Key Quotes

"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."
(Kenneth Boulding)




"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. "

(Raymond Chandler)





"Live simply so that others can simply live." (unknown)





"I cannot live without books" (Thomas Jefferson)





"Sport is war without the shooting" (George Orwell)





"New York is a great city to live in if you can afford to get out of it" (William Rossa Cole)





The secret of a happy ending is knowing when to roll the credits (Patterson Hood)































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Monday 23 May 2011

Is it just a dream, just a crazy dream ?



Close to nine years ago,the 14th May 2002, the FA killed my football club. Now, we're back. It's been an incredible journey. On Saturday at sometime around 5.30pm,Danny Kedwell buried the winning penalty kick in the Promotion Play Off Final at Manchester City's stadium, and ran to where we were positioned. The celebrations began, there were tears of joy in my eyes as it dawned on me that we were returning to the Football League.






In the days ahead there will be many words written about the rise of AFC Wimbledon, there should be. It deserves to be a best seller, a Hollywood blockbuster. How a group of football fans wouldn't let their club die. For now however, I want to look forward not back. It's time to think about the new journeys and challenges that lie ahead. The league fixtures that are published in June and now eagerly awaited, the Carling Cup draw that would normally not even be worth a glance at the daily paper is now to be keenly observed.







Meanwhile the images that fill my head are of the elation of the penalty shoot out, of Seb Brown's saves, how appropriate that someone who has been a fan of the Club since Day 1, who stood at the Recreation Ground, Sandhurst on that first day in the CCL should take centre stage, and the meeting up with so many people I didn't know nine years ago.







Yes I will continue to ask if all this really did happen. It did because people want to right an injustice. This should serve as an inspiration, hopefully it will.

Thursday 12 May 2011

We're going to Man City



Less than ten years ago we stood on verge of extinction, the FA said Wimbledon EC could move to Milton Keynes and a new team , Wimbledon Town wasn't "in the wider interests of football". Well as most football people know a new club was formed by the fans of Wimbledon, and nine years later we stand just one game away from returning to the football league.

Last night the Dons carried a 2-0 lead into the second leg tie with fleetwood. The next goal in the circumstances would be so vital. That goal came in 27seconds and the Dons never looked back , winning the game 6-1, 8-1 on aggregate.

Yes it was one sided, in truth Fleetwood never turned up, although on occasions Seb Brown was still forced to pull off several fine saves. Now we are heading to the play off final on Saturday 21st May at the City of Manchester stadium. The tickets have been purchased, over the days ahead further planning will take place.

We are simply 90 minutes away from the football league.

Monday 9 May 2011

Rain and Cricket

On Friday and Saturday it rained. Now that shouldn't surprise nor should it be memorable to record. Yet it is. The truth is we haven't had any rain for a month, all the more unusual as this period is within the months of April-May.

Ironically of course rain coincided with a weekend when cricket was to dominate. With no football at the weekend, Saturday had a very different flavour, a trip to the gym and the chance to go and watching our village cricket team while sitting outside the pavilion with a pint of beer. I don't want to get all " John Major" but there is something almost uniquely English and rural England at that, about watching cricket in the sunshine and drinking beer. It sums up summer for me.

And I just can't get enough, so Sunday we went to the Oval to see Surrey v Leicestershire in the CB40 competition. A great day out. Surrey scoring 206 and then bowling Leicestershire out with 17 runs to spare. Three games into the competition and 3 wins. Just perhaps winning ways are returning to the Oval. If so this is going to be a very enjoyable summer.

Truckers and Referendums



That's last Thursday night. The awaited return to London of the Drive by Truckers. With just one or two omissions this was a near perfect set for me.As I wrote on the Americana forum the Cooley tracks were really the stand-outs for me. From Uncle Frank to Women without Whisky, Gravity's Gone to Self Destructive Zones, and of course Zip City, Cooley delivered. This is all a bit harsh on Patterson Hood, but sometimes some songs just work. Patterson still delivered on Putting people on the Moon, which remains one of the most "political" songs I know.

I wasn't sure how the " Go Go Boots" songs would entwine themselves into the set, but I was still humming "Used to be a Cop" 90 minutes after the show as I got home.

It was election night and this year I took my place in front of the TV and watched results from councils up and down the country pour in. In fact given that my local council is likely to remain Tory till "hell freezes over", it was elsewhere that took my attention. I retreated to bed sometime after 1am with the news that the Brighton ballots wouldn't be counted till Friday morning.

At work, one half of my brain engaged with revision classes and the other focussing on council election results and the news gradually trickling through that the Greens had become the largest party on Brighton & Hove Council. A great achievement and the first time the Greens have achieved this level of success in the UK.

Home to watch the AV referendum result come through, no surprise but a great disappointment. The Yes Campaign never caught fire and was badly managed. Amazed that they believed the No campaign would play fair and not use lies and distortions. For the Conservatives the preservation of FPTP is fundamental to them retaining power. That's really the end of the story. Conservatism is about obtaining and keeping power. I remember Tony Benn always talking about how the ruling class have never surrendered power voluntarily and throughout history the people have had to wrestle it from them. How naive of the Lib Dems to think the Tories would play fair. Politics in that sense isn't a game a cricket. That said the Tories needed a shield to give them cover and the old tribalists in the Labour Party delivered it with aplomb. Take a bow Prescott and co, no new politics there. Just the old belief in fact that government is like a cricket match and after the Tories have batted, it will be Labour's turn. The only flaw in this analysis is that the two party system is in terminal decline, with only 65% of voters choosing the tories or Labour in 2010. Using FPTP as a means of retaining power was the name of the game. Calling for "Fairer Votes" was wrong, there's little fair in our current system.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

On the ball City



On Monday night, I kept one eye on my phone for news of a football game. A win for Norwich City would guarantee them promotion to the premiership. It's been an amazing story for the Canaries. After the lows of 2008-09 that saw them relegated into Division 1 , Norwich have achieved back to back promotions, under the guidance of manager Paul Lambert.






