Thinking about the Baggies

Whilst I cannot yet contemplate tomorrow's match, I do feel able to think about the Baggies as a club and a team. When I first went to The Valley in the early 1950s WBA (as they were usually referred to then) were regarded as one of the top teams in the country along with their Black Country rivals W****s. A visit from either team often meant a defeat.

However, I note that on 6th February 1954, a match that I might have missed because the weather was 'foggy and very cold' we drew 1-1 against the league leaders West Brom despite being effectively down to nine men. Kiernan had to go off to have a damaged knee treated before returning as left back, whilst the somewhat injury prone Ufton had to play with two damaged ankles. And all for the maximum wage!

That year the Baggies finished 2nd in the table behind, yes, W****s. The following year they finished towards the bottom, but we lost 1-3 at home to them and it is that match that shaped my early impressions of them.

In more recent times a friend and colleague was a Baggies season ticket holder. Sadly, he died several years ago and his heavy smoking undoubtedly had something to do with his premature death. He is also one of those people whose posthumous reputation exceeds the one he enjoyed in his lifetime. I have seen younger people describe themselves in print as 'neo-Bulpittians', his best known book has just been reprinted in a 'world classics' series and in early September I will be chairing a commemorative meeting on his work in the intellectual capital of the United States, Boston Ma.

My friend was very much a West Londoner, but when he came to the Midlands he moved to Solihull which is the most up market part of the Birmingham conurbation. His nearest club was Birmingham City, but no one would choose them unless they were up for a ruck. He also ignored Villa and chose to go across the conurbation to support the Baggies.

I have long lost my London accent. Indeed, one friend (who went to the same convent school as Marianne Faithful) insists that I never had a London accent and that my support for Charlton is some kind of retro invention. She thinks Charlton is resolutely down market and once had supporters of other clubs in stitches in the bar of an up market hotel in St.Andrew's with the notion of a group of Charlton supporters going in a reverse Rickshaw to a Kent restaurant.

My Baggie supporting friend kept his London accent (indeed, I think that he exaggerated it). One hot August day he gave me a lift to The Hawthorns to see the opening match of the season. The legendary Stacey Caldicote was in the Baggies line up and Charlton lost 1-0.

The Black Country accent is very distinctive, even in relation to that of Birmingham. My friend had a season ticket and after the match he said, 'The bleeding geezer wot sits next to me finks I know everythink about this club. He must fink I have lived in this manor all my natural.' This seemed somewhat unlikely.

Baggie supporters are very fanatical. In a sense they are bit like Portsmouth fans. Both come from areas that have relatively stable populations, where people live quite close to where they work. The Black Country still has quite a bit of manufacturing left and it is not unknown for people to live a few hundred yards from the factory they have worked in most of their lives.

They can be a bit unpleasant at times. When we beat them 2-1 at The Hawthorns a few years back there were a few nasty comments afterwards. This was at a time when we were playing as well as we have in recent years (before Danny Murphy got the sulks) and we could sing without too much irony 'It's just like watching Brazil.'

It seems to me that the Baggies are perhaps the only genuine footballing side in the division (Bristol City are also candidates) and also the only one that could go up and stay up. By this time I expected them to have a solid lead at the top of the table. Instead, we have 'lump the ball up the pitch and clog the opposition' Stoke City with their very unpleasant fans. However, the Baggies have been distracted by the 'magic of the cup' and have some games in hand.

I think that the Baggies and Bristol City deserve the automatic promotion places. However, I still want to beat West Brom tomorrow. Whether we can do it is another matter. My hunch is that it will be a draw.

The perils of blogging

I received two contrasting messages yesterday. One was notice of an intended action for defamation. I should hasten to add that this was not football related and did not relate to one of my blogs or even something I had written, but to a blog which sometimes syndicates my material with my permission.

I have always been aware that electronic publication is subject to the laws of defamation (although I am not sure that all bloggers are). I try to word things carefully, but blogging is a very spontaneous medium and sometimes one is repeating material derived from other sources.

In contrast I received a message from the chairman of Burnley Football Club. He is delighted with what I have written about the club and wants permission to use it for PR purposes! I am quite well diposed to Burnley as I think that they are an authentic club that are well run and punching well above their weight.