June 7 2003

2003/2004 Palace Kits

News of Palace's new season kit is somewhat perplexing. Jamesey reflects on kits and other bits...

I have to stick my neck out here and say that I am apparently one of the few people to comment that Palace's stripes changed from red-and-blue to claret-and-light-blue last season.

OK. I agree that Stevie Kember's Claret-and-Light-Blue Armee doesn't quite have the right ring about it for 2003 but our colours did change - and I was shocked but not annoyed when I first saw it at our July 2002 friendly at Carshalton.

That fades into the wide blue yonder, reading the message boards, and learning that we are, allegedly, to revert to good old red-and-blue stripes next season. However the fashion atrocity, we are warned, is that we will have hooped arms and striped torsos...

As one who thinks that Armani is a pasta sauce and Versace is a frothy red wine from Yugoslavia, I am no expert on fashion. But even to me, hoops and stripes on the same garment do seem bizarre and could, to use the language of the old terraces, make us look like a right bunch of tossers. Time will tell

On the bright side, we have had years of pre-season friendlies against Real Betis in Spain (very convenient), Little Piddlecombe on the Wold, Devon, on a Tuesday night (equally handy) and the strange cup for which we had to trek to outer Turkey a few years ago.

Sanity strikes home at last and we have two mouth-watering home games against PSV and Chelsea. The prices are reasonable and I, for one, will be booking a dual ticket at a pretty fair price, as soon as I can. Well done Simon Jordan and whoever advises you. A super start to the new season.

Email Jamesey with any of your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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