The View from the Bar
If you’re reading this, then at least we got the game on tonight (although after Saturday’s Reserves postponement and the weather over the last couple of days I wouldn’t be surprised if this column gets consigned to the growing pile of VFTB’s never to be read.
And, if you are reading this, I should point out that I nearly didn’t get it written at all, and for that you can blame our former manager Richie Woodburn, now boss of our friends and rivals East Cowes Vics across the Medina. Let me explain: At the Fareham game last week I bumped into him (I didn’t ask him if he was scouting or not…) and he handed me a big tin of old East Cowes programmes, dating back as far as the 1930s. The collection of local football legend Joe Reed no less, which he and Daz Dyer had thoughtfully considered I might like to borrow for a while. And so most of my free hours in recent days have seen me poring over these and (as they probably knew I would), sorting and cataloguing them. Next up some digital archiving. It really is a wonderful collection, put together by Joe over his 20+ years playing for Vics plus thirty-or-more further years serving the club in just about every imaginable capacity. A proper giant of the local football scene, Joe was, and it was a pleasure to get to know him in his later years.
There’s a good few Cowes programmes in there too, including the occasion when in 1953, having just been promoted to the Hampshire League Division 1 for the first time, Vics came to Westwood as our peers. Legend has it that the team and their supporters travelled over on the floating bridge and marched up to Westwood together led by their town band, and to the surprise of the local football community secured an unlikely 2-1 win. Maybe it wasn’t so unlikely after all – a few months later the Vics completed a double of which Joe remained rightly proud, having played in both games, when they secured a 3-1 win in the return at Whippingham.
Now then, as you may (or may not have) noticed, the Club has recently switched to a new Facebook account, which has meant we’ve been able to bring it all back under our control, since the previous one had been set up by a previous sponsor. All good with that but, unfortunately, it also means we’ve lost a fair chunk of the thousand-plus followers we’d attracted over the past few years, who, in these days of social media, represented a massive proportion of the people we like to keep in touch with and up to date with match news and whatnot. So, if you haven’t joined our group yet – Cowes Sports FC, The Yachstmen – please do so, and if possible please share our content as much as you can as we try and rebuild our online fanbase. Thanks. You never know, we might even manage to get it linked to our Twitter account. Don’t hold your breath though – we’re still working out the new photocopier.
Ooh, on the subject of promotion, the next batch of match posters should be available at the Reserves match on Saturday. As usual, if you can help get a poster or two up around the place, give me a shout and I’ll get them to you.
Before I run out of space, don’t forget there’ll be another big Yachtsmen’s awayday on 15th February when we travel to Brockenhurst – always a good day out win, lose or draw. I don’t know the definite plan yet, but I hear it’s a 2pm kick-off so an earlier start than usual – most likely the 10.45 Red Jet. Come along – you know you want to…
Enjoy the game,
Toby.
