Our Boxing Day match versus Blackburn has been selected for International broadcast.
Come on BORO.
Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas" is a lovely song and justifiably popular because it taps into the experience of almost everyone's most sentimental journey.
But it surely has a particular resonance for most of us because the original journey that Chris references in speaking about the song is the very one which most of us have taken very many times
To me it speaks directly to that moment when you turn off that main drag of the A1 and drive east with the Cleveland Hills in front of you and experience the irrepressible emotions of heading home via the best kept secret of the north Yorkshire villages and landscapes.
You are journeying towards future events, meeting up with family and old friends. But also travelling back in time swamped by the past memories which the landscape immediately and vividly evokes
I have lived in other places for far longer than I ever lived in the Boro, but driving home to the Wirral, for example, via the M53, with its turn-offs to Runcorn and Ellesmere Port just doesn't cut it for me.
The Wirral is where my home is now, but it's not where I am from.
And all of this links in with why Diasboro is such an important forum to me.
So much of who we are is where we are from, and the typical Boro qualities of plain speaking, irreverence, finely-honed crap detectors, great good humour and a suspicion of pretentiousness, alongside respect for hard work and genuine achievement is what you find here in abundance.
They are Boro qualities that are not always universally welcomed elsewhere, but for me, whenever I log into Diasboro, it's what I immediately experience and appreciate.
it's always a bit like driving home.
And not only for Christmas.
I know that you mean Len after working overseas so many years with and without my family just wanting to get home for Xmas
Even yesterday I spent all day in the Freeman at Newcastle getting pre-op tests. A wonderful sight when my youngest son drove us home after a tiring day was to see the Cleveland hills rising up before is as we went over the A19 bridge.
Home !
Merry Christmas everyone, to all of you and your loved ones
OFB
One more sleep before the big fella and another one before the match.
Just to add, everything that Len said, except for living on the Wirral. A very merry Christmas to you all.
I love living on the Wirral, but the emotional pull of the motorways in getting there I find completely resistible.
@lenmasterman You can take the boy out of the Boro, etc.
For me, going home to Guisborough or Brotton, it was always the first sighting of Roseberry Topping that had a special resonance for me.
Merry Christmas, Diasborians.
As it is every year, it’s been an absolute pleasure to have been among you.
Fantastic Headliner Martin, so thank you so much for the time and enormous effort putting it together.
Just like our previous game, this one worries me given our dismal record against them and also their good away record.
I am sure they will come to defend with two lines, frustrate and hit us on the counter at which we are vulnerable.
Let's hope Hellberg has a plan to get around the walls and our forwards have found their scoring boots.
I would take any type of win.
I also liked the idea of playing out Chris Rea. I hope the club acknowledge his loss.
@lenmasterman A great post Len
Apologies, I forgot to wish all who enter this blog, peace and contentment over the festive period and during the coming year.
”So much of who we are is where we are from, and the typical Boro qualities of plain speaking, irreverence, finely-honed crap detectors, great good humour and a suspicion of pretentiousness, alongside respect for hard work and genuine achievement is what you find here in abundance.”
That for me says it all about who and what we are as a collective. Brilliantly described Len, thank you from someone who has also spent more time away from home than at home. 😎
Talking to John Foster I believe they are preparing a montage celebration of Chris Rea’s life in song as a memorial at the game.
OFB
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. Stay safe and keep warm and enjoy your day. Love to all.
Merry Christmas to everyone. Stay well, safe and keep supporting the Boro of course. I posted about personal favourites from his collection, posted it and it disappeared into the magnetic mists. Never mind but mine is 'Chisel Hill' but in my opinion you are spoilt for choice on Shamrock Diaries. have a great one everyone.
ATB,
UTB,
John
Happy Christmas to all the contributors on this wonderful blog and a contented new year.
All we need in the year ahead is good health whatever that means for those of us with various health issues, or, just being a contented “Golden Oldie” and to include some good Boro performances and victories and we will all take where that puts us in the League table at the end of the season.
Philip of Huddersfield
👍👍👍
Merry Xmas everyone from the border of the East and North Ridings - have a great time and enjoy, however you’re spending your day.
