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[Elgin Alty]

A very good friend of mine said "You  can't leave now - it's like leaving the cinema 20 minutes before the end of the film."
However, leave I must and I just wanted to say thanks for all your kind words both here on the forum and on Tuesday night.

If you are the kind of person who hates Oscar acceptance speeches, stop reading now.  Seriously, you are going to loathe this.

There's no way I can fit nine years worth of thanks into one little post so what Ill do is I shall share with you nine years worth of memories (in no particular order)

Attending a Safe meeting at Moss Lane on my first day in the job
Pinching stuff from John Laidlar's site in the early days and kidding myself that he wouldn't notice
Being surprised at the passion at this level of football (Unibond at the time, remember)
Picking Aldershot in the Trophy as my first away match just because it sounded exotic to a hairy Highlander like me
Attending away matches on the coach and steadily working my way back to the back three rows (the inner sanctum!)
Falling out with a succession of managers and chairmen but still establishing mutual respect
Naming Keith Russell as my player of the year and incurring everyone's wrath for overlooking Danny Adams
Stuart Coburn saving penalty, after penalty, after penalty.
Interviewing Leroy Chambers the day he signed (Sticks out in my mind, but I genuinely don't know why)
Kettering on the way to Stoke, in the Company of Cult of (still the finest football match I have ever seen)
Gary Scott's performance at Stoke (flawless)
Hugging complete strangers after going 2-0 up away at Aldershot last season.
"We're staying up, we're going down" at Woking
"Who the f**k is Andy Dibble" sung to Coburn in the Noel White Suite at three in the morning after Unibond title was clinched
Weyouth in the trophy
Flat tire on the way to Weymouth in the Trophy
Disrespected in the press box at Weymouth in the Trophy so "doing one" down to the stands to be with "my people"
Karaoke in the Dorothy Inn at Weymouth in the Trophy
Meeting Fred West's brother in Law (or something like that) in the Dorothy Inn
Hughsey maintaining "There's a book in that" at Weymouth in the Trophy.
Getting trounced by Bandy at pool at Weymouth in the Trophy
Away matches to Boston, Barrow, Aldershot, Weymouth, Stalybridge, the list goes on
Nasha falling over the barrier at Frickley
Dashing to Moss Lane on Tuesday nights because I finish work at 7.30pm
Ecky's stag do, Ecky's wedding (singing This Is The One), Woking Weekender (i'd need a whole new forum to detail that)with Rafo and Joe, Exeter weekender with everyone.

I could be here all day with this so I'm going to stop.  I am proud and privileged to be taking these memories away with me.  These are things that don't happen every day but somehow it feels like they do.

Do me a favour.  Don't change.  Any of you.

Cheers,

Mike C

[Jezza]

All the best Mike (hairy highlander leads me to believe tis yourself)..sorry I couldn't say farewell in person.

Thanks for all you've done for Alty...it is clear you fell in love with Alty as is inevitable.

It's been a privellege meeting  and knowing you and getting your expert analysis post match in the NWS after.

Welcome back anytime goes without saying.

Many thanks for all the memorable headlines...many of which were suggested on this forum only to appear on the back page of SAM a few days later!!

[altrincham]

Can remember that Aldershot away game, there were whispers on the coach that you were undercover police!

Godd Luck 

[CB]

Good luck on t'other side of the border. Will you ever be making trips back to Moss Lane?

[Elgin Alty]

Yes indeed.  I shall be back to see Alty in the Conference next season.

Power of positive thinking and all that

MC

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

Mister Crockett,

I sit here wearing a black armband and unashamedly wiping away a tear or two as the realisation that you are returning to exile in Caledonia finally sinks in.

What memories you have left us:

- that vision of you wearing a kilt at the Altrincham FC Centenary dinner;
- that vision of you actually wearing a suit at the launch of STAR at the Cresta Court Hotel;
- your Pulitzer Prize-winning text that accompanied those 'Please adopt this cat' photographs each week in the Messenger;
- your very public struggle to give up smoking (how could you ever have thought that you could pull that one off whilst enduring the emotional rollercoaster that is watching Alty?);
- your brilliant and smooth insertion of the adjective 'tumultuous' in an Alty match report, after we challenged you to try and include it;
- driving to each away match and arriving at least five hours before kick-off, as you have a phobia of being late!
- being challenged about your presence at a crucial Alty FC AGM by none other that Leonard Rosenfield:
- sitting in the snug of the social club at Hucknall in April 2005, being surrounded by strange refugees from a DH Lawrence novel;
- your resulting classic 'Hucknall's too tight to mention' headline;
- kindly giving me a lift to that play-off match at Kettering in 2005. An extraordinary day!
Here's one of my all-time favourite Alty photographs:
http://kipax.fotopic.net/p14707627.html
   
So, who's going to take me to Birmingham to see Bob Dylan now, eh?

All the very best in your new job and don't leave it too long before you return to Cheshire.

In the words of Mister Zimmerman himself:

"Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'."



 

[mr f.trucker]

mike, make sure you make the journey down soon,all the best mate.

[AltySi]

All the very best for the future Mike, hope to see you back at Moss Lane soon.

[Ballers]

Mister Crockett,
- kindly giving me a lift to that play-off match at Kettering in 2005. An extraordinary day!
Here's one of my all-time favourite Alty photographs:
http://kipax.fotopic.net/p14707627.html

I think this ones better.

http://gavin.ukgrrls.co.uk/p14762871.html

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

[/quote]

I think this ones better.

http://gavin.ukgrrls.co.uk/p14762871.html
[/quote]

I agree, that one's a good 'un, too.....but I'm nowhere to be seen on it!

[thegazelle]

Just gone through the photos and cant decide which was better nuneaton or kettering
back to living in the past again, mind you i am listening to barclay james harvest as i type this!!!!!!!!
Someone has bought me comfortably numb by the scissorsisters  is it anygood or does it just get filed under bin

[Amsterdam Alty]

comfortably numb by the scissorsisters  is it anygood or does it just get filed under bin

only decent thing this bunch of nancy boys and gay beard have done!

[thegazelle]

Wrong  young man

it just got filed under how very very bin

[Darren]

 i am listening to barclay james harvest as i type this!!!!!!!!

What a coincidence i picked one of his band members up in my taxi on monday who lives in Alty (not one of the origanal) they wre off to
Croydon then Bolton to do a gig they are  still very well thought of in Germany

[bighairedmike]

Quote from: thegazelle on Today at 06:08:22 pm
comfortably numb by the scissorsisters  is it anygood or does it just get filed under bin

i dont think its that good. pink floyd all the way for me.