Phew, what scorching weather we are having! The Anonymous Don is now almost bronze after a few days in the sun, including a very enjoyable evening in Hyde Park on Tuesday catching the rays, listening to music, hanging around the misting tent (we might need one of those at Kingsmeadow if the weather stays like this) and finding if you drink too much Gaymers cider your mouth tastes like raw meat in the morning.
I won’t give a report of Bon Ivers headlining set because (a) this isn’t a music blog and (b) your probably not that interested anyway, suffice to say I had an enjoyable time, and you should all rush out and buy his album. Its at this point I would also like to fulfill contractual obligations by saying ‘happy birthday’ to my sister, and sorry we didn’t get you a card – we’re too busy moving right now. In fact tomorrow may be my last posting for a while until I get my new office (i.e. the closet) set up in my new flat, providing ample comedic opportunities for my wife to shout ‘Isn’t it about time you came out the closet?’ every time she considers me spending too much time writing this blog.
I will be around tomorrow to give my full reaction to the new fixtures released tomorrow. It will indeed be an exciting moment for all of us, not just because it’s our first season in the Conference Premier, but whatever division we are in I always find the releasing of fixtures to be the closest I can get to Xmas eve as a kid. Guaranteed I’ll be lying awake tonight, dreaming of unlikely victories at Oxford and Luton, celebrating last minute winners at Altrincham or hammering sorry Grays.
No offence to those clubs. Tomorrow it will be even worse, as I know where I’ll be on the 8th of August, on Christmas Eve or New Years Day. Having said that I know for a fact we will be at Kingsmeadow for one of those festive dates, and I’m 80% certain one of the others will be spent in the company of Hayes and Yeading (you heard it here first – as far as I’m aware). The point being I will be able to visualise it more, as I’ll actually know where we will be, even if in reality I will actually be spending New Year in the States as is the current plan.
When I was a kid, the reality of Xmas Eve did not always live up to the expectations of the night before. If I were to sit down tomorrow and predict the scores to every game we will probably end up winning the league by about twenty points. For that reason I’m not going to, but right now I would like to remind everyone that I predicted Eastbourne Borough at home would be our first game a good two weeks ago.
And lets hope the announcement of fixtures heralds some news on a TV deal. Right now I would have thought ESPN would have been the leading, if not only, takers for anything like serious money. Plus I really want to see Sky taken down a peg or two by a serious competitor, they charge too much for me to justify shelling out for Premier League games, half a Champions League and a few League Cup fixtures just to see the likes of Jamie Redknapp tell everyone how good his cousin is. ESPN could help drive the costs down for casual subscribers like myself who feel we have a right to watch top level football for free. In fact why don’t the monopoly people make sure one of the Premier League packages goes to a free-to-air station? Maybe that’s too sensible?
In fact I wouldn’t mind the Conference rights going to a Five or a Dave so long as the games are played at a reasonable time. After all, what do Dave show at 1730 on a Saturday? Plus they wouldn’t want to offend those of us who want to watch QI repeats in the evening so will be unlikely to show games on Monday/Thursday nights… although if any of them want Paul Parker as a studio expert perhaps its best if we stay off the nations screens after all…
In other news, apparently Mr Brown is going to sacrifice any chance of entertainment during the Wycombe and Brighton games by playing two entirely different XI’s in each half. Hurray. I suppose that will give us the chance to see all of our squad being tested to the limit by League 1 opposition, and presuming the squads are balanced we should be able to field reasonably strong sides in both halves, so speculation you may have read elsewhere that we could lose 0-7 will be wide of the mark. Plus, with four home games, the contrast between that and us giving those Bucheon-stealing Bury-touchers FCUM and Fulham’s Non-Europa League Match Squad Select XI a darn good spanking will probably be quite enjoyable.
Plus we still don’t know who, if anyone, we are playing on the Tuesday after Wycombe. Is it North Greenford? Are we playing a training game, and if so will it be at the training ground? Because I like the idea of supping a pint while watching from Woodies car park… Plus whats all this about Godalming? I missed out on both during the CCL days so wouldn’t mind catching up…
Finally, whats happened to The Big Tissue? (I appreciate this is normally where you would come to get answers to questions, so apologies for posing so many myself this evening). I have heard rumour that Rivals has closed for good, which I sincerely hope is not true. The guy that writes Big Tissue, who seems to keep his identity quiet (perhaps we should swap roles?), was probably the best Wimbledon related writer out there, so I hope he bounces back quickly. Preferably at the Wimbledon Mad site, which they seem to have insisted on giving the worst name imaginable (they won’t be in the wider interest of my fist if I ever catch up with them). Anyway, my appeal to Mr Big Tissue, whoever you may be, if Rivals is gone for good, get yourself over there now!
So bed down, fellow Wombles, for in the morning all will be revealed. Plus we have the Andy Murray Semi-Final to look forward to later. Wouldn’t it be great if he won? A British player in the final at Wimbledon? Plus if he loses we can all go on about how he isn’t good enough and never will be. Besides, fuck him, he is Scottish after all…
The Anonymous Don 