A crack(er)ing festive introduction to the thread, Martin, thank you, & thanks for the surprise mention in despatches. Merry Christmas to all Diasborians & their nearest & dearest, wherever they may happen to live now. I've lived in London since 1976 & ceased to make the annual pilgrimage back to the Boro in 2016, when my mother (last of close family) died, but have fond memories of that final stretch of the drive up after leaving the A1, along the A19 & on to the Parkway (Mum lived in Marton), so can identify with the sentiments expressed by everybody else above.
All the best & UtB.
@original-fat-bob - SO glad to hear that, Bob.
It’s been a while (again) since I posted although a regular reader.
Thanks to all those who put such insightful comments on here and especially those who write the headliners in such a great way. Far better than many journalists can manage these days and very much appreciated.
Like others on here, I have lived away from Middlesbrough for 61 years of my 65 years and don’t even have the accent although can spot it when talking to a fellow smoggie!
Thanks to my late departed Dad(born on Costa Street) I became a Boro supporter and my now grown up kids have developed the same affliction!
I now try to get up to a match a month - I was there for the QPR game although my next visit won’t be until 24 January now.
On the subject of Driving Home for Christmas- I have many of Chris Rea’s albums and for me as a child turning of the A1 at Dishforth, the first glimpse of the White Horse and the Tontine was always the sign that we were nearly there.
As for his songs, Stainsby Girls for me - my uncles house backed on the the playing fields! - although Steel River comes a close second.
All the very best and a merry Christmas to all and here’s hoping for a great 2026!
What a very pleasant thread to read! Presents have been opened. The main Christmas meal has been eaten. Drink has been taken. Drinking the last drop of St Emulsion whilst a pot of tea is brewing (hoping to avoid a sore toe later...) whilst the TV is showing pirate film from the Caribbean.
Loved the verse that started all this off. Loved Len's post as well. If blogging was like football, he'd attract a multi-million pound transfer fee. And I can't believe OFB is posting bearing in mind the proximity of his next medical procedure. Good luck, Bob!
I HOPE for three points tomorrow against Blackburn. After that, the dreams can fly...
@boro-beckys-dad - Season's Greetings, BBD! I agree, it's the Kilburn White Horse that I look for...
I’m sorry to miss you, off the starter this time
And I’m struggling to come up with a suitable rhyme
When you next head North, past the Cleveland Tontine
Remember please, the mistake was all mine”
St Emulsion, Dormo? 🤭 I know St Emilion is so richly dense that you could paint the walls with it, but I hope the French haven’t messed with one of my favourite wines to that extent!
Just to echo Len’s wonderful paean to the drive home to Middlesbrough, and to back up others’ similar experiences: I make the journey from N Wales regularly as I still have my season card, and I still love it once we get onto the A174 to see the views of the N York Moors and then the Cleveland Hills. And then there’s the tingle of nervous excitement and anxious anticipation once The Riverside comes into view …….
@clive-hurren - You are right. Too much Champagne and then the Chablis so, when it came to the "Emulsion" maybe I had a glass too many.
@forever-dormo St Emulsion might kill you, but you’d have a lovely finish.
🤣@forever-dormo St Emulsion might kill you, but you’d have a lovely finish.
I’m sorry to miss you, off the starter this time
And I’m struggling to come up with a suitable rhyme
When you next head North, past the Cleveland Tontine
Remember please, the mistake was all mine”
I wouldn’t have expected to be included - I have been missing in action for far too long (like the England cricket team) but that works, thanks !
Yes the same for me - the sight of Roseberry Topping is the one that says I'm back - though can't remember the last time I was actually back on Teesside at Christmas - probably over 30 years ago now.
Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed their festive celebrations - though it's mainly about catching up with friends who are visiting family nearby and we just had three hectic but enjoyable consecutive days of visitors so looking forward to a quieter day tomorrow and watching the game.
Funnily enough, our German friends who visited us today who live in southern Germany but have family in Bremen and when talking about their journey by car back up to the north, the first thing they mention was listening to Chris Rea's Driving home for Christmas on the radio and how it made them feel like they were coming home. It certainly highlights just how that song has meaning to people far beyond Teesside. I mentioned Chris Rea was from my home town of Middlesbrough, which they didn't know so quite a coincidence for them.
Mery Christmas to you all! And special thank you to Martin fror the poem.
I blame by fat - sorry - foam fingers not answering earlier. And like in Germany, the main day was 24th over here when the Santa visits. He need to start early and wwas in the UK only on Boxing day. Up the Boro!