Shocked and saddened by Vic's news.
We don't know the circumstances of his departure, and the fact that PT has gone too suggests that it may have been part of a general downscaling.
I hope that he received the kind of generous terms that his remarkable work over many seasons richly deserved, and that he can continue his work free from the kind of institutional restraints that someone of his talents and political proclivities must have found irksome.
Most of us were brought to this blog through the energy. quality and intelligence of Vic's writing. He set a standard that was worthy of serious thought and consideration, and at least an attempt at emulation.
So his work did much more than provide stimulating, funny and provocative reading. It summoned into existence a particular kind of audience. An audience which had little interest in the yah/boo confrontations and personal insults of 99% of social media. An audience less interested in opinions than in the evidence on which those opinions were based. A heterogeneous audience of wide experience and not a little wisdom across a whole spectrum of different fields, united by the fact that, like Vic, they were all Boro nuts.
It is the greatest of tributes to Vic that the work he started and the audience he created continues to this day as Diasboro, thanks to the dedicated work of Werder, Redcar Red, Bob, Ken and all of the other regular and occasional contributors. Without the generosity of Vic's talent and vision, Diasboro would not exist.
Vic has been the finest writer on the Boro in my life time, covering a range of cultural topics and issues well beyond the purview of the justly venerated Cliff Mitchell. He has a wonderful command of language. He parodies the cliches of his trade and always had a great deal of fun in creating a whole host of new ones.
Above all he recognised that football was much more than a game and no writer has examined the symbiotic relationship between the game and the town's wider history and culture with greater acuity.
My hope is that we will see Vic using the freedom he will now enjoy to produce the best and most detailed work of his life.
He's a born writer and a committed Teessider.
I don't see him retiring any time soon.
@lenmasterman What an absolutely brilliant post.
I hope someone has Vic’s email address and can forward it to him.
Hear hear Len.
I hope we can all be sure to look forward to his future and best work yet.
As usual we're lucky that there is always someone who can analyse and make sense of events and then eloquently put their thoughts into words - Great post Len and totally agree with what you wrote about AV!
Thank you len that is a sentiment I wish I was capable of writing.
I found the Untypical boro blog by accident but have been forever grateful since. The Diasboro blog is just as good if not better with Werder's new layout and all the contributions by you all on here.
Bri UTB
I’ve just spent this afternoon preparing a schedule of the English League clubs ready for the new season and was a tad surprised to discover that 11 of League 1 clubs, 6 of League 2 clubs and of course Notts County of the National League have all spent at least one season in the top division since the Second World War. I wonder how many of these clubs folks can remember. To give folks a clue I’ve listed the last season they were relegated from either the old First Division or Premier League:-
1948 This club after 10 successive seasons. GRIMSBY TOWN
1963 This club spent only one year in First Division LEYTON ORIENT
1966 As did this club NORTHAMPTON TOWN
1975 As did this club CARLISLE UNITED
1988 This club spent only 3 seasons OXFORD UNITED
1994 This club also spent 3 seasons OLDHAM ATHLETIC
1994 This club spent only one year SWINDON TOWN
2000 Won the FA Cup in 1988 WIMBLEDON
2001 This club spent only one year in Premier League BRADFORD CITY
2002 This club were Champions in 1962 IPSWICH TOWN
2011 This club relegated after one season but previously won the Cup in 1953 BLACKPOOL
2012 Two clubs with long histories in the top tier, one of which were Champions in successive seasons, the other have never been Champions PORTSMOUTH and BOLTON WANDERERS
2013 This club spent 8 successive seasons in the Premier League WIGAN ATHLETIC
2017 Two clubs with long periods in the top tier, total of 3 FA Cup wins between them SUNDERLAND and CHARLTON ATHLETIC
2017 This club also relegated twice before in 2010 and 2015 HULL CITY
Finally Notts County spent 3 successive seasons in the top tier, but which year were they finally relegated? 1992
No takers on the quiz I set, so I’ve given the answers above.
The value of the club as just jumped in the region of 53 million quid based on the value of Derbys stadium which is similiar to the riverside , SG valued it at 27 mill,i believe ,so Steve use your overdraft to stack your team,
@lenmasterman Thank you Len for showing that the calibre of the posters on this blog are unsurpassed on any site in any country and in any sport.
if anyone was wondering if they should be part of this Diasboro blog then your eloquence and sincerity sets the tone for how we have standards and are proud that we endeavour to maintain these and be the best of the best.I do hope that AV does read this as he would have a lump in his throat of what he ultimately created and was kept on in his spirit by Werder and RR
Thank you
OFB
Unbelievable churlishness at the Gazette.
