December 10 2006

Jumbo disappointment against Colchester

We were all ready for the Great Palace Revival but Colchester spoiled the scenario. Jamesey comments.

Well, it seemed a tad unfair to arrive back from Sri Lanka on the mid-morning of Saturday Dec 9, put the luggage in the hall, dust off my season card, and head for Selhurst, leaving the Missus to scrape up two weeks cat detritus from the carpets, fetch the dog from her sister's, etc, etc.

So I decided to do the honorable thing and listen to the match on Palace Radio and, to be honest, after 24 hours travelling and an 11-hour overnight flight, it wasn't that difficult a decision.

In my last column ("Tykes a Turnaround", Nov 20), as the title implies, there were reasons to hope that the season would become a trifle more acceptable and during my winter break, with more than a little trepidation, I decided to check on the three matches I had missed.

In a small village, midway between Galle and Colombo, I wrestled my way through the jungle to a hut boasting internet access and, surrounded by coconuts, bananas, monkeys, elephants and statues of the Buddha, bought myself 100 rupees worth of time.

With trembling fingers, I typed my way to this site and, to my astonishment, discovered that we had drawn two nasty away games and soundly defeated the Pooper-scoops 3-0 at home.

Turnaround, indeed...this was good news of the highest quality and it was all I could do not to burst into a chorus of "Glad All Over", as I proceeded through the snake-infested tracks back to our hotel.

So there it was. The signs were all there that we could start clawing back some of the lost progress and mount a genuine promotion challenge.

And, for the first half, it seemed almost certain that another three points would be in the bag before 5pm, as Palace seemed to do everything possible with the ball except achieve the object of the exercise, get the damned thing in the net.

But those upstarts from Colchester had the temerity to score twice in the second half and despite Clinton Morrison's late effort. a penalty for the visitors gave them a conclusive 3-1 victory.

With Christmas just round the corner, where will we be after the festive break?

Your guess is as good as mine...

* To end briefly on a non-Palace, but still sporting, topic, I encountered, what was to me a unique experience, in the Suisse Hotel in Kandy, central Sri Lanka.

Just off the main bar, which I felt obliged to investigate for historical reasons, was a billiards room.

"Where you are from, sir?" said a barman setting up snooker balls. When I replied "England" he enthused at length about the snooker abilities of the English and how great was the national talent compared with the Germans and French.

"Please, give me a game?" he said, and after all that, how could I refuse?

He couldn't let me win because, after a 20-year break, I was incapable of sinking more than two balls in succession but he did his best.

I bought him a beer and every time I passed the billiards room he was giving somebody a game, and it was obvious that he was employed almost solely to play guests at snooker and, if possible, let them win.

Now that's what I call real service to your visitors...

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