THIS IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT

The petition continues to go from strength to strength, as we now sit proudly at 8,199 names - only 2,301 short of our overall target of 10,500.

Credit for this must go to El Poncho, who has driven this campaign forward with the gritty determination of oxen on amphetamine. Bravo!

That is not to neglect, of course, the support we have had from fellow Town fans and from the wider football world. Astounding. Football may be tribal, and therefore often divisive, yet we see, time and time again, football fans standing shoulder to shoulder on issues which transcend our rivalries. We may have witnessed such solidarity before but it never fails to be humbling.

We must reach our target. Can I ask for anybody who hasn't signed the petition yet to do so now, and if you have - ask your mates, family, neighbours, workmates, random people in the street. Anybody with a name, basically.

The petition is here.

One group of people from whom we've felt support has been lacking has been our elected representatives - our councillors, our Assembly Members, our Members of Parliament. Why they have been reluctant to come out in defense of the real jewel in the crown of our humble little town, we do not know.

There are one or two notable exceptions, and we will give the others a little more time to respond before we let our fellow Fanistas know who has helped and who hasn't, but I will take this opportunity to remind our politicians of this - the football club is, in many people's eyes, the town. Supporters' loyalty to their club is unswerving and paramount; they will remember who has supported this campaign, and who hasn't, come polling day.

Just ask Dr John Marek.






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THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS

With thanks to Twitter's Flock Follower for the above information. You can view a copy of the above here.

This document appears to show the sale of the whole or part of the Racecourse to Wrexham Village Ltd, a property development company.

Answers on a postcard.







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BEFORE THE DARK HOUR OF REASON GROWS

Brothers and sisters, as you will be aware, the collective is fond of a wee bit of poetry, and we recently implored the masses to send us their creative babies.


Senor Poncho of Red Passion fame has spoken to his close personal friend Sir John Betjemen, who has kindly penned this wonderful ditty. Sir John and Baron Ponch, we salute you.

A Racecourse Love Song by Sir John Betjeman

My Racecourse, My Racecourse,
Furnish'd and burnish'd by the Wrexham roar,
What magnificent matches you housed before tea,
We in the terraces – peering to see!

Two-thirty, Four-forty, oh! weakness of joys,
The speed of a cross, the catch of ball boys,
With dazzling comradeship, gaily we won,
We weak from your loveliness, our beloved Racecourse sun

Your convivial turnstiles shimmer we walk,
And swing past the turf, buried in talk,
And gate of the Kop that welcomes us in
The six-o'six show and pints when we win.

The glint of your memories, sound of the crowd,
The view from each spot is ever so proud,
Everlasting belches over chips and pie, oh! eye
As we dance in the Cent, and light up the sky!

My Racecourse, My Racecourse
A glimpse from the hills your charming red hue,
Oh! Shankly standing and applauding you!
Oh! Arsenal’s one, and our triumphant two!

Around us the Robins and Dragons are set,
And Psycho soars through the roof of your net,
And here in my sight is the ‘Course of my choice,
With the tilt of your stanchions and the chime of your voice.

My Racecourse, My Racecourse we’re not letting you go ! 
You’ve been slung like confetti and pushed to and fro
How sad are we, they don't give a toss
And leave your kop end covered by moss

And the keen reminisces and words never spoken And the ever present ritual and songs our love token We sit in your shadow prolonging the fun My Racecourse, My Racecourse let the battle be won!

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CLEARLY REDUNDANT

"Clearly redundant".

A strange turn of phrase. What does it mean?

“Development which adversely affects the continued use and development of County-wide and sub-regional indoor or outdoor leisure facilities and sports stadia is not permitted. Enhancement of such facilities is supported provided there is no significant adverse effect on local residential amenity by virtue of noise, floodlighting, car parking, traffic generation or other disturbance."

“The Council’s policy emphasises that their use should be maximised and that change of use or redevelopment of such facilities will be resisted unless they are clearly redundant or their continued use and development would create environmental damage. On the other hand, the enhancement of such facilities is supported provided there are no significant adverse effects on local residential amenity by virtue of noise, floodlighting, car parking, traffic generation, or other disturbance.”

So if the club's owners, whoever that may be, were to move the club out of the stadium prior to applying for planning permission for, let us say, a giant B&Q, then the world famous Racecourse Ground would be redundant, no? Or, perhaps, if the club was to cease to exist altogether...

