Fresh Starts

Is this a Dagger I see before me? A smiling but regrettably unidentified Forest Green midfielder contemplates challenging Dagenham & Redbridge's Ben Strevens in the 1-1 draw between the clubs last season.

Easter Monday yesterday, and so soon this year. I went down to the quiz, knowing that there would be a low turnout, as we were still on holiday from the Centre. People are always ambivalent about Easter Monday; on the one hand, we are on the final day of our Easter break, for we always get Holy Week plus one day, and on the other, people who have been travelling are usually back, and thus able to come along and meet up and do the quiz. Some of us also remember that Easter Monday is the day on which we moved operations, back in 2002, from our previous headquarters round the corner, where someone frying chips on Good Friday had set fire to the kitchen, causing the place to close down for a few months. Our beloved landlady gladly agreed to take us in, and we have been contentedly ensconced there ever since.

Of course, yesterday was the earliest Easter Monday for 92 years, and thus not the actual anniversary of our arrival at the pub, but as I say, despite being on holiday, I always make an effort to get to the quiz on Easter Monday. The bit about 92 years was told to me by David, one of the original members of our eternal friends and rivals, the Old Farts (a name, I remind you, which they themselves chose), who strolled in a few minutes after I did. There being no other quiz people around, we fell to debating whether there would in fact be a quiz at all. David is an old chum, and a very agreeable chap, but is given to a little light joshing about my affection for Charlton, and he also reads this blog, or did, for, as he pointed out, I haven't posted since 28 January. I got in first on the joshing stakes, pointing out that there has been little down at SE7 to write home about, and thus little to write about anywhere else, especially here. But I did add that I have been trying to find the odd hook to get back into the swing again.

The last time I posted anything, it was to deplore the demise of Frankie's blog, which had frequently sparked off whatever I might have to say about Charlton, and maybe the disappearance of Frankie had a knock-on effect on my own blogging. And also, round about the same time, two other, non-football blogs which I had read regularly also announced that they had had enough and were off to get a life, or whatever.

I did not take a specific decision to stop, and still haven't, but the weeks went by and I found that writing a new piece was getting more and more difficult, partly because I am weary of rehearsing excuses for not writing, and also because of the dismal goings-on, or lack thereof, at The Valley.

But then I discovered that Frankie is not dead after all, and makes guest appearances on the blog of New York Addick (link at right). I also found, on returning to check, that the other two bloggers had started up again, batteries recharged, after a break, and thus I feel that I can do the same.

So, quiz news is that we are chugging along with our basic three teams, with victories being fairly equally distributed among them. We are occasionally supplemented by the group of younger teachers from the Centre, plus one or two of their friends, but not on a regular basis. One thing I am quite proud of is that during a flu epidemic the other week, my team was reduced to just John and myself, Antony asking questions that night and Mush entertaining his visiting mother, and we still won, quite impressively.

Last night, our forebodings were fulfilled, as not enough people turned up to make it worth while running a quiz, so we had two or three pints and left it at that.

Elsewhere, I find myself astonished by the volatile nature of the Second Tier. The rise of Hull, and latterly Barnsley and Cardiff in the Cup, have all come as a surprise, proving that nothing in this league can be taken for granted. How we Charlton fans can have believed, as we all did at the start of the season, that we might lose once or twice to the likes of West Brom or Watford, but that teams like Burnley, Ipswich and Plymouth would be easily overcome, I cannot now imagine. Pards himself admits, now, that the team is in transition, and that the most Charlton can hope for is a play-off place. But what is the point of scraping promotion through that, if indeed it happens, to spend a whole season anchored, like the wretched Derby County, to the bottom of the Premier table?

Meanwhile I keep a watch on the BBC pages, ever a source of amusement in their relentless quest to create stories out of things people think or say, and their equally relentless determination to give nicknames to every team in the land. A reference to the 'U's' on today's page was obviously, I knew, Colchester United, but it turns out to be Oxford. A reference to Wrexham being blunted by the Daggers had me completely flummoxed, and I had to check: they were referring to Dagenham and Redbridge, of course. [And it appears they were right to do so, subsequent research has shown, ed.]

Mind you, a couple of weeks ago the main copy writer must have been ill, for I was astounded to read a headline which said "Linfield beat Newry in Cup Replay". This was neat and informative, and it made such a change. Normally it would have been "Linnets hammer Newbies in Ongoing Cup Clash", or something equally preposterous.

Another headline that caught my eye was "Striker Sam leaves Meadow Lane". Nothing to do with Charlton's Lloyd Sam, unless a distant relative, but obviously a Notts County forward has left the club. Yet there was something about the headline that reminded me of, perhaps, a chapter heading towards the end of a long J. B. Priestley novel.

Maybe Striker Sam could be turned into a kids' TV programme, like Postman Pat or Bob the Builder.

Anyway, the bloggers I regularly visited, and which then ceased, have, as I stated above, restarted and I visit them regularly. I shall keep it up, especially with my 10,000th (I do not actively seek links in other places) visitor due any time now.