IQ and his rugby team

Joining the world’s first gay rugby team changed my life. So I made a film about it

At school, the homophobic bullying was worst on the rugby pitch. But the Steelers helped me rediscover my love for the game – and myselfA screenshot from Steelers: the World’s First Gay Rugby Club about the UK rugby team, the Kings Cross Steelers.‘Over time the Steelers won the respect of these straight burly British men because not only did they beat them on occasion, they showed them that we’re all pretty much the same.’

So you can imagine my surprise when years later, a rugby club would go on to change my life. Not just any rugby club, the world’s first gay rugby club, the Kings Cross Steelers in London.

First trip to Griffin Park- revisited

I have previously written about my memories of going to GP for my first game. I managed to track down the game with the use of THE ENGLISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL ARCHIVE. I narrowed it down to the Boxing Day match in 1971.

Now I have found more information after buying book about Griffin Park.

From that I can see that it was a big match with a remarkably large crowd of 18,000+.

No one that I recognise

This also invokes the memory of once queuing for ages to get in with my Dad. So maybe this was the match and it was almost a family day out!

Final visit to Griffin Park

A collection of images and thought

Last weekend I took up the opportunity offered by the club to visit the stadium for a last time. The offer was made by the club in light of the pandemic curtailing the final season and a good will offer to season ticket holders in particular. Anyone could go it seems as the original offer was oversubscribed before he season ticket holders had a chance to get in. Anyway it worked out in the end. Here is my late recording.

Braemer Road

And finally the image I uploaded to be ‘in the crowd’ for the games at the stadium that were played behind closed doors. I never did see myself on the telly but here I am:

It was a good trip in the company of Anthony. I saw parts of the ground that I had never seen- great view of the pitch from the away end upper tier, for example, or parts I had not been to for many years.

A nice piece of nostalgia.

Another loss

TUE 04 AUG 2020CHAMPIONSHIP

  • Dalsgaard (120’+4minutes)

AETHT 0-0FT 0-0

  • Bryan (105’minutes, 117’minutes)

Championship play-off final: Brentford 1-2 Fulham (AET)

By Rob Stevens

BBC Sport at Wembley

Fulham celebrate
Fulham will join Leeds and West Brom in the Premier League

Fulham beat Brentford in the Championship play-off final to secure an immediate return to the Premier League thanks to two extra-time goals from Joe Bryan.

So Brentford continue their series of failures in the play-offs. I watched the game at home with cola and peppermint tea. I stayed mostly calm but frustrated with a lot of the performance as the Bees could not respond to the pressing, defensive techniques of Fulham. As with previous games they could not respond more than longer balls and the central defenders making the plays. No midfielder who could or was willing to to keep ball at foot and force commitment from the opposition. I have seen the same many times before.

Star players did not come to fore. Benrama looked busy, desperate to impress future employers but ineffective. Jensen anonymous- not making self available or not used by team mates? More of the latter I think.

And now the sell off will happen. Watkins already in the news as other clubs look for his signature. I suppose Brentford will get the money and then hopefully finds the next gem. But I do not see another imminent push to the top level next season.

9th time lucky?

From the BBC:

“Brentford finished third in the table, one place above Fulham on goal difference, and won both league meetings during the regular campaign.

If they fail to win, the Bees will have taken part in more unsuccessful play-off campaigns in the English Football League than any other club, with this their ninth attempt.”

More Guardian column inches


Championship

Silk and steel: how Thomas Frank gave Brentford reason to dream big

The Bees struggled early on in the Dane’s reign but this modest club now stand one game away from the Premier League

Ben Fisher

Ben Fisher

Mon 3 Aug 2020 08.00 BSTLast modified on Tue 4 Aug 2020 04.37 BST

Brentford’s David Raya and Sergi Canós carve up the net at Griffin Park.
 Brentford’s David Raya and Sergi Canós carve up the net at Griffin Park. Photograph: Javier García/BPI/Shutterstock

It was long after the final whistle at Griffin Park last Wednesday, and a little before David Raya and Sergi Canós carved up the goal net to take a patch as a souvenir from the stadium’s last competitive game. The Brentford owner, Matthew Benham, was taking penalties at the Ealing Road end, trying to replicate Marcello Trotta’s infamous stoppage-time miss against Doncaster in 2013, when the striker smacked the crossbar before James Coppinger tapped in at the other end to extinguish any hope of automatic promotion from League One. Seven years on, the magnitude of the prize at stake is incomparable.

