Thousands flock to the Turf Moor Open Day

It was good to be inside Turf Moor again

By 11:00am the queue for the free ground tours being conducted by Tommy Cummings and Andy Lochhead was over 100 yards long and remained so for a couple of hours and it certainly seemed to be the most popular attraction.

Younger children had a carousel, trampolines and a giant inflatable slide to keep them amused but having 2 kids going on each of them didn’t leave much change from a tenner, ouch! On the plus side we did get 2 free big and bouncy balloons.

The Leisure centre was also busy with a wide and frankly confusing array of soccer related activities including, I believe, a game against wooden cut out footballers. Make your own jokes up every one else was, but they were definitely not going to the Isle of Man.

On the car park there was lively entertainment from 2BR who were broadcasting from the event together with 2 ‘girl bands’, Inspiration and Route 66 who I thought were good but found themselves let down by the sound system cracking up when they hit the high notes which was often. Both groups did seem rather young to me but perhaps that says more about my age than theirs. Anyway if they make it big I can always say that I saw them first on a trailer in the James Hargreaves Stand car park.

There were also the usual displays from the Fire Brigade, which was cut short early on when they had to attend an emergency call but given the speed they came back at it couldn’t have been anything too serious, and the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment but to be honest I steered clear of them as I’ve always had an irrational fear of being tricked into joining the army.

The big disappointment was the catering arrangements with the burger stand running out of food before 1:00pm leading to a 25 minute queue in the Café Claret. Unlike in previous years the refreshment stalls in the James Hargreaves Stand were closed meaning that there were a lot of hungry people about. I don’t want to sound too critical but it would have been a nice idea, if you are running an event which runs through the lunchtime period, to provide enough food for the people turning up. To be fair this might have had something to do with Holland’s Pies who were conspicuous only by their absence and the long long wait for the balti pie goes on. (Since writing this I have been reliably informed that a Holland's Pies van was there with balti pie samples but neither I nor anyone I've spoken to managed to see it so I can only assume that either it wasn't there long or they kept themselves fairly well hidden!)

Catalogue Man Glen Little

The new away shirt was launched and the Clarets Superstore was certainly doing a brisk business in them. Glen Little is shown modelling it here in a picture courtesy of burnleyfootballclub.com. I have to say that they look ‘nice on’ and I would expect them to be a popular purchase in the next few weeks. I actually have my eye on the new sweatshirt, which is of a similar design to the away strip and looked really smart.

The main event judging from an almost packed lower tier of the James Hargreaves Stand was the players training session but first it was time for the all-new cheerleader troupe. From a man who dances as though his feet have been nailed to the floor I would hesitate to give an opinion of their skills but I thought that they were pretty good. They were certainly numerous with 50 all told and yes I did count them. With that many they certainly made a greater visual impact but at one point I was worried that they might be about to invade Poland.

Before the players came out media star Bertie Bee was on hand to avert another pitch invasion but this time it was only a very young (and fully dressed) boy running out to greet him. This didn’t stop Bertie throwing him on to his shoulder, old habits die hard.

The players, looking tanned and relaxed, then went through a light training session the highlight of which was Andy Payton falling headlong over a stray blade of grass. Payts looked fairly lean actually and the old romantic in me got to wondering if he could still do a job for us next season given a decent run in the team. I would certainly like to think so. Robbie Blake also looked to have lost a few pounds and it would be nice to see him repaying his transfer fee in the months ahead.

I don’t think that there has been any official word yet on the fitness of Paul Weller, who wasn’t named in the squad for the Isle of Man, but I’m sure I caught sight of him in the tunnel moving none too freely. Worryingly this leaves us looking rather thin in the central midfield area.

With training over it was straight off to the Isle of Man where the Clarets meet Wrexham on Sunday at 2:00pm.

Certainly the day was a success and it was one of the first times that I have enjoyed an event where the advertising promised that I would have ‘fun’. For me though simply being inside Turf Moor again after an absence of almost 3 months was enough. Roll on the new season.