This is Grimsby: Thomas Turgoose on his love of the Mariners

24 February 2016 11:44
The actor takes a leading role as Mariners fans explain their relationship with a club whose fortunes seem intertwined with the fate of the local fishing industryBy Copa90, part of the Guardian Sport NetworkThink Grimsby and you think fish. You know it, we know it. Start a chant of “you stink of fish” and we’ll answer with “we piss on your fish, yes we do”. The names of our fanzines – Sing When We’re Fishing, The Fishy, Cod Almighty – tell their own story. It was Liverpool’s Kop that first sang “you only sing when you’re fishing” at us, during an FA Cup tie in 1980. We changed the personal pronoun and turned an insult into a motto. Grimsby men, away for long periods in the fishing grounds, came home with a lot of catching up to do, with their drinking and with the Mariners.Perhaps inevitably, then, the piscine theme finds its way into We Are Town, a new anthology of writing from Grimsby Town fans published by the Mariners Trust. In one section of the book Grimbarian author Jack Waterman, reflecting on the club’s centenary exhibition in 1978, argues that during our heyday in the 1930s, “the prosperity of the fishing industry and the confidence of the town were reflected in the performances of the team”. In another, Town fan and former Guardian sports journalist Steve Bierley says of our long post-war decline: “The trawling industry collapsed, while the footballing knowledge of the Grimsby board could have been written on the dorsal fin of a small cod.” Continue readingreadfullarticle

Source: TheGuardian