The Sands of Time

 Has my life got so mundane or routine that I struggle to post on here? Do people really want to hear about me winning golf tournaments, supporting Wayne Rooney, landscaping the garden or getting merry at beer festivals, because, to be honest, they seem to be the major acivities dominating my life during the Summer. with no posts throughout July and August and only a couple in May or June, there has been less to bring to the attention of my regular readers.

So what has happened that's different and news worthy about me, or the World in general? Me first.

Well number 1 son is now a qualified fitness instructor, earning a crust in a gym in Geneva. Its a tough school with the need to build up the client base the big challenge. So far so good though. He tied in his qualification by taking Tay to a Taylor Swift concert where he did the one knee thing and got engaged. We are down to Bristol in October to meet Tay's family which should be good.

SWMBO continues to try to recover from a very unique hamstring injury which occurred during a Park Run in March. Rather than the hammy snapping, the tendon to bone attachment tore and the bone splintered. It's tricky to treat so the recovery process will take some while yet.

I have been trucking along during the activities listed earlier, although I had a scare when I got into difficulties trying to climb the Worcestershire Beacon near Malvern. Just me thinking I was still 40 and could do serious climbing with nil preparation. Lesson learnt. 

Number 1 grandaughter has jibbed off  her football chum and hooked up with a guitarist, so she is now a groupie. She has GCSE exams next May so all focus on those.

Number 1 grandson has moved to senior school and seems to be finding time to fit lessons in between rugby, golf, swimming and football.

Talking of rugby ( you see what I did there), the S-Club have finally knocked Twickenham weekends away on the head. There have been several reasons for that. Twickenham ( or the Allianz as it is called now) is full of corporate or non-rugby types, who are up and down to the bar all match. The ticket prices are around £120 pounds and until recently the product on the pitch was not worth that price. The kick-off times are also less conducive to a good post match run ashore somewhere. Factor in one or two nights hotel at £150 and rail tickets prices and it becomes an uncomfortably expensive trip.

So all good teams have a plan B and ours is to embrace the Champions Cup in 2024 and the U20 fixtures in 2025. First up is Bristol v Leinster where hotel, travel and match tickets are less than the cost of a ticket to Twickenham. who can't love Bristol. It has an Ivy restaurant and a Fullers pub although it takes three trains to get there these days.

SO probably more changes ahead as SWMBO and I are setting up a few visits to see houses with a view to considering whether we should be downsizing. No reason to at the moment but better to do it when fit and able than when one is infirm and it becomes a struggle. Watch this space. 

The final whistle

So a fairly sporty week draws to a close.

I was talked into attending the England v Ireland rugby at Twickenham last weekend, as my S Club chums had finally agreed that Twickenham was not an experience targetted at 70 year old rugby follower, and that we should all have one last hurrah! To be fair, we could not have gone out in a more majestic way as England turned up for once and grabbed a famous victory right at the end.

I travelled to London and back in the day which worked well. It is still a bit of a lottery when one has no idea whether Avanti will cancel the trains or not. Our new strategy to follow the England U20 team and some of the Champions Cup rugby next season should see us in charge of our travel arrangements a little bit more.

During this week I travelled to Scotland to play in a 'Hole in One' competition at Turnberry Hotel. While the complex is owned by the Trump organisation, it is interesting that none of the merchandise is endorsed with the Trump name or logo as it was seen as a put off to people buying!!

I have just had to do a zero star rating on  Trip Advisor for the golf however, as they refused to close the course, which was waterlogged, and forced us to go out and play in conditions which were totally unreasonable. Clearly the did not want to give refunds or rain cheques and consequently lose revenue. For us it spoilt the trip and left a bad taste in the mouth. I am unlikely to return while it remains in its current ownership.

The week concluded with some disappointing football results, and another spirited display by England who had another late victory snatched from them by a marginal penalty decision from the same referee who did not exactly cover himself in glory at the rugby World Cup earlier in the year.

