One of my friends sent me a post the other day where it appeared he had got lost in my last blog post, not quite sure of its intended direction.

It was quite painful to read because it made me realise that I had been rumbled and in an attempt to be clever, I had got myself into a bit of a pickle.

Anyone whoever writes, at no matter what level, knows that the ultimate humiliation is to get caught plagiarising another writer as it will lead to mocking and in professional terms, the end of a career.

I don’t plagiarise and if I get near to it, I always mention that it came from another source to cover my back, especially after I read a book called ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’ by Jon Ronson, a must read for any amateur writer or regular social media commentator.

Publicy Shamed by Jon Ronson: A must for Blog and Social Media Users

Remarkably, I have been plagiarised, by a person called James, from somewhere near Nottingham. James (name not changed) stumbled across my blog via an online football website called The Daisycutter and became a fan of mine, which at first, I thought, was quite a compliment.

However, when James sent me a long Christmas greeting and admitted that he liked to copy and paste my material and send it to his family who had moved to Australia as if it had been written by himself, I became a little disturbed.

 “My life is not that great James, so why not create your own blog posts about your life?” I said, helpfully.

James went mad, told me to fuck off and informed me that I had lost a reader. This reaction, I thought, went some way to explaining why his relatives had emigrated to Australia.

So anyway, what I did the other day, is create one blog from two that were half complete. Time was running short, so with a weekend of cricket ahead, I thought I would blend one tale into another a bit like a musician attempting a concept album.

I thought had done quite well, so I hurriedly published it and went on my way. Then one of my friends, by coincidence, also called James, commented on it by simply saying, “I don’t understand.”

The bastard, how dare he?  This man whom I provide hours of entertainment with my, quite frankly, funny, entertaining and thought provoking blogs, was daring to be a critic of something I do free of charge!

Then I read it back.

I have to say it was a bit of a rambling mess and what is so disappointing is that amongst the carnage, there is, in my opinion, some amusing stuff.

However, I have to confess that trying to get Dave Scutter and Jeremy Corbyn merged into the same post as former Reading and Southampton manager, Nigel Adkins, was a bridge too far, and probably beyond the best of writers, let alone an amateur.

However, it was worth the experiment and despite the pain James put me through, I appreciate his criticism as he is a regular reader and does not, as far as I am aware, copy and paste my material and send it to relatives who have jetted off to Australia to rid themselves of the family maniac.

I’m now off to play cricket, an entirely different form of public shaming.