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Post by mehewmagic on Jan 22, 2015 0:55:30 GMT
Hello all, As we have yet another empty weekend I thought I'd ask you lot to suggest any topics you'd like me to write about for next weeks Rovers article on my weekly blog for the Evening Post website. It could be literally anything... except my resignation as a writer though  thanks in advance, Martin (Bull) P.S. i haven't run out of ideas... I genuinely would like to hear what people would like to read about. |
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Post by britishgas on Jan 22, 2015 2:48:34 GMT
It's been done to death, but Sainsburys' latest attempt to screw us over? The long term ramifications would be huge if the case went their way - I think with the increased revenue and good management on and off the pitch the UWE project could help us fly up the leagues. I love the mem but it's not a stadium that a club our size can take full advantage of. We've basically been ditched at the alter.
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Post by Gas-Ed on Jan 22, 2015 6:59:50 GMT
Beards?
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Post by Captain Jayho on Jan 22, 2015 7:37:10 GMT
I'll second beards, great topic area! |
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Post by Cantankerous Gas on Jan 22, 2015 10:24:54 GMT
If Barnet lose or draw on Saturday you'll be writing about us smelling blood....  |
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Post by mehewmagic on Jan 22, 2015 10:32:50 GMT
thanks all. is beards a full page topic? :homo: any other good beardos in the past? stuart taylor. staniforth and randall for a while. Virgo? and i remember gill and harrold doing ok for Movember. or maybe half and half with man eating sharks?  I'll be out most of today but will look at more thoughts later... |
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Post by ganymede on Jan 22, 2015 10:50:03 GMT
a) Unsung Gas heroes (in the widest sense)
b) Craziness of the Vanarama
c) Looking forwars
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Post by LJG on Jan 22, 2015 10:51:47 GMT
1. A merciless slaying of Harrison.
2. A 45 page special of repetitive speculation about Sainsburys/UWE. Try to include some of Sainos latest sales figures and a bit about how other supermarkets aren't building stores if you can.
3. A merciless slaying of ex player of your choice. But please try to include some unfounded rumours about their attitude and a derisive comment on their ability despite the fact they now play at higher level than us.
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Post by rocknrollaayatollah on Jan 22, 2015 10:54:00 GMT
PLEASE don't write a Harrison article!
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Post by c4h10 on Jan 22, 2015 11:06:38 GMT
How having a team member of small stature and average football ability, but the will and stamina to harass opposition players for ninety minutes, can force defenders into making hurried clearances rather than measured passes - and how his unavailability at Woking might have cost us two points. (No, I'm not his mum!).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 11:24:02 GMT
Just write an article on the 'How Tall is the Beard' thread !
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 18:31:19 GMT
Hello all, As we have yet another empty weekend I thought I'd ask you lot to suggest any topics you'd like me to write about for next weeks Rovers article on my weekly blog for the Evening Post website. It could be literally anything... except my resignation as a writer though thanks in advance, Martin (Bull) P.S. i haven't run out of ideas... I genuinely would like to hear what people would like to read about. Sainsbury's attempt to screw over yet another small business. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 19:21:18 GMT
Not a bad idea IHF.
Maybe an article on some of the other builds that sainsburies are currently messing about over might be timely.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 23:05:28 GMT
The lockout of our supporters at Woking could be worth a mention.
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Post by supergas on Jan 23, 2015 1:10:38 GMT
The lockout of our supporters at Woking could be worth a mention. Hows about this with the twist being about how often the fans often know more about what's going on and how to organise things than the clubs themselves do? |
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Post by mehewmagic on Jan 23, 2015 13:24:17 GMT
thanks all. I'll have a think over the weekend.
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Post by mehewmagic on Jan 23, 2015 13:35:15 GMT
The lockout of our supporters at Woking could be worth a mention. Think I did all I can do really this week... www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-G-Gas-Cards/story-25889018-detail/story.htmlI did write it though BEFORE the statement came out from Woking about who was to 'blame' for the lock out. "There was more drama off the pitch than on it, with several hundred Pirates locked out of the ground after the peculiar sounding away figure of 1,869 was reached. It was an invasion of the likes not seen since the aliens landed at nearby Horsell Common in H.G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’. Some observers bizarrely held the fans themselves and BRFC responsible. As the blame game has since unfurled it is hard to know quite who to believe, but the bottom line is that it is Woking’s ground, not ours, and Surrey Police‘s patch, not Avon & Somerset’s. For travelling away fans to be locked out of any ground that holds 6,000 yet only had 3,853 actually in it is a complete farce in anyone’s language. The fixture was the perfect storm for us fans and they had been warned, yet failed to adequately provide for us. It was an easy car journey, yet also well served by a busy train station within a suitable walk. Woking is near enough to London and the South-East to attract our numerous fans exiled there and with no game for two weeks before or two weeks after, two new signings to hopefully get a glimpse of, and the Gas on a roll (including winning our last two away games) they really should have thought about this a bit more. They can’t have their cake and eat it can they? Why was there an absurd over abundance of police if they hadn’t expected a huge following, and surely you can’t decide to segregate a match but then also continue the quaint non-league custom of ‘swapping ends’ at half time, as many from the Kingsfield Road Terrace (behind the goal) went to stand in the far corner for the second half, the beautifully entitled ‘Moaner’s Corner’. Anyway, why this siege mentality in the first place? We‘ve never even played each other before, and there is certainly no beef between the clubs or fans; more likely a collective ignorance of one another. Why couldn’t they just treat it as a nice little pay day, and a good sing song between friendly fans. Sadly, if this travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery had finished in ‘trouble’ it would have been splashed all over the media, whereas headlines such as 2,000+ Gasheads behave well, with several hundred inexplicably locked out, don’t sell papers do they." |
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Post by mehewmagic on Jan 27, 2015 12:04:54 GMT
Thanks again everyone.
