Never forget your first love.

 

I don’t think I’ve mentioned in the blog before that my other great sporting interest is cycling. In fact, whilst I saw my first Lincoln City game in the late 50’s before becoming a dedicated follower of the red and white I was an avid pedaller.

That’s not to say I was any good at it, at least the competitive version. A combination of lack of money, not to say talent and too much waistline put paid to any thoughts of a competitive career on the road but on summer weekends I could be seen exploring the byways of Lincolnshire on two wheels well before I discovered the delights (?) of Sincil Bank.

This prompted my wife on more than one occasion to enquire if there were any country lanes in the county I hadn’t discovered on my bike? The answer is not many.

The limitations that held back my non existent cycling career also had the same effect when it came to football, particularly the almost total lack of any ability although the miners boots that my Mother procured from somewhere at the start of each football season didn’t help, that’s what I told myself, and her and in fact, once I’d started work and was able to afford my own boots things did improve albeit from a low base.

Eventually I found myself in three football teams at the same time and from there, it was the Graham Taylor era, my interest in the Imps was secure. Whether that was a good or bad thing I leave for you to decide.

Over the years professional cycling has received more coverage and with the advent of the Sky team, with the avowed intention of producing a British winner of the Tour de France, which they duly did, the TV companies, particularly Eurosport, now show a lot of cycling events.

Now I’m retired I can watch the three major races in their entirety but this year, this crazy year the tours are all taking place now. I do hope you’re keeping up.

So, and finally getting to the point, I found myself in the bedroom, at three o’clock on Saturday with Eurosport on the TV, for their coverage of the Giro d’Italia, the transistor radio at the top of the stairs for the game and twitter and we are imps on the computer in my study. Who says we chaps can’t multitask?

One thing that did come across, amidst all the excitement was stand in pundit Mark Hone eulogising on the fact that he hadn’t seem the Imps for some time and was gobsmacked, for want of a better word at how good they were. It took a couple of days before I watched the highlights and confirmed Marks view. We are watching, or rather not watching some pretty amazing stuff. Although the performance only yielded one point I don’t think I’m on my own in wondering if this is the best football and the best team any of us have ever witnessed?

All this is the typical fare of an Imp. The team is playing champagne football and we sit at home with a mug of tea. I really should cough up for a match pass for an away game.

The trouble is the Tour of Spain starts this week.