Blog: Sign of the times

I have felt compelled to write this blog since hearing that the Express & Star's Saturday Sporting Star is no longer going to be available in its printed form, writes Jarrod Hill.

When I was told the news a few weeks ago I was shocked, I felt like I was not only losing an old friend, but also losing something that had become part of my very fabric of being a local football fan.

My own shame comes in the form that I recognise that people like me have contributed to the decision not to keep it going..

The amount of information and fans blogs now found on the internet is huge and growing all the time, you can find gossip, rumours, match reports, and anything else your thirst for information may desire. But the Sporting Star somehow felt different.

I realise that my feelings towards the demise of "the pink", are sentimental.

It was a given that if your team had played away and won and you had not been able to attend the game you would buy a pink to get the full match report, even if you had listened to it on the radio.

Some weekends if we had won a big game I would still buy a pink even if I had been to the game, watched the highlights on TV, and listened to the local radio phone in on the way home.

I suppose on the flip side of that statement of unflinching support I should also admit to the days of not being able to bring myself to buy the pink if we had suffered a particularly bad result.

But in the main I am sure there are many of you who on a Saturday would put your lottery on and buy a pink.

Some weeks when Wolves and Albion have lost I have walked into my local shop and the pile of Pinks have remained virtually untouched, yet at other times I have even seen people waiting around newsagents at 6pm for the E&S van to turn up!

I suppose it has become like so many other things in our lives that we take for granted right up to the point it disappears forever, just ask milkmen!!

Do not get me wrong I am as guilty as anyone else; I use my laptop as a constant means of feeding me news and would feel completely lost without it. But the "pink" feels like a Black Country institution all of its own and I have many memories connected to it.

I know all the information will still be available on here via the Express & Star website but the fact is the paper version was easier to take with me in the car, the pub, and dare I say it, the little boy's room.

Things move on and things are always changing, but it doesn't mean we have to be happy about it, and it doesn't mean I can't mourn the loss of something I will miss greatly . . .

Especially on those Saturdays when we win.