Hey ho, at least the England management team have brought themselves some  more time to try and produce a team who can consistently compete at the top level of the game. Every cloud has a silver lining, and the improvement of the Italian team who consigned the Welsh to the wooden spoon is something to behold. 

Sounded like a plan

I have been attending international matches at Twickenham for over 50 years, always with a group of chums called 'The S Club'. This season though I decided to embrace the events in a different way.

For some time now we have said that the match has been the low point of the weekend, and, with kick-off scheduled for 16:45, the night life has become less appealing to a group of 70 somethings at 9pm than it is after normal 3pm kick-off  times.

Couple that with hotel room's now costing in excess of £120 per night, and the match tickets themselves being between £130 and £150 for an 'average' view, and the whole experience needed to be revisited. 

So, my plan was to catch an early train from Liverpool, have a few beers and a meal with 'The S Club' and then travel back to Liverpool watching the game on the train. So first part of the plan was executed as I got a cheap day return ticket and was all ready with technology and food supplies for the train journeys.

Imagine then my nervousness when the day before travel I got a warning note from Avanti North West trains saying my train may be cancelled. OK I thought I can get the earlier train, albeit that was 07:40.

So an early alarm got me up only to see that train had been cancelled. My scheduled train was still running but the train afterwards had also been cancelled. Then just as I was about to leave a notification informed me my scheduled train had been cancelled too. To cancel one train is unfortunate, to cancel three is carelessness, even incompetence.

So what options? Drive to Crewe? Ah, go from Chester, but then found out the Birkenhead to Chester service was delayed so I could not get a connecting train by going that route. So I am now consigned to a day at home watching on the television.

I don't use the train very  much these days so am not sure how often this sort of disruption occurs, but Liverpool Lime Street must be mental today with three train loads of people trying to find alternative ways to get to London, whether or not many of them are going to the rugby.

And what of Avanti and their bed fellow the dinosaur which is the Unite union. Their members are trying to bring the Country to it's knees when they are over paid already and clearly underworked as they have no trains to drive most of the time.

Virgin trains were never as poorly operated as Avanti but given there is little chance of the Avanti franchise being renewed, they don't give a toss about customer service.

Now I see three of the four evening return train services have been cancelled out of Euston so goodness knows whether I would have got back tonight anyway. Come on England  prove us wrong about the match and make our day!!

It's nice in Nice

 Where better to enjoy the rugby world cup than in the host Country, France. So after the first wekend of matches had been completed the founder members of S-Club took off for a few days in Nice on the Cote D'Azur.

There were live games in Nice bit we had chosen to visit prior to those and just soak up the atmosphere, and avoid the huge influx of Welsh supporters who would be in town on the Saturday. Nice is a very pleasant seaside town, with a pebble beach and numerous bars and restaurants. A renowned travel correspondent was once quoted s saying that the majority of tourists only eat in the same restaurant once, never to return, so don't be surprised if the food is second best and the waiting staff are offhand and bored. 

This was certainly our experience with the menu's being salad dominated and the plate d'jour of traditional steak et frites being average or worse. So after a couple of days we managed to seek out a few local's restaurants which were much better. The town was certainly less expensive than I had expected and all in all we had the time we had hoped for.

We even had a chat with Gerald Davies, a wales international and British Lion from the early 70's. He remembered our old school rugby coach, Keith Maddocks, also known as the Neath flyer, and was happy to pass the time of day with us. I did get called 'Jack Rowell' one occasion so some things never change.

With my thoughts very much on avoiding games at Twickenham in the future, the few days proved that an enjoyable time can be had without the need to flog to the stadium to watch a game. Add in the fact that the red and yellow card situation could mean a game being ruined as a contest early and I think a good lunch and the camaraderie which accompany it is the way to go.

Off to Bordeaux next where we will take in the Fiji v Georgia game.

I felt the knife in my hand.....

I am not a great admirer of the Welsh and their attitude to rugby, English rugby in particular, so one would think i would be delighted to hear that the Rugby Football union are trying to ban the singing of Delilah at the National Stadium, but I am not.