I turned again to Vic's fine valedictory article to read the readers' comments.
There didn't appear to be any.
I scrolled through masses of adverts and click-bait at the foot of the article. There was so much of it that I almost gave up.
Finally a few comments.
After them an injunction to click for further comments.
It turned out that there were a significant number of heartfelt tributes, but they had been so hidden away that casual readers will have missed them.
The Gazette's treatment of the article looks to me to be a shocking indictment of the paper.
No appreciations yet from either the Gazette or the club for the work of their most distinguished and long-standing correspondent.
It appears to speak volumes for the degree of alienation, instrumentalism and lack of basic humanity which exists in the management of both institutions.
Little wonder that AV had had enough.
By contrast I'm most grateful for all of your kind and encouraging comments for my small efforts.
Many thanks.
I was going to do a skit on AV leaving the Gazette based on Mark Antony’s speech from Julius Caesar but I felt it would be doing him a disservice, as he has promoted the platform for true Boro fans to put across their views. Some very articulate, some tongue in cheek and some, rather shall we say a bit brusque. But they all have one thing in common, a deep seated love of Middlesbrough football club, and for that he deserves all our thanks. So here it is, unabridged and without my usual mangling.
Len, You did well to find them, I'll have another look as a follow-up to my first attempt.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that most appalling site will never replace the printed word but then I spent my working life working with type so I would say that. Equally good written journalism, crafted if you like, will never be replaced by bullet-point journalism. It is horrendous.
UTB,
John
How many of you were with me that very first time we met with AV as an Untypical Boro crew in the Navvy all those years ago? I remember Jarkko and Dormo being there, but I’m afraid my memory has gone beyond that.
A very sad day for me and for many others. I feel a personal loss almost as great as when Ali Brownlee died.
Yes, a great day out in the Navigation. Werder, HalifaxP(ete), the chap from Beverley, Nigel were there at least.
Yes, it was a great meeting I made some friends for life, like Pete and Dormo as well as many on here in the blog. I have also met Len a couple of times.
And I always used to see AV at the home matches and we had a quick chat in the press stand - even he was busy working there. He is a marvelous chap. He even was going to bring me tickets for the sold out Blackburn away match - but then the match was postponed because of floods.
Yes, we have had COVID-19, lost Big Jack for ever and now AV depaerted in 2020. A year to remember like 1986.
But we still have Boro and AV will be a fan - always. Up the Boro!
John, I'd like to think you are right that well-written journalism will never be replaced by lower quality superficial coverage. However, I think the writing has been on the wall for old-school professionally crafted quality journalism for some time.
The reasons are likely varied and complex, which perhaps mirror what is happening in many aspects of life and culture. Primarily, people are not prepared to pay for it anymore with convenience now valued ahead of quality - this desire for 'up-to-date' almost instant content has pushed the traditional newspapers online where they've been forced into bloating their sites with more and more advertising as paywalls just don't provide the income. Indeed, paywalls actually also reduce the draw of advertising, which had traditionally always subsidised even the paper products.
While many people have always taken a morning paper that was perhaps aligned with their political views, they at least got their information supplemented with an apolitical local newspaper and the broader-viewed regulated TV news.
This appears to be becoming less and less palatable for many who prefer to read 'what they want to hear' and I was rather disturbed to read this morning that plans are afoot to launch a 'Fox News' style channel in the UK that would offer and alternative to the "biased" BBC news coverage as the owner of the new channel put it - he incidentally declared that the BBC should be broken up, which I'm sure would be of huge financial benefit to him and the likes of Rupert Murdoch, who is also planning a new populist news channel.
What I find amusing is the BBC is generally slated by both the right for its liberal left bias and the left for being the mouth-piece of the right-wing. The BBC is seemingly failing everyone by not fully reflecting the opinions of one side or the other and should be scrapped and replaced by a truer speaker.
Furthermore, as traditional news outlets with editorial integrity start to disappear, what people are increasingly finding to replace them is often just the random ramblings of people they agree with. News that comes from retweets, social media or even dare I say blogs from like-minded people that appears to be fueling a continual rise in any kind of baseless conspiracy theories that somehow explains the world and its problems.
I suspect increasing reliance on smart phones, social media, rolling news, media manipulation and the ability to Google just about anything about everything has made a population reach information overload. More than at any time in the last 50 years we need journalism with integrity that can wade through the 99.9% of nonsense and make sense of the world - the alternative is that the rich and powerful continue to rule over the divided masses in a state of confusion who refuse to believe facts over opinions as they can't differentiate them.
In such a world democracy is meaningless where nobody can be made accountable for decisions they make in their own interests but dressed up as the opposite.
