Dismissal shows Nat’s importance to the team.

It’s getting to be a theme now but, once again City played with ten men, this time for virtually the whole of the match as Nat Brown was shown a straight red for a deliberate handball. It would be quicker to list the games the Imps have managed to survive with all the players on the pitch than those where they have suffered a sending off.

There was of course much debate in the stands as to the correctness of the decision, for my money the handball was one of those you’ve seen ignored by the officials as mere clumsy play and, Imps player not being available yet I really can’t say whether Nat was the last man or not. I can say though that it changed the course of the game.

City looked good after the sending off passing well and looking committed. If anything Torquay were thrown out of kilter and the Imps led via a penalty. I didn’t think there was much validity to that either. Was the referee trying to even things up?

After that good spell City started to retreat somewhat and Nat’s absence began to tell, especially with Miller still being out the defence. He may be something of an unappreciated player but without Browns workmanlike contribution and guidance City looked vulnerable. It was no surprise when Torquay levelled and took the game. It may be that the outcome was always going to be the way it turned out but I pay my money to have the players decide the result not a referee hoping for better things on the strength of another “look at me” display. It wasn’t just the referee either, a string of unfathomable offside decisions underlined a poor display by the officials. For a division just one step below the football league this standard really isn’t good enough.

All aboard for a trip back to boyhood.

Gainsborough Model Railway Society Open Day.


The original plan for the bank holiday weekend was the Fake Festival on the Saturday and Grimsthorpe Festival on the Monday. In fact if I’d had my way we would have taken in Tabbyfest in Swinderby on the Sunday too but this was vetoed by the powers that be. In fact not only was the Monday forecast awful, the day started dismal to say the least so we were looking for some indoor entertainment.

I’d seen adverts for Gainsborough Model Railway open days before and fancied it so off we went. The publicity said it was easy to find but I was glad I set up the sat nav as it was tucked away in the back streets near Tesco, not that we know Gainsborough very well. What we weren’t prepared for was the sheer scale (did you see what I did there?) of the model railway. The model trains are about twice the size of my old Hornby set and represented several generations of modeller’s efforts and very impressive it was too.

The theme of the layout is Kings Cross to the now defunct Leeds Central Station and the representation of Kings Cross was breathtaking in its attention to detail. There was even a workman tackling a bit of miniature welding by the line side, blue flashes emitting from his welding arc.

It’s easy to be a bit sniffy about grown men playing trains, but there’s no doubting the tremendous skill involved in constructing not only the many lines but the locomotives and rolling stock too but make no mistake about it a lot of the modellers were living the dream alright and woe betide the poor new member, operating the turntable for the first time getting the sequence wrong. He heard all about where he was going wrong from the stationmaster, or was it the fat controller?

Festival Fever invades Hykeham – Even if it is a fake.

North Hykeham Fake Festival.



U2 Coldplay and Oasis, all under one marquee roof, well it had to be not quite right didn’t it? It was made quite clear on the advertising that these were tribute bands but there were nevertheless a large gathering last Saturday night down by the river in Hykeham to see the Lincolnshire instalment of the fake festival which has been on tour throughout the country. You pay for your ticket and get a full afternoon and evening of music, first from local bands and then the aforementioned imposters. It’s different rosters at the different venues and your ticket not only gets you into the local gig but also gains entrance to a three day festival where all the groups that have taken part perform. This takes place in Sherwood Forest and you get camping thrown in, all for the original entrance fee.

We can’t go as we’re in Spain but I wouldn’t have minded some more of this. I wondered how I would take to it all as I had seen the best the business has to offer at Glastonbury but it was all great fun kicked off by U2, one of my favourites from a while back, and they gave a pretty good approximation of the real thing including Bono style shades and The Edge’s woolly hat. They could play a bit too and rattled off the Irish combo’s repertoire.

Next up were Coldplay who had arrived from performing in Holland. I wondered why these musicians were content to play other bands stuff when, presumably they were capable of playing original music. However if they can make a living copying others rather than playing the pub circuit at weekends and parties and grafting in a factory or office during the week then fair pay to them. They were to my deafened ears the weaker of the acts but it was pointed out if I’d viewed from further back rather then forcing my way up front with the kids, it’s the Glastonbury effect, I might have been able to appreciate the nuances of the tunes.

There was no way Stewart and I were standing back whilst Oasis were on and they’d certainly saved the best till last as they not only sounded but looked completely authentic too and the lead singer had definitely, not maybe, done his homework on Liam Gallagher’s persona, rocking the night away with the crowd roaring out the words to all of those so well known hits. Yes we were mad for it alright.

Well Hello Dolly. You stole the show.

You guessed, I may be 60 but I can still get down with the kids so it was off to Glastonbury to tick something else off the bucket list.

We didn’t quite go the whole hog choosing to stay on a very adjacent campsite giving the advantage of flush toilets and a shower. When we toured the festival site we realised what a good decision that was. Primitive is the word for the facilities there and the sort of overcrowding you’d see in Delhi or Singapore.

Armed with a long wish list of acts we would like to see we quickly realised that the logistics of the massive site meant we were going to have to be a bit less ambitious. It can easily take an hour to detach yourself from one stage and get to another. There is no crowd control and you can get 100000 viewing the biggest acts.

