Mar 16 2021
Which supporters first adopted “Blue Moon” as their fans anthem? Both Crewe Alexandra or Manchester City claim it, and it’s a disputed assertion in Wikipedia. My friend Charlie Morris (another London-based Crewe Alexandra supporter, who also grew up in Cheshire; also an ex-FT journalist and author of Generation Game, an excellent memoir about being a …
Jul 20 2020
An email landed in my inbox this morning announcing that it was a year since my first Parkrun. It motivated me to write about my past year in running, and to ponder on volunteer communities. I am a late convert to running, though I ran a lot in my teens (I did some cross-country for …
Jun 10 2020
Promotion to League One, and some new faces around the board table, augur well for Crewe’s future. But COVID-19 and the malignant sore of Barry Bennell still pose challenges. Yesterday, the English Football League decided to end the 2019-20 football season prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic – no matches have been played since early …
Oct 15 2019
After a few uncertain years on the pitch, a sexual abuse scandal off the pitch, and prolonged uncertainty about the club’s financial future, we seem to be at a turning point in the fortunes of Crewe Alexandra football club. Long-standing Alex supporters may tell you 2016 was Crewe’s “annus horribilis”. The club was relegated from …
Apr 06 2018
Maintaining support for Crewe Alexandra during the last 18 months has been a trying experience. Under manager David Artell (a low-cost internal promotion after Steve Davies was sacked in January 2017), the performances on the pitch have been depressing enough (Crewe have lost more games from winning positions than any other Football League team). But …
Dec 13 2016
Crewe Alexandra belatedly tried to change its communication strategy, but its continued reticence regarding the football sexual abuse scandal attracts attention for the wrong reasons. This week marks four weeks since former Crewe Alexandra defender Andy Woodward first went public with his allegations of sexual abuse by Barry Bennell, and set in motion a scandal …
Dec 02 2016
The English football sexual abuse scandal is being extensively covered in newspapers and on TV and radio. It is also being captured in Wikipedia articles; articles about organisations or individuals involved are being widely read. Wikipedia statistics can help indicate interest in a subject, but care is needed in editing articles relating to an ongoing …
Feb 19 2016
Sometime earlier this month, I passed a Wikipedia milestone of sorts: I submitted my 20,000th edit. I started editing the English Wikipedia 12 years, four months and 16 days ago (there is a handy counter on my user page that tells me this). As I noted on my 10th anniversary, my first edit was a …
