The Derby Daze

For quite a few years in the early part of the 21st century my son Dexter and myself were season ticket holders at Derby County football club.  We saw a few good times interspersed with long periods of fairly indifferent action.  The 2006/7 season was one of our better times...we travelled down to Wembley in May for the championship playoff final where a goal from 'Pearo' (Stephen Pearson) sank the Baggies (West Brom) and sent us back to the Premiership.

If Pearo was the hero of the day then it also belonged to Billy Davies our then manager under whose stewardship this triumph was achieved.  We started the season that August in high spirits with the prospect of excitements when the big boys came to visit.  We were away in August so missed the first two home games -a draw against Portsmouth and a narrow defeat to Birmingham so our first match took place against Newcastle in September.

I don't recall much of the game but we did run out 1 - 0 winners.  But the portents of what were to come were already planted in that days match programme.  A few days earlier we had a thumping by Liverpool.  It should have been obvious maybe but it wasn't yet clear how badly the side would ship goals at one end and be so toothless in attack the other.

It was a season for the record books - but for all the wrong reasons. Derby never won another match and we were relegated in March with what still stands as the worst performance by a side in the history of the Premiership (only 1 win and 11 points).  Shortly after the Newcastle game the Chairman stood down and by the end of November the often pugnacious and eccentric Billy Davies left the club.  Despite the numerous changes it took until September 2008 (just 4 days short of a year) for us to witness a home victory (against Sheffield United back in the Championship).  Is it blind faith or just stupidity that keeps us coming back for more I wonder!

Post Grad

Why the cricket jumper I don't know.  In front of a largish canvas and holding a tiny one - both rehashes of earlier work as I was struggling to find a meaningful way forward in the first few weeks of the course.

Here's a few of my fellow students on the course at Birmingham Polytechnic in 1974/5.

David Bartlett on the left and Ron Knott (now in Australia I think)

Pat Hallissey - still busy as an artist...

Clive Edwards

Ivor Jones

The Speedway

It was my absolute passion from around this time (June 26, 1961) until I went off to college in 1968...Exeter Speedway.  I'm not sure if this was the first meeting I went to but it must have been one of the earliest.  As I was only ten at the time my mother wasn't that keen despite the fact that it was only a journey of a few hundred yards from my home to the back entrance of the County Ground stadium (the meetings started at 7:30 pm and finished around 10 pm.).  It was the home of the Exeter Falcons and I can still conjure up the unique smell of the place.  Going in on the far side entrance had the added advantage that you were right next to the pits and just occasionally we managed to get in there, mingle with the riders and their machines...ah thank goodness there was a time before health and safety!