The Magic of the FA Cup

I WAS THERE! Bower Fold, Stalybridge, Saturday 13th October 2007

Daisy, our cat, woke me at 4.00am yesterday morning. I don't know why she does this but it is happening more often and especially on a Saturday when it would be nice to have a little bit of a lie in. I got up, made a cup of tea and read the newspapers online. But I can't settle. I have this idea in the back of my mind and it just won't go away.

On Friday evening I was talking with my father-in-law about the FA Cup and the games we remembered. I recalled my first Cup Final - Nottingham Forest against Luton Town in 1959 when Forest won 2-1 with ten men (having lost Elton John's uncle Roy Dwight, who was carried off with a broken leg after scoring the opening goal). So I have had 48 years of enjoying the excitement of the FA Cup and as Brian and I exchanged memories, the thought crossed my mind as to how many more FA Cup competitions we might be able to see.

In the early hours of the morning I didn't want to start going over this again but the idea that had been in the back of my mind all week suddenly took centre stage and there and then I decided. I would go to Stalybridge after all!

Back in the early 1990's, I wrote a series of books on the History of Workington Reds, a team I had supported since my time back at boarding school in Steyning in Sussex in the 1960s. The books charted the progress of the Reds season by season from 1951 to 1965 and in its field the series was a best seller. A copy of So Sad, So Very Sad - Book One was recently sold on ebay for £15, three times its cover price. Researching the books and familiarising myself with the record of the club strengthened my attachment to the Cumbrian football outpost and not only secured me for life as a club supporter, but also led to my family moving the length of the country to make Cumbria our home.

Yesterday's FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round at Stalybridge Celtic was a one o'clock kick-off. I left Silloth at 8.30am, picked up Ron Scott in Maryport (Ron ran the Workington Reds Soccer Shop in the club's Football League days) and then it was the A66, M6, M61 and M60 junction 23, through Ashton on the A635 to Stalybridge and we were enjoying a pre-match drink in the Bower Fold social club just after mid-day.

It was the right decision to go. One of those days I will always remember. Reds won 5-0 and I was back home, celebrating with a glass of Cava even before the rest of the family had returned from shopping in Carlisle.

And yesterday evening the sport just went on. At 7.30 I mentioned that I would like to watch the rugby. There were cries of anguish but I pulled rank as a 'veteran' and the England vs France game was on. Two hours later no one had left the room - apart for a cup of tea at half-time. Everyone had been rivetted to the TV. It was disappointing for me that I was unable to answer some of questions asked regarding the rules of the game, but the fact that four people, three of them ladies, watched a game they initially said they didn't want to does pose a question. Was it the rugby that held their interest or was it support for the English, those down-trodden and much maligned people that we are hardly allowed to mention nowadays in fear of causing offence to others. The huge cheer at the end of the game indicated it was the latter.

Helping the evening along was a vegetarian meal for a change. When I got back from Stalybridge, I par-boiled some potatoes and then sliced and layered them with grated cheese in an ovenproof dish. Each layer was seasoned and topped with mixed herbs and crushed garlic. Three layers in all, before a pint of cream was poured over. In a hot oven for about an hour and served with a tomato and red onion salad with a mustard and honey dressing.

On Friday I was forced to start moderating comments on this site because Labour Party supporters were targetting it with their anti-BNP nonsense. I had hoped that the comment boards could have provided a reasonable debate forum but obviously that was just wishful thinking. This morning there were 12 comments for moderation and I did start to try to edit them to allow points to be made. But it's too much work and I just haven't got the time, so comments making personal attacks on other forum posters have been rejected as have any posts with language or terminology that has no place in political debate.

Democracy, Vietnam & Stalybridge Celtic

We get a box of fruit and vegetables grown locally delivered every week, to show support for Cumbria's farmers and to avoid putting any money in the pocket of the supermarkets. Everything always gets eaten and if there is anything left then we make it into a soup which gives us lunch for a couple of days.

