SFL Div 2, New Bayview, 15/02/11

Well. Seventh!

East Fife ought to have scored three times over in the first five minutes but we came into it and scored a well worked goal from Pat Walker after great work down the right from Gilhaney and Geggan. We had two dodgy offsides given against us but may have benefited from that as our second looked as if an early pass was to an offside player but play carried on and a great ball across was swept in by Gilhaney.

East Fife had fallen out of things but got back into the game just before half time and nearly got an equaliser. All we Sons fans were gloomy about the second half.

But Andy Geggan scored from another well worked move pretty quickly after the restart (scorer announced as Andy “Greggan” followed immediately by a sarcastic chorus of, “Ther’s only one Andy Greggan,” from the Sons fans) and we played quite sweetly from then on and could have added more with a bit of composure in the final pass or shot. Ryan McStay had a brilliant game in midfield.

To be fair to Stephen Grindlay (posts passim) he spared us a worrying final five minutes by making a great save from the penalty the Fife were awarded – the only real threat they posed second half.

The referee gave some baffling decisions and failed to be consistent in doling out yellow cards, giving one E Fife player a caution for handball but not another for an even more deliberate instance but for which he did award the free kick.

One amazing stat I heard from behind me. Of all Alloa’s points before last night only one had been gained on grass. The rest were on their plastic or that of Stenny or Airdrie Utd.

Ten points from the last twelve and three away wins on the bounce is certainly an improvement and the boys looked settled, always a good thing. These have mostly been games against those around/near us. Only two more of those to go before we are up against top half opposition. A better side than E Fife would have seen us off in that early phase. No room for optimism yet.

Picador, 2005. 264 p.

The last two Banvilles I read – see here and here – had both been on my shelves for years and while never less than elegantly written were a touch distanced and unengaging but this one won the Man Booker Prize in 2005 so I thought that maybe he’d become a little more accessible.

The Sea can be summed up in one sentence. A man whose wife has died of cancer reminisces about his childhood and first loves and goes back to visit his old holiday haunts. There is of course more to it than this but that is the essence.

Banville has his narrative mouthpiece, Max Morden, adopt a meandering style, not quite stream of consciousness but with some sudden jumps in time and place. This all looks natural on the page, as if written effortlessly, but must have taken a high degree of crafting.

The typical Banville traits are all present, the literariness, the elegance, the beautifully constructed sentences flowing with sub-clauses, the use of unusual or high flown vocabulary (velutinous for velvety, for example) the revelation, very late, of a useful piece of information which helps to make the connection between the novel’s various strands. This last is something of a tease, however, (if not a cheat) and could be taken to exemplify a failure to provide sufficient foreshadowing.

The characters are all well rounded (and they can be irritating) but sometimes it seems as if they are being lined up one after another to have their little foibles exposed before the narrative flows elsewhere.

There is no plot as such but Banville’s prose carries the reader through. I do like him as a stylist. Overall, however, the effect is curiously flat and enervating. There can’t have been much competition for the Booker in 2005. Or was it just Banville’s turn?

Surprisingly for a writer who normally seems very meticulous there was one “lay of the land” (it wasn’t a song – see lay 10a ) and a “liquified.”

The Dumbarton Supporters Trust, aka the Sonstrust or the Trust, presently around 300 strong, is having a recruitment drive. (At the minute the post on their website relating to this comes second.)

One of their emphases is on the need to oppose the plans the SPL has to marginalise (ie kill off, let’s not be mealy-mouthed about this) smaller clubs like ours. All supporters of the Sons should get behind a campaign like this. One of the best ways would be to join the Trust, whose voice is made stronger by being affiliated to Supporters Direct the umbrella organisation for supporters’ groups.

The post has a link whereby you can sign up online. Friends, family, whomever; all are invited to join.

SFL Div 2, The Rock, 12/02/11

I switched on the radio with about twenty minutes to go and heard about two minutes later it was 1-0. I thought, “It’s not enough,” and spent the next fifteen minutes waiting for the inevitable. Which came to pass.

The simple truth is we need to score two to have a hope of winning.

We’ve now lost a total of three points in the last minute at home to Stenny and Airdrie United and, more importantly, given them two and one respectively. These could be crucial come season’s end.

Time for concentration guys. For the whole ninety minutes please.

So it’s off to Methil on Tuesday with them having come off a good (must?) win.

Last season nothwithstanding, Bayview, New or otherwise, has never been a happy hunting ground for us. Plus they thumped us there earlier this season.

I’m not expecting any more miracles like we got in our previous two away games.

Believe it or not a lad at my school got himself the nickname Sham, aka Shambles, because of this song.

I hadn’t been planning to feature it but somehow today it seemed (in)appropriate.

Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs: Wooly Bully

No. Not me.

It’s the title of Writers’ Bloc‘s latest reading adventure, taking place this Sunday, 13^th Feb, in “honour” of Valentine’s Day.

