Well, here I am writing my blog for the 100th time, a passage lasting nine months, so that's just over two blog entries a week, which seems a reasonable rate at which to write them.
This one needs a special topic then really, so why not another notable anniversary, which will fit very comfortably with what we did yesterday.
Peter Thomas, or Pedro, or Tommy, as he is often referred was yesterday the main attraction at the Twickenham RFC Vice-Presidents luncheon. He was guest of honour because in September 1957 as a 16 year old, he first joined the club. He has been a member ever since.
Pedro did not have a rugby background when he joined, he did not go to any of the local private or grammar schools who played rugby. He was just keen to embrace the ethos, and how lucky Twickenham were that he chose them. He was no star player, but the sort who featured in Michael Greens Art of Course Rugby. He would play anywhere home or away, and for any team. His 1st XV appearances were limited, and he, like me, never featured in a 1st XV picture.
In our day you had to play ten games in a season to qualify for the 1st XV photo, these days it seems that you just need your kit with you when the photographer turns up!!!
Pedro became club steward when his playing days were drawing to a close, and he became chief laundryman and pitch administrator at the same time. He had the ability to remember past players names and always gave a warm welcome to the opposition players and administrators.
Love found Pedro late in life, and his marriage to Chris signalled an end of an era when he stood down as steward. He remains a stalwart of the club and supports the teams regularly on a Saturday. When the tragedy that hit Cirencester Rugby Club during the recent flood occurred, it was inevitable that we thought of the two lost souls. They were undoubtedly the Pedro of their club.
The lunch was extremely lively and a good few glasses of ale were imbibed. Pedro got a unique present to commemorate the event, and we all hope for many years of his company going forward.
It is interesting that Pedro helped to build the current clubhouse, which will be demolished in the Summer. There can't be too many people who have outlasted their own teams facilities in that way.If there were hospitality boxes in the new structure, then I am sure the Thomas suite would sit comfortably with other Twickenham RFC legends, like Lionel Wright, the Wallbanks and Peter Harvey.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Monday, 21 January 2008
Dessert anyone?
Two things inspired the subject of this particular entry, namely a chance to watch The Great Escape again, and the re-introduction of Kevin Keagan, to Newcastle United. Well what really caught my eye was 'King Kev returns to the Magpies' and I suddenly got all enthusiastic for nicknames.
Football nicknames, particularly for players, seem to be fairly mundane on the whole, King Kev is not very imaginative is it, and Quitter Man returns probably doesn't give the right image. Most players have 'ie' added to their name and become Kingie, Smithie and so on. In days gone by the nicknames seemed more imaginative, Ron Atkinson was called Mr Bojangles. He would probably of been called Bling these days though, and the great Alan Ball could easily have been Ballie, but was referred to as Bouncy!. The German captain Franz Beckebauer was fittingly referred to as the Kaiser.
Football club nicknames are more imaginative and traditional, hence the Magpies nickname reflecting the fact Newcastle play in black and white. Interestingly though, a magpie is a very deep purple, they just look black!
The Great Escape indicated how POWs all tended to have nicknames, the film featured The Tunneller, The Scrounger, and for Steve McQueen, the Cooler King, give the number of hours he stayed in there. Institutional nicknames come to the fore in many popular TV programmes. In Porridge, the nicknames were usually the persons surname, Fletch, Godper and so on, although the King of the Jungle, Christopher Biggins, was referred to as Lukewarm.
Londons Burning introduced us to the nickname culture which prevails in the fire service. Bayleaf, Sicknote, Zorba and Vaseline being some of the more regular characters.
Other walks of life have their own legendary nicknames. In politics, for example, David Lloyd George as the Welsh Wizard, and Margaret Thatcher as the Iron Lady tend to stick. Two famous golfers have turned their nicknames into world wide sporting brands as Greg Norman launched The Great White Shark, and Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear range of products.
I never had a clever nickname at school, where children can be particularly cruel with some of their choices. Apart from the obvious ones like carrot, for the red heads, our year seemed to specialise in Lord of the Rings nicknames, so we had a Bilbo, Barkis and Frodo in the late '60s well before the films gave them cult status.
