowest in the league. We have even scored 3 of them in one game against arguably the worst side in our league. We have conceded 13 away goals almost the worst. This persistent poor form is down to Rosler not down to injuries nor bad luck. It is clear where our deficiencies are . Goalkeeper. Central defence. Defence generally. A roulette wheel approach to team selection. Our best players were on the bench last week.
This is not a panic opinion but a considered one that also notes Roslers refusal to explain to the fans any of his more bizarre selections. We cannot waste any more time nor money . Finally I am not enjoying this brand of football this season.
The Last Strawberry 2013
The few little things that we have grown in the garden this year have actually tasted great, although not exactly kilograms of them. We have a Strawberry plant that has lived outside through snow and whatever weather is thrown at us, and produces happily each year. Today I found a last strawberry hidden away on the plant.
A Competition with No Prize
A competition to see if anyone can correctly identify some of the more bizarre things that have ended up on the dining table over this year. There are five things to identify, of which one is a plant type.
Start a petition to get decent Magnum Ice Creams in UK. Magnum 5 kisses.
Decent Magnums wanted!
Every country one goes to has better ice creams than UK. Spain has so many different and better ice cream choices, and now too Portugal. Why can Portugal have some delicious looking Magnums not available in UK? Who makes these cruel and unprecedented decisions? Do they all have cold arctic souls!
East Stirling Football Club. Old ground
Have tried to capture old and new grounds over the years on my website
The Times Monday October 7th has Wrong Football Scores!
There will be few who read the scores from the Scottish Cup on a monday morning and there will even fewer who realise that Times has printed the wrong scores and in fact seems to have made up the scores from two games. Let me firstly add that I do not normally spend monday morning checking and cross-checking the Scottish football scores. I just noticed yesterday that East Stirling had beaten Threave Rovers 6-0 because of all the updates that were appearing on the vidiprinter on Sky football on my mobile. However today it seems that Times might have left the game early as they report a score of 2-0. Similarly with Berwick Rangers, my Scottish team. They according to Times drew 2-2 with Peterhead but Sky sports assures me they won 2-1. A double check reveals that i am right and Times are wrong. So that makes it 2-0 to me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/scottish-cup/results
East Stirling used to play in a ground in a supermarket car park in Falkirk and a lovely little ground it was too. I understand that it has been bulldozed sadly. Here are a couple of photos to remind us of the 6-0 winners yesterday. Lots more images of football grounds on my website http://www.footballgroundz.co.uk if you would like to visit.
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
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