Voice of the Valley goes for a lie-down

Matchday announcer Big Dave Lockwood yesterday revealed that his dulcet tones will no longer be greeting us at The Valley in the coming season. Dave is stepping down after 24 years behind the microphone and describes his reasons all too well in this SLP article. Like many fans, he has given up on the current regime and is now set to join the protests. Dave persevered for two and a half years under Duchâtelet’s ownership, even mastering the pronunciation of Ajdarević, Thuram-Ulien, Ţucudean, Teixeira and the like. However, his rallying cry to “Make some noise for the boys” had become increasingly hollow as the squad that Chris Powell built was dismantled player by player.

And so we are left with a strange mix of emotions – sadness that another piece of the real Charlton matchday experience has gone, but pride that BDL has departed with dignity. Mind you, as the announcer himself admits, there never was much dignity in Piecam.

We’d like to add our warmest thanks and very best wishes to Dave on behalf of CAS Trust members. We hope he can now enjoy a good lie-down on a comfy sofa in his own living room, able to forget the nightmare of organising dance-offs in a virtually empty stadium to select lucky winners to sit on that other sofa at the corner of the pitch. We wait to hear, with just a little trepidation, who will replace him on the microphone.

We look forward to the day when Dave’s booming and energising voice once again rings out over the tannoy at the Valley - not least because that will be a very audible signal that we’ve got our Charlton back.