One of the magical nicknames I have come across though is for my friend Martin Wooden. Martin was 1st XV captain at Twickenham and a seriously good prop, and he had the nickname 'Pud'. Now I always thought this related to his waist measurement, but no, you need to read The Good Ship Venus for the answer.
The trainee cook was Wooden
by Christ he was a good 'en
he t***d off twice in a bag of rice
and called it sago puddin'
Football nicknames, particularly for players, seem to be fairly mundane on the whole, King Kev is not very imaginative is it, and Quitter Man returns probably doesn't give the right image. Most players have 'ie' added to their name and become Kingie, Smithie and so on. In days gone by the nicknames seemed more imaginative, Ron Atkinson was called Mr Bojangles. He would probably of been called Bling these days though, and the great Alan Ball could easily have been Ballie, but was referred to as Bouncy!. The German captain Franz Beckebauer was fittingly referred to as the Kaiser.
Football club nicknames are more imaginative and traditional, hence the Magpies nickname reflecting the fact Newcastle play in black and white. Interestingly though, a magpie is a very deep purple, they just look black!
The Great Escape indicated how POWs all tended to have nicknames, the film featured The Tunneller, The Scrounger, and for Steve McQueen, the Cooler King, give the number of hours he stayed in there. Institutional nicknames come to the fore in many popular TV programmes. In Porridge, the nicknames were usually the persons surname, Fletch, Godper and so on, although the King of the Jungle, Christopher Biggins, was referred to as Lukewarm.
Londons Burning introduced us to the nickname culture which prevails in the fire service. Bayleaf, Sicknote, Zorba and Vaseline being some of the more regular characters.
Other walks of life have their own legendary nicknames. In politics, for example, David Lloyd George as the Welsh Wizard, and Margaret Thatcher as the Iron Lady tend to stick. Two famous golfers have turned their nicknames into world wide sporting brands as Greg Norman launched The Great White Shark, and Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear range of products.
I never had a clever nickname at school, where children can be particularly cruel with some of their choices. Apart from the obvious ones like carrot, for the red heads, our year seemed to specialise in Lord of the Rings nicknames, so we had a Bilbo, Barkis and Frodo in the late '60s well before the films gave them cult status.
One of the magical nicknames I have come across though is for my friend Martin Wooden. Martin was 1st XV captain at Twickenham and a seriously good prop, and he had the nickname 'Pud'. Now I always thought this related to his waist measurement, but no, you need to read The Good Ship Venus for the answer.
The trainee cook was Wooden
by Christ he was a good 'en
he t***d off twice in a bag of rice
and called it sago puddin'
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Willpower, its now or never......
The third week in January is usually the time when all my New Years resolutions fall into disrepair. I am feeling quite righteous at the moment then that not only have I kept going with mine this year, but one I made three years ago is still active.
The long standing one is my recycling initiative which was instigated on the behest of my son. Fair shout, its his world I am minding for him, so I should do my bit. The problem I have with this one though is that my local plastic recycling facility has been taken away from me. It used to be in Sainsbury's car park, but they have removed it as there is no market to recycle bags, film and other non-bottle plastic products. As its not easy for me to get to another 'dump' I am afraid the plastic now goes land fill. It needs a new initiative from Hounslow Council to give the Chiswick plastic recycling initiative a kick start.
My other NYRs are old ones revisited really. I have targeted the Chiswick 10K in November again, so have started training for that, I also fancy the Santa Dash in Liverpool, which is a 5k 'sprint', and I quite like the look of the suit. I look good in red!!
Tied into these two is my ambition to drink 2 litres of water a day, trouble is the system has not adjusted yet, so I can't take long journeys on the tube!!!
It will be interesting to see whether I can integrate these lifestyle changes long term like I have with the recycling. Time will tell.
