The Curse of Hanley Bear?

Poor Hanley Bear is in a quandary at the moment.  This is why.

As you will know, if you've read about my best bear buddy in my blog before, Hanley is very proud indeed of his home city of Stoke-on-Trent and supports Stoke City Football Club avidly.  I arrived here and met Hanley while Stoke-on-Trent was bidding to be UK City of Culture 2021, so Hanley combined showing me around my new home with campaigning for the bid.  

We became the #BearsBackingTheBid and got Polar to use her Twitter account to post pictures of us enjoying the highlights of the Potteries.  Lots of people in the city worked very hard on the bid and Hanley Bear was sure Stoke would win, so when it went to Coventry instead, he felt quite crushed, especially as Coventry Football Club had knocked Stoke City out of the FA Cup.

Even now, if anyone mentions Coventry he goes, "Boo!" very loudly, which isn't very sporting.

There was more disappointment to come.  Hanley Bear persuaded Grizzly to squeeze him into his pocket so he could go to see Stoke City in action at a couple of home games he was sure they were going to win - but Stoke lost, and then they kept on losing or drawing until they were relegated from the Premiership.  

Hanley hoped some other West Midlands teams - Aston Villa and Shrewsbury - might win promotion  in the Championship and League One play-offs but the only Midlands team which managed to get promoted was Coventry.

"Boo!" cried Hanley.

Now, Stoke-on-Trent has been short-listed to be a 'creative hub' for Channel 4.  It would be a great boost for the city to get such good new entertainment and broadcasting jobs and it would reflect well on the whole area.  Naturally, Hanley Bear wants to support the #C4Stoke campaign, but he's become convinced that he is an unlucky bear. 

So, although he would like us to be #BearsBackingTheBid again, he worries that he might jinx things if he takes part.  I'm sure he isn't a bad luck bear and I think he, little Endon and I ought to do all we can to encourage Channel 4 to site their hub here, but if they don't, Hanley will think it's all his fault again. 

Poor Hanley - what's a bear to do?