See blurb below or check out the website via the link above.

Our next show will be “Love Sick”, a bracing antidote to Valentine’s Day. Writers’ Bloc’s Andrew C Ferguson, Andrew J Wilson and Morag Edward will be the guests of the talented Napier University Creative Writing folk, who will include Jennifer Bryce, Ever Dundas, Sian Bevan, Matthew Nadelhaft, Sean Martin, Ariadne Cass-Maran and Barbara Melville.

“Love Sick” will be held in the Speakeasy at Cabaret Voltaire, 36-38 Blair Street, on Sunday 13th February from 8pm to 11:00 pm. And it’s free!

Carling Nations Cup, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 9/2/11.

A comprehensive win it seems, most unlike recent Scotland performances.

There were no extended highlights on television, however, just the goals* on the news, so I’ve no idea whether we were any good or not.

*Fluky second goal perchance.

The Norn Irish were missing a few players.

Mustn’t sniff at a 3-0 win though.

I see Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has said it’s time to stop banker bashing. I saw a clip of him on the television news claiming this in the House of Commons.

This might be considered a little hypocritical of him coming only one day since he levied a tax on banker’s bonuses. A tax at which said bankers were said to be “livid.”

Except I don’t buy it. It’s much more Machiavellian than that.

Do you believe for a minute that these bankers were not aware this tax was on the cards? Cue much confected outrage.

These people have some nerve considering they bankrupted the country and continue to reward themselves handsomely for it while the rest of us mere mortals will be the ones paying the price.

By the way; do you get a bonus from your work? (I certainly don’t. Moreover, I don’t expect one.)

And why should you?

Why should anyone?

Your salary is your remuneration. You knew what it would be when you took the job on. Just exactly who needs a bonus to turn up and do their job?

And don’t give me this rubbish about going abroad if the money’s not enough. Let’s call that threat by its proper name. Blackmail.

Back to George Osborne.

He said that because of a deal he’s cooked up with his banker cronies – the deal which he says means it’s time to stop banker bashing – that there would be, and I quote, “less bonuses.”

Not, you’ll note – as I did – “less paid in bonuses” and certainly not “fewer bonuses.”

So much for an expensive private education.

George; you’re not much of an advert for Eton, nor for Magdalen College, Oxford.

Last night just before dusk we took a walk in the nearby park. (Got to try to get the lingering Christmas weight off somehow.)

Underneath one of the trees I spotted some snowdrops. It fair cheered me up.

Perhaps winter may be coming to an end.

I really don’t know what our esteemed Prime Minister, Mr Irresponsible, thought he was doing (beyond echoing Angela Merkel) when he said multiculturalism had failed in the UK.

To me he seemed to be saying that all minorities ought to become the same as the rest of us.

This demands the question, what rest of us?

For there is no single British culture. For a start there are four distinct national areas in the UK and the “culture” of each differs from the others. Even within each of the four areas culture differs from place to place. It differs within any city. Even within a town. Or village.

Now, I would agree that people who fail to learn English are going to struggle to come to terms with life in the UK and they should be encouraged to do so, by all means. (If I went to live abroad I would make every effort to learn the language.)

I would also agree that anyone who seeks to commit, or carries out, acts of indiscriminate murder (or murder of any stamp come to that) ought to be prosecuted – but that applies to anyone, not just to “minorities.”

In any case, the problem – if it is a problem – is not existential. A few disaffected, and misguided, youths are not a threat to the fabric of the UK nor to the British way of life; whereas laws implemented in over-reaction most certainly are. Neither have the 7/7 attacks on London Transport nor any subsequent actions been as extensive as those of the IRA were.

[By the way, we are all immigrants. There were no humans in Britain till our ancestors migrated via Europe from Africa. As a consequence, none of us has the right to say that others should not come to make their homes here. What we do have is the right to expect and insist that they obey our laws.]

As for the rest of it, the Prime Minister seemed to me to be suggesting that perhaps everyone should be (let’s take an example) members of the Church of England. This is a strange way to try to win over people who may be disaffected as a result of their perceptions of the prevailing attitudes of most Britons towards them and their religious affiliation. To tell them that to be accepted they must abandon what they think defines them is not going to persuade them that they are wrong. Quite the opposite.

This is a Tory playing to the Tory right – and giving succour to the more extreme right wing. I am strongly reminded of the remarks of Margaret Thatcher (of unblessed memory) about “swamping.”

I have two words here for David Cameron.

Guy Fawkes.

Four hundred years ago it was Roman Catholics who were disaffected and the terrorists of their day (albeit the then government knew every detail of the Gunpowder Plot.) Excepting Northern Ireland (and there any dissidents’ wishes are particular not general – and not in any case dedicated to the overthrow of the British state) most British RCs no longer have a grievance against the government – no more so than any other Britons anyway – and would not resort to violence to relieve themselves of it.

Just give it a few hundred years; problem solved.