March 21 2007

Geoff Thomas

Jamesey joined the hardy band of 5,000 who braved the weather to see another Geoff Thomas re-enactment.

When I heard that Geoff Thomas was planning another leukaemia fund-raising game, this time reprising CPFC's famous FA Cup semi-final victory against Liverpool at Villa Park, I was less than captivated.

The re-staging of the Man Utd Cup Final was one thing and 15,000 fans (including a substantial opposition contingent) turned up for a smashing evening of fun and nostalgia.

But a semi-final? Well? I had to remind myself that it was all for a very good cause and that the game was one of the greatest upsets I have ever seen in all my decades as a Palace supporter.

I didn't travel to Birmingham for the game but watched it at home on the box all those years ago.

To say that we were under-dogs is a massive understatement... under-under-under-dogs more like it. And in the first half the omens were that we were in for a good pasting.

But, without going into chapter and verse, it didn't, of course, work out like that and by the end of the afternoon we had booked our passage to Wembley.

We even managed to find a full bottle of champagne (a rare find in the Jamesey household in those carefree and medically unchallenged days) to celebrate that most glorious of victories.

And so it was that on the afternoon of March 20 I found myself on the train to Norwood Junction, as flurries of snow swirled through the barren landscapes of Streatham Hill, West Norwood and Gipsy Hill. It was all for a good cause I constantly had to remind myself.

Geoff had certainly done his stuff again and persuaded a star-studded line-up to turn up, including John Barnes, Steve McManaman, Jamie Redknapp and Bruce Grobbelaar for the Pool and Palace legends like Jim Cannon, Mark Bright, Gareth Southgate and Eric "The Ninja" Young.

It was a most agreeable evening and hopefully a goodly sum was raised for the assets of cancer research. Our assets were frozen to our seats. But it was all for a good cause.

Hats off again to Simon Jordan who once more fulfilled his boyhood dreams and played for Palace. His distinctive barnet is now instantly recognisable from afar. I wonder how much it costs him for a haircut and colouring job?

Simon proved without doubt, however, that he made a wise career choice in becoming a mobile phone mogul rather than a right-sided football midfielder.

I even paid £5 for a match programme something I would never normally do. But it was all for a good cause.

I did notice that the programme consistently misspelt Simon's name as "Jordon". Had it been a Palace publication, would some miserable wretch's head have rolled?

Probably not, because it was all for a good cause.

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