Is this Woke going mad? Already this week Black Boy Lane, in Tottenham, was renamed without any consultation with the residents of the street, or the neighbourhood surrounding it. The consensus is that had such a study been conducted there would have been an over riding swell of opinion to keep the name. It is and was part of the history of the area, and that history cannot be changed or eradicated by the removal of something a right wing London councillor thinks might upset somebody.

The history of why the street is so named is more important than erasing the name from public view.

So more on Delilah. I have been known to lead the singing of the song on the bus from Richmond to Twickenham many times, my last public rendition was at my mate Stu's 70th birthday just before Christmas, and I  have a sneaky feeling that I will get to sing it again, maybe with Welsh supporters at Twickenham.

They are a fickle bunch, rugby supporters, and the last thing they like is somebody telling them what they can and can't sing at rugby matches. You pay upwards of £130 per ticket and reserve the right to sing. 

The RFU tentatively tried to stop the crowd singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, a nergo spiritualist song, it was still sung, so they went quiet on their objection. They will probably try to get it banned now on the back of the ridiculous Welsh decision.

I would back my house on Delilah being sung by the crowd in Cardiff on Saturday, probably when the teams run onto the pitch. Sometimes you need to pick your battles more carefully.

Fields of Green

 Today the BBC web-site had interviews with Danny Care (England) and Sam Warburton (Wales) in which they ranked the Six Nations stadia. Their order was:

1.  Cardiff
2. Twickenham
3. Murrayfield
4. Paris
5. Dublin and
   
6. Rome

That is fascinating and from a players point of view they see little of the 'weekend experience' where we have often commented that the game is often the low point of the celebrations. My choice would be this:

1. Dublin
2. Rome
3. Twickenham
4. Paris
5. Murrayfield
6. Cardiff

Almost a reverse order. Interesting.

Bat Out of Hell

Who would have thought an experimental dish from a soup kitchen on the other side of the World could create such problems, not just of the population involved, but for the whole World. What started out as a potential crisis for China has now escalated into a World pandemic the likes of which we have not known for 100 years. Imagine the difference in population numbers and the difference in scientific analysis when Spanish flu swept throuh Europe. This corona virus takes no store by technological advances and at the moment is blasting all away in its path.  We anticipate it will peak in May on the Wirral.

It is hard to imagine that only two weeks ago I was at Twickenham watching England beat Wales in my 49th season of such pilgrimages. The night before we went to see Magic Goes Wrong at the Vaudeville Theatre in The Strand. Even Penn and Teller can't make this virus just disappear, and the theatre stands empty now for who knows how long.

Golf, and the excitement of becoming Wallasey captain, is really no more now than an illusion. The senior Seniors are self isolated, all the prestigious events are cancelled and we wonder what is next for us and what we have done to deserve it. The Masters in Augusta to which I was going,  is postponed, and as I type Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott have announced they are postponing their arena tour. We were going to that too.

What does one do while self isolating, we aren;t 30 years old any more when the options would be singularly more attractive!! At the moment I am decorating the living room in anticipation of an event for the ex-Captains wives which will not now take place! I can at least give some attention to my piano playing and try to se if by the end of it people will be able to recognise some of my tunes.

My wardrobe needs some attention, how many polo shirts does a man need? and the garden is starting to bloom so that can give me the excuse to potter out of doors, should the golf course itself ever have to close. 

Will shopping on-line become the only option, what will all the DPD and Hermes delivery drivers do, and who will deliver all the e-bay and Amazon stuff if they are confined to barracks?

Boris Johnson has been handed the poison chalice, and inspired by his hero, Winston Churchill, he is being stoic and trying to get things done. It is disappointing that opposition members and retired scientists and medics are publicly challenging the approach, when all the Country needs is one face to the Nation. Have your grumbles behind closed doors, not on Newsnight and Question Time.