I did it about Sainsbury's in the end. It seemed like too big an issue to ignore, especially with no football or transfers to write about.
It will be up on the Bristol Post site tomorrow and I will also paste it on here.
I hope to look at some of the other ideas later, especially ones about our future fans/demographics/the culture of watching real life football, and ex-pats (having been one myself previously).
Beards and 'taches will also make a good light hearted feature one day when we are feeling miserable.
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Post by mehewmagic on Jan 28, 2015 23:56:53 GMT
The following is what came out of this exercise. Hopefully will use some of the other topics in the next few months as well... BRISTOL ROVERS BLOG: G is for Gas - Be good to yourself, and even better to others
By Martin BullWith yet another barren Saturday, Rovers fans embarked on a multitude of alternatives from putting up shelves to watching our old friends Bath City continue their impressive march in the F.A. Trophy. One thing most of us probably weren’t doing though, was sitting down with a rosy red pen to write a Valentine’s card to the head cheese of J. Sainsbury plc. It comes as no surprise that the BRFC Board of Directors have felt they need to take Sainsbury’s to the High Court as it has seemed clear for quite some time that the behemoth retailer has been having cold feet about agreeing to buy the Memorial Stadium and that their wallet really isn’t in this love affair. If this was an episode of Eastenders I suspect the obligatory relationship blow-up scene would have been played out by now with the bling engagement ring being ripped off in a fit of pique and sinking like a stone to the bottom of the River Avon. Usually it is us fans and Rovers who resemble a mismatched couple, aptly described after the shocking relegation in May by David Roberts in my recent book as, “a one-sided love affair, unrequited love, but only one of us seems to be committed to the relationship.” In 1996 Sainsbury’s became one of the first retailers to sell Fairtrade products, and now claim to be the world’s biggest retailer of such produce. Yet it doesn’t seem to promote fair trade towards everyone and have recently been accused of bully boy tactics by Citigrove Securities and South Ruislip Residents’ Association for declaring that they will apply for a judicial review into the planning permission that was legally granted for a large development in West London on the site of a former dairy that had been a derelict eyesore for ten years. The development includes a cinema, five restaurants and 132 much needed flats and houses. Oh, and an ASDA store. Andrew Rennie of Citigrove Securities was quoted as remarking that “Sainsbury’s have had permission to extend their store in South Ruislip since 2006, but have chosen not to do so”, and thus believes that the legal challenge “has no merit, but its sole purpose is to stifle and restrict competition”. Unless you’ve been holidaying on Mars with Colin Pillinger’s Beagle 2 probe, no-one could have failed to notice that the big supermarkets are going through a torrid time, and are looking at crisis cutbacks, especially of bigger stores. This though is a crisis of their own making as they didn’t respond to the economic downturn and haughtily kept prices high when customers clamoured for alternatives that didn’t exist at the time. Experts say that the problem is that lots of people may well shop in these big hypermarket-type retail units, but very few actively love to shop there. The strategy was a real example of the ’build it and they will come’ philosophy, but as the great Motown team Holland, Dozier & Holland wrote (what a creative midfield they would be!) “you can’t hurry love… it‘s a game of give and take“. What is galling many, including Rovers fans, is the lack of clarity and openness as to what Sainsbury's intentions for Horfield now are. What is worrying is that some Gasheads seem to have already given up the fight. Of course we cannot influence the legal process, but there is no reason to suggest that Sainsbury‘s have a get out of jail free card just because they have an enormous turnover and are a FTSE 100 company. A contract is a contract, and when they entered into it they were extremely happy to secure such a prime piece of real estate. Since then Rovers have bent over backwards to accommodate what are increasingly looking like disingenuous delays to the sale. Little did we know that their range of ’Be Good to Yourself’ foods was also the slogan for their own self-centred strategy to abrogate contractual responsibilities. If the contract was full of escape clauses they would surely have been long gone by now, like the expensive ring in the Avon. Gasheads, there is no need to give up the fight yet. Yes, this is more delay. Yes, the Board will not be able to give us a blow by blow account of every legal issue that is going on. But Sainsbury’s won’t be able to win this just because they can afford a posh lawyer. A well-aimed sling shot to the forehead can bring down even the mightiest Phillistine Goliath, and if the spoils of war are only a partial fulfillment of the contract, at least we died on our feet rather than lived on our knees. Viva Zapata, Viva Higgsy. Hasta la victoria siempre! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Bull became a Gashead in 1989 and immediately fell in love with Twerton Park, standing near G pillar. In 2006 he wrote, photographed and published the first independent book about the artist Banksy. Having been exiled for much of his past, away games have always been special for him; so much so that he has just produced a new book about them, in collaboration with Rovers fans far and wide, young and old - www.awaythegas.org.ukRead more: www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-G-Gas-good-better/story-25929694-detail/story.html#ixzz3Q7uT1hgF |
