Missing football

Shrewsbury Town played away at Bristol Rovers today. It feels like they always play this game in February. I was at this fixture the past four seasons, but this year the travel restrictions due to the pandemic broke my attendance run.

Back in 2017, I went to this with my friends Steve and Sara. We met my Dad and my brother, Dave, at the ground. We all sat in the rickety temporary stand at one end of the ground protected from the elements by tarpaulin.

This was the game when beforehand a Bristol Rovers fan hilariously described Dad as being "stuck on transmit" - a story I told to open my tribute to dad at his funeral. (And it's still one of the best descriptions of him.)

In 2018 I drove over to the game on my own, and met Dad who had come down on the supporter's coach. I think that was the last league away game I went to with him. It was the season when Paul Hurst took Shrewsbury to the League One play-off final. Shrewsbury won at the Memorial ground for the first time in almost 50 years.

In 2019 the match was on Valentine's Day. My friend Stewart was my football sweetheart in Bristol. Stewart is the guy who succinctly summed up the Memorial Ground as looking like it had been built out of leftover bits of other sports stadia.

After the match in Bristol I drove straight to Barry for the evening kick off game there. I was very excited about achieving my first "twofer" - two games on the same day. But then the Jenner Park floodlights blew up, so it ended up being a "not-quite-twofer". I blogged about the frustration! 

And then last year the game was on Leap Day. It was the fifth Saturday game in my quest to see five Saturday games in February. I saw two more games that season before the pandemic hit and stopped me from attending any football matches since. I drove over with John, another Shrewsbury fan who lives in Cardiff.

Thinking about all these games I realised that although I miss watching football, what I really miss is going with people. I have shared a Memorial Stadium outing with several friends and family members over the past few years and those memories are all good ones, even if the results haven't been. In fact, the football is secondary to the memory-making.

Watching football gives opportunities to connect. It was something I shared with my dad. It's something I still share with my brother. Friends who don't normally support Shrewsbury have sat in the perilously creaky away stand in Bristol while the wind bit through us, for no other reason than that I would do it for them if they invited me to watch their team (and I have braved a few away ends with them).

The photos I picked to illustrate this blog post show my point. I have some photos of the game and the ground. But I prefer the photos of us. They capture what really matters about being at those games.

Maybe that weird religious mail is all just sensible marketing after all

After I posted recently about unsolicited religious mail (and how outlandish it tends to be), my friend Stewart (of late entry into the Christmas card audit fame) asked me if there was a possibility that I was on a database of people whose faith was "up for grabs".

That amused me. But then I thought about it and I thought, actually that would make sense. After all, marketing tends to work on  people who are susceptible to the product and anyone who has known me for any length of time will know I have an interest in religion. It makes a lot of sense to pitch religious ideas at people who are already known to have an interest. They are much more likely to buy into it.

I still don't know who sent me these

This is something that strikes me about the church planting craze. It seems to have slowed down a bit in Cardiff now, but one point it felt like people were moving here to plant churches every other week. But what I noticed from those is that a new church plant seemed to attract people who were already disaffected with their current church, or who were looking for a new experience, or who were between churches for whatever reason.

Having been a distant observer of my parents' church plant for a long time, I know that several of the "new" people who joined that church over time had come from other church traditions, or had moved from other areas and were looking for somewhere to call home. I don't know what the figures are for church plants comparing transfer growth with completely new conversions, but I bet the figures for transfer growth are higher than church planters would like to admit.

It's just simply easier to make sales to people who are already interested in the product. This is true of anything - it's why Amazon and other online retailers keep advertising stuff to you after you've bought something. I know people often say how stupid it is if, say, you buy a new headboard for your bed, and Amazon then keep targeting you with adverts for headboards. It does seem daft. Like how many of those will you need? But, what if you aren't happy with your purchase and decide to return it? There's a fail rate in all sales and those companies now know that you may be in the market again if your purchase doesn't work out. There's literally no other way of predicting who else would buy a headboard, so it makes sense to target that demographic.

Apply the same logic to religion, and every religious organisation looking to score 'sales' should be targeting people who are already religious, who may be feeling disaffected, alienated or bored by their current church, or even their current religion. It's got to be easier than convincing people with no interest in religion and who are doing fine without it.

So, maybe I am on a database somewhere. The question now is, how do I get off it?

ACCA19 Update - extending the audit deadline

Cathy says she told me that I'd posted the audit too soon, and she was right. The day after I posted the results of this year's audit, a Christmas card arrived.

This raises a conundrum. I got a hardline response from Chris (of "Merry Fartmas" fame) on Twitter, who said that Twelfth Night was the obvious cut off point. But then I reminded Chris that every year the big audit we submit to in work extends its deadlines and he replied with laughing emojicons so I'm pretty sure we can also re-evaluate the results to take into account new data.

But first you may be asking, who is this late card sender. Well, everyone, let me introduce you to Stewart. I met Stewart when I was doing my MSc. He's a good mate who introduced me to Nepalese curry in Bristol on a night out when I missed my train home, and together we have braved the away ends of Rodney Parade in Newport and the Memorial Ground in Bristol to support each other's respective football teams. He was with me at the first half of my frustrating attempt to attend two football matches in one day. (Yes, I'm still bitter about those blooming floodlights!)

And the thing is, Stewart has rescued one of our "none" categories this year, because he sent us this...

Yes, that's right. It's a donkey! Our only one this Christmas. But what really makes this card isn't that it's the only donkey in the audit. It isn't that it's illustrated by Quentin Blake, one of my favourite illustrators. No, what really makes this card is the hilarious handwritten message inside.

How could I not re-open the audit to include this when someone has written that?

So, there you go. Just when you thought the ACCA was over, it lives on!

Updated categories:

Total number of cards: 83 84 (last year: 82)

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 5 
Cards designed by kids: 4
Cards with glitter: 13 

Charity cards
Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising):51 52
Total number of charities represented: 42 
Most popular charity represented: British Heart Foundation (11).

New for 2019: charity card cause breakdown
Cards raising money for cancer charities: 26
Cards raising money for other health issues: 31
Animal charities: 2
Children's charities: 13 14
Overseas development charities: 11

Religious themes
Religious-themed cards: 24 
Cards featuring the Nativity: 14 
Christmas story 'characters':
Three kings: 6 
The shepherds: 2
The star of Bethlehem: 0
Angels: 2
Choirboys: 0
'Cartoony' religious: 1

Other themes
Santa: 3 
*Christmas Elf: 1 
Penguins: 2
Bears: 1 
Deer/reindeer: 3
Christmas decorations: 5 
Christmas trees: 12 
Christmas food: 2 
Robins: 0
Donkeys: 1
Sheep: 0
Other animals with or without Santa hats: 6
Winter scene/scenery: 12 
Snowmen: 6
*Snow / snowflakes: 2 
Licensed characters: 1
Llamas: 0 
Hares and Moons: 1 
Holly and wreaths: 0

Messages on the front of the card 
Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 26. (1 religious themed)
"Seasons Greetings": 3
Mentions "Jesus": 0 
Bible verse: 2 
*Lines or titles of Christmas carols: 7 
*Lines or titles of Christmas songs: 1