The Country will survive, particularly as it is the youngsters who seem to have the greatest immunity to the virus. It's the complete opposite of  World War II in which all the future captains of industry were the ones cut down in their prime. At the moment it's those who have lived their lives, but would quite like a bit more please, who are in the firing line.

Good luck everybody, stay safe.

2d back on the bottle

What a strange weekend just gone. It always seems to be not quite right when the rugby international matches are played on a Sunday, but we embrace the home games anyway. Paris is a dead loss as the whole City seems to shut down on Sundays and as the rugby federation are only tenants in the Stade Francais, they get to play at the ridiculous times the landlords dictate. Rome is a bit better so we have been known to go over there for a Sunday game, but the other venues, forget it. That said we don't go to Cardiff these days fullstop!!

So Twickenham weekend was shifted a day, and numbers were down considerably. Just two of us for the Saturday night pre-match drinks and five for the game itself. I was amazed to read how positiive the reports of the England performance were. Ireland were dreadful  and like Scotland before, they exectuted schoolboy errors to gift England a substancial lead. So in my mind England have played three games and discounting the two pieces of magic from Jonny May late in the game against France, England have created nothing through thier own imagination or ingenuilty. I can't help thinking that The All Blacks would have put 50 points on both sides easily.

Tuilangi disappeared after about 30 minutes, Farrell has no imagination or flair and both scrum halves are on borrowed time. I fear the Welsh will find us out.

The apres match was a very good craic and I have returned home in one piece, but recieved an interesting e-mail from one of our S-Club members who has just had 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. He and his wife have decided to instigate a self imposed 3 week isolation period as they have been near to countries which are part of the Corona virus outbreak. This means he will not be with us for the Wales game for fear of being a carrier. It's a very noble gesture and gets them out of baby sitting duty for a while, so we might try that one ourselves.

So we are now long on wales tickets and hotel rooms, somethoing which has never been heard of before.

Just a minute

Dining experiences take all shapes and sizes these days and right now I am experiencing their extremes.

Last weekend was the s-club annual pre-Christmas rugby international at Twickenham.

The opposition were the Argentines, and the events during the match have been well documented. Our after match tradition at the moment seems to be a visit to the Richmond Chinese, a place I have frequented for years.
I seem to remember having my 30th and 40th birthdays there as well as celebrating Chinese New Year several times with my late great mate,Figs.  I still have a mud man and monkey puppet the restaurant gave me when they had the artifact shop next door. The same family still run it.

We were a bit revolutionary this year though on the Friday night. We decided to stay at the Farmer's Club in Whitehall, and on my recommendation we went to the Faulty Towers dining experience in the old Charing Cross station hotel, now called the Alba.

The show featured Basil, Manuel and Cybil and was a parody of the famous restaurant scenes from the Fawlty Towers sitcom. It started with drinks in the bar follows by a three course dinner punctuated with comedy sketches. It was both humorous and entertaining, and I would definitely recommend it.

The tickets were £70 plus drinks and its interesting to note it is at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton in January where prices are £42.50. There are a few seats left for the Sunday lunch, otherwise it too is sold out.

John Cleese is pretty browned off with the show as he and his colleague actors get no royalties.

So onto today, which finds me in a unit in central Liverpool called Ziferblat. Its the name of a new kind of social space where everything is free except the time you spend there. It's 8p per minute and that's it. I have had toast and jam, cake, minced pies, bananas, soup and loads of coffee!. The concept was founded in Moscow in 2011 by a chap called Ivan Meetin. Apparently it means clockface in English and is billed as a tree house for grown ups.

There are two in Liverpool and one in Manchester and its ideal for me as I have just popped the car into BMW for a service, I bet they charge more than 8p per minute gulp!

Ashes to Ashes

English cricket is in a bit of disarray at the moment. Jonathan Trott is suffering from a stress related illness which forced him home from the Ashes tour, Graham Swann found the tour too tough and bailed out, England got thumped, and Kevin Pietersen was informed that his services were no longer required by the national side.