@lenmasterman Well said, mate.
AV was the best and Cliff Mitchell a close second. A kind of writing Ali Brownlee. Both passionate about the Boro. Up the Boro!
Yes, a great day out in the Navigation. Werder, HalifaxP(ete), the chap from Beverley, Nigel were there at least.
Yes, I remember that day Jarkko I got there quite late but saw Clive, Chris from Beverly, KevB, Halifax Pete and NikeBoro as far as can I recall.
Spare a thought for Dom Shaw. He’s rocketed from being banned by the club to perhaps the Gazette’s most senior football writer in about eighteen months or so and has some big shoes to fill.
Good luck, Dom. The baton is passed.
Unbelievable churlishness at the Gazette.
I turned again to Vic's fine valedictory article to read the readers' comments.
There didn't appear to be any.
I scrolled through masses of adverts and click-bait at the foot of the article. There was so much of it that I almost gave up.
Finally a few comments.
After them an injunction to click for further comments.
It turned out that there were a significant number of heartfelt tributes, but they had been so hidden away that casual readers will have missed them.
The Gazette's treatment of the article looks to me to be a shocking indictment of the paper.
No appreciations yet from either the Gazette or the club for the work of their most distinguished and long-standing correspondent.
It appears to speak volumes for the degree of alienation, instrumentalism and lack of basic humanity which exists in the management of both institutions.
Little wonder that AV had had enough.
By contrast I'm most grateful for all of your kind and encouraging comments for my small efforts.
Many thanks.
I did wonder at first whether there was a connection with AV’s article a week or so ago about the drabness of Middlesbrough as a town being part of the reason why Boro have difficulty in attracting new signings. Local politicians don’t like to hear such views and although I agreed with AV’s comments perhaps it stirred up a hornet’s nest and pressure was put to bear on the Gazette hierarchy to reprimand him. As a journalist AV might have felt the rug had been pulled from under his feet, it may have been the last straw. Is it possible that Philip Tallentire resigned in support of his colleague? Pure conjecture on my part of course, but I remember in the 50’s Peter Wilson the Daily Mirror’s Sports journalist used to revel in the headline given to him ‘The Man they can’t gag’ and maybe newspaper editors have moved on from such assertions. As I say I’m probably way off beam, but is it just a coincidence that two Gazette journalists have resigned or been forced to resign within days of each other?
Yes, a great day out in the Navigation. Werder, HalifaxP(ete), the chap from Beverley, Nigel were there at least.
Yes, I remember that day Jarkko I got there quite late but saw Clive, Chris from Beverly, KevB, Halifax Pete and NikeBoro as far as can I recall.
Sorry, it was NikeBoro and not Nigel. I mixed the name but not the face. Up the Boro!
You are absolutely right but I have to travel hopefully, no doubt there are odd gems and nuggets to be found and the Northern Echo tries hard. As you say the digital world is bound to win, that's if it already hasn't.
The Boss bought me a letterpress book on fly fishing early in the summer and it's just a pleasure to look at it and smell the ink never mind read it!
All the best,
UTB,
John
@martin-bellamy What type is your main TV, in the App store type “mirror..........” with the make of your TV, no space, they may be a mirror for that.
Come on BORO.
I should add that some online newspapers are almost now impossible to read without an adblocker - I used to read the Independent until recently but they stopped you reading it unless you either subscribed to their premium service or turned off your adblocker. I did try it without an adblocker but I counted 24 ads or sponsored links on a page to read a single article with the page becoming slow to load and jerky to scroll and read with more ads rotating with others.
I did also try to register as a subscriber with them but they also wanted me to agree to collection of my personal data (name, postcode, bank details etc) gather additional data about me and also exchange all my data with third-party 'partners' who basically agglomerate this data with other databases that could easily identify you through name, IP address and email.
So while I appreciate they need to pay their journalists, I'm not prepared to give them all my data and browsing history or struggle through countless ads to do so. Incidentally, if you pay the reasonably-priced €11 to subscribe to their monthly package they still collect and exchange all this data.
At least when you went to the newsagents to buy a paper they didn't require you to provide them with your name and address or life history or commit to buying the paper every day for a month - imagine the queues if they did! Why should I therefore do so to read their paper online? The answer is simply that in this new online world they are no longer the product - I am! and you're paid by being allowed to read a few articles of interest.
@ken Wibledon was the easy one with Sunderland. (The latter always reminds me about a 2nd WW aeroplane).
But never would have guessed Northampton Town in there. Thanks for posting. Up the Boro!
