How Marvellous Is That ?

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I really like this image.

It tries to capture the essence of a pre match moment that brought memories of County days of the past flooding back with a massive dollop of coincidence and  a most hopeful window into far happier days to come in County`s future.

The moment occurred as the writer and `Man in a Hat` Graham Privett were about to disperse after flogging calendars on the Grassy Knoll and inside the Hospitality suite respectively.

Then up steps Peter Quirk who had threatened a visit from the Isle of Man for yonks.It was massively unexpected but really good to shake his hand and have however brief a word with him. I then introduced Peter to Graham and after the briefest of exchanges it became apparent that the duo knew each other from the late 90`s when the HISC was thriving with over 1000 members and Peter ran the I.O.M branch.

Graham ( a seriously good Chairman of the Supporters Cooperative in the immediate post Trust days when it needed courage to put head above parapet as a Coop figurehead ) was active in HISC at the time  and whenever County played there pre-season, HISC would organise a meet the manager/ players event. Great events to which the whole squad usually turned up for.

Graham remembers that a small group used to get polo shirts and sweatshirts made up at a shop in Douglas….go in to do the design on the first day of the trip, and the shirts were always ready for the final day. How marvellous is that?

At which point hedgegrower invites any County supporter who has memories of I.O.M Festivals to send them in to hedgegrower@gmail.com . Old hedgie will look to publish them and give due credit to contributors. If you have any photos related to any anecdotes, please send them too.

Meanwhile back to pre-match Saturday, when we suddenly realised that Graham was wearing one of the many County shirts commemorating I.O.M Festivals mentioned above- a fantastic coincidence, and it got better as Peter`s Granddaughter Cleo joined us.

Cleo is in her first season as a County season ticket holder- how marvellous is that ?

hedgegrower ( with an assist from Man in a Hat)

 

PS- if you can please send them memories in, thank you!

........................

And Finally harking back to  other times.....an Additional Gallery of a few crowd shots from Andrew Machin  taken on Saturday...






And a couple from hedgegrower taken before the lights went out.....






 

 



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