Last things first. The Pietersen business is taking up far too many column inches ( including these). Like a lot of South Africans he is first and foremost interested in himself. Yes he has played some magnificent innings for England, but very few have been played with his back to the wall, when the need to bat for 4 sessions or more was paramount. In the Ashes series just gone, he time and again gave away his wicket easily. Rule number one for all school boys is keep your wicket intact....I would have said keep your end up, but the pc police would have had a go at me.....Geoff Boycott would have batted all day for 6 runs if need be. So Paul Downton and his England selectors have done right by me and waved him goodbye. he can go off to India now and earn himself some money.

It is interesting that Eoin Morgan has decided to forego the riches on offer in the sub-continent to try to win a place in the England side. Interestingly Morgan has played more games in the IPL than any other English player.

What to make of Graham Swann though?  As news filters out that Jimmy Anderson played most of the tour with an injury, Swann's decision to bail out was a really soft choice. The fact he has been offered a contract on Test Match Special by the BBC has also ruffled a few feathers amongst the traditionalist, and rightly so.

The scene is set, therefore, for the new cream of English cricket to rise to the top of the county game and force their way into captain Cook's side for the Sri Lankan tests to come. It should be straightforward as we play them in April and May when it will be bitterly cold and they will be forced to wear five or six sweaters!!

I wish Trott a speedy recovery, but sense his career may now be over. I also noticed Morgan's  Irish colleagues beat West Indies yesterday in a T20 warm-up game in Trinidad.  I do hope that does not inspire the Ireland rugger chaps when they play at Twickenham at the weekend.

We were there

The S Club 5, namely me, Stu, Seamus, Stanley and Scoop, have a brick at Twickenham on the path of legends....it  says quite simply, we were there. Never has it been more poignant than on Saturday when England crushed the All Black it what many regard as the greatest game played at Twickenham.

The national press has handed out all the plaudits to the players, coaches and supporters, and already set the expectation that this England side can now build on this result and go places. I won't add to them here, but will explore the greatest game argument.

The S Club and friends have been going to rugby internationals in part or as a whole since 1972. We have seen many memorable games standing on the old South terrace or sitting in the rickety stands of the original stadium, but as the stadium got redeveloped, and the game turned professional, the glory days at Twickenham have become fewer and fewer. Indeed we have regularly highlighted the fact that the game had become the low point of the weekend. Saturday's game most  certainly was not, and I would suggest it is the greatest game played at Twickenham in the modern era.

As we are now in our 40th season as supporters it is interesting to imagine which other games we would class as memorable, if not great. Certainly the first ever game in 1972 which was against Wales has to be up there. It was the mighty John Dawes side which had populated the 1971 British Lions  which ironically won the series in New Zealand the previous Summer.

Beating Wales is always sweet, and none more so than the Bill Beaumont grand slam year when Paul Ringer was sent off and Dusty Hare kicked a last minute penalty to keep the slam dream alive. Ireland have lit up Twickenham on several occasion's with Mike Gibson and Fergus Slattery providing memorable moments, and Serge Blanco used to deliver with his French side on a regular basis.

I have seen England beat New Zealand three times now, and draw with them 26-26 at Twickenham and they are all up there with the game on Saturday, and the Ella brothers Australia side which did the grand slam on tour provided another highlight. I had already seen them play for Australia schools a few years earlier. As the memory fades, and the record books are referred to more and more my most memorable game at Twickenham will remain that first one. The irony of that is tied into the fact that we watched the first half of the England v New Zealand ladies game after the main event, and they played rugby which was refreshingly open and hugely entertaining, reminding me very much of the seventies and eighties, when there was room on a rugby field to be creative and expressive. In those days route one was a rarely used tactic, indeed, Manu Tuilagi could be the new Charles Kent!!  

Don't break the seal

The Six Nations rugby came to Twickenham at the weekend, and, as usual we were there!

