I just wanted to add a memory to the reserves trip to Roker Park to play the mighty Macams in the late 80's, referred to by Mark Waite in his recent post........
I too was on that team bus, (along with an American university coach, who ended up taking Mark and his friend and fellow YT - goalkeeper Rob Thompson - to Pennsylvania on scholarships to Lock Haven University)
The Grimsby team were, at the time, rock bottom of the old English Central League, with Sunderland perched at the top of the tree! For various reasons, the Mariners side was packed with Junior team players and apprentices - apparently on a hiding to nothing. Add to this, travel delays which got us to the ground at 6.40 for a 7.00 kick-off (the team literally did get changed on the bus!), and the game was a foregone conclusion.....wrong!!
The young Mariners played their hearts out and came away winning by a single goal - hence the abuse that Mark refers to in his memory.
There was however, another highlight of the trip for me.....team manager Arthur Mann, asked me if I'd nip to the chippy round the corner and order 20 fish & chips for on the bus journey home. This I did, and told the chip shop owner that we'd settle-up on collection. Enter Alec King (who had just moved to Sunderland as Commercial Manager, from a similar post at Blundell Park), who comes into the dressing room after the game, and invites the Grimsby party into the board room for a buffet - so the fish & chips got forgotten about,
until.....
Club Secretary Bernard Fleming was less than happy a couple of weeks later, when he received a bill from said chippy - with interest!!
Lee Stephens
The Alzheimer's Society recently launched a national initiative called Dementia Friends which is giving people an understanding of dementia and the small things people can do that make a difference to people living with dementia. Alzheimer's Society want to create a network of a million Dementia Friends across England by 2015 - for more information visit dementiafriends.org.uk
Memory added on December 13, 2013
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