ralphindevon

A draw seems to be a popular prediction and I can't argue with that. 2-2

Best pie i had was at Notts County, msny years ago though. Best pasty ever award still goes to our neighbours at the tented village. Huge, succulent, tasty and cheap. Almost made up for having to watch football in such awful surroundings

Wow, 73 years! Torquay was my first league ground, September 1971, my family had a caravan nearby and Torquay would play games on a Saturday evening. So just the 52 years for me.

There's something special about going to an old style English stadium. Places like Millmoor, Rotherham's old ground surrounded by scrap dealers and pubs selling great tasting beer at ridiculously cheap prices. The Baseball ground, Edgar street and the very much mentioned Griffin park were other favourites. I can't explain what it is about these, now quite rare, run down dumps that does it for me. Eastville always had a similar feel with an added edge.

I always insist on no auto renewal on just about everything. As you’ll know Sometimes you can do it yourself on their app or website. However, a couple of times companies have said they won’t auto renew but then send a a letter a year later saying it’s going to renew. They certainly don’t get a second chance. Because we moved back to England after being away for 11 years, we’ve got all our insurances and subscriptions all need renewing pretty much on the same date in February. Really looking forward to that this year.

Much better championship starting days next year, a lot of Thursday and Friday which should mean a lot more weekend cricket than recent years. With the T20 finals day and the 50 over final both in September there won’t be much weekend cricket for the championship final games though.

I must admit when I first drove past I did think how nice it would be to have one in my garden. No I haven’t pinched them by the way.

A great view of Amalie Thestrup nearly taking out teammate Naomi Layzell during her goal celebration

He scored a few worldies in his time.

Not sure that emoji is appropriate. For all the laughs we have had meeting players that are out on lash, Ralph Milne is the tragic side of the story. Alcoholism is no laughing matter.

That’s a hard read. My heart goes out to him and anyone who’s experienced similar.

I agree about the Welsh derbies being second rate, especially as we’ve had so many in recent years. Love it or loath it our derby is a proper same city derby and they’re the best. I think we’d have to have them in with us. Talk about putting Bristol on the world map!!

Apparently their manager left in the summer and went to Saltash taking all the decent players with him. This left Millbrook in the shit big time and a relying on youth to get a full team out. But fair play to them, for a, never giving up despite having a player sent off very early on, which when you’ve been regularly hammered it would be easy for heads to drop. And b, fulfilling their fixtures. They have been playing better recently apparently, yesterday nothing went their way. Hopefully they’ll pick up a point or two soon.

And guaranteed Premier League champions. I would swap Plymouth Parkway for Buckland Athletic (Newton Abbot) I went to watch them yesterday, they’ve come from next to nothing and now have a great set up, excellent clubhouse with good food and drink. And they won 12-0

Spurs were the last team we played in the top flight and them and neighbours Arsenal are the only two top flight clubs we’ve not played a competitive match against since. So definitely those two, especially as we did the double over both in our first season back up in 1976/77. And as we’ve been in the middle two divisions for almost 40 years now, it’d be nice to have all the big guns up there. And then a sprinkling of rubbish teams so we don’t get relegated.

Yes I can remember one of them, maybe the second, with them being more moody than usual. Plus there were some technical problems, quel surprise in France. Also Noel getting angry with a fan who kept shouting something in French. Saw a few gigs at the Bikini too, Suede, Pete Doherty amongst others. Quite an intimate venue. I remember Brett Anderson walking off the stage during an instrumental part of a song and standing next to me where there was a gap by a pillar. I felt like I should say something as we were shoulder to shoulder like “great gig man” but I wasn’t sure if he was about to burst Into song again at any minute and my well meant praise would have echoed around the whole venue, so probably wisely I stayed quiet.

I would have loved to have a seen Bowie at Taunton but I was only 9 so a bit too young. He also played Torquay I think around then, according to friends around here. The only time I saw him inside was in Cardiff, he was supported by Morrisey and they’d had a bust up and I think that was Morrisey’s last time supporting him. That and the fact it was a Monday night seemed to add to the not brilliant atmosphere and although I was very close to the stage, it doesn’t stand out as the best Bowie gig I’ve seen.

David Bowie - 5 times at 4 different venues. MK Bowl 1983 probably the best.* Massive Attack- Carcassonne Oasis - Toulouse x2 Stranglers - many times Wembley Arena probably the best. Simple Minds - Colston Hall Suede - Toulouse Arctic Monkeys - Carcassonne & Ashton Gate These stand out as my favourites among many others. * I had tickets for a 6th gig, walking distance from my home in France but he had a heart attack a week before. Gutted.

Back to 8 points for a draw next year. Not sure why, I thought they’d have given the 5 points experiment longer.

Yeah, I think I’m right in saying one of the efforts at doing the drainage didn’t go according to plan. Hopefully they’ll get it right this time and that’ll be that.

Yes, all of those were real enemies at the time and I guess as we were shouting abuse at them on a fairly regular basis they became well known to us. Now I wouldn’t know one of their players if I was sat next to them on a train. Do they have a manager yet? The last bloke was at least recognisable and infamous.

Somerset’s first two championship games will be away from home as they want to give grass extra time to grow after some more drainage work. At first I liked the idea of not having to go to Taunton in early April and get hyperthermia. But knowing are luck we’ll get warm sun at the start of April and freezing and wet at the end. Plus we’ll probably now have back to back games which makes attending a few days of each more difficult.

There’s a couple near us in the lower Lansdown that turn up about 15 minutes into the game almost every game. TBF they don’t go out at half time and always stay to the end but rarely get there on time. Maybe they’re busy beforehand, everyone there have their own stories and reasons for doing what they do. Good on everyone for just turning up I say.

I would go for Newport (a) followed by Fulham (h) the following week in early 1982. Both draws but what happened in between meant both were very emotional affairs.

I guess if my son/daughter played for the Gas at some level I’d go and watch them but would never become a fan of the club. I must admit, unlike the 80s 90s when I’d know every player, I couldn’t name you more than 2 players at Rovers nowadays.