Jan 20
Next on my personal Top Five’s from 2018 are right here on my doorstep. Bermuda is not the place to come for big restaurant openings, star-studded theatre, cool music concerts, cutting edge art shows or world class museums, it’s so much simplier here. The outdoors, the beach, the ocean.
I gave it some thought and these are My Top Five Favourite Bermuda Things from last year:
That game had it all. Well only after the 82nd minute.
We didn’t play well, and were unable to get any luck from Stanley’s big back four. The game descended into a niggle contest in the last half hour and with 10 minutes to go a mass brawl followed an Addicks corner. No one seemed to know who the guilty and innocent parties were, but one of the lino’s called it and the referee sent off Stanley keeper Maxted and Lyle Taylor, who from what I have seen and heard, spent the whole incident face down on the floor.
Nestled at 9,000 feet at the bottom of Bachelor Gulch mountain in Colorado is the gigantic dream-like log cabin that is the Ritz Carlton. I’ve been lucky to stay here a number of times and the hotel crowns the mountain range like a Bavarian castle complete with numerous huge log burning fires and a roaming giant St Bernard dog called Bachelor.
I’m no longer a skiier, I was only ever a perennial beginner, and an ACL replacement put paid to my mogul jumping career.
Hardly a surprise. Nicky Ajose left for Mansfield today on loan for the season. The striker signed for the Addicks in the summer of 2016. His contract runs out this summer. He has scored 11 goals in all competitions. A couple of those were big ones, but in all honesty he has failed pretty miserably to make his mark at The Valley. The supposed £800,000 signing has often looked uninterested although Bowyer praised his commitment today.
After a journey that took 19 hours I made it to the city of Denver late last night. The steps of the State Capitol building are a mile above sea level giving the town its nickname.
The journey from Bermuda is already a hike, and then I got stuck at Miami airport as our plane was taken out of service due to mechanical reasons and we had to wait for another one, give the crew a break etc, and missed a connection in Dallas, blah blah..
Allez, allez, allez.
A consummate performance yesterday in Salop, the scene of not so fond memories at the end of last season. Since then for Shrewsbury’s part they’ve had their squad and management team ripped apart and have had two managers since. Meanwhile we look much better prepared for promotion 7 months on, and the shoe was on the other foot yesterday as we controlled the game, as they did then.
In May Karlan Grant was at Crawley and Lyle Taylor was a figment of Lee Bowyer’s imagination, but yesterday up front together they caused havoc amongst Shrewsbury’s back line, which was one of the Shrews’ assets last season. Grant could have scored four, but his pace was a constant menace. And it was a sign of his confidence that he stepped up for the penalty and struck it with such aplomb.
Ben Purrington has signed on loan until the end of the season. Purrington is a Rotherham player but has played every league game at Wimbledon this season where he has been on loan.
That alone makes a welcome change to bringing in a loan player that is either returning from injury or an inexperienced young player from a big club that is looking to get some games under his belt. As Lee Bowyer said “the big positive is that he’s played every game at Wimbledon and is ready to go.”
Counting the days, the months and the years 😞