I mention this because it was while I was enjoying a bowl of leek and potato soup and listening to Radio 4's World at One today, that a Labour adviser, being interviewed by Martha Kearney, confirmed the points I had made in my blog this morning. He thought that the convergence of Labour and the Conservatives into the centre ground was bad for democracy because voters were being denied a real choice. He also went on to say that it definitely wasn't the way forward for the Labour Party which was losing support hand over fist in its traditional heartland . . . and we all know where that support is going.

There have been a few emails over the blog entry concerning the Vietnam War. My interest in the 20th century history of Vietnam is anything but support for American involvement there after the country was divided at the Geneva Conference in 1954. American foreign policy was a disaster for Vietnam and the Vietnamese people.

I also get irritated by those who dismiss Ngo Dinh Diem as an American puppet. Once they start down that track I know that they have only read the one book on Vietnam - Stanley Karnow's Vietnam - A History. Diem and his brother Nhu were nationalists who had the best interests of Vietnam at heart. A great many Vietnamese thought so too because when the country was about to be divided, over 1 million people left their property and belongings behind in the North to move to the South to be under Diem's rule rather than that of Ho Chi Minh. America's involvement there was never about Vietnam or the Vietnamese people, but just about confronting Russia and China.

When I was running my 'Books on Vietnam' website I was always being asked to recommend books. Obviously it depended on what the reader was really after, but if, like me, they were interested in the time when French rule was coming to an end, I always pointed them towards Lucien Bodard's The Quicksand War. This book provides a vivid picture of what Vietnam was really like in the early 1950s. Once you have read it you will know why the Americans were destined to fail and acknowledge the massive achievement of Diem to bring order and stability to the country.

UPDATE: In yesterday's blog I said that Stalybridge Celtic were one place below Workington Reds in the Conference North table. Well they beat Gainsborough Trinity 5-1 last night and are now one place above us. Let's just hope that the scoreline included the goals they were going to score this Saturday as well.

One for the anoraks & the road to Wembley

Just tidying up my desktop and putting away the file for the General Election 2007 that never was. Some might find the intended introductory leaflet for the Workington constituency of interest, so it gets its first and final airing.

It's an exciting week for thousands of non-League football fans as on Saturday it's the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and for those clubs competing, the Wembley dream is still very much alive.

Workington Reds have a difficult trip to Stalybridge Celtic. They are also in the Blue Square Conference North and just one place below us in the table. Celtic were at Borough Park a couple of weeks ago when the Reds won 1-0. But it was a close game and we will have to be on top form to progress further in the competition or to bring Stalybridge back to Borough Park for a replay. The winners get £5,000, which is a considerable sum of money to a club like Workington, constantly struggling against the spiralling costs of football at this level.

Ten years ago I travelled to every away game, but nowadays I pick and choose my trips out of Cumbria. With Saturday's game having a one o'clock kick-off because of the England vs Estonia European Championship Qualifier, I shall be listening to the Reds' game on Radio Cumbria. Readers of Freedom will know that I seldom have a good word to say about the BBC, but Radio Cumbria's sports coverage is an exception. As the county only has one club, Carlisle United, in the Football League, our two main non-League sides Workington and Barrow receive excellent coverage. Each Saturday there is full match commentary from one Conference North game on the AM frequency which is a service not matched by any other radio station in the country.
So the cup dream will be alive all week and if on Saturday evening the Reds are in the hat for the 4th Qualifying Round draw on Monday, there will some celebrating going on in Silloth.


The death of a soldier serving with 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles near to Kandahar Airfield last week was the first fatality of a soldier serving in the Gurkhas in the current conflict in Afghanistan. One of my favourite authors is John Masters who served in the 4th Prince of Wales' Own Gurkha Rifles in Afghanistan before the Second World War. He said then that it was impossible for any invading army to conquer the Afghan tribesmen and he has been proved right time and again in the years since.

Afghanistan was the theme of a book I borrowed from my eldest daughter recently for some light reading. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini was an enjoyable read and I was surprised I liked it. It's a very well written story about two Muslim women in Kabul living through the actual events of the past 20 years. A couple of weeks later the book was featured on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime but I didn't listen, preferring to keep my reading in my head rather than replace it with the one from the Corporation.