January 28 2010

Crystal Palace

Jamesey sends a tender message to one of his oldest and most deeply loved friends - Crystal Palace Football Club.

Dearest Palace

Well, old girl, this isn't an obituary. We've been in administration before, only a decade or so ago. We made it through that, and we will do so again.

The two of us first met in the mid-1950s when I was a Croydon schoolboy (we were schoolboys not students then) and you were a scruffy, unfashionable little nobody, languishing in the depths of the league.

You weren't a big attraction compared with other London glamour queens of the time like Charlton and Chelsea.

But I fell for your romantic name, your underdog-ness and the fact that you were my local team. It wasn't long before I became a fully-fledged devotee.

I had my bouts of unfaithfulness when football lost its national popularity but England's World Cup triumph in 1966 prompted a resurgence in the game's fortunes.

However often my head was turned by other passions, I always came back to you in the end. You rewarded my love and friendship with many glorious times.

When I moved back to the Palace area in the early '70s, we were able to resume our affair full time. And so it has been ever since.

There were bad times too, of course. That happens in every relationship. Parting is such sweet sorrow but a kiss and cuddle to make up can indeed be a supreme pleasure.

The last time we entertained the administrators in the late '90s, your great rival, Mrs J, discovered that I had coughed up £1,000 to back up the Palace recovery fund. "Are you f***ing mental? We could have had two holidays in the Greek islands for that sort of money."

Partners sometimes just don't understand.

Well, I got my money back when the Great Orange Saviour took us out of that which he has subsequently put us back into.

Never mind, old girl, we shall survive and, short of the bulldozers moving in (and we are a long way from that eventuality) I will always be with you.

We are both getting long in the tooth but a half century of deep friendship can't ever be erased.

I won't survive another 50 years by a long chalk.

But you will, my dear old friend, I am absolutely certain.

Much love

Jamesey

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