Elliot off?

Summer murmurs of Robbie Elliot leaving might well come to fruition this week. Chris Powell mentioned a few days ago that the club are in discussions to extend his contract but one has to wonder why then Powell feels he needs another 1st choice keeper with the OS stating that we are in talks to sign Reading’s Ben Hamer?

Hamer was on loan at Exeter when we played them in the bumper Valley crowd day last February. Matt Taylor would thus know him well.

Ready or not

“It was a battling performance from the visitors, who matched the Lions throughout a frenetic and absorbing match which will whet the appeitite among Addicks supporters for next Saturday against Bournemouth and the new season” – cafc.co.uk

I can’t help myself, but like a kid stood outside a candy store with his Dad’s wallet I’m a little beside myself with excitement a week from the opening day of the new season.

Cup Match Special

After four years of rain affected lethargy, today’s Bermuda Cup Match ended in excitement as Somerset, who had batted like the blind school yesterday, fought back courageously to make a real fist of it and nearly snatched the trophy from St George’s for the first time since 2002.

My son and I were at the Wellington Oval today down at the east end of the island in St George’s to watch the annual proceedings and jolly good fun it was too. It is hard to describe the atmosphere except it’s about as far removed from a Lords test that you can imagine.

The locals dress to impress, well I am sure they impressed someone, the rum and beer flows and wannabe DJ’s compete with each other ten feet apart. The local scaffolding companies make a killing as that is pretty much what everyone is standing and sitting on and I hope, I really hope, they have ruddy good liability insurance.

Bish-Bash-Bosch

I told Johnnie Jackson via Twitter tonight to save some room in the trophy cabinet after he lifted the inaugural People’s Cup, instigated by the noisy 150 Den Bosch fans in the stadium.

I’m not one for friendlies but I was keen to read opinions of tonight’s only home pre-season game and I was looking for style and substance over most anything else. Pleasingly the reports were commendatory with the midfield pair of Hollands and Stephens receiving a lot of plaudits as did Green, who unfortunately will miss the Bournemouth game due to suspension. BWP scored a neat lob and by all accounts the Dutch side were no mugs and played a pleasing passing game as did we.

Solo flyer

My son flew into Bermuda this evening travelling the 6.5-hour flight on his own. British Airways allow children to fly on their own from the age of 5 although ages, rules and regulations differ depending on the route and he has been asking for a while if he could travel here on his own. This morning his Mum was more nervous than he was as he took the whole adventure in his stride.

Paul Benson to Notts County

It is being widely rumoured that Charlton have accepted an offer of £150,000 from Notts County for Paul Benson. Of course he has to want to leave and agree terms, which team mates McCormack and Francis couldn’t do last week.

This is disappointing news to me. I was always supportive of Benno and his actual goalscoring ratio (1 every 4) wasn’t too bad considering our below average season and the fact that rarely from what I could see did we ever get a decent cross into him.

Therefore I assumed that this was one of the reasons for signing his old wide man team-mate Danny Green, and I was happy to see this combination work last night in the friendly at Aldershot.

Bret

Last September I blogged through the night (my September archive is dominated by it) when Hurricane Igor battered the island throughout the night. It was a scary experience coming a day after I had knee surgery and was hobbling around on crutches.

The hurricane season is with us again and Bermuda is set to have it’s first 2011 brush with nature on Thursday as Tropical Storm (a named storm is not classified as a hurricane unless it has sustained winds of at least 74 mph) Bret passes by the island.

Off to the Shots

Aldershot tomorrow night. A name that always brings back some sweet childhood memories because it was at the Recreation Ground that I saw my first ever football match.

It was 1972, or it could have been 1973 but we were at a family friends in Camberley for the weekend and the Dad, Pete, was a regular at The Rec and offered to take me and my Dad along to a game.

Aldershot were playing Southport, or was it Stockport? Or Workington? Always annoys me that…. but I am more certain of the score. It finished in a 2-2 draw but what I remember more vividly is the ground.

¿Dónde está Mikel

A defeat on the final day of the Addicks’ tour of southern Spain, but a defeat with no shame only more words of encouragement. The Cardiff City media man on Twitter was complimentary of the Addicks’ performance despite losing 1-0 and I am sure the party will return in high spirits. Next up is Aldershot on Wednesday.

The Plaza Café

Not content with discovering good coffee at the Tribe Road Kitchen last week, this week I came across a good lunch spot in Hamilton.

The Plaza Café is tucked away upstairs in what is called the Walker Arcade between Reid and Front Street’s and used to be a very third rate coffee shop.

Upon research the Plaza Café got renovated by the owners at the back end of last year and I normally have no reason to venture near it, so when I did stroll past earlier in the week it was a pleasant surprise to look in it’s window at the very sleek interior.

New look

A new look then to honour the Addicks new look. I hope you like, it’s taken me a few days to fiddle around with but I wanted something that more resembled a magazine with a clean look. I think my previous design was a little bland, although to be honest I have spent so much time staring at this new page that for the life of me I can hardly remember what the old one looked like!

The new-look Addicks meanwhile are out in Spain being put through their paces and we had a very decent win over Bristol City Tuesday night in Lepe. On Friday the Addicks play Cardiff City at the Estadio Guadalquivir of Coria FC in Seville and return to Blighty on Saturday.

Another brick in the wall

Another new signing today but a strength and conditioning coach, not a player, but one would have to say another important brick in the foundations of the club’s rebuild.

Last week Charlton let go (and I’m probably being polite there) Donough Holohan and have snared 29-year old Laurence Bloom from Southend. Southend’s player-coach Graham Coughlan said: “Speaking on behalf of the whole group we are really going to miss him. He did some unbelievable work for the football club and will be a big, big miss for us. He was a joy and pleasure to work with and whoever comes in to replace him has some very big shoes to fill.”

By all accounts Bloom was on the pitch at Welling before the game on Saturday.

Bermuda Page

After recently celebrating 3 years on the rock, I thought it was a good time to update my Bermuda Page over there on the right hand side. Feel free to comment.

Young Bermudian players in English league

Freddy Hall. Remember that name? You probably don’t although I suspect my fellow Bermuda Addicks will. Hall is a Bermudian goalkeeper who was on trial with Charlton in December 2009. It didn’t work out and he returned to University in America to finish his degree.

A year ago he was at Plymouth Argyle on trial, but that didn’t work out either and he returned to Bermuda and played the season with the Hogges in the USL, the American 3rd tier. However it was announced today that Gary Johnson has given him a one-year contract at Northampton.

And Morrison makes it a team

With a couple of subs in Nick Pope and Ruben Bover Izquierdo, so 13 new faces in total. There is no denying that is a pretty impressive effort from Chris Powell and the board.