Is anybody listening?

Nobody expected a 3,000-plus gate again but to hear the announcement of 941 was to say the least, deflating. A case of "after the Lords Mayor's Show"? We did of course have Airbourne to compete against, and we even talked at length what action we would have to take in the event of a Red Arrow crashing into the stand. Consensus of opinion was "charge the pilot the extra £2!"

I was given a new place to steward this weekend and had the pleasure of being next to the away dug out. Mr Edinburgh certainly has a colourful vocabulary and for the first time ever, I even witnessed a throwing of a water bottle, a mere three feet from me! Now that's what I call real football passion! At least when you stand near to Garry Wilson, nine times out of ten, no one can understand what he is saying so many a swear word goes unnoticed, so the youngsters' ears remain untarnished!

It was an afternoon of odd occurrences one way or another. With referees collapsing and needing on pitch treatment, to an altercation with a bass drum. Firstly the man in black incident. With the ref unable to continue, the lino became the ref, the fourth official became a lino, and that meant no one to stand about doing very little but holding up the subs board. Cue the tannoy appeal. A volunteer from the crowd made himself known and became the substitute fourth, or is that fifth official. All on the benches seemed happy, and the game continued. Substitutions took place, and the new man "in black" got a rapturous round of applause when he finally got the board to display some numbers!

I was going to mention how an owl nearly became a fourth official but whilst walking around Jamie Oliver's favourite supermarket, some hack from a Brighton newspaper rang me to say what a funny idea he had for a ditty in the paper. Plagiarism of the highest standard! (Just wait for my in-depth match reports coming soon.. I have the Sports Editors personal e-mail!) Now to the drum... Nice to hear in unison or, at least, in rhythm.... well, to cut a long story short, a man in an orange vest decided it was better to remove said drum from the stand intact rather than when it had a head inserted through the playing surface. JB take a bow!

Next up was Grays away, and for this, I was entering a new experience in the world of sporting journalism. I had managed to blag a go at match summarising with Kevin Anderson of Radio Sussex. I took my place in the press box and was given my brief. Watch the game and comment when I ask you.... "Simples" to quote Alexander. In all fairness it was a longer briefing from Kevin but you get the gist. Well watch I did, and every so often had a mic shoved under my nose for a pundit's view. It was quite a bizarre feeling and I found myself watching the game in a completely different manner to usual. I was keeping mental notes in my head to reflect on if needed. If only I did that more often for the blogs!

Kevin did a great job as a commentator, giving well detailed descriptions to the on and off field action and I found myself listening to his every word.... and I think I may have been the only one. On returning to Sussex it became apparent that the online link had failed. My big night and only me and Mr Anderson to witness it. And Kevin gave me such a big build up too! Lets hope that I at least made a good impression with KA and he will let me have another go.

A very humble crowd of just 487 were there to witness this match, and the Grays PA guy thought that was good! Takes the edge of the disappointment of the 941 last Saturday away. Rumour also has it that the fact best part of 100 turned up from Eastbourne threw the caterers in the away end into confusion. No float, no change, as they didn't expect that many! Bless them. Makes Lewes suddenly look efficient!

So next along is the "bogies of Barrow". Will we finally succeed in taking a victory over our northern friends. Only time will tell.