Respecting Our Elders

The new season is just out of the blocks and already two of our golden oldies have made their mark. First there’s Brett, picking up where he left off by sticking in a couple of set piece headers, just as he has been doing season after season all the way back to 2003.  He has now played (and almost certainly scored) in 14 of our last 16 campaigns. Ben Baker was in nappies the first time Brett pulled on a Poppies shirt.  A sobering thought for Brett.  And the rest of us.

Also still showing the youngsters how it's done is Rene Howe.  Maybe golden oldie is a bit premature, though it is over a decade since his first spell in red.  Yesterday he celebrated his 50^th Poppies goal, something which he clearly was keenly aware of.  It has been an interesting half century.  The first 25 in a flurry of 3s, 4s and 5s, the second mostly in singles, with a fair bit of time at the non striker's end whilst serving yet another ban.  The Rene we see today (Rene 2.0 - twice as mean and twice the size), may not be as prolific as his younger self, but he knows all the tricks and very occasionally finds a ref who falls for them. Joining the 50 club places him in a fairly small club of modern Poppies, so congrats to Rene and we’re sorry for being rude about your weight. 

Meanwhile we must also doff our goalkeeping cap and wiggle it to ex Poppy Paul Bastock, who has astonishingly popped up at Corby at the age of 47.  Still with that slightly bemused look we saw on his debut at Yeovil, in 1990 for crying out loud!  That was so long ago, it was on the famous sloping pitch (younger readers, google it). Incredible to think there is someone still playing who shared a dressing room with Ernie Moss, whose own career almost overlapped with Stanley Matthews! 

 

For the opportunity of more nostalgic musings of this nature here’s hoping we get Corby in some cup or other before Bastock shuffles on.  Let’s face it, at this stage of his career he’s probably only got one more big move left in him.