DUN BLOGGIN’ (Sort Of) . . .

 

With not a little sadness, this is the last of my regular blog posts, and I will also be writing and publishing no more of my limited-edition Falmouth nostalgia books. 

 

As trailed in my post of November 22, circumstances have conspired to switch my main focus onto ghost-writing and publishing Cornish footballer autobiographies*, all entirely in aid of Cancer Research UK.

 

I will continue to chip in, no doubt, with the occasional, personalised “shortie” blog post, but my longer, more deeply researched weekend “mains” have run their course.

 

In which latter respect, my special thanks to Falmouth Reference Library and Penryn Museum for use of their facilities and to the Falmouth Down The Years Facebook page as principal promoter of my blog and for my books.

 

My 13 books since I retired ten years ago have raised around £25,000 for Cancer Research, with by far the lion’s share having been generated via Falmouth Down The Years.

 

So a huge thank-you to all purchasers of those books.  I know they have found their way all over the world, and it has been a delight to hear from readers,  including many who have collected the complete set.

 

I will continue to use this blog site for occasional promotion of my footballer books, but I recognise that this will be for a largely different audience from the one to date.

 

In closing, then, let me wish a very Happy New Year to all those purchasers of my existing books – and to all my new ones to come, with many thousands more words, I hope, being written and published in aid of one of the worthiest charities in the world. 

 

* Footballer book updates. Fund-raising figures from my two most recently published books: Mark “Rappo” Rapsey’s has reached the £2,000 mark and Tommy Matthews’ has passed £2,500. 

 

Together with the Rappo sequel and Andy Street, I have now begun work on a third current project, and how about this for a (provisional) front cover title splash:  SIXTY YEARS A SOCCER BOSS – The Story Of Melville Benney, Britain’s Longest-Serving Football Manager

SICK WORLD

Tragically, but sadly all too familiarly, this is the kind of “story” that is written and published at great length nowadays by (presumably) fully-trained journalists routinely copying and pasting from that indispensable source of “news,” Facebook.  That quaking and groaning you can feel and hear right now  is coming from countless old-school newspaper editors of my respectful recollection turning wildly in their graves. https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/woman-rages-lad-throws-up-9824776 

THE ‘SCANDAL’ THAT ‘ROCKED THE DOCKS’ AND HIT THE NATIONAL PRESS

As I have noted several times – and entirely from the shipspotter’s point of view, let me stress – it can be a grey old scene at Falmouth Docks these days, with the now staple diet of long-stay RFA vessels and little else to catch the eye for weeks on end.  

 

As if to prove that it need not be boredom all the way, though, there was an incident – “scandal,” even - 35 years ago that propelled one such vessel into the national media spotlight.

 

It made it onto the front page, no less, of the Daily Mirror in September, 1989, and here’s how the Falmouth Packet began its own take on that:--

 

“The security scandal rocking Falmouth Docks this week is being fully investigated by the Ministry of Defence.”

 

Reporter Ron Carroll, who, shall we say, had a flare for the dramatic, wrote: “It follows revelations in a national newspaper that an explosives expert with a conviction for assault was hired along with another man to guard a Navy tanker.

 

“The Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel Gold Rover is here for a £3 million refit and its arrival two months ago put the Docks on ‘amber’ alert.

 

“The front page Daily Mirror article alleged that the man – a painter and decorator with no knowledge of security – was hired by Armtrac Security Services of Perranporth, which advertises ‘fully trained guards’ in the Yellow Pages.

 

“The 31-year-old, who has a shot firer’s certificate for underground tin mine blasting, was given a pass and an Armtrac tie to go with a pair of trousers he had borrowed, and had apparently picked up a security pass before starting work, according to the Mirror.

 

“After completing his first 12-hour shift the day after the Deal bombing (when the IRA killed 11 Royal Marines – MT), he spoke out to the newspaper about how easy-going procedures were.

 

“’I was supposed to be checking people boarding the ship, but no-one had done any proper checks on me.  I could have put a bomb anywhere. I was able to go all over the ship,’ he said.”

 

Ron’s report said the MoD would not comment specifically, except to say that the two men concerned had been employed “purely as an additional eyes and ears for the RFA ship’s crew, who are trained.”

 

Armtrac had been recruited by Falmouth-based shipping agents G C Fox & Co, who acted as agents for the MoD but refused to comment.

 

Docks managing director Tom Duncan described the Mirror report as “erroneous” and added: “Why should it worry us? We are not a nuclear establishment. Our involvement is with ship repair. There will be no clampdown on security at the gate; security will be maintained.”

