One-Nil Flattered West Brom
That is how the BBC summed up Ipswich’s remarkable victory at Portman Road tonight.
Did I wish I had gone? Not really, as I wouldn’t have been able to get home!
Beckham Plays it Straight!
My late wife always reckoned that Seb Coe’s speech in Singapore to win the 2012 Olympics for London was one of the best speeches she’d ever heard and she’d heard a lot as a barrister for some really hopeless causes.
Today, David Beckham has given a wonderfully crafted press conference in Zurich, as England try to win the World Cup for 2018. If we don’t win, we won’t be able to blame him! But then he’s got too much London and Essex in his DNA not to give it his best shot.
They even asked him whether he had an invite to the Royal Wedding! That’s the main reason of course why we won’t win. Prince William and Kate Middleton won’t be inviting Sep Blatter!
Have the BBC Shot Themselves in the Foot?
Panorama tonight reports that members of FIFA have taken bribes in the past. I would not know if they have, but then the records of the worlds’ top sporting bodies on corruption is generally not as snow white as it should be.
But I would not like to be the man from the BBC negotiating the next set of TV rights for the World Cup. I suspect that the matches won’t be shown on the BBC.
England Break Records in Brisbane
The First Test was a draw, but England did manage to break a few records, as this report on the BBC says in this report.
But Englishmen breaking records at The Gabba is not new and I’m surprised that no-one has brought up the feat there of England’s most unlikely Test cricketing hero, Colin Milburn. Playing for Western Australia, he scored 243 runs in a day before given out the first over after tea. He had actually scored 181 between lunch and tea. A friend of mine was actually there and the crowd laughed as a roly-poly figure came out to bad. But Milburn was unstoppable and he had the last laugh.
Colin Milburn would be in any list of great and unusual sportsmen. Others I would include might be Andy Ripley, Tommy Harmer and Murray Halberg.
A Strange Station
The train to Norwich stopped at Lakenheath station, which is one of the least-used stations in the UK and is unusual in that it has no weekday services and only one each way on Saturday and three on Sundays. However, there has been a large increase in passengers in recent years, due to the stations proximity to the RSPB at Lakenheath Fen.
There is a big lesson here, in that if you have a special interest site, that can generate significant traffic, then it is perhaps worth researching whether a station could be provided. In my travels around the UK, one example that suggests itself would be to have a station close to the retail park, which is near to where Scunthorpe United play. There are also serious plans for a station at the Ricoh Arena, where Coventry City play.
Crying in Their Beer
As an Ipswich suppoter, I hate to say it, but Norwich City have given me one of my best football moments.
It was the 18th February 1967 and C and myself went for a drink in a Greenall Whitley pub, called something like the Royal Oak on the East Lancashire Road (A580) by St. Helens. C wasn’t into football much, although she used to go to Barnet as a child with her father. But she was so amused at a table full of disgruntled Manchester United fans, crying in their beer, after Norwich had beaten them 2-1 in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
She actually remembered this incident a few months before she died. I’ll never forget it!
A Second Visit to Carrow Road
I’d only been to Carrow Road once before and that was with my late youngest son to see Norwich City play the team he supported as a twelve-year-old, Liverpool.
The ground then was fairly ramshackle and you can see now that it has been completely modernised.
Carrow Road, Norwich
What the flags were about, I don’t know!
I will say little about the football, except that Ipswich self-destructed and I don’t believe they’ll do any better until someone takes charge of the defence. Damien Delaney may have scored but he needs someone to help him out. We need Gareth McCauley back in the team as soon as possible to put some sense and backbone there.
Off to Norwich This Morning
I’ve just ordered the taxi to take me to the station to get my train to Cambridge. The weather doesn’t seem too bad, but it’s a bit cold. To say the least. The train was also on time at Ipswich and is just approaching Needham Market.
Here’s hoping it all goes well!
The Ugly Face of Scottish Football
Scottish football seems to going to be hit by a referees strike this weekend according to many reports like this. There has been this comment from John Hughes, a former manager of Hibernian and Falkirk.
The game is in a little bit of chaos. It needs bringing together and I sympathise with the referees because they do get a hard time.
But managers are also open to criticism, that is part and parcel of the job.Referees need to be accountable and there has to be more transparency in what goes on behind the doors at Hampden.
But one thing I will say, if referees are getting phone calls to their home or work place, or their kids are getting a hard time at school, then that is not on, that is way below the belt.
After all, it is just a sport.
I heard a bit last night on Radio 5, where it would appear completely outrangeous claims have been made to employers as well, with even claims of religious bigotry.
Obviously, these critics don’t agree with the last part of John Hughes comment.
The End of the Season Ends in One!
This football season ends in 01 and what does that mean?
Look at 1901, 1921, 1951, 1961, 1981 and 1991!
These were the years that ended in one, where Tottenham Hotspur won something.
So are they going to win something this season?
The way some of the other fancied teams are playing, I wouldn’t say that Spurs won’t win something this year!
The Anonymous Widower 