Summat in the Watter

In the alternative Gold Medal table for the London 2012 Olympic Games (if there were such a thing), the county of Yorkshire will have flown high through the elite performances of its sporting heroes on their bikes, in their boxing gloves and running shoes and indeed in all fields, tracks, pools and arenas.

This rich heritage of achievement by God's Own County will have contributed to the decision of the organisers of the 2014 Tour de France to up-baguettes and bring the entire entourage of that great cycle event to Yorkshire with the opening two stages.

The eyes of a worldwide viewing audience of 3 billion people will be on the sights and sounds of the great regional cities and towns and the beautifully expansive hills, moors, plains and dales will test the 200 riders to their limits.

Yorkshire is on a roll (buttie) and the ripples of anticipation and that hard to quantify feel good factor are spreading out like the proverbial earthquake zone from a fracking site.

The people of the largest County in England are on the up, goodness me, they might even get close to the rate of ascendancy of, yes, the Welsh who seem to have permeated every sphere of activity.

Others will benefit from this infusion of success and this is no more prominent than through the football leagues.

It has been an exceptional 2013-2014 season for club sides. In a mere 50km radius centred somewhere in the River Humber a full five of our football teams covering the Premier League to the Skrill North have in general terms, over-achieved.

This is not altogether unusual on an individual performance basis but for all five to be as though synchronised in effort and attainment is truly remarkable.

I have spent many idle moments trying to explain this current and strange alignment of fortunes.

The Olympic and Tour de France influences are contributors certainly. It may just be our time in the cyclical nature of things. The stars and planets in the firmament may be uniquely aligned. Personally, I have come to the conclusion that it is, as they say in a broad regional dialect "summat in the watter".

My concentric circle of magnificence straddles the great Humber and three of the five football clubs are on the waterfront. The other two, technically are on tributaries that feed into the great Estuary before it eventually drains one fifth of the UK into the North Sea.

I may be a bit premature in my celebrations of excellence in that the football season is still going culminating in the FA Cup Final on May 17th and in the run up to the traditional closing event our regional teams still have a bit to do.

Scunthorpe United, who have yo-yo'd up and down the lower leagues in the last decade have already secured automatic promotion to League One (the old third division) and may in fact end up as the highest achievers out of all of the crop.

Three teams are in their respective league play-offs with great rewards on offer.

North Ferriby United in the Skrill North have had a fantastic season, their first at that level after promotion from the Evo-Stik league just last year. After a traditionally dire start they have been vying for top spot for much of the last 8 months with AFC Telford and the positions were decided in the very last match with Ferriby dropping two points. It was a close run thing. The part timers from the village play tonight in the first away leg of the play offs.

One league up is Grimsby Town in the Conference. They lost their footing in the main Football League a couple of seasons ago. Just look up and down the teams in that table and there are some very familiar former big names including those once in the old First Division. Grimsby Town were in the top flight for some ten seasons back in the 1980's or thereabouts and I do admit to sneaking across the Humber Bridge more than once to see top flight matches at Blundell Park which amounts to treasonable behaviour for someone residing on the North Bank.

York City, somehow exuding refinement and  poshness but not, are also in the position of play off contenders in League Two. This is a remarkable performance given that they are relatively new returnees to the main leagues after wallowing about in non-league football.

Again, the outcomes of the play-offs are yet to be decided but I have high hopes for the progress of North Ferriby, Grimsby Town and York City to the next stage.

The fifth regional team is Hull City.

As I write they need one more point from their last three games to survive for another season in the Premier League amongst the big boys. Aston Villa are odds on to roll over and donate the points this weekend as failing that they may be more difficult to coax out of Manchester United and Everton.

Two of the three relegation places are already allocated by my mathematical reckonings with City and five other teams considered to be at risk of taking that £30 million financial black hole.

Out of the regional sub-league (if indeed there were such a thing) Hull City are currently in fact the under-achievers although their participation in the FA Cup Final does represent a wild-card element. If Arsenal maintain their fourth position in the Premier League then Hull City, by default as cup finalists and regardless of the outcome take a European place bringing the prospect of overseas visitors to the KC Stadium for the first time since the Anglo-Italian Cup of the 1970's.

Exciting times and again, I put it all down to the waters which flow through the region like a mucky, muddy infusion of success.