Northampton Town were founder members of the 4th Division after the two regionalised 3rd Divisions North and South were in effect merged with the top 12 of each forming the new 3rd Division in 1958 and the bottom 12 of each effectively being relegated to the new 4th Division. Hartlepool played in the new 3rd Division whilst Darlington and Northampton missed the cut and were in effect relegated to the new 4th Division.
However Northampton finished 3rd in the 60/61 season and were promoted to the 3rd Division where they were Champions two years later and thus promoted to the 2nd Division where another to years later they finished runners-up but only a point behind Newcastle as both clubs were promoted to the Old First Division, so 3 promotions in 4 years and the first club to do so. Since then Swansea have emulated that rise from 4th to 1st in such a short time.
However that wasn’t the end of the Cobblers’ story as within 4 years after 3 relegations they we’re back where they had started in the 4th Division.
Incidentally Coventry City being a Midlands club often veered between both the 3rd Division North and 3rd Division South and also missed the cut in 1958 and found themselves in the 4th Division and are therefore the only club to have participated in all 8 Leagues - Premier League, Old First Division, Championship, Old Second Division, 3rd Division North, 3rd Division South, Third Division and Fourth Division.
I use Safari as a browser and most sites give you a “Reader View” option that takes all ads and pics out and leaves just the text. Particularly good for the Gazette.
I use Safari as a browser and most sites give you a “Reader View” option that takes all ads and pics out and leaves just the text. Particularly good for the Gazette.
It’s a good tip for those viewing via Apple devices. The option is at the top left beside the web address, expressed as AA
There seems to be no shortage of goal-scoring prowess in the U23s, who handed out a 7-1 tonking to the Tigers' U23s yesterday:
https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/boro-u23s-7-hull-city-u23s-1
while Jonny Howson, Ste Walker & Marcus Browne (!) were all on target for the big boys in the second training match against Plymouth Argyle.
Off topic, that was a fine encomium to AV, Len. 🙂
I use Safari as a browser and most sites give you a “Reader View” option that takes all ads and pics out and leaves just the text. Particularly good for the Gazette.
Thanks for the tip as while I don't have Safari since I operate on Windows 10, I do however run Microsoft Edge without an Adblocker so decided to check if there was a Reader View browser extension - indeed there were several and installed one called 'Best Reader View' which pretty much works as you described in Safari but still includes the lead photo and gives a nice clean readable article and avoids triggering the adblock barrier!
The Boro website is often motivated to state that “On this day Boro etc ...”. I’m rather surprised that 6 days ago it didn’t mention that Boro recorded its biggest ever win on the 23rd August 1958 - Boro 9 Brighton 0 with Brian Clough scoring 5, Alan Peacock 2 and Bill Harris converting 2 penalties. Like George Camsell before him I can’t recall Cluffy ever taking a penalty. Surely one would have thought that such a confident player as Cluffy would have taken those two penalties. After all according to my records he was Boro’s captain that day albeit that Bill Harris was the designated penalty taker and the first penalty was in the 5th minute. Just imagine if Cluffy had scored 7 in that match! Not that I saw the match having just arrived in England the day before to go through the demobilisation process of finishing my National Service.
However on this day on the 29th August 1956 I remember that the weather was even worse than today certainly in Redcar as my parents’ home in Mersey Road was surrounded by water from the nearside beck as it gushed down from Yearby Bank on its final destination to Locke Park as there were only 4 houses in Mersey Road in those days, so it was rather appropriate that the Estate should all be named after rivers. Now the reason that I remember that date was because I had to report at RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire to begin my National Service. Struth, 64 years ago today and as it also was a Saturday and Boro were playing at home that’s another match I missed. I didn’t know at the time, but my records show that Boro were held to a 2-2 draw against Bury, though I’m certainly not surprised that that particular match has not been mentioned on the Boro website today as “On this day Boro etc...”
I see the latest article from the Gazette has Dominic Shaw titled as “Boro Editor”
OFB
I concur with everything len wrote on AV at the top of the page. AV's blog was nothing short of brilliant and so was his writing in the Gazette, unique i would say.
He will be a big miss and he is/was himself a part of the 'cultural fabric' of Teesside.
His writing painted a picture and was always a joy to read, i hope we soon see him again somewhere online.
Its interesting and worrying that PT has gone to, that's not a good sign and the loss of both can only diminish the Gazette's coverage of the Boro.
Newspapers are dying fast, no one reads a paper these days and no one wants to pay for an online version, which means the old print institutions are struggling to find a model that works and is sustainable.
If you're reading this AV, thank you and if you're thinking of going 'solo' online, i for one would pay to read your work. Your mate was right, a dictionary was always useful!