Club Nickname

So there I was sitting in the queue at the end of the M62, tapping the steering wheel impatiently having turned down the volume on the satnav as there are only so many times that you can put up with being told to “take the next exit and follow the road to the left” when in fact you are moving at a speed of 1 inch per hour (that’s 2.54 centimetres an hour if the players are reading this!) when I got to thinking. Yes, I know how dangerous that can be but what else can you do after you have made as many words as you can out of the letters of the car registration in front of you? Anyway, it suddenly dawned on me that the Centre has not adopted a nickname!

Our opponents were Everton “The “Toffemen” which, according to Wikipedia, they came to be known as because there was a business near the ground called Mother Noblett's Toffee Shop which advertised and sold sweets, including the Everton Mint, on match days. This also led to the Toffee Lady tradition in which a girl walks around the perimeter of the pitch before the start of a game tossing free Everton Mints into the crowd. Another possible reason is that there was a house called Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House near the Queen's Head hotel in which early club meetings took place. The word "toffee" was also slang referring to Irishmen, of which there was a large population in the city at the turn of the century and who tended to support Everton rather than city rivals Liverpool!” Incidentally I also found out that Everton used to play at Anfield before moving to Goodison after a rent dispute in 1878 which proves conclusively that you are never too old to learn something new after all.

Throughout this season we will come across the Railwaymen (Crewe Alexandra), The Reds (Liverpool), Rovers (Blackburn), The Tigers (Hull), The Blades (Sheffield United), The Potters (Stoke City), United (Leeds United) and we have already played The Magpies (Newcastle).

There are many other weird and wonderful football club nicknames with the best obviously being The Shakers (Bury). There are herds of animals to be had with Black Cats (Sunderland), Rams (Derby County), Wolves (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Foxes (Leicester City), Shrews (Shrewsbury Town), and Lions (Millwall), plus swarms of birds Swans (Swansea City) Robins (Bristol City) Bluebirds (Cardiff City) and Eagles (Crystal Palace) to name but a few. Bees (Brentford and Barnet) and Hornets (Watford) feature as well as many industries such as Chairboys (Wycombe Wanderers) and Hatters (Stockport County and Luton). So as you can see anything is fair game when it comes to nicknames for Clubs.

What we would need is something associated with the area, the team colours or centre philosophy, however, what also needs to be considered is that we are a centre for girls who either are, or are approaching, their teenage years so there is probably no point going for a colour as it might clash with everything or anything “geeky” because that would be so uncool it doesn’t bear thinking about and as for the effect on street cred…well! Actually, by now, uncool is probably an uncool thing to say…..oh I give up, you know what I mean!

So, over to you lot. Send you ideas for a Centre nickname to Matt and we will have a think.

Maybe "The Hair Straighteners" or "The Mobiles" should be considered or even "The Fly Swatters" which will have all the opposition puzzled until they play us at Salford in April. My personal favourite is the “The Barcodes” but I can see how that might be misinterpreted when shouted from the sidelines on a freezing February morning.

Have fun.