Anyone hear his weekly piece on RTÉ after the football this evening? Basically, de Salvo (a Bray fan) took in the UCD-Limerick, Harps-Bray and UCD-Dundalk/Longford-Waterford games at the weekend and was talking about random things which happened at them - kind of like Mad Tom, but very interesting!
To paraphrase his experience of the UCD-Limerick game -
'Someone [me, actually] unwisely points out that there's never been a game called off at Belfield Park before. "Not true", says Declan Hughes, the resident UCD statistician, "In 1994..." he goes on, before telling you everything about the game - time, opponents and probably the colour of the referee's eyes if you let him. Meanwhile, his father is regaling me with tales about sailing in stormy weather...'
'The crowd numbers less than 100 [not true, but anyway] - don't the locals know there's a very good footballing team on their doorstep who even have a waterproof main stand? Shame you can't say the same about the press box.'
'And where else but UCD would you get a match programme which gives complete league tables for Pakistan, Moldova and Nigeria? And on that subject, where on earth is Aruba?!' (Cue brief comment in the studio afterwards correctly confirming that Aruba was off the coast of Venezuela and was part of the Netherlands Antilles).
[Later, after the review of the Harps-Bray match] 'It would be nice to see Harps win the First Division after all the heartbreak they've had. While UCD may be the best footballing team in the division, Harps are the most professional.'
'On Sunday, UCD's ladies team won the Cup for the third year in succession. The crowd is sparse, though there are more UCD fans than turned up to watch their male counterparts the previous Friday.'
And then a little bit about general lack of coverage in the First Division despite the eccentric joys which are to be experienced there. Great column, shame I don't get to hear it more often because of UCD games! And you can't buy that advertising! :cool:
