LEE PAYNE

Tag: news

  • I Write Wednesday #3 – under a cloud, Blackpool Tower isn’t on fire and the darts sensation that makes us all feel inadequate

    I Write Wednesday #3 – under a cloud, Blackpool Tower isn’t on fire and the darts sensation that makes us all feel inadequate

    It’s a new year, and I begin 2024 under both a literal and metaphorical cloud.

    Here I am, soaked through and knackered, pushing trollies in the work car park last night. I took the photo because I didn’t think it would be believed that I actually had to go out there during Storm Henk. After an incredibly busy Christmas period, I am shattered. There are still two months until I get a week off work. I sense that I am on a downward slope.

    Anyway, that’s enough self-pity. Here’s a few things that have caught my eye this week.

    Daft news story: in the media, there are two ‘silly seasons’. One is in August, when everyone is on their summer holidays and nothing much is going on. The other is that weird week between Christmas and New Year. Last Thursday I was in a cafe with my mum and stepdad when my phone vibrated. The big breaking news story was that grand old Blackpool Tower was on fire! A bona fide English landmark was going up in flames! Not quite. It turned out to be some orange netting at the top of the tower blowing about in the wind. There was no fire. The media made a hasty retreat. In less than a week, the Blackpool Tower ‘fire’ has become a meme.

    A sporting sensation: Luke Littler, who is 16 but – let’s be honest – looks about 35, has taken darts by storm by cruising into the final of the World Championship in his debut year. Impressing everyone with his consistent high scoring and seemingly nerveless disposition, Littler only became world youth champion in November but has beaten Raymond van Barneveled and Rob Cross, who have six World Championship titles between them, in the main event. He plays the world number one and pre-tournament favourite Luke Humphries at Alexandra Palace in London tonight.

    I love the darts. I used to watch it with my dad when I was a kid. Even now, I think the Christmas period only really starts when the World Championship begins. It’s immensely entertaining, and fantastic to watch people who are good at things do what they do. Last year, an incredible leg in the final between Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen saw both players on course for a nine darter (the perfect leg of 501). van Gerwen missed the double 12, but Smith hit it. That got everyone talking – this year it’s Luke Littler that has captured the imagination.

    A book I’m reading: my Christmas presents this year consisted mainly of books, which is fine by me. One of them was Everything To Play For: The QI Book Of Sports, which I’ve been thoroughly enjoying because it avoids the dreaded sporting cliches and takes a step outside of the bubble us sports fans tend to be in to take a forensic look at what sport actually is, how it began and why it exists. I recommend it, even if you don’t like sport, because it will explain to you that sport is far from a pointless activity and that it is actually built in to the human psyche.

    Thanks for reading my musings this week. See you again soon.

  • My latest column is in the paper today

    My latest musings on Norwich City Football Club are in today’s Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News.

    You can read it online here. I know I’ve posted this rather late to encourage you to buy a paper, but in further I’d urge you to consider it – local papers are really important and they won’t be around for much longer if everyone keeps getting all their news online for nothing.

    Here is what my column looks like in print. I’ve no idea who the bloke in the photo at the top is – it’s definitely not me but I can assure you they are my words! They must have made a mistake at the paper.

    In the column I talk about Norwich’s 1-0 defeat to Sunderland on Sunday, how irritated I was at the result and how I feel it’s the final nail in the coffin for our hopes of making the play-offs. I also make my feelings clear on the use of pyrotechnics by the crowd, an offence for which three City fans have now been banned from attending matches.

  • Winning or entertainment? My last newspaper column of the 2021-22 season

    The topic of why we invest so much of our time, money and emotions into this sport is one I’ve tried to tackle before without coming to any real conclusions. I think it’s a bit like searching for the meaning of life. If you start to think too deeply about it, you realise you have no idea.

    My last newspaper column of the season for the Eastern Daily Press is available to read online now.

  • This one’s for you, dad…

    Latest newspaper column

    As you probably know by now, I write a column for the Eastern Daily Press. It’s about Norwich City FC and there are four of us who write one to be published in the paper on a Tuesday during the football season. We rotate, so I have one every four weeks.

    When I realised that it would be my turn on Tuesday 1st February, thoughts turned to my dear old dad. On 1st February 2014, he passed away at the age of 69 from Alzheimer’s disease. He was a mad Norwich fan and is largely responsible for me supporting the club, so I thought it would be nice to dedicate my column to him.

    Click here to read it now, and if you happen to be in a shop tomorrow you can read it in the paper as well.

  • Newspaper column – Tuesday 21st July 2020

    My latest column for the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News Fans’ Zone page is published today.

    It’s about what a terrible season it has been for Norwich City and how the end of it can’t come soon enough.

    You can read it online here, but if you do happen to be in a shop, do buy a paper!

    The Norwich players will be as happy to see the back of this season as the fans

  • This week, I’ve been on a podcast

    This week I was a guest on The Pink Un Norwich City Podcast.

    It’s a fairly long running podcast (I was on episode 398) by the people who do the sports pages of the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News. The topic is all things Norwich City.