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Post by RD on Jan 29, 2015 6:19:19 GMT
The following is what came out of this exercise. Hopefully will use some of the other topics in the next few months as well... BRISTOL ROVERS BLOG: G is for Gas - Be good to yourself, and even better to others
By Martin BullWith yet another barren Saturday, Rovers fans embarked on a multitude of alternatives from putting up shelves to watching our old friends Bath City continue their impressive march in the F.A. Trophy. One thing most of us probably weren’t doing though, was sitting down with a rosy red pen to write a Valentine’s card to the head cheese of J. Sainsbury plc. It comes as no surprise that the BRFC Board of Directors have felt they need to take Sainsbury’s to the High Court as it has seemed clear for quite some time that the behemoth retailer has been having cold feet about agreeing to buy the Memorial Stadium and that their wallet really isn’t in this love affair. If this was an episode of Eastenders I suspect the obligatory relationship blow-up scene would have been played out by now with the bling engagement ring being ripped off in a fit of pique and sinking like a stone to the bottom of the River Avon. Usually it is us fans and Rovers who resemble a mismatched couple, aptly described after the shocking relegation in May by David Roberts in my recent book as, “a one-sided love affair, unrequited love, but only one of us seems to be committed to the relationship.” In 1996 Sainsbury’s became one of the first retailers to sell Fairtrade products, and now claim to be the world’s biggest retailer of such produce. Yet it doesn’t seem to promote fair trade towards everyone and have recently been accused of bully boy tactics by Citigrove Securities and South Ruislip Residents’ Association for declaring that they will apply for a judicial review into the planning permission that was legally granted for a large development in West London on the site of a former dairy that had been a derelict eyesore for ten years. The development includes a cinema, five restaurants and 132 much needed flats and houses. Oh, and an ASDA store. Andrew Rennie of Citigrove Securities was quoted as remarking that “Sainsbury’s have had permission to extend their store in South Ruislip since 2006, but have chosen not to do so”, and thus believes that the legal challenge “has no merit, but its sole purpose is to stifle and restrict competition”. Unless you’ve been holidaying on Mars with Colin Pillinger’s Beagle 2 probe, no-one could have failed to notice that the big supermarkets are going through a torrid time, and are looking at crisis cutbacks, especially of bigger stores. This though is a crisis of their own making as they didn’t respond to the economic downturn and haughtily kept prices high when customers clamoured for alternatives that didn’t exist at the time. Experts say that the problem is that lots of people may well shop in these big hypermarket-type retail units, but very few actively love to shop there. The strategy was a real example of the ’build it and they will come’ philosophy, but as the great Motown team Holland, Dozier & Holland wrote (what a creative midfield they would be!) “you can’t hurry love… it‘s a game of give and take“. What is galling many, including Rovers fans, is the lack of clarity and openness as to what Sainsbury's intentions for Horfield now are. What is worrying is that some Gasheads seem to have already given up the fight. Of course we cannot influence the legal process, but there is no reason to suggest that Sainsbury‘s have a get out of jail free card just because they have an enormous turnover and are a FTSE 100 company. A contract is a contract, and when they entered into it they were extremely happy to secure such a prime piece of real estate. Since then Rovers have bent over backwards to accommodate what are increasingly looking like disingenuous delays to the sale. Little did we know that their range of ’Be Good to Yourself’ foods was also the slogan for their own self-centred strategy to abrogate contractual responsibilities. If the contract was full of escape clauses they would surely have been long gone by now, like the expensive ring in the Avon. Gasheads, there is no need to give up the fight yet. Yes, this is more delay. Yes, the Board will not be able to give us a blow by blow account of every legal issue that is going on. But Sainsbury’s won’t be able to win this just because they can afford a posh lawyer. A well-aimed sling shot to the forehead can bring down even the mightiest Phillistine Goliath, and if the spoils of war are only a partial fulfillment of the contract, at least we died on our feet rather than lived on our knees. Viva Zapata, Viva Higgsy. Hasta la victoria siempre! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Bull became a Gashead in 1989 and immediately fell in love with Twerton Park, standing near G pillar. In 2006 he wrote, photographed and published the first independent book about the artist Banksy. Having been exiled for much of his past, away games have always been special for him; so much so that he has just produced a new book about them, in collaboration with Rovers fans far and wide, young and old - www.awaythegas.org.ukRead more: www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-G-Gas-good-better/story-25929694-detail/story.html#ixzz3Q7uT1hgFSuperb piece Martin - really enjoyed reading that :clap: |
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