Padiham P GNE P

We rapidly approach the end of the year and the Sunday Supplements are full of “end of the decade” stuff. This is misplaced as the mathematically aware amongst us realise that the end of the decade is not for another year. A controversial statement perhaps but true in that there was no “year zero”. Remember the “celebrations” relating to the end of the millennium when the new millennium was deemed to start on January 1st 2000? Your ageing scribe refused to join in such celebrations and, therefore, was forced to celebrate the arrival of the new decade on the mathematically correct January 1st 2001 – home alone, billy no mates again, very sad! (miserable sod!). If we accept this then the current decade runs from 2001 to 2010 but this does not fit in with the modern trend of trying to define a decade in numerical terms. Here we think about terminology such as “the nineties” as applied to the previous decade, and the debate about what the current decade should be called. Many commentators seem to favour “the noughties” but the temptation to replace the “o” with an “a” may be too strong for many and then become not really reflective of the spirit of the decade. Alternative alliterative extensions to this, such as the “naughty noughties”, again tend to fail any test of objectivity and accuracy – unless you know better than I do! As yet, I have seen no suggestions for what the next decade should be called. The somewhat obvious “teenies” fails yet again the test of accuracy – but hey, whatever, when has accuracy counted for anything?

The rapidly approaching end of the year also brings the Christmas period into focus although, to be honest, Christmas started sometime in September if we are to believe the behemoths of the retail trade. No prizes for spotting the first Christmas tree in somebody’s house – sometime in November. Equally, no prizes for spotting the first Easter Egg in the shops which must be due any day soon – please note that those small Cadbury Cream Eggs do not count as they seem to be sold all year round – much like hot cross buns come think about it – we like hot cross buns!!

The Christmas period becomes important for the football supporter as a recognised antidote to the enforced incarcerations which mark out the “traditional family Christmas” for so many. And, thinking of tradition for a moment, go on; own up, which of us will be feasting on turkey rather than the traditional goose? Yes, thought so, yet another example of transatlantic culture mixing with ours – very sad but perhaps understandable as the average American seems to think that the world started in the late 1770s. The annual ritual of families falling out over excess booze and deep frozen mince pies (should have got them out of the freezer on Christmas Eve) is not for the faint hearted but the avid football supporter can practice the excess booze bit at the last football match of the year.

Saturday dawns bright and very cold. It is not too long before the half expected news comes from Padiham that today’s game is off due to a frozen pitch. This is also the case for all other matches in our division so any idea of going to support whoever New Mills were playing also falls by the wayside.

Nevertheless, a baker’s dozen of the ever faithful GNE travelling army meets up in the George Hotel for “breakfast” as arranged. The term breakfast is used somewhat euphemistically in this context as it does not start until 11.15 a.m. – however, that rather depends on what time you get up in the morning and what you were up to the night before. During a convivial hour, lubricated in at least one case by a couple of pints of Old Speckled Hen – much to recommend this excellent brew, the discussion centres around what we can all do with a free Saturday afternoon in the football season – this circumstance is, of course, very rare and taxes the ingenuity somewhat. The most popular suggestion seems to be to watch Portsmouth vs. Liverpool on television either at home or in the comfort of a local hostelry – remember the requirement to practice the excess booze bit. There are some veiled comments about Christmas shopping down the High Street but not sure if this is really serious. Another option is to tune in to the Sky coverage of the 1st test match featuring England in South Africa. Difficult to get too excited at this, even for the avid cricket fan, but, at least, as the snow starts to descend on Glossop, we are reminded that even in December somewhere in the world the suns beats down from a cloudless sky and it does not start to go dark at 3.30 in the afternoon.

As we disperse, attention switches to the next match – away at New Mills on Boxing Day. Prayers are offered to the various gods who control the weather that the conditions will be such that this game can go ahead although with cold weather forecast to persist into next week and problems already this season with the pitch at Church Lane, nothing is guaranteed.

So, all we can do is to turn up the heating, do the best we can to survive the trials and tribulations of Christmas Day and hope that all is well for Boxing Day.

Have a good Christmas…