On a decidedly chilly and blustery December's evening a warm welcome awaited us at Blundell Park as we arrived to prepare for the Mariners Memories Game. A 7:45pm kick off for the Skrill Premier game against third in the table Kidderminster Harriers.
Mariners Trust
We had previously travelled across to the home of Grimsby Town Football Club on Friday 18th October 2013 as guests of the Mariners Trust when 160 fans gathered for an evening of memories and stories from former manager Alan Buckley who was launching his new book 'Pass and move'. The Trust kindly invited us along on that occasion to greet fans arriving at the stadium with a display of sporting memories and a chance to speak with supporters about the sporting memories project across North East Lincolnshire.
9pm on a Friday night at a football club dinner isn't necessarily the most natural place to start talking about dementia, but after Trust Chairman Chris Parker had opened proceedings with a passionate speech about the aims and hopes for the club, we were given time to talk about how fans own memories can help connect with supporters now living with dementia and to launch the Mariners Memories Game We were able to play Bill's Story during the presentation and were quite stunned at the response. An audible gasp went up when the final image appeared on the story. Bill Shankly was manager of Grimsby Town from June 1951 to January 1954.
On The Bench
As plans continued to take shape as the match date grew closer, we were invited on 5th December along to the Estuary TV studios to be interviewed by Rachel Chadwick for Estuary's 'On the bench' Tuesday evening sports show, to talk a bit about sporting memories, dementia and the Mariners Memories Game.
GTFC Website
The Grimsby Telegraph
Fans began tweeting their favourite #MarinersMemory and The Grimsby Telegraph published daily articles in the week leading up to the game including memories from former Mariner and current club physio Dave Moore whose brother Kev, who had enjoyed many triumphs in the black and white jersey and played in the Premier League with Southampton, sadly passed away at the age of just 55 earlier this year having developed Picks Disease, a type of dementia.
Another former player sharing memories ahead of the match was Terry Donovan, whose father Don played 238 games for the Mariners
The Grimsby Telegraph also broke the news of the lovely gesture by the family of former keeper George Tweedy. George starred for England against Hungary in a 6-2 victory and still holds the record as the oldest goalkeeper to play for the Mariners, when Bill Shankly persuaded him back between the sticks. His red keepers jersey from the 1935/36 season was to be presented to the club at the Memories Game
Match Day
Three hours before kick off we swung into the car park to find most of it taken over by the huge production trucks of BT Sport who were screening the game live.
NCS Students volunteer
We headed into the offices of the Grimsby Town Sport and Education Trust to find volunteers arriving who were going to be capturing memories of fans as they arrived at the game. All the volunteers were young adults from the National Citizen Service programme, who, after a briefing on the purposes of the match and some background to dementia, headed off into the night armed with digital voice recorders and a mission to collect as many Mariners Memories as possible.
The Mariner & Dementia Friends
A first chance to see the match day programme and wow, what a fantastic piece of work by the club. They had produced a special commemorative issue containing stacks of memories from fans, former players and managers, along with information on sporting memories, dementia and dementia friends
You can still buy a copy from the club for just £3 here
TV, McMemeny Suite & Mariners Legends
First opportunity of the evening to talk football, memories and dementia was a pre match pitch side interview with On The Bench TV alongside Grimsby Town Sport and Education Trust's Lee Stephens who spoke about the role of the NCS students. It was then back inside where over 100 fans were packed into McMenemy's for pre match meals and it was another chance to screen Bill's Story
We were then introduced to former Mariners Dave Boylen, Terry Donovan and Mike Brolly who all kindly shared some of their own favourite memories, which we will add to the Mariners Memories over the coming days. We had the honour of watching the game sat with Dave, Terry and Mike, which gave us the best live commentary you could ask for, with real insight into how the game was shaping up.
Kidderminster took an early lead but the Mariners hit back quickly and by half time were one goal to the good, leading 2-1.
Half Time - legends, memories and dementia
On the pitch, on the pitch, on the pitch!
A lifetime of watching football as a fan, seeing all the notices of keep off the pitch, it was a somewhat surreal and also exciting moment to be invited on to the Blundell Park turf and be given the stadium announcers microphone to be able to speak about the reasons behind the Mariners Memories game. It was a wonderful chance to thank the club and their supporters for an amazing evening and of course, to talk briefly about dementia.
A line up of club legends gathered in the centre circle to accept generous applause from the crowd.
A victory for the Mariners & for memories
A superb game of football finished with a 3-1 victory for the Mariners, which saw them take over 3rd spot in the league from Kidderminster. As the happy fans filed out of the stadium, the NCS students were still busy interviewing anyone willing to share a final memory before the Mariners Memories evening drew to a close. A quick tally shows over 150 memories captured on the night, all of which will appear on the Replay Football website once we get them typed up!!
Thank you to all those involved with Grimsby Town Football Club. Up the Mariners!
http://www.grimsby-townfc.co.uk/news/article/mariners-memory-game-1230517.aspx
Memory added on December 20, 2013
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