    As I’ve been writing a regular column for those papers for the last five years they asked me to appear, and I was both delighted and terrified to be asked. I’m very comfortable with the written word but actually speaking with my voice fills me with dread. I knew I’d regret it if I turned them down though so I said yes and I’m glad that I did so.

    Alongside the host – journalist David Freezer – I was on with the chairman of the Canaries Trust Robin Sainty and ex-Norwich player Darren Eadie. Esteemed company!

    We discussed the proposals to resume the Premier League season that is currently suspended due to the coronavirus epidemic and our memories of our first Norwich City games.

    Darren Eadie had something of a bee in his bonnet about the way the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) have been handling the crisis, and the things he said in the podcast turned out to be newsworthy enough to make the board outside my mum’s local shop!

    You can listen to the podcast below, by clicking the link in the first sentence of this post or by searching for ‘The Pink Un’ where you usually get your podcasts (Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.)

  • Football’s Room 101: some of the things that irritate me about the game

    A few years ago I wrote a newspaper column in which I listed a few of the things that annoyed me about football and would lock away inside Room 101. Here are some more.

    Transfer speculation

    Sky Sports News goes into overdrive during the transfer window

    Sky Sports News was practically unwatchable during January. The channel is famous for its ability to hype up the most mundane of sporting events but in what was a fairly quiet transfer window they outdid themselves. Constantly banging on about players I have never heard of going/not going to teams I don’t care about. Several times a day they would have round table discussions about transfers as if they were the most important thing on earth. I saw one bloke on there who seemed genuinely angry at a club for deciding that they were happy with their squad and that they wouldn’t buy anyone. Why wouldn’t you sign someone? It’s the transfer window! It is your duty!

    Yes, Jim White, I do vaguely remember Nabil Bentaleb in his Spurs days. He was pretty average. Why are you getting so excited about him moving to Newcastle? Since its 2011 peak, deadline day has ceased to be even remotely interesting but that doesn’t stop Sky Sports News counting down to it like it was Christmas. The fact that the current system means this is all condensed into one month makes it even harder to stomach – my other passion is cricket, and even though the England team were in the middle of a fascinating tour of South Africa, news about it was pushed down the running order because Bruno Fernandes (who?) had been seen in a Homebase just outside Manchester. Or something like that.

    Nabil Bentaleb in his Spurs days. I didn’t care then and I don’t care now

    ‘What do they need a break for? They earn millions!’

    As I write this, the Premier League is embarking on its first winter break. It seems crazy that it has taken 27 years for the English top flight to take a leaf out of the books of nearly every other European league, but better late than never. Each of the 20 clubs will get a two week break in February, staggered over four weeks so the TV broadcasters still have some matches to show. Everyone’s happy, right?

    Far from it. I’ve had several arguments this week with people who seem incredulous at this highly sensible intermission in a long season. Here’s a summary of the sort of comments I’ve seen online:

    • ‘They earn millions. Why do they need a break?’ – I don’t know if I’ve missed something, but how does earning a lot of money stop you getting tired?
    • ‘They didn’t need a winter break in the good old days’ – they didn’t play as many matches back in the ‘good old days’. Even so, I’m sure the players would have loved a bit of a break. Most other leagues in Europe have one and players have been calling for one here for years.
    • ‘It’s not even cold, they should man up’ – the break has got nothing at all to do with the weather. This is simply the best time to have the break. It keeps the precious festive fixture calendar in tact and comes just before the return of the European competitions.
    • ‘I play for the Dog & Duck right through the winter. I don’t need a break’ – well done, Barry. I’m sure your fellow regulars at the local boozer love a kickabout on a Sunday morning, after your fry up and before your roast beef. But we’re talking about Premier League footballers here. Elite athletes who are expected to perform at their best all the time. It’s usually around this time of year that performances dip and muscle injuries become more common – don’t you think this would be a good time for a little break?

    The manager makes a joke about a journalist’s phone going off in a press conference

    The Ghost of Arsenal Past with a textbook effort here

    I have had it ratified by at least three other people that I have what you would call a ‘good’ sense of humour. I am, indeed, a laugh. But I fail to see what is amusing about a football manager making a joke when a journalist’s phone rings in a press conference. It might have raised a bit of a smile at first but it’s happened too many times now. Yet, the video of the ‘hilarious’ moment will be posted online and we are all supposed to watch it.

    VAR

    I don’t feel like I have to explain this one. Get rid of it and bring the fun back.

    What winds you up about football that you’d happily see the back of? Let me know by leaving a comment at the bottom of this article or by tweeting me on @ncfclee.

  • Newspaper column: Tuesday 12th November 2019

    With Norwich City bottom of the Premier League, my column for the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News this month is a rallying call to the more fickle fans of the club to stick with the team through a difficult period. You can read it online by clicking here.

  • Newspaper column: Tuesday 3rd September 2019

    My column for the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News this time tracks a Saturday following the fortunes of Norwich City FC from the comfort of my own home.

    Click here to read it

  • Newspaper column: Friday 9th August 2019

    My first column of the new football season was published in the Pink Un pullout, inside the Norwich Evening News and Eastern Daily Press, on Friday.

    I tried to call on my fellow Norwich City fans to stick with the team this season, even when life in the Premier League is tough. I also made my predictions for the season.

    The column can also be read online by clicking here.