Spring News

Blimey that's almost a complete episode of Who do you think you are.

All of my Janner roots come from my mother's side. Her mother and father were both Janners and I think both their parents were as well although I never knew them and have never done the family tree thing. The irony is that although I have lived in Plymouth pretty much all of my life none of my kids were actually born here. That's life in the RN for you. I have caught up again though as all of my grandkids save one are Janners. My father's lot are from the North so I don't count them.

 

Well that's the sad thing: I actually know very little and it's too late to ask once they're gone.

When he passed away, I was surprised to find my Dad was born near Bude. I suppose as a teacher, his father moved about a bit.

Although i know he was at Devonport, I'm not sure if my Mum's dad was in the Navy or for how long. He always had a significant limp when i knew him caused by a motor cycle accident. Perhaps he wasn't fit enough to be called up or was invalided out.

Too late to find out now...

 

I always regret that I didn't ask my parents more questions about family history....I expect when your young the future is more interesting than the past.

I did a few years back start to show more interest in my family roots......the first thing I remember is that my mothers mum was her step-mother.

I started getting hold of birth, marriage and death certificates....I was surprised to discover that my mums birth mother died 6 months after my mum was born....with pleurisy and her father remarried 13 months later...it must of been hard for him looking after a 6 month old daughter until he got remarried.

I managed to get back to 1781 with my mums family.....between 1909 and 1970 the family lived in four different properties in Embankment Road...less than 200 yards apart.

Names that I discovered running through the family with various spellings were.....Warn, Wearn, Wearne, Bolton, Boulton, Chegwidden, Westwood, Pooley, Richards, Jarman, Rice, Hill, Penalurick, Brownstone, Northey and Mudford......spread mainly over the Plymouth and Cornwall area of...... Wendron and Constantine both near Helston.

My Fathers side of the family was far harder to research.....because of spelling of family and place names varied so much....His parents had literally the same surname only differing by one letter....his fathers name had an...' S '...on the end of it.....he was born on a hill farm (Sunny Bank) 2 miles out of Meifod in Montgomeryshire.....he was the youngest of 12 children...plus three adopted children....I did visit as a child and the place was small....I think there was a 25 year difference between the oldest and youngest.....maybe they slept in shifts......His mother was less than 5ft tall and I have a picture of her...the typical little old welsh lady dressed in a cap and shawl....she lived to 95 years of age.

Of course as the children got older they had to move on....the farm couldn't financially support so many....I know one brother joined the lifeguard service in Fishguard Pembrokeshire... and my father joined the RAF in it's early years.....His certificate of service book said that when he joined he was classed as a Blacksmith.....he retired after 28 years unfit for service with an hernia....with the rank of Station Warrant Officer....known in the trade as a Swoman.

I was born in 1939 in.....The Alexandra Maternity Nursing Home in Devonport...long gone of course used mainly by the military.

My parents met when my Dad was stationed at RAF Mount Batten....they had already moved on to RAF Cirencester by then....but mum came back home to Embankment Road to give birth.

 

Did you use a search engine of some type, or a website Plym?

 

Booked into Myheritage for only a month.....and used Plymouth County Council for my mums side of the family....you can get really hooked on this sought of thing.

Used also the records at Kew.....can get expensive if you get it wrong and you go up blind alleys.

I would spend a week or so doing searches....and when it didn't work out i'd give it a rest for awhile...would come back to it and read through all the certificates again and find another missing link....and off you go again.

I did find that my maternal grand-father had been involved somehow with the Eddystone Lighthouse....but that needs looking into .....old local newspapers can glean up info...if you've got a year or two spare.

 

Steven Schumacher has been voted Sky Bet League One manager of the month for March.

 

I looked into one of my mothers sisters history......she literally got out of Singapore at the last momemt with her baby son....before the Japs over ran the place....she waved goodbye to her RAF husband who was on the Quayside......never saw him again.

Looked into his facts....found a death certificate for him....dated Singapore 1946.....this seems to be how they dealt with the thousands of British servicemen who disappeared from Singapore....many ended up on the infamous Burma railway as slave labour....when they couldn't work anymore they were often shot or just died by the track side.....so a certificate saying Singapore 1946 just left you to your imagination.....she never had closure and never married again.....her son got the best of everything and had a good education....and became a teacher....but he died in his fifties....not long after his mother.

As a kid you just didn't know the half of it how others lived.....some want to find out....other preferred not to know.

On the 15th of February 1942....60,000 troops surrendered to the Japs in Singapore....one of the biggest disasters of WW2.

 

Sad story Plym. Man's inhumanity to man to be sure and not changed much I fear.

 

There's a lovely interview with Jordan Garrick on the Argyle site: his enthusiasm just spills out of the screen. If you haven't subscribed I don't think you can watch it which is a shame.

He's delighted to have featured in 41 games: more than he did in the two preceding seasons combined. He doesn't resent not always starting because the competition for places is so strong. He's never been at a club like this where the 11 not picked to start could start as a team and win. He's not that tired because of the way the medical & coaching teams look after the players.