 

Docks’ Landmark Year For Contracts

 

In more familiar reportage, the same issue of the Packet reported that the Docks had chalked up a notable first for itself with the winning of its third RFA refit contract in one year. 

 

Valued at £1.8 million, this was for the 49,000-ton support tanker Oakleaf, and followed in the wake of the Gold Rover, which was one of the yard’s biggest post-war contracts, and one other, unnamed RFA vessel whose refit was worth £2 million.

 

Shiprepair commercial manager David Duckham said: “The latest contract confirms 1989 as the yard’s busiest-ever in this decade, adding: “It adds up to the biggest vote of confidence the yard has ever received.

 

“It’s a further demonstration that key customers have faith in Falmouth’s ability to handle work of the highest quality, at an acceptable price and within a rigid timetable.”    

PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL FOR CORNWALL? TRURO CHIEF IS DEADLY SERIOUS!

I’ve just caught up with an interview* on BBC Radio Cornwall last week with Truro City chief executive officer Eric Perez, and I’m glad I did – because it’s very illuminating!

 

That City’s superb new ground has been up and running from scratch in less than a year, along with a high-riding team to match, has been something of a minor miracle.

 

But in his chat with Julie Skentelbery Eric makes it abundantly clear that so far as he is concerned this is just the start of something very big.

 

Okay, we’ve been here before, sort of, but there’s no denying the scale of achievement since his Canadian consortium acquired the club in November last year.

 

Right from the start of this season, match attendance figures have been consistently around the 1,500 mark and rising – Saturday’s was 1,721 – so all in all Eric’s aspirations are at very least worth listening to.

 

Here are a few samples from that radio interview:--

 

“ . . . I think this is the most exciting opportunity in English football right now . . . “

 

“ . . . The club has the biggest catchment area in the top six divisions . . . the biggest catchment area in the country . . . “

 

“ . . . There’s a sense of destiny in this thing.  I just feel we’ll be the first Cornish club in the Football League . . . we are on our way now . . . “ 

 

“ . . . Cornwall is responding to (our project) . . . “

 

“ . . . I think we have the best manager outside the Football League . . . “

 

“ . . . If things keep going as they are, we will be in the Vanarama National League next year and then we’re just one step away from the Football League . . . “ 

 

 “ . . . I don‘t think there’s a limit to how high we can go.  I believe we can reach the Premier League. Could Cornwall sustain it? Yes . . . “

 

“ . . . Getting this club into Sky Bet League Two will be the biggest achievement of my life.”

 

And the Premier League?  (Prompted by Julie) “Drekkly, not shortly!”

 

So there you have it.

 

And as for having “been here before,” there is one other similarity worth mentioning.  When Kevin Heaney set the original City revolution rolling with his takeover in 2004, he confessed to being a “football nut.”  When Eric Perez acquired Truro City, he labelled himself a “football fanatic.”

 

I also recall Kevin telling me in 2008, admittedly with tongue in cheek, I suspect: “I hope this club maintains its momentum.  Hopefully, if we see a 60% increase year on year, we will be getting over 20,000 in the Premier League by 2016!”

 

Alas, most of those Truro home attendances, despite promotions into the Southern and then Conference league (the club’s present level), remained stubbornly around the 400 to 500 mark.

 

By contrast, if City’s present rate of progress is maintained, with further major developments in the pipeline, it is not unreasonable to anticipate that the home attendances could be hitting 2,000 next season.

  

So it’s definitely a case of Watch This Space.

 

As Sven-Goran Eriksson used to say: “We will see.”

 

Or how about Sir Matt Busby: “Aim for the sky and you can reach the ceiling; aim for the ceiling and you might never get off the ground!”

 

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0kbjxcq

WELL, IF I CAN’T BLOW MY OWN TRUMPET AT A TIME LIKE THIS . . .

I’ve just thrown to the wind all my legendary powers of mature, impartial, objective, professional judgment, ditto my world-renowned modesty, and – in the final days of this ten-year-old blog – simply cannot resist reproducing here a lovely piece I’ve just read on my fellow blogger John Marquis’s site:--

 

From soccer to nostalgia, Mike’s

books raise cash for good causes 

 

ON the subject of self-publishing, allow me to cite my old mate Mike Truscott - the doyen of Cornish journalists - as a true success story in the genre.

Mike and his wife Janet publish affordable paperbacks on a variety of subjects, but specialising mainly in local nostalgia and sportsmen’s biographies.

The books are sold entirely for charity, and have netted thousands for cancer research.

Three recent publications spotlighted footballers, including Falmouth Town hero Tommy Matthews, whose memoir netted over three thousand quid for good causes.

