As well as your venerable correspondent's musings, which you may find witty, lucid and concise; or maybe not, there are of course other writers and writings available on the website. Not least the match reports, which many people have had a go at over the years, some better than others, but all game chaps, and which have been the province of our sadly departed secretary Mr Jones for the past few seasons. And very good his were too. A tough act to follow. But someone has to do it, and we have a new guy, no less than Simon the photographer, who having replaced the legendary Tim with élan, has also ventured to write the last few match reports. Who knew? It turns out our snapper is a veritable Oscar Wilde, a maestro of the pen, a reborn Neville Cardus, a new Brian Glanville. In short, very good indeed. Very, very good. Gets all the facts in, as required of journalists, and adds a few flights of fancy to keep the more literary types engaged. He could of course be making a rod for his own back with his outstanding first efforts, he might have been better advised to start slowly and build up. I certainly did the start slowly bit. Anyway looks like a right good signing, long may he continue. And if he gets head hunted by The Sunday Times we can all say we knew him first.
He has a couple of home games to get his teeth into over the Christmas period, always a decent one against Whitley Bay, usually good for a few goals, and of course the second Ryhope derby. Maybe we should number them like the Americans; "Welcome to Ryhope Bowl II" has a certain ring to it. It will no doubt be a cracker for Boxing Day morning, more on that later. In any event the chance to pick up a few more points is welcome, we could do with getting a bit higher in the table, and we have lost an awful lot of points this season in injury time, which is annoying to say the least.
A fantastic trip out to Dunston for the Vase was had by all I hear, and a very well deserved win, much to the bafflement and consternation of the good people of Tyneside, who were clearly confident Dunston would see off the raggy rovers from Ryhope. They had of course reckoned without the astonishing effect the Vase has on Colin Larkin. Another Vase hat trick, and a classic one they tell me, head, right foot and left foot. He is good most of the time, but he certainly comes even more alive when the Vase comes around. Although it certainly wasn't a one man show, the rest of the boys also put in a great effort. So, off to Mansfield next, a canny ride out, and a winnable game, fingers crossed, book me on the bus....
Finally, a little note of self congratulation in amongst the England cricket team's travails in India. In the last column I mentioned that Keaton Jennings of Durham might have been a better pick than young Duckett of down south somewhere. Looks like the England selectors take an interest in RCA because there he was a week or two later, making his debut and scoring a ton. No charge gentlemen, no charge, free advice always available on a number of sports. Just ask that Lord Murray of the Raquet....