He can't wait for the remaining games and would like to play them all this week if that was possible. He wants to get them over, win the semi-final and get to Wembley, a statement he then withdraws in order not to tempt fate! In their own minds the team never go into a game thinking they might not get a result. If people outside didn't expect Argyle to be where they are then that's their problem and we'll have the last laugh.

Whatever happens, he thinks this will go down as his best ever season.

 

Player Of The Season poll

https://www.pafc.co.uk/news/player-season-vote

Pick any one from about 20 that I've seen play: they've all been fantastic.

 

The Herald printed the Garrick story so if you can't log into the Argyle site then you can pretty much read it all there instead. I have read a number of interviews with players from time to time over the season and have to say what a happy bunch to be here they all seem to be. It's hard not to get the impression that this is a very very happy camp all around and that they have all without exception bought into the Argyle story. They all get on and they all appreciate one another. I've said this before but this reminds me of the team Sturrock had in the record breaking season.

As for player of the season I will be honest and say I could nominate at least half a dozen and then add a couple if I thought longer. If ever there was an argument for nominating "The entire Squad" then this season is it. The saddest thing is it is almost inevitable that some of them will move on. I would dearly love to keep most of the loan players as well.

 

I read it it in the Herald but it really doesn't come across until you see it. He's an effervescent character I think but he only stops smiling when he's laughing.

He mentions Ryan Law as an example of the strength of the squad. He says that he hadn't been on the pitch for weeks but came in against Oxford and was a contender for MotM. He's right.

He also says he enjoyed his time at Swindon but they were at the wrong end of the table and there were "forces" in the club making matters worse. It's not like that at Argyle; everyone pulls in the same direction.

Swansea have a right to extend his contract by 12 months but I get the strong impression that if Argyle could put a contract in front of him, he'd sign before you could blink.


Swansea

 

So only four games left....and probably the hardest finish of any team in Div One.....another 3pts should guarantee us a play-off place.

Wycombe W......Away.
Sunderland........Home.
Wigan.................Away..........they could be promoted by then ?
MK Dons............Home.

I haven't worked it out....but could we be playing MK Dons for the second automatic promotion spot......wow that would be some match.

 

I don't find it useful to try to work out any of it. Sure as eggs are eggs it won't turn out to be anything you think it might. I see people saying we should lose this one and get 3 points in that one or a point or whatever. Thing is once it's happened you won't have to think you will know and if it came down to the last game of the season for a promotion then of course it would be one hell of a game. I'm still not fussed though if we don't make that.

 

I have finally gone over to the dark side and have a new iPhone. Please expect technical glitches which will be the phone’s fault, not mine .

Firstly, the dates for the playoffs are out. Team names are yet to be added.,,, Normally I’d post a link to the news item but pending the completion of acclimatisation, you’ll have to look it up yourself.

Secondly, Boris Johnson, our so called Prime Minister, solemnly promised in the Brexit campaign that he would match the vital EU Development Funds paid to Cornwall if we left. He’s delivered on that promise by paying on third of what the EU did.

 

It seems that Joe Edwards will not make the Sunderland match on Monday.

It is possible that Ryan Hardie might be available to take part in some capacity.

In the last four matches we have only scored once....and that was Joe Edwards.

Statistically (sorry sensible...some of us do like working these possibilities out)....it is odds on Wigan being Champions... and Mk Dons or Rotherham being promoted as runners up.

The play-offs is still reachable down to Oxford...although highly impossible.

Five teams can still get more points than Argyle.....Wycombe fall short by two points.

Our fate is in are own hands....because we still have to play three of those teams....a very difficult finish to the season....aspecially with important injuries...Edwards, Hardie ? and Bolton being in various stages of recovery......at present only the top three have better goal differences than us....but that could well alter against the quality of teams we still have to play.

We need to get three points to confirm our play-off spot.....and we could still finish up 7th which would be a disaster.

The best chance of a Wembley appearance for us is to avoid MK Dons in the play-off semis.....who have the 'evil eye' over us in recent seasons....and I feel our players are not up to the task of beating them over two legs....remember a few years back they easily stopped us getting to Wembley.....please not again.

 

Shall we just wait and see where we end up? Finishing 7th would not be a "disaster". The war in Ukraine is a disaster. Leaving the EU was a disaster. Voting Boris and chums in was a disaster. The Pandemic was a disaster. I just think people should get a bit of perspective and get real. But they won't will they. The Lynch mob will be out in force.

 

Can we agree on "a mild disappointment"?

It's probably timely to remind everyone what a brutal league the Championship is financially. Most teams spend far more than is affordable, survivable and in some cases, legal. It won't be a bed of roses if we do go up.

 

If we come 7th....we would next season have Derby to contend with....who would be lower mid-table without their points deduction and probably be favourite for promotion in Div 1 next season......grab the chance now if possible.....we just needed better quality reserves to off-set the likes of .....Hardie, Edwards, Grant, Bolton, Scarr, G Cooper, Galloway missing games because of injuries.

Also the call on Jephcott and Camara for international duty didn't help.

What is apparent at the moment is the loss of Joe Edwards for his leadership and goals as well as Hardie's goals as well.

 

And tireless running in the case of Captain Joe Edwards. Every blade of grass, every match.