The long standing one is my recycling initiative which was instigated on the behest of my son. Fair shout, its his world I am minding for him, so I should do my bit. The problem I have with this one though is that my local plastic recycling facility has been taken away from me. It used to be in Sainsbury's car park, but they have removed it as there is no market to recycle bags, film and other non-bottle plastic products. As its not easy for me to get to another 'dump' I am afraid the plastic now goes land fill. It needs a new initiative from Hounslow Council to give the Chiswick plastic recycling initiative a kick start.
My other NYRs are old ones revisited really. I have targeted the Chiswick 10K in November again, so have started training for that, I also fancy the Santa Dash in Liverpool, which is a 5k 'sprint', and I quite like the look of the suit. I look good in red!!
Tied into these two is my ambition to drink 2 litres of water a day, trouble is the system has not adjusted yet, so I can't take long journeys on the tube!!!
It will be interesting to see whether I can integrate these lifestyle changes long term like I have with the recycling. Time will tell.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
The Long and Winding Road.....
Last weekend saw the start of the year in which Liverpool will be the Capital of Culture. The beginning was marked by two events in the centre of the city.
The first, on Friday night was billed as the peoples opening and took place outdoors in front of St Georges Hall. The event was pretty average to be honest, and a bit disjointed, the highlight being the appearance of over 100 guitarists on top of the Hall, the nearby shopping centre and Lime Street station. It tried to emulate Brian may when he played God Save the Queen from the top of Buck Pal, for the Queens Jubilee.
The event was beamed live around the world, except to the UK of course, as Liverpool shot itself in the foot by failing to agree sufficient performing rights deals to allow that to happen. So all the UK saw were highlights on the news, and a review programme on Sunday evening. The sign of things to come perhaps?
Phil Redmond, of Grange Hill and Brookside fame had been running the organising committee, and he described the whole venture as similar to putting on a Scouse wedding, lots of fighting in the buildup but a great party on the night. Trouble is, this has become the byline for the whole event, and its a bit tiresome to hear every commentator or pundit using the expression. The wedding is over, get on with married life!!!.
The second event on Saturday was in the brand new Echo Arena in the Albert dock area of the City. We managed to blag tickets for the event.....good old e-bay......and the arena certainly matched the occasion. It holds about 10,000 people and it was packed.
The Liverpool Philharmonic provided the backdrop to the event, being presented vertically on a wall of scaffolding behind the set. Amongst the acts were Echo and the Bunnymen ( good choice for the arena!!), The Wombats, The Christians and the Lightening Seeds. They were good, but the orchestra stole the show, and I had the chance to sing Jerusalem, although nobody else seemed to join in.
There was also no rendition of 'Ferry Across the Mersey', or 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and where were the Zootons?
Headlining both nights was Ringo Starr, who cemented his reputation for being the Posh Spice of the Beatles. When he sang 'A Little Help from my Friends', you just hoped Joe Cocker would suddenly appear to help him out.
Still, all in all a good night out, finished off with a pint of bitter in the Baltic Fleet, and a scoff in Chinatown. The Arena does not sell bitter, the only down side I could find in the venue.
The first, on Friday night was billed as the peoples opening and took place outdoors in front of St Georges Hall. The event was pretty average to be honest, and a bit disjointed, the highlight being the appearance of over 100 guitarists on top of the Hall, the nearby shopping centre and Lime Street station. It tried to emulate Brian may when he played God Save the Queen from the top of Buck Pal, for the Queens Jubilee.
The event was beamed live around the world, except to the UK of course, as Liverpool shot itself in the foot by failing to agree sufficient performing rights deals to allow that to happen. So all the UK saw were highlights on the news, and a review programme on Sunday evening. The sign of things to come perhaps?
Phil Redmond, of Grange Hill and Brookside fame had been running the organising committee, and he described the whole venture as similar to putting on a Scouse wedding, lots of fighting in the buildup but a great party on the night. Trouble is, this has become the byline for the whole event, and its a bit tiresome to hear every commentator or pundit using the expression. The wedding is over, get on with married life!!!.
The second event on Saturday was in the brand new Echo Arena in the Albert dock area of the City. We managed to blag tickets for the event.....good old e-bay......and the arena certainly matched the occasion. It holds about 10,000 people and it was packed.
