Am I a curse? I couldn’t get to the Tenerife home game tonight and they won 2-1 against Salamanca.

Thanks to the excellent CDT club website I was able to get the details soon after the game and will pass them on here in the hope that im not the only one who thinks the sun shines out of their dressing room.

A bad start with the visitors taking the lead after just 12 minutes from a Jurado header. An agonising first half as Juan Pablo denied Acuna after 40 minutes to keep Tenerife in touch. Then just before half time, the mini marksman, Nino, added to his growing tally with the equaliser to restore hope.

Juan Pablo again came to the rescue after 64 minutes with another strong save but still no break through at the other end. Aruabarrena came on after 73 minutes to add his height up front and it paid off 3 minutes from time as he fired in the winner. A much needed win and with the crowd holding well at 12,000, heads are high again.

And joy of joys, Las Palmas went down again, this time 2-0 at Celta Vigo.

You may have noticed from Los Cristianos harbour, that I have a new hobby, making models and have just finished 2 very impressive looking full size ships.

The grey metallic looking one is the Academik Sergey Vavilov, an Oceanography vessel, built in Finland in 1988 for Russia. It has charted the waters of the Arctic and Antartic and is taking a short break on it’s way to the next survey.

The four mast tall ship is the Kruzenshtern, built in Germany in 1926 and repatriated to Russia after World War Two. It is the second biggest of it’s kind in the World, 114 metres long with a tallest mast of 51.3 metres and a top speed of 17 knots. Don’t be fooled by the canon hatches down each side, they are just for show. I had some trouble painting the tricky corners on this one and if you look carefully you will see that I ran out of parts and used a Spitfire propeller for one of the cross masts, but a decent effort, if I say so myself, although it cost me a fortune in little tins of Humbrol paint.

The Kruzenshtern is filming and will be around Los Cristianos until October 19.

Where do they get these referees from, another bungling official made it a terrible night for CD Tenerife as they lost 1-0 at home to Hercules, with a dodgy penalty and two stright reds leaving them with 9 players.

However the fury at referee Gomez, should not be allowed to hide the fact that this was another poor display by Tenerife. Hercules looked the better team throughout, well organised and tight in defence while Tenerife had few ideas, couldn’t win the ball and couldn’t pass to a team mate.

Juan Pablo looked more confident in goal this week and dealt comfortably with the few direct efforts Hercules had on goal. Nino again looked isolated up front and it was a frustrating first half.

It all happened in the second half, after 49 minutes Ricardo won the ball in the penalty box and was coming away with it when the ref blew, late, and awarded a penalty and sent Ricardo off. Farinos scored from the spot as a feeling of inevitability settled on the Tenerife players and crowd.

Coach Oltra tried to shake things up and gave Arruabarrena his debut after 60 minutes, and the big forward was able to give Nino some support at last. Iriome came on 10 minutes later and showed some of his form of last season, with his speed on the right.

After 75 minutes, the ref sent Bertran packing for a foul on Tote, he was the last defender and went to join Ricardo in the showers. Arruabarrena had Tenerife’s only decent chance of the game in the final minute but headed over.

Another great crowd, 11,705, but the coach has a lot of work to do, the team need to brush up on some of the basics if they are to make any impact this season.

The only bright spot of the weekend was Las Palmas losing 3-2 at home to Real Sociedad on Saturday-well done to Chris Coleman’s team.Â

Malaga at home, that’s the the opposition for CD Tenerife in the next round of the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup) on Wednesday October 10 at 9pm.

Lots more league action before then, starting with Hercules at home in Santa Cruz, on Sunday September 16 at 6pm, and a chance to show that last weekends 4-1 away defeat at Granada was just a bad day at the office. Home form will be the key to a genuine promotion push and CDT have already shown they have some great play makers this season but consistency and character will also be vital. The Armada Sur will as always be there to cheer the team on, contact them for travel details.

If you bump into coach Oltra, pat him on the back and give him a cigar, his wife has just delivered a second son Miguel, lets make it a double celebration.

Here’s an update to a previous post. Iron Maiden tribute band, Esclavitud (Bondage) will still be playing in La Laguna on Thursday September 20th at 9.30pm, but the venue has been changed to the Plaza del Cristo (also known as Plaza de San Francisco) and it is FREE. The local band also have a new disc out on October 5 called, Involucion (Regression) which you can buy from selected music shops in La Laguna. The band will use the concert to celebrate the 25 years since The Number Of The Beast single was released – go on lads, make me feel old, why don’t you.