Norwich regularly feature on our regional news programmes. They are the biggest club side in East Anglia, and as I've become more settled in the area I've begun to appreciate the connections with East Anglia.







Norfolk is a lovely county just over two hours drive away, and Norwich is the focal point of the county. Whether the Canaries can stay in the Premiership next season is debatable but for the moment, celebrations are the order of the day, The revenue generated by a season in the Premiership will do much to remove the Club's debts and secure its future.







For Norwich City its goodbye Football League Show, welcome Match of the Day.

The Southern Thing

In 2004 I listened to an album called Americana 2004, it was distributed with Uncut magazine. Few albums have opened as many new musical doors for me. Most obvious was my introduction to Richmond Fontaine, however tucked away on the album was a track called "Static on the Radio" by an artist called Jim White. The track had a haunting effect, once played you wanted to play it again, it became implanted in your memory. It wasn't long before I experimented with the album that this track was taken from , and I discovered The Girl from Brownsville, Texas and Bluebird.

Jim White became a firm favourite and this album " Drill a hole" became one to which I regularly returned . I t was some years before I had the opportunity to see Jim White in concert but in 2009 he played the Union Chapel London.

This week Jim returned to London and played a concert at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town. It was a new venue to me, and i sense they probably don't have artists like Jim that often. Jim played a wide variety of tracks from his various albums, accompanied by an up right bass and electric guitarist, Jim augmented the sound by a drum machine and the clever recording of vocals and harmonica and hand organ.

Jim White is unlike your usual artist. Part of him doubts how he got where he is. He wants to talk about life in anything but the fast lane of the USA. It's a story of back lane and small towns, evangelical churches and local stores.

At the end of the evening he thanks the audience for helping him provide for his family, he auctions his shirt for a chosen charity, because in his words, in these days charities are finding it hard. For two hours Jim had enthralled us with his music, tales and experiences. For those minutes rural north-western Florida came to North London.

Monday 2 May 2011

Long Weekend

Just a week after Easter another long weekend. I'm not sure why I feel a bit dislocated, given I'll have plenty of long weekends later in the year. Friday was in truth a surreal experience. With at least half the country in a royal wedding frenzy, we spent a fair chunk of the day on a near deserted allotment site. Anyway good progress was made on the beans and various other tasks. I think the raised bed will bring forth a variety of salad item during the summer which will be good. Later in the day the agonising job of having conversations with those who have filled the day with the wedding. It amazes me why we have to hide our opinions.That others will be offended if we admit that we had no wish to take any part in this anti-democratic pageant.

Saturday came and with football deferred to late afternoon a chance to spend the morning at the gym and supermarket. This could have been the last day of the season, a home game, often in the past this would be either a day of celebration or at least a chance to say "see you after the summer" to some old friends. however it was nothing like that. The result didn't alter our league position, although it's nice to finish with a win. The real reason why it didn't really matter, was the end of season play offs. AFC Wimbledon finished the season on 90 points and finished second. We all know that had Crawley not bought the title we would be going up. Instead over the next ten days it's home and away against Fleetwood, with a place in the Play Off Final at stake. Yes we knew the rules of the league, but it does seem ridiculous that a team that finishes fifth might get promoted where as the team finishing second might not.

Sunday - a day at cricket. Surrey took on Scotland in the first CB40 game of the season. The first sighting of the new one day kit, and the chance to weigh up Surrey's chances in one day cricket.
The bowling attack was tidy enough Dernbach, the pick of the bowlers, and with the possibility that Tremlett might get a few outings if not on England duty, the Surrey attack should be able to restrict most teams. Certainly yesterday Scotland's below 200 score always looked runs short. Hamilton Brown tried to help them by picking out one of only two outfielders inside the first two overs, however Davies and Roy more than steadied the ship, and when Roy was out for 60, the bulk of the job had been completed. Davies fell a few runs short of a century and it was left to de Bryun to end the game with a six, sending the Surrey fans home happy.

Meanwhile across London , Arsenal defeated Manchester United. After failing to get a ticket for the game, I decided that cricket live was preferable to watching the game "live" on TV. In truth I doubted that Arsenal would get the win, and of late I've watched too many Arsenal defeats. Nevermind I was able to watch the recording when I got home, and contented myself with the feeling that had I stayed at home and watched the game during the afternoon, the result might have been different. Such is the irrationality of football fans.

Monday is a public holiday but the day started early as I'd agreed to take members of my family to Stansted Airport. Waking up just after 4am, I looked at my phone and discovered that Barack Obama was to speak to the American people, seconds later came the news that US forces had located and killed Bin Laden. I decided not to wake my wife, but greeted my son with the news minutes later. Now here is a real world news story, and one that many will ponder over during the days ahead. For nearly ten years the USA have hunted him, since GW Bush said " he was going to smoke him out", now the mission is completed, yet I get the idea that the world may become a more dangerous place with him dead than alive. Again this doesn't quite seem logical but I'm sure its an issue that I'll return to in my thoughts in the days ahead.