F.List

I make a lot of lists. I always have done. I find them helpful.

These can range from the standard shopping list through to domestic chores, my daily workload, planning for a holiday or trip or just putting some order into a life that, like most people, teeters and totters on the edge of chaos.

On my person at any one time can be found what started off as a pristine, white sheet of A4 paper. This showed an initial discipline with hand written but neat columns and a determined and rigid order for a chain of events or actions. Under periodic review a few scribbles and arrows emerge as something crops up to make a change necessary. It may be more efficient to do what was originally intended as the last act, first. The middle order may need some re-jigging. Phrases such as cart and horse, chicken and egg come to mind when those earlier, best made plans, start to unravel. A sign of success on a list, but often rarely seen is a large, resounding tick against an entry. There are some other designations. A large oval drawn around one of the items on the list usually, in my shorthand notation, means that I have started to do a bit of work but have given up. An asterisk means that I am in need of a crucial bit of further information and can proceed no further until it is obtained. The letters IFT at the end of a line indicate that I have put the work in for typing but that does not necessarily mean that I can be rewarded with a tick. My left hand column is always numbered. Ten or more bracketed numbers is a disappointment on any day because the majority will have to be carried over to the next and subsequent days.

The Friday afternoon list for work to be taken home and done over the weekend, if exceeding 15 entries is quite demoralising. That perfect sheet of paper therefore becomes dog-eared, torn and marked with the outline of the base of many a coffee cup. It cannot however be thrown away even if superceded because of small scribbled margin notes, the odd telephone contact number, a multi-digit reference, a reminder to call someone or an inspiring bit of doodling in black, blue or red ink from a chewed cap Biro. The need to produce  a new, revised list inevitably becomes another entry on the list and so it goes on ad infinitum.

Some lists are tedious and at best to be avoided. Emerging out of the winter months I am presented with a long list of jobs to be done around the house and garden. Fortunately, the summer house cum tool shed is not in direct view of the house and a few hammer strikes and sawing noises on a sunny day can give a very authentic soundtrack for a supposedly working man otherwise reclining in the sole surviving and structurally stable deck chair. The beginning of the year is also a time to reflect and take stock of finances, to plan for known diary events such as birthdays and anniversaries and to try to wick away a contingency sum for unforeseen expenses. After an intial reluctance to start such a list it is quite therapeutic to actually do it although intimidating when the columns are added up to an aggregated figure in the lower right hand corner.

Some lists are an absolute joy. At this time in early April my favourite regular list comprises the final few football games of Hull City. In 2008 it was a nerve wracking task as the team were hovering around positions 3 to 6 inclusive of the Championship and up against determined competition for those play-off places for an opportunity to go for the big money and status Premier League. They made it on a glorious May Saturday at Wembley which was a tremendous experience for about a quarter of the population of Hull who attended. The final matches of the 2009 season were equally nervy and fraught with tension but for reasons of the time trying to survive the drop back to where they came from. They just survived. Relegation to the Championship in 2010 was disappointing but somewhat inevitable but the team held on to avoid what has, for some clubs, been a very slippery slope, a freefall and meltdown into further lower divisions. The 2011 season was one of consolidation and a rather tame and weak series of performances from April in that year saw a bit of slippage towards mid table mediocrity.

I am just putting together my list covering the remaining fixtures for this season. As in 2008 there is a chance, a good chance to get into the Play-Offs again but with Hull City currently in second position is it too much to hope for a sustained effort to gain automatic promotion as runners-up?

The Championship, or what used to be the old Second Division before the Premier formation is, in my opinion, the most closely fought in the world. Any of the top half of the table could be promoted feasibly and any of the lower section have justification to be nervous about dropping down to League One. It is an exciting time.

The 'Run-in List' stretches over another beautiful sheet of A4. In addition to Hull City's fixtures I have included the main contenders and all have entries covering their last six games. It is a work of art but soon to become another scrawled mess of amendments, corrections and updates.

The critical analysis is in my own predictions for the results and extrapolation of accumulated points. Current form cannot be relied upon. It is a topsy turvy league and former front runners and dead certs in the first half of the season have faltered and faded whilst there is always one team who put on a late spurt of exceptional performance. I can imagine a few anxious players who, after plying their trade in the lower divisions may feel that the models in the Bentley Brochure are as tantalisingly close as they may ever be at this point in their careers. The teams are so closely bunched that even a minor hiccup of, say, a couple of draws and defeats can result in a loss of confidence and strategic position. Expectations amongst the fans cans also add significant pressures and tensions.

I am party to all of these emotions in the final weeks of a campaign. All other lists in current circulation are in abeyance for the duration. I have drawn up a secret list of what needs to be done and when as soon as the football season finishes for another year. That forms part of another list, etc, etc,etc..... as for my prediction for Hull City.....well, put your name on a list and I will get back to you.