Mentioned Part 55

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 16/11/2003 (Last updated: 17/01/2026)

"No disrespect to the likes of Grimsby..."

Grimsby girl rescued by equine Prince Charming

From The Racing Post

On a final note, I simply have to mention that Grimsby Town crept into the racing news this week – a rare event by all accounts, and this got me rather excited. How can a fishing town animate anyone I hear you cry? Well, apart from the fact that even Harry Ramsden cannot compete with the quality of the nation’s favourite dish in Grimsby, I have to admit that my weakness for the seaside locale stems from the fact that it is my home town. Not very glamorous, I know, but home nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the news event to which Grimsby is connected does little to improve its appeal. It would appear that betting’s most notorious cheat ‘The Pencil Man’ was due to appear at the town’s Crown Court on fraud charges involving £40,000 of ‘winning’ bets struck at bookmakers in Hull and Grimsby, however he failed to turn up for sentencing. For all of you wise cracks out there, I cannot believe that this no show had anything whatsoever to do with a dread of returning to the delights of the east-coast fishing town.

Spotted by Devon Mariner.

Poor, Poor Grimsby

From the Observer

It's always Grimsby. For some unfortunate reason, poor, put-upon Grimsby Town are symbolic of everything depressing about relegation from the Premiership. People who have never been anywhere near the place think Grimsby and paint a mental picture of a miserable journey to a dull club who play unappealing football. If you go down, that's what you go down to.

Players, coaches and fans at The Hawthorns will have relegation on their minds this afternoon, when West Bromwich Albion play West Ham United, and also at St Andrew's, where Birmingham City face Liverpool. There has never been a worse time to be relegated, and the Grimsby factor is just the half of it. The financial consequences of slipping out of the Premiership have never been so destructive.

Spotted by Rob Sedgwick.

Hoodoo!

From the Ipswich Evening Star

Grimsby. Even the sound of the name causes clouds to move across the sun and make grown men shiver.

Especially if your name is George Burley. For George I'm sure fish will never taste the same again.

For we Town fans the word Grimsby has painful connotations. Not only was there the painful faith-shattering 3-0 loss at Blundell Park earlier this season (which an acquaintance of mine claims caused his eyes to bleed), but over the years they appear to have had some kind of hex on us. Against Town the Mariners really do play the Mariners - 11 Paul Mariners.

In the last ten years we've played the Lincolnshire lads a fair amount of times and won just twice, one of those in the FA Cup on a day when a certain Bulgarian was in outrageous form.

It's not just the results either, red cards have appeared not infrequently and faced with those particular black and white stripes, Town players seem capable of misses up there with Ryan Giggs and Ronnie Rosenthal. Remember Marco Holster's debut anyone?

Spotted by Roger Swindells.

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