First up was Kaiser Chiefs who were a surprise opener on the Other Stage. Glastonbury sometimes keeps you guessing by billing certain slots to be advised. Kaiser Chiefs were billed to appear later in the festival. It gets the anticipation going but in such a tight knit community rumour spreads like wildfire and we had heard they were a possibility. Next up were Blondie, ok by later standards and then Glasto newcomer John Newman who was a class act I have to say, then Haim who were very er loud.

So far the weather had behaved itself but this was soon to change as the legendary Somerset rain began to bucket down. It was quite biblical and of course après le deluge the mud. It’s quite fitting that the English National Ballet were performing a new work based on the 1st World War because the festival site was doing a fair approximation of the Somme with every blade of grass disappearing in a sea of mud.

There were some unexpected highlights, Sophie Ellis Bextor was amazingly good, Ska Band The Selecter marvellous for old geezers like us. A totally unknown group, Rubblebucket rocked us in the Avalon Café, Bryan Ferry and Caro Emerald wonderful entertainment. Strangely the Manic Street Preachers didn’t seem to connect with the audience at all. Bombay Bicycle Club were a disappointment but there were very few of those.

We now come to the really big hitters. Dolly Parton. Who’d a thunk it? She really had the Pyramid Stage in the palm of her hand and we chose Kasabian for our finale. Good choice. A 100000 + crowd really rocked and the light show was memorably spectacular. By then we’d got our crowd strategy about right and we hung about a bit before heading for one of the many bars to have a last couple of pints of the excellent local cider to let the remainder of the crowds die down. Then a last night under damp canvas before a quite slow trip back to Lincolnshire where it’s a lot dryer. Hint hint Mr Eavis?



I travelled with my very good friend Stewart whist our wives spent the kids inheritance in London.

Bands (etc) seen.

Thursday
James Munro
Sacha

Friday
Kaiser Chiefs
Blondie
John Newman
Haim
Lily Allen
Sophie Ellis Bextor
The Selecter

Saturday
Rubblebucket
The Daptone Super Soul Review
Manic Street Preachers
Beth Orton
Bryan Ferry

Sunday
Caro Emerald
The 1975
Dolly Parton
Bombay Bicycle Club
The Black Keys
Kasabian

Imps escape punishment after pitch incursion.

It got me on the radio and I’m not sure it sends out the right message but Lincoln City will not be sanctioned for failing to keep their supporters off the playing area at the last home game of last season.

That’s not to say I’m not relieved and pleased that the club will not have to spend precious resources on paying a fine or even losing a home game. I do wonder what the upshot will be come the final game next year though.

You never know your luck, maybe us long suffering fans and indeed club officials may just have something to celebrate and that would excuse any exuberance. Hope I’m not tempting providence there.

Anatomy of a flop.

I can’t sing. London Palladium.


To London last Saturday with pre booked rail tickets, first stop Leicester Square ticket booth to see what shows we could get in.

My wife had tickets to see the X Factor based musical “I can’t sing” for June and was disappointed to receive an e mail saying the show was to end in May so we got tickets for the afternoon matinee performance. If we’d got tickets for the evening (and very last) show we would also have enjoyed a speech from Harry Hill who co wrote it.

The strange thing was the production got rave reviews when it started and indeed was not bad at all but the Palladium is a big theatre, the biggest in the West End, and if there aren’t enough bums on seats off it goes.

Whilst admitting that there were weaknesses we really enjoyed the parody of the popular (not with me) ITV show and the finale was truly spectacular. Furthermore, leading lady Cynthia Erivo has a fantastic voice. She most certainly can sing. Even though I wouldn’t cross the room to turn on the TV to watch X Factor I found the whole exercise thoroughly worthwhile and the typical Harry Hill bonkersness shone through. I can tell you now, as I can’t spoil a show that’s finished, The Simon Cowell character descends from heaven at the start to celestial voices, then at the end he climbs into a spaceship, which actually lowers into the audience almost touching them before returning the musical guru from whence he came.

Go on Harry, only one way to end the performance. Flight!

My budget? That's a closely guarded secret - from me.

For a man that says he has been told not to discuss his playing budget Gary Simpson talks an awful lot about it. Rather he talks a lot about the fact that he doesn’t know what it actually is.

To be honest I don’t suppose he’s on his own in not knowing precisely what the budget will be for the forthcoming season. It depends on season ticket sales and also, one would suppose, on how the season starts. If City have another good start to the season and gates are up come Christmas the board would presumably be more disposed to invest in recruitment to shore up a bid for the P thing.

Anyway, positively, Simpson told the Echo he was on the lookout for a partner for Ben Tomlinson, a striker who certainly looks the part but whose frustration when things don’t go his way often sees him incur the displeasure of the referee:-

"We need more goals and we need someone to compliment Ben Tomlinson, so we certainly need another striker.
"But we need to get goals from other areas too because, at the end of the day, goals win matches."

Indeed they do and we’d have won quite a few last season if we could have just got the ball in the net, sometimes it all looks rosy and then that final touch isn’t there:-

"I'm trying to put a bit of quality together to give more goals to give us a chance next season."

Amen to that.

"I'm speaking to quite a few players, but I'm playing blind a little bit because I don't know what I'm going to get in terms of the budget,"
"It's a difficult one at the moment because the retained list has got to come out this week.
"My budget is like a sliding scale at the moment. What I will get depends on a few factors and I'm conscious of that. There's one or two that I'd like to keep.
"And there's one or two that I might not be able to keep now, but they might still be with us come the start of the season.
"I might not be in a position, at this moment in time, too offer them this, that or the other because I don't know what I'm going to get."

Thanks Gary. I think you did mention that.