The Liverpool Philharmonic provided the backdrop to the event, being presented vertically on a wall of scaffolding behind the set. Amongst the acts were Echo and the Bunnymen ( good choice for the arena!!), The Wombats, The Christians and the Lightening Seeds. They were good, but the orchestra stole the show, and I had the chance to sing Jerusalem, although nobody else seemed to join in.
There was also no rendition of 'Ferry Across the Mersey', or 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and where were the Zootons?
Headlining both nights was Ringo Starr, who cemented his reputation for being the Posh Spice of the Beatles. When he sang 'A Little Help from my Friends', you just hoped Joe Cocker would suddenly appear to help him out.
Still, all in all a good night out, finished off with a pint of bitter in the Baltic Fleet, and a scoff in Chinatown. The Arena does not sell bitter, the only down side I could find in the venue.
Sunday, 6 January 2008
All change please
That could be the theme for 2008, when we all hope for a better year than that we have just had. In my case though it refers to my extended festive break up in Scouse.
But first things first, the blog has had a rest for a few weeks, so I would now like to wish all my regular and itinerant visitors a very happy new year, and I wish you all you wish yourselves for 2008, be it a new job, new home, different lifestyle, or just more of the same....go for it.
Clearly i was hoping for 2007 to present me with a new home, but for now I will just have to put myself in the hands of the local estate agents again and hope for a change of fortune sometime soon. A new job would also be handy, with something at the Olympic Games being favourite at the moment.
Now as tenuous links go, we have one here. My extended break up North was facilitated by some rather basic cock-ups by Network Rail, as they tried to cram too may engineering upgrades into the holiday period. As I was carless over the holiday, I was therefore faced with either a nine hour trip back to London, via Sheffield or waiting for the West Coast line to reopen.
So sitting on my Virgin train on Friday I was very disappointed that the world renowned Scouse humour seemed to desert the train driver and he missed the opportunity to apologise to the passengers for the train being two days late departing...Oh well, I made it back OK and am now ready to resume normal life.
Oh yes, the tenuous link. well, two high-profile figures are in the frame over the shambles that has blighted the railway system.
One is John Armitt, 61, who was the chief executive of Network Rail until he retired last July. He set the strategy to implement the improvement programme that has inflicted so much misery on the travelling public.
He had been credited for the recovery of the rail industry after the Railtrack debacle.
Now the inability of Network Rail to deliver a project on time will raise alarm in Whitehall, given that his new task is to make sure that London is ready for the 2012 Olympics.
I understand in some quarters the project is now being referred to as London 2014!!!!!
But first things first, the blog has had a rest for a few weeks, so I would now like to wish all my regular and itinerant visitors a very happy new year, and I wish you all you wish yourselves for 2008, be it a new job, new home, different lifestyle, or just more of the same....go for it.
Clearly i was hoping for 2007 to present me with a new home, but for now I will just have to put myself in the hands of the local estate agents again and hope for a change of fortune sometime soon. A new job would also be handy, with something at the Olympic Games being favourite at the moment.
Now as tenuous links go, we have one here. My extended break up North was facilitated by some rather basic cock-ups by Network Rail, as they tried to cram too may engineering upgrades into the holiday period. As I was carless over the holiday, I was therefore faced with either a nine hour trip back to London, via Sheffield or waiting for the West Coast line to reopen.
So sitting on my Virgin train on Friday I was very disappointed that the world renowned Scouse humour seemed to desert the train driver and he missed the opportunity to apologise to the passengers for the train being two days late departing...Oh well, I made it back OK and am now ready to resume normal life.
Oh yes, the tenuous link. well, two high-profile figures are in the frame over the shambles that has blighted the railway system.
One is John Armitt, 61, who was the chief executive of Network Rail until he retired last July. He set the strategy to implement the improvement programme that has inflicted so much misery on the travelling public.
He had been credited for the recovery of the rail industry after the Railtrack debacle.
Now the inability of Network Rail to deliver a project on time will raise alarm in Whitehall, given that his new task is to make sure that London is ready for the 2012 Olympics.
I understand in some quarters the project is now being referred to as London 2014!!!!!
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