What the summer holds Ipswich Town-wise
ALWAYS a strange week this one.
From where I sit there are no press conferences to attend, no four pages of Ipswich Town match previews to fill on Friday and again on Saturday.
And no game to anticipate at the weekend.
And it must be the same for supporters as they go into summer hibernation with around 13 Saturdays before the start of the 2009/10 Coca-Cola Championship season.
Work-wise it has been a good campaign. No rain-offs, no snow-offs and not too much really cold weather.
Plenty of wins away from home to make all the motorway miles worthwhile, and no navigational problems whatsoever.
You will recall that once BBC Radio Suffolk’s Bryan Knights was designated a non-traveller, yours truly took over the navigational hot seat in Her Majesty’s Press (Ipswich branch) official (well camouflaged) vehicle.
And after ending up in an assortment of superstore car parks, negotiating roundabouts a dozen (well three anyway) times and generally living in dread that we would not find our way home the 2008/09 campaign will go down as highly efficient on the travelling front.
Not a Sat-Nav in sight either – just using the odd map and on the homeward journey the stars.
So what do we all do now? No footballers/managers to praise or criticise, no long Sunday mornings bashing computer keys for all their worth to fill Monday’s paper, no relaxing days off during the week to make up for regular Saturday duties.
For a start four weeks of holidays will be taken – plus an assortment of lieu days – leaving one more week to give a welcome break during an international week in October/November.
Speedway meetings and cricket games will need to be covered and the summer bat and ball sport will play a big part in your correspondent’s schedule over the next three months as chairman of Ipswich and East Suffolk CC and a willing wicket roller and grass cutter to chief groundsman Dave Little.
The dogs will come up to Chantry Park and many hours will be spent during the summer (on afternoons off and Saturday mornings) sitting on tractors and rollers.
Great stuff – and with a son to see in Auckland and a daughter to come home from a gap year – all good.
But don’t run away with the idea that a football correspondent’s life in the close season is a doddle.
A back page story still has to be found most days, and when there is little coming out of Portman Road because it is basically closed down it can be a tad difficult.
By early August, Roy Keane will have waved goodbye to a goodly number, welcomed a talented few and it will be lift-off time for a 2009/10 season that will be nothing if not electrifying.