Baldy's Blog Episode 2 Laws and Blackwell

A few weeks ago my cousin got married. She had a party in Sheffield and I couldn’t make it so I offered to catch up with her the next time I was in Sheffield, which just so happened to be the week of the 10th August. She works at the Victoria Hotel (Holiday Inn) just off Park Square so I thought we’d find a time for me to pop down there and have a drink.
Well I landed on my feet with this one. She invited me to the hotel on Thursday as they had a special event on. It was a charity evening, part of a series of events they hold at the hotel with special guests at each one. They’ve previously had Neil Warnock, Bobby George and Sam Allardyce among others. In future they have Paul Merson and Ally Macinally, Jan Molby and Harry Gration. So it’s not always good.

Anyway, these events are invite only. 50 people invited from across Sheffield to have a 3 course dinner and raise funds for local charities by bidding for various memorabilia, signed pictures, football shirts etc. My cousin gets a few seats to sell at cost price every time they do it and this time she gave a place to me. And this time the guests were Brian Laws and Kevin Blackwell.

When you arrive you immediately get shoved to get your photo taken with the two managers and then you get a drink and move through to the dining room. The managers were introduced (“The man who once won Grimsby Evening News Manager of the Fortnight – Brian Laws!” and “The man, who when he played for Barnet Barry Fry once shouted “Get warmed up son, you’re coming off” - Kevin Blackwell!”) and then you are invited to bid on the items. There was a lovely framed montage of the Derby Double, with pics of Watson’s and Tudgay’s goals and Laws celebrating etc, signed by Laws, as well as a similar one for the Boxing Day Massacre signed by Jack Charlton. They also had a signed picture of Bobby Robson which they explained they would auction later as a public bid, not private as the other items were.

Lovely food served very quickly and a few free glasses of wine later and the managers were invited to take questions. The thing about these two is, they do genuinely get on well. They both like to give the other one stick and they both take stick well and this made for an entertaining evening. Laws made the odd quip about Paddy Kenny and the double win and Blackwell made the odd quip about us being skint and they shared stories about Brian Clough and took some pretty blunt questions very well. Blackwell spoke more than Laws, partly because he had tougher questions to answer, but it made for a great evening.

Highlights from Wednesday point of view included:

Laws being asked about Kaven Walker and his one word response. You can guess the word.· His anger at Walker for the Reading situation last year and having to go on the coach (the club saved a whopping £1500 by not going down the night before, which Laws still seemed furious about)·  Talk of wage budgets – apparently Newcastle’s budget is £70 million, Scunthorpe’s £3 million and ours is £6 million. This was prompted by a question and not Laws making excuses by the way.· Blackwell mentioned that he sent Laws a present when his baby was born last season – a cuddly toy with a Blades badge on it – and Laws said, “Aye, and it was really good for getting the shit off the inside of the toilets”.

Blackwell got a little bit of stick for the Port Vale match, but more his reaction than the result, and the play-off final, including his comments about Mike Dean.

This is where he showed himself up a little.

He explained why he was so disappointed by the decision to give the game to Dean. “It’s not fair on him when he’s given a United game to referee when the last time he reffed us (at Hillsborough) I gave him 0/100 in my post match feedback”. Hang on, you can’t expect to be taken seriously giving a score like that, surely? He then went on to say he liked Dean and thinks he’s a good ref but that seemed to be a lie as he then said “Then he proves what a wanker he is by not giving us 3 clear penalties”. Very mature.Blackwell did tell a couple of stories about his time at Luton, Barnet and Leeds, which were entertaining. He didn’t dwell too much on Leeds but he did say “Some of the things I saw there you wouldn’t believe” and said he’d just finished a court case with Bates so didn’t want to reveal too much!

Most of what I can remember from the evening is either too controversial to put in writing or just one of those “you had to be there” stories but this was a great event to be at. Apparently they’ve been doing these events for 19 years and it is the first time they’ve ever had both Sheffield managers together. Apparently Laws always wanted to do it but until Strafford came in he wasn’t allowed. Pathetic really.

The montage of the Derby Double went to my cousin’s husband for £120, while the Bobby Robson pictures were bid right up to £510 by 3 blokes and they gave them one each (apparently there were only 16 in existence and these were 3 of the last 4 available) and that money went to Bobby’s charity. They then auctioned off the chance to go to the training grounds of both clubs and do lunch with the manager, meet the players etc. It was supposed to be for 2 people but one bloke said he’d give £500 for the United one if they did it for 4 and Blackwell said yes. 2 others matched that and 2 Wednesday fans did the same for the Wednesday one, and although it seemed like a real problem to do it for 4 at Wednesday (Blackwell joked that we’ve only got a microwave) Laws said he’d make it happen. All in all they will have raised a great amount for charities, which is the whole point really.

I left the event buzzing really. You buy your photo for a fiver, which both managers signed, so I’ve got a momento from a great evening and credit really has to go to both Laws and Blackwell for their honesty and their passion for their respective teams. Meanwhile I’m left to thank my good luck that all this fell into place for me to be able to attend.

Not sure I’ll be going to see Harry Gration though.


Baldy.
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