And the rest:

Play-off final day

A day of history? One way or another- yes.

It seems almost ridiculous to be thinking of Brentford playing in the top flight- the Premier League as it is now. For all those years of 3rd and 4th tier football, remembering gong to GF as a kid when the style was limited and understanding the risk to the club’s survival: it seems unreal that they are in such a position.

At the beginning of the season to be in the play-offs was considered a good result. That they had the chance to take automatic promotion was amazing- though clearly did not work out. However, you cannot complain as the level of achievement is above what was expected.

I can remembering asking my dad many years ago if he could see Brentford reaching the FA Cup final. I think he laughed at the thought. This is clearly bigger than that. Dreamlike. The lads talked in the pub on the last Saturday of the season game when a win against Stoke could have gone a long way to achieving promotion. We laughed at the ridiculous thought of the Bees entertaining the likes of Liverpool and Man U. at home. Something previously considered mad but now not so far away.

90 minutes against west London rivals Fulham. A great way to go about it.

At the same time as saying ‘COYB’- there is still the nagging fear of what happens to smaller clubs who are promoted and whether they manage to survive intact in the future. I have that fear though think they re more likely to enjoy their time in the sun, lose, but take the money.

A farewell piece for Griffin Park

Griffin Park is one of the few old-school grounds left in English football, hemmed in by housing and retaining terracing – a rarity in the Championship in the days of all-seater stadiums since the dawn of the Premier League era.

A nice piece on the BBC to commemorate the final game at GP which happened in the week.

Griffin Park: Can Brentford give ground perfect send-off by winning promotion through the play-offs?

By Rob Stevens

BBC Sport

Brentford v Barnsley
Griffin Park, with its empty Ealing Road terrace (left) hosted its final Championship game last Wednesday when Brentford were beaten by Barnsley
Sky Bet Championship play-off semi-finals, second leg: Brentford v Swansea (agg 0-1)
Date: Wednesday, 29 July Kick-off: 19:45 BST Coverage: Live text on BBC Sport website from 19:15 BST, commentary on BBC Radio London and BBC Radio Wales

The turnstiles at Griffin Park have already rattled for a final time. The Ealing Road terrace, usually a swelling mass of bodies on match days, stands empty.

However, the ground, Brentford’s home since 1904, will host one final game on Wednesday night before the west London club move into a new stadium this summer.

Brentford History

Great video

Into the play-off final

Brentford 3 – 1 Swansea

Brentford

Home team scorersOllie Watkins 11Emiliano Marcondes 15Bryan Mbeumo 46

Swansea

Away team scorersRhian Brewster 78

Aggregate 3-2 Brentford win 3-2 on aggregate

Championship

Brentford fight off Swansea to reach play-off final in Griffin Park swansong

Jonathan Liew at Griffin Park

Wed 29 Jul 2020 22.35 BSTFirst published on Wed 29 Jul 2020 22.11 BST

Bryan Mbeumo celebrates scoring Brentford’s third goal with teammate Rico Henry.
 Bryan Mbeumo celebrates scoring Brentford’s third goal against Swansea with Rico Henry. Photograph: Ben Evans/Huw Evans/Shutterstock

A night for moving on. For shedding baggage, and laying the past to rest. On the night Brentford said their farewells to Griffin Park, they came closer to top-flight football than they have done at any point since 1947. They did so with a sparkling modern brand of football quite at odds with the weathered girders and sardine seats of their old home.