Ringing in the changes
FRANK KEATING
The vast postbag which daily bombards this corner from you kind readers (as Grub Street’s penny-a-liners used to begin) is, if truth be told, an occasional and always welcome notelet dispatched either to put me to rights on some arcane matter of sporty trivia or, in the case of a couple of faraway fellows in The Spec’s army of subscribers abroad, a craving for more regular updates here on the league soccer standings back home. In other words, do us a favour, man, and cut all your wish-wash and waffle, and simply tell me how Torquay United are getting on? (Condolences, Vince in Valparaiso, your Plainmoor pals are bottom of the whole 92-club football league.) Or Stockport County? (Sorry, Bert in Bangalore, your beloved County are second bottom.) The point is well taken, and certainly Christmas is a perfect halfway house in which to take stock and ruminate on the progress, or otherwise, of those teams which your distant postings make, somehow, even more fond and dear.
Mind you, things can change rapidly because, between today and New Year’s Eve, every club is playing four league matches. In the Premiership, for instance, Chelsea might be leading by a street at present, but will they still be doing so after playing Arsenal at Highbury tomorrow, and neighbours Fulham and a suddenly sparky Manchester City in Christmas week? I fancy City’s short journey to Wigan on Boxing Day, and Bolton Wanderers’ ditto to Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve might be the most telling trip of the hols. And keep an eye on Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, each with (as an alliterative phrasing freak would forecast) fret-free festive fixtures. Unlike the frantic quartet currently holding relegation’s black-spot — West Bromwich Albion, Portsmouth, Birmingham City and Sunderland — each desperate for some Christmas cheer.
Can it really be 14 years ago this week that John Arlott handed back to the studio for the last time? Away from the cricket, on the wintery soccer beat aeons ago I would sometimes travel with John. Post-match in those days, because of his fame, we were often invited by the local bigwig burghers into the home club’s boardroom for a snifter or two where, usually, a flunkey would read out the rest of that afternoon’s results from other grounds. Or rather, the important ones. Afterwards John would most times loiter up to the fellow with the info and, in his gravelly burr, plaintively ask: ‘Er, sorry to bother you, but any idea how Reading got on?’ Well, since their antique foundation in 1871 Reading have never got on as well as they have in 2005, and with half the job handsomely done by Christmas the ‘Royals’ of Berkshire look mighty serious candidates to be heading straight into the Premiership by Easter. Somewhere up there, dear old Arlott, among many others who realise wonders never cease, will be drinking to that. Watford and the two Uniteds of Sheffield and Leeds follow them in zestful pursuit. The Christmas matches will also serve to confirm that the New Year continues bounding with optimism for Swansea City and Huddersfield Town, confident leaders in Division One, and for Wycombe Wanderers, Grimsby Town and Leyton Orient who lead the charge in Division Two. But it is grim in the west, and if I was thinking of a relegation spread bet for the spring, I daresay Plymouth Argyle, Swindon Town, Bristol City and, of course, poor Torquay United would be at pretty short odds. But don’t despair: Christmas can change everything.
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