If you think that’s a weird gig, try this! On Saturday October 6th at 10 pm Kiss Forever, a Hungarian Kiss tribute band, will play the car park in Calle la Noria, Santa Cruz. Tickets are a mere €18 in advance or €21 on the night at the box office, honestly I haven’t been on the Dorada.

Oh dear, looks like another musical let down for Tenerife. Elton John will not be playing in Santa Cruz in November or any time this year. Who says so? the editor of his official website, here is a reply to my email asking for more information on the concert

Dear Colin
Thank you for this message. I am sorry to disappoint you but Elton John will not
be performing in Tenerife this year.
Best wishes,
Editor,
eltonjohn.com

Ok, it is possible that internal communication isnt that hot in Elton’s massive organisation or they may be upset if Santa Cruz council made the announcements before all the finer points were agreed. It had never been confirmed on any website and was given as November 15 and 17, depending on which Canarian daily paper you read.

This sudden let down might sound alarm bells for future concerts by Dire Straits and Sting, which have been promised by Santa Cruz council. Dire Straits are not performing as a group these days and Sting is on a massive World tour with The Police which runs until the end of November at least.

Does Mount Teide look a little smaller and less imposing to you? Maybe it’s because the Teide National Park is being sold off illegally, bit by bit on EBay.

There have been 2 instances in the last few days of sales on EBay, in the first sand from Los Azulejos was being sold in small bags for 1.1 euros by a German seller, and now another site selling small rocks for 2.74 euros has been spotted.

Denuncias have been made against the sellers and if they are caught they can be fined between 600 and 6,000 euros. This is not the first time these sort of scams have been tried. Four years ago a German site was selling rocks from the iconic mountain and another site was selling skiing holidays on Mount Teide complete with a mock up of a ski chalet among the snow on the peak.

Some people must actually buy off these sites to make the scam worthwhile so check your neighbours garden and see if they are building a small replica of Tenerife in the garden pond.

We thought this season would be different for CD Tenerife, but once again they set us up, just to knock us down. This 4-1 defeat at Granada 74 must rank with some of the worst performances of recent seasons.

Juan Pablo in goal looked wobbly and uncertain, the defence were slow and didn’t mark players and Nino was left to forage up front alone with hardly any service, even Cristo had a mare and gifted Granada their 3rd goal.

After 6 minutes, Ayoze lost the ball to Saizer, who strolled past 3 defenders and curled the ball round Pablo. Tenerife were lucky to be awarded a penalty after 17 minutes after Nino slid down in the box after backing into a defender. Ayoze scored twice after having to retake the penalty.

N’Diaye was sent off after 41 minutes for a second yellow after jumping for a 50/50 ball. The Granada player went down clutching his head as if he had just been given open brain surgery, and the ref bought the con.

Just 5 minutes into the second half and the ball bounced off the pitch in the penalty area and struck Nino’s arm and the ref gave a harsh penalty which Luque converted. Manolo saw a long range piledriver hit the bar with the rebound just eluding Nino, and Longas skied an easy chance in front of goal, but that was as good as it got.

Then with Cristo on as sub, a Granada player eluded 4 Tenerife rear markers before running into Cristo on the byeline. Cristo gave the ball away carelessly to Fagoaga who planted it in the Tenerife net. The sorry affair was finished 5 minutes later as Esteban charged down the right, and unchallanged, hit the 4th home goal.

Cats all over Tenerife will be hiding tonight to avoid a good kicking. Â

A four hour flight to or from Tenerife can really drag, but it could be worse, you could be surrounded by mobile phone users talking rubbish in loud voices. Sadly that could come true soon as new technology has been tested to allow mobiles to be used on flights, without endangering the planes electronics.

Thankfully there is already a groundswell of opposition to allowing mobiles in flight, led by The Daily Telegraph, who have started a petition. Personally, I don’t mind people using them up in the sky – as long as they step outside first.

Snakes on a Plane, I can live with but spare us from these Jerks on a Jumbo, otherwise we might all have to buy the in flight headphones and tune out.

It wasn’t pretty to watch, but CD Tenerife are through to the next round of the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup) after a 1-0 home win over Poli Ejido.

Coach Oltra, shuffled the pack and put out a weaker side than the one that shone so brightly in Sundays 2-0 league win. Out went Santos, Longas, Juanma and Nino and local rising star, Rosquette played in the lone strikers role.

Too many long balls up front were easily snuffed out by the big Ejido defenders and the first half ended goal less. It was a bit better in the second half as Ayoze nipped in after 55 minutes to get the all important goal.

Dare we hope for a cup run? Well they will have to play better than this, but looking on the plus side, it was a win, another clean sheet and a 7,889 crowd is very good for a midweek televised game.