Yes, a very strange turn of phrase indeed.

If anybody out there is familiar with planning legalese, then please do let us know your thoughts.

You can email us at ProtectTheRacecourse@googlemail.com or you can post in the comments section below.

Before we're all left feeling completely redundant.






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RAGE RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT

Following a series of top-level secret meetings in the bunker, the collective have unanimously agreed to invite submissions from our vast readership, which we understand amounts to literally billions of people.

The meetings were intense and emotions were fraught. Without the aid of Red Bull, ephedrine, and a shopping trolley full of stolen Wotsits and Wagon Wheels, I don't think we'd have made it through. Tough times.

Anyway, we implore - nay, beg - our fellow aficionados to submit articles for publication. You can submit prose detailing your favourite Racecourse memories; humorous anecdotes of days gone by; poems; haiku; manifestos for change. Anything really. We're not fussy.

Besides, we could do with a little culture on this rather tawdry and down-market blog.

So, comrades, if any of you feel like penning a few words in homage to the Racecourse, please email us your creative babies at ProtectTheRacecourse@googlemail.com.

To get you in the mood, reproduced below is a short piece from some pompous old windbag on Red Passion. Strikes me as a blatant rip-off of the rhythms and style of Sir Tommy but I'm sure the tosser who wrote it will claim he was merely 'inspired' by the great man. I did say we're not fussy.

It was a winter night

On my way to the 'course

Weaving past people

And a copper on a horse

The horse had shat

On the road

A man in a comedy jesters hat

Approached the copper and moaned

The copper just looked down at him

And said "move along sunshine"

Whilst fondling his bat

-on

I stopped for a fag

And sent a quick text

"You coming the game?

Then we'll go out and get wrecked"

In through the turnstile

£18? You're having a laugh

For a cheap plastic seat

That'll give me a pile

Or three

I couldv'e stayed at home

And had a bath

I meet a mate

And get a beer

£2.70 for warm Carling, which I hate

They saw me coming

The game begins

We lose

We're shit

I feel like I've been mugged

But on the plus side

Wrex The Dragon

Did look quite fit

Off to the pub

For a pint

Or six

As a parrot

Bit shit isn't it? See, if we'll publish this we'll publish anything. Get writing!

Nos da brethren

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TOMMY TAINANT: MAHARISHI OF JACKOLAND

Below is one of Tommy Tainant's finest poetic offerings, reproduced for your delight. For those not in the know, Mr Tainant is Wrexham's number one fan, in addition to being a spiritual guru to the great unwashed, a wordsmith of unchallenged superiority, the greatest Jacko since Twm Sbaen, and the world's foremost unelected but benevolent Great Statesman. We are truly not worthy.


You can follow the spiritual and intellectual endeavors of Mr Tainant (surely it should be Sir Tommy by now) on his wonderful blog, Tommy Tainant's World Of Wonder, here.

Oranges and Carrots are the same colour 

Oranges

are orange.

So are carrots.

Why is “orange”

Orange

And not ”carrot”?

Chesters

Going down

Again.

In truth

Its well

Deserved.

It’s a fact.

They have

Been poor

For several

Years.

But then again,

So have we.

Are they

Wrexham

In disguise?

Or are we

Chester?

Which is the

Carrot?

And which is

The orange?

And who makes

These decisions?

Decisions about

Naming colours.




And A

Or FC.

Or AFC

And so on.

Orange juice

Carrot juice

Orange cake

Carrot cake

Which is which?

Which is Chester?

Questions need answers

Like plants

Need water

But some Questions

Are harder

Than others.

A carrot

Is a carrot

An orange

Is an orange

Wrexham are Wrexham 

And Chester are shit.

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ALL IT TAKES IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING

Some more photos of yesterday's game, courtesy of redstarwxm on twitpic, aka Serencoch on Red Passion.

We may be playing crap football in a crap league but that is one hot mamma of a football ground. Oh yes.

We've lost our industry; our steelworks, our pits, our breweries, our quarries. We've lost the markets, the Miners Institute, the Hippodrome. A walk through Wrexham town centre today is the same as a walk through any town centre anywhere on this poxy little island we call home. Anytown, UK. The Racecourse is one of the few landmarks we have left and we will be damned in hell before we let this one go.

Sign the petition here!

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