From: Unititled Book - my life as a lazy arsed sailor, by pommpey
May 2000 - Tobago
Musical contacted me whilst on a West Indies deployment about the Blades Caribbean Tour. I jacked it up for me and two lads from my ship to fly across from Trinidad to Tobago to see them. See Blades Tales for the full story ...
After meeting them at the Tobago beach watering hole (where we effectively gatecrashed their afternoon and I introduced myself and my two shipmates to Warnock and Blackwell ("I thought you were fucking drug-dealers," said NW, relieved when I told him we were three sailors from HMS Manchester who'd flown across from Trinidad to see the Blades) he then invited us to sit with the players and his missus and have a free beer. We were then invited to drink with them all up in the middle of the island that night, so we went back to the hotel, met the rest of the Caribbean Blades (just to rub it in where we were going) and fucked off to this bar/hotel. Sensible adults included Tracey, but everyone looked up for some beer which we obviously quaffed with them. Missing from this group (in fact, from the tour) was Paul Devlin - they wouldn't tell me why but apparently he'd misbehaved on the plane and Warnock ordered the mardy fucker off. He was done with United after that little episode as Warnock swapped him for Nuddy the next season.
Anyrooerd, we got drinking and Sandford, being an ex-Pompey player had drunk on Her Maj's warships before and asked me (in an excited state) if we knew 'that game with the holes in the cans'. We call it 'shoot the tin' in the Navy and we then proceeded to do just that, Curtis Woodhouse and Warnock's lad falling victim to the tin full of fizzy ale emptying into their stomachs in about two seconds. Trace saw things developing badly so called time (as they had a game the next day against the Tobago XI) So we sodded off our own separate ways, not before Sandford said 'You bastards are sitting on the bench with us tomorrow!'
So we did. No one much wanted to play, and late one in the second half Blackwell got a game and Warnock said to me, 'Can you play? Have you got your boots?' I have to admit, this was my Roy of the Rovers moment and despite no one having boots greater than a nine (I think it was Benty's) I couldn't get a game, much to my dismay as that game, and Blackwell's appearance is in the Sheffield United who's who. Warnock and Blackwell also instructed us to go out with and keep an eye on the players that night as well, and we went to a place called The Schoolhouse, a dub-heavy joint where Kozzy ripped some pretentious models a new arse, Curtis ripped into my mate because we revealed he was a pigfan and Jags (bless him) and another junior were amazed at us and thought we were special forces who were licensed to kill people.
We didn't see Sandford fall out with Warnock at all.
After this I was invited to the Lane (by NW) a couple of times and even back to his gaff in Callington (I never found the time, my ship was in refit in Plymouth although he pledged to play for our team once).
Anyway ...
pommpey