Mike, a journalist of the old school who worked on Liverpool dailies as well as Cornish weeklies, ran his own PR enterprise for twenty-five years. Book publishing is one of his retirement hobbies.

I’ve read most of his books and enjoyed them all. My only gripe is that they’re too cheap, a measly five quid for books that ought to sell for at least £7.99.

I’ve told him to up the price, and I think he might consider it.

 

Many thanks, John – I’ll see to it that you stay on my Christmas card list. 

WHEN FLUSHING HAD MANY FATHER-LESS FAMILIES

As you stroll through the tranquil waterfront streets of Flushing – which, like every other village these days, would automatically be described as “sleepy” by the media – it’s hard to credit that it has known so much tragedy in past times.

 

Earlier this year* I wrote about one of the greatest dramas in Cornish shipwreck history when the transport ship Queen was driven onto the rocks at Trefusis with the loss of 136 lives in 1814.

 

In that same year, I’m now reminded, the Packet ship Queen Charlotte, bound from Falmouth for San Sebastian, suffered a similar fate (location unknown) during a fierce night-time storm. 

 

Captain John Mudge, an ex-Naval commander, and 16 of his crew were drowned.

 

Mudge’s widow, Mary, wrote to the Packet agent from their Flushing home about her poverty and was eventually granted a £30 a week pension, with £10 for each child; there were six in the family.

 

This was a familiar story at the time. Flushing had many father-less families during the years 1793-1815 because of the hazards of seafaring. The war with France, attacks by privateers and normal sailing hazards left around 70 widows in the village by the mid-19th Century.

 

Most were the widows of ordinary seamen who received no financial help. Those over 70 were entitled to some form of parish relief.

 

Many widows either returned to their parents or launched their own small enterprises – dressmaking, laundering, taking in lodgers and in some cases opening their own shops.

 

The withdrawal of the Packet service was a severe blow to the local economy and many families left Flushing.

 

Then, with the improvement in fishing and oyster dredging, things began to look up in the village. 

 

By the 1860s there was an increase in the number of people of independent means and a resident curate and policeman were appointed, as if to confirm the village’s improving status.

 

* My piece on the Queen shipwreck is no longer visible here under its publication date of March 9, following one of my periodic spring-cleans of the site, but here it is again in case you missed it first time round:--

 

THE ‘INDESCRIBABLE HORROR AND CONFUSION’ OF A CORNISH SHIPWRECK

 

With Falmouth harbour known for centuries as a haven for shipping in stormy weather, it’s easy to forget that one of the greatest tragedies in Cornish shipwreck history occurred within its normally calm waters.

 

One hundred and thirty six soldiers, women and children perished when the transport ship Queen, having put into the port for shelter and stores several days earlier, was driven onto the Trefusis rocks in a blizzard on January 14, 1814.

 

There the vessel was struck by a succession of heavy waves that further grounded her, with guns breaking from their mountings and trundling to and fro, running down those who could not jump aside.

 

Within 20 minutes, many of those on board were either crushed to death or drowned. In that time, as the West Briton reported, the Queen became “a complete wreck.”

 

The newspaper added: “The horror and confusion that ensued is indescribable; those who got on deck were either swept off by the waves or maimed by the fragments of the rigging and spars that flew about in all directions.

 

“Numbers could not make their way up, and as the vessel’s bottom was speedily beaten to pieces, they were drowned or crushed to death by the floating pieces.

 

“The return of day presented a shocking spectacle.  Dead bodies of men, women and children, many of them mangled, several of them naked, and others scarcely half-dressed, strewed the shore.”

 

The account is to be found in The Cruel Cornish Sea, David Mudd’s book published in 1981.

 

It is but one of a great many shipwrecks vividly described by David, who recalled: “It was my job as a newspaper reporter, and later in radio and television, that brought me more and more in contact with the brutish callousness of the wind and tide and the inhospitality of the Cornish coast.

 

“Ships arrived, like Janko, being towed stern-first after having split in two when battered by massive waves twice the height of a normal house.

 

“Others like Stryx, looked as if they had made an unsuccessful attempt to get under a low bridge when waves had washed away masts, bridge and funnel with the neatness of someone slicing the top off a boiled egg.”

 

David added: “Then there were the ships which called to land the casualties and corpses of violent storms. 

 

“Men crushed beyond recognition by cascading cargo; others minus arms or legs, where hawsers, unable to stand the stress of the storm, snapped and whipped their way through protective clothing, skin and bone with the accelerated precision of the surgeon’s knife, but with the gaping devastation of the chainsaw.”