AFTER what Jake did for the club yesterday, the least I can do is break into my Christmas slumber to ensure he gets the public tribute he deserves, with this "unscheduled" City Alert. Actually, it's not so much a City Alert, as in officially authorised club news; it's more a personal piece from Yours Truly. But somehow I don't think the powers-that-be will object.
DIDN'T THE BOY DO WELL! Okay, the whole, savagely depleted team deserve the highest praise for their heroic, never-say-die attitude that earned them yet another point of the desperately hard-earned variety. But what a show from Captain Marvel in particular, eh? Has there ever been a greater, more inspiring "captain's performance," leading from the top, than Jake Ash's yesterday in our 3-3 home League draw against Hampton & Richmond?
The wonder of it all, for starters, was that Jake was playing at all. I won't go into detail, but let's suffice to say that by all "normal", conventional standards, you wouldn't even have expected him to have been on the pitch. But what did we see? This injury-carrying captain first gave us a great start with his early goal, then typically worked like a Trojan throughout an energy-sapping encounter, and finally - in the fifth and last minute of stoppage time - snatched the most dramatic of equalisers when all seemed well and truly lost.
No wonder Lee Hodges makes no secret of his admiration for Jake and the immense value Lee places on his role as captain. Agreed, Jake has long since given new meaning to loyalty, and he has done many a fine deed for City over the years, but surely yesterday's has to top the lot? Can you think of a better example of a true captain's performance?
Me, neither. It was real Roy of the Rovers stuff, wasn't it? I first read about Roy, incidentally, in the old Tiger comic in the mid-1950s, when I was a lad of five or six. Had the fictitious Roy done what Jake did yesterday, I would have been inclined to hurl that comic into the fire (assuming Dad could afford coal that week) and complain: "For goodness sake, old man, this is rubbish; can't you buy me a comic with a more credible story line?" Well, maybe you COULD make it up, but you get my drift. Surely, few would dispute that Jake has long since become a "legend in his own lifetime" so far as Truro City is concerned.
All of which set me thinking. Is there any other player, in the club's 122-year history, more deserving of the title All-Time Greatest Truro City Legend? Arguably, by definition there cannot be, given the club's unprecedented high level of competition at the moment. But all things are relative, as they say, and maybe supporters can think of some other contenders from years gone by.
So, if you have time to spare and fingers to twiddle this Christmas, why not send me your own contenders. Create your own criteria for the title, list your boxes, see how many of those boxes get ticked for each contender, and then email me your choice with, say, anything up to 400 words on your reasoning and recollections. I will then issue each offering with the next City Alert, and I'll keep you posted of the final "results." It's just the germ of an idea for now, and you never know what might develop from it. (You know the sort of thing - maybe parade a line of legends on the pitch in an end-of-season grand finale.) Maybe the club would also like to post all the submissions on the website.
And if Jake is your first choice for the "title," let's hear it for your second choice, anyway. And if I get no responses, I will draw one of two conclusions:-- a) no-one reads City Alerts; or b) Jake is duly confirmed as All-Time Greatest Truro City Legend, with no-one else coming even close!
End of personal MT piece.
UPCOMING FIXTURES (all League, Sat k/os 3 pm, midweek 7.45 pm): Tues Dec 20, Sutton United, away; Mon Dec 26, Weston-super-Mare, away; Sun Jan 1, Weston-super-Mare, home; Sat Jan 7, Welling away; Sat Jan 14, Chelmsford, home; Sat Jan 21, Bromley away; Sat Jan 28, Staines Town, home.
CITY ALERTS is the official Truro City Football Club news service for supporters and media. It is sponsored and operated by Mike Truscott of Golden Replay Biographies
(www.goldenreplay.com)
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