A shirty tale about superstition

12:55pm Monday 21st July 2008

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When Mrs S joined the Citizens' Advice Bureau at West Hendon many moons ago her first "client", unbelievably, was a Chinese sea captain living on the Grahame Park Estate at Colindale seeking advice about getting a do-it-yourself divorce.

I am not privy to her reply and I am certainly not into DIY but I could well be contacting the CAB this week to find out how this operates in 2008.

As avid followers of this blog will have noted, my plan was to wear my cashmere jacket and other assorted items of clothing until Barnet FC were beaten.

Idly counting down the minutes until the Big Kick Off at Underhill against the mighty Arsenal, I noted Mrs S in action in her mainstream role as officer in charge of domestic trivia - to wit, ironing.

She ironed a white shirt .. then another. Which, I asked, was the white shirt I wore with the cashmere jacket when the lads won 1-0 at St Albans City at the start of what was meant to be a record unbeaten run and no hair cut for yours truly. "You ought to know", was her cold response.

I was speechless. This from a women in whom I had invested £3 13s 6d for a wedding licence 42 years ago and who has consistently bought my shirts ever since. It is fair to say that I was decidedly shirty! The family long ago banned me from supermarkets and shopping following a disastrous experience at Brent Cross when Kathryn accompanied me to get some new shoes. How am I supposed to know one white shirt from another?

Any judge in the land would support my case. I looked long and hard at the ironed shirts and finally decided to go with a Marks and Spencer tagged number.

I had lunch at Underhill before the game with Mike Freer and told him bout the crisis that had developed at Schloss Signy over my "lucky" hirt. Far from sympathising with a fellow blogger, he seemed to side with Mrs S and was far more concerned that I had moved from his Finchley and Golders Green constituency back to Hendon and he had lost a potential vote.

Mike Freer confesses that football to him is 22 men kicking a ball – is he man fit to be entrusted with a blog? - so I don't know why I went to im for sympathy anyway.

Kenny Gillet scored a smashing goal that gave Barnet a half - time lead so itseemed that the cashmere jacket and the inspired choice of the M and S shirt was doing the trick.

The best laid plans of mice and men ... Arsenal got two goals and destroyed my faith in M and S for ever.

So it's back to Plan B - starting the season with the first League 2 game at Underhill against Chesterfield on August 9. Do you think it might help if we fans all wore the same gear that day? The players do. PS I often wondered where that Chinese sea captain left his ship? And whether he is still married.