A Minute's Applause for Frankie

Darren prepares to equalise against Watford

Readers, I feel as though a pit-prop of my existence has been knocked away. As I sit here with my large mug of steaming coffee, just up, having been awake reading half the night, where now is my first port of call on t' Internet, now that Frankie has backed his bags and returned his borrowed identity to the erstwhile lead singer of The Four Seasons?

For Frankie has ceased publication. I logged on as always after rising on 23 January, and discovered that Frankie has decided that for the last three years, he has had little to say that wasn't "absolute ballcocks", as he would put it in his refreshingly blunt fashion, and that hereinafter he would be desisting.

[Later]

I had to go to the Centre shortly after that, and thus did not immediately find out what the reaction to this earth-shattering event was on the Charlton Blogosphere, and was subsequently somewhat surprised to find, in fact, that very few people had remarked on it at all. There were a few exchanges on a message board thread which I found through Forever Charlton, however, which did give me pause.

A couple of weeks ago, Frankie wrote criticising the growing tendency for a minute's applause at football matches to replace a minute's silence to show respect following the passing of key footballing figures like Alan Ball or Brian Miller, and was particularly scathing about a catch-all session of applause aimed at remembering all ex-Charlton players and fans who had gone over to the other side, which had been organised for just before the Blackpool game. A day or so after that, he allowed some very critical comment from someone who sounded rather menacing (in the way the Kray Twins used to sound menacing) to appear, although he usually filtered such things out. The person making the comments was saying things like he knew who Frankie really was and who he hung out with and the whole thing was quite, as I say, menacing.

And then, whether owing to all this or no, Frankie shut down. I shall miss him; he was most encouraging to me. I shall keep the link for a while, for the benefit of people reading the archives. But thanks for everything, Paul, as I gather from the Forever people you are really called, and I'll try to keep the Lawro vendetta going (though the Olympic Lawro does not usually concern himself with second tier clubs). If you don't want the applause, I'll see if I can't arrange a minute's silence, although I am inclined to think that breaking a minute's silence by making a noise is worse than not applauding when everyone else is - more noticeable, after all.

West Bromwich Albion 2 Charlton 2
Watford 1 Charlton 1

And meanwhile, Charlton keep on trucking. Though not through to the rest of the Cup, as WBA won that one on penalties, but of course, as one always says, we can now concentrate on the League, and boy do we need to. Andy Gray has joined us from my other club, Burnley, being granted a special emergency loan, or something, so that he could play at Watford, though it was Darren Ambrose, whom I have always liked, who saved the day for Charlton there. Why some Charlton supporters christened him Sharron, implying that he is some kind of big (though he doesn’t seem all that big) girl’s blouse, is beyond me. And he always gives me the impression that he really wants to play for the club, unlike, sadly, another quondam favourite of mine, Jerome Thomas, who clearly feels he is much too good to be wasting his time in the second division, so he might be going to Derby instead. But has he looked at how far adrift Derby are right now? Not a good career move, I’d say. But then apparently Middlesbrough are interested; not much more hope there though, I shouldn’t have thought. Jerome, why not try your level best for Charlton? And do you really want to live outside London?

At the quiz, our new colleagues and quiz enthusiasts Michelle and Graham last week gave their first performance as quiz masters, and most creditable it was as well. This evening, we are missing John, who belatedly (but just in time) remembered it was his girlfriend’s birthday, and Antony is asking the questions; but we expect to make a reasonable shot at things, just the same.

And tomorrow evening, Charlton play Stoke down in SE7 in a game they must win to continue being serious contenders for a return to the Prem. Oddly, as neither Stoke nor Charlton were involved in the Cup the other day, this game, unlike, say, the Burnley – Scunthorpe one, was not arranged back to Saturday. There will be reasons, I dare say. I wonder what Frankie would have had to say about that?