It was a very strange day though. The stadium was full with 83,000 souls being there, and yet the surrounding streets, pubs and restaurants were remarkably quiet. This may have been due to people cutting back on their hospitality expenses, or, more likely, an increase in family groups and couples attending the game.

Italy always seem to be the least popular game for the die hard supporters to attend, and tickets are often placed with Ticketmaster to gain access to the non-rugby club portion of the public.

Now this different demographic generated a problem which Twickenham Stadium was not geared up to cater for, namely, insufficient ladies toilets. Now long queues at ladies toilets are commonplace at many sporting arenas, but Twickenham has been able to cope pretty well in the past. Not this week though.

The increase in lady spectators is one reason for the extra queues, but the other is the increase in the number of ladies who are now drinking pints. Whatever happened to Babycham or Cherry B as the lady ruggers tipple of choice.

Heave....

Goodness me its a bit chilly up here in Scouseland. That said, it was definitely brass monkey weather in London on Saturday. I am seriously in need of a spot welder.

I took it on myself to take the lads to Twickenham en masse, as the opportunity presented itself. So both sons, Tim and Kieran together with my nephew Matthew wrapped up warm and set off.....except Matthew but more of that later.

First stop had to be the Prince Blucher to allow the two boys a beer before kick-off. Then it was the standard hike through the Stoop to the ground and a chance for Kieran and Matthew to see their first England international game.

England got battered up front, and seemed unable to do anything about it. I still do wonder whether a plod at the helm is the right intellectual leadership criteria, and maybe new chief executive, John Steele , may think Johnno and Rob Andrew need some more help. It seems, though, that the latter is in more danger of dismissal.

With the game over it was back to the Blucher for more amber nectar, some friendly chit chat and back to our respective abodes.

So, Matthew was having his first taste of Twickenham and indicated that he had a good time. I did wonder though. The lad is only 12 and was at an all night party on the Friday ( well 22:30 which probably seemed like all night, I know it is for me these days!!), then he went to a paint ball party at 09:00 Saturday morning in Swindon, then to the match, then home.

He turned down the opportunity to wear his coat at the match as it is not cool to be so dressed up, I can't help thinking there is a Newcastle United supporter in their waiting to get out. That or he was hoping to catch a cold and have a few days off school in the snow.

Anyway, a good time was had by all, and when Matthews dad MSN'd us on the Sunday morning from Afghanistan I was able to tell him his son had been Bluchered, but the chance of turning him from a Wales fan to England had not worked so well due to the result. He indicated that it was good training for following the Dragon in the coming season of 6 Nations games. We shall see.

As part of the evening entertainment we searched out a few YouTube video's. Check out this one, a history of music in 3 minutes.

Going, going, gone......

I started this blog in May 2007 to chart the path I would follow as i put my house on the market. little did I know it would be two and a half years later that I would be reporting the conclusion of the journey.

Yes, I have finally exchanged on the sale and vacate the property on 6th November. I will be leaving London to live away for the first time in nearly 40 years, and will need to locate the nearest source of London Pride or Youngs Ordinary to avoid my liver going into shutdown.

Thanks goodness for the internet which will allow me to follow the local issues and sporting prowess of the team which i have followed for much of that time.

A lot of things have happened in the time the house has been on the market. Maxine and I have become grandparents, our oldest son, Tim has married, and our oldest daughter is engaged. A few friends have passed away, and we have mourned their loss.

We have travelled a fair bit it has to be said. Peru, Brazil, Egypt, Portugal, Chicago, Edinburgh, Rome. Paris and Cyprus have been on our schedule, as well as a cruise around the islands of the Mediterranean. At that should stand us in good stead now that my Company has cast me adrift by making draconian changes to its final salary pension scheme.

I met the CEO yesterday and asked him outright why I should stay in his Company. His reply was hopeless, and as a colleague of mine once said, 'when the lunatics start running the asylum, its time to leave' . I think they are, and I am. ETD is scheduled for 5th February at the moment which will make the England