Watford: the family club

Arsenal v Watford

Saturday 14^th October

I think that the penultimate match I ever saw with my brother was in Watford’s first season in the old First Division. My Dad had had his first and last summer off the booze and done a fair bit of DIY around the house, including putting in some new windows, and I had helped. The outside loo had been knocked out and the kitchen of our terraced house grown as a result. We installed a shower instead of the bath and the toilet came inside and went upstairs. Well, ok, we bought a new toilet: the other one was relegated to a different type of dump. There was even new carpeting: the money Dad saved by not drinking showed we could probably have lived a bit better than we ever did. At some point following the summer it had been decided that we would have a “house-warning” party on the 27^th November 1982, more than 13 years after my parents had moved in.

So come the day, my dad took Trevor and I to Highbury to see Watford win 4-2 – Barnes got a couple – while my sisters Terese (as she was known then) and Kerry stayed at home to help Mum prepare for the arrival of her extended family: I don’t remember any of Dad’s side there. Our house was full of strangers – Walshes, mostly. There was singing but it was Trevor sitting on the gas-fire that sticks in my mind: he knocked it over and the carpet was briefly on fire. I ran and began to fill the washing-up bowl but it wasn’t needed; the gas got turned off and the problem was resolved.

I saw Trevor last Sunday for the first time since the funeral at the end of May. His 7 month old daughter, Kasey, is crawling now but had the sniffles when we were there. Then on Tuesday Sarah and he had to rush her to hospital after she had trouble with her little lungs. She even stopped breathing briefly and had to be resuscitated. The hospital kept her in Tuesday and Wednesday nights on drip-fed antibiotics for observation but we hope that’s the worst of it. It gave me an excuse to phone 3 times during the week, thus cementing the “back-to-normal” terms of the relationship after our disagreement in Terri’s (as she is known now) back garden after the ceremony.

Trevor, who claims now to be an Arsenal fan, though I am not sure how much he ever saw them, had stated his determination to wind me up and thought he could do so by racist language when chatting football. I didn’t let it go but he was getting more and more upset, not me. We all have pet hates: mine is people talking over me, his seems to be me. When he said that WFC would get £40 million from TV rights by going up to the premiership, my pedantry got the better of me and I told him to put £10 where his mouth was. Having read and kept a Guardian article about the breakdown of the sum being talked about, I knew that less than half of it was from TV. However, there was no telling Trevor, who by this time worked himself up into an apoplectic bouncing on the spot that stress and a combination of substances was fuelling.

I went off to play football with Joss, Teigan and Jake and their father, my brother-in-law, Matt. Joss and Jake won the first game 10-8. I think Trevor argued with Kerry and Sarah a bit then left for the Junction alone (not that far from the Cassiobury estate). We won the second game 1-0, which was abandoned when my aunt and uncle gave us a lift to the station too. I hadn’t seen or spoken to Trevor in the ensuing 4 months. Believe it or not, I took a photocopy of the article about the significance of winning “the richest football game on the planet” with me but now I shall just note the figures for posterity. Alright, alright, it’s one-upmanship and I am using this chance to settle a score because I felt I was owed an apology. Happy now?

Share of TV revenue	9.5	2.5
Payment for live TV games	2.5	0.75
Overseas TV income	6.5	0.5
Ticket sales/season tickets	24.0	10.0
Sponsorships	1.0	0.25
Individual club sponsorships	2.0	1.0
Perimeter advertising	1.25	0.75
Merchandising	1.0	0.5
Merit payments for pos in table	3.0	0.1
Total	50.75	16.35

If he really is a Gooner, Trevor got the latest laugh. Although we had a couple of chances, it sounds like our worst performance of the season so far: The Hornets went down 3-0 today, which puts our goal difference on a par with the other clubs around us at the bottom of the table. Charlton are at Fulham on Monday and could go above us. Then we play them at the Valley next Saturday. I got tickets. Any pity can be postponed.

I chatted with Terri online yesterday and she told me WFC had been offered another 3,000 tickets for today’s game but had turned them down. Can’t confirm that but if so…grrr. She also told me that she’s got 2 tickets in the Rookery too, about 30 rows behind us and to our left. Joss and I might get to meet up with Jake and one of his parents at the ground on the day of the Spurs game at the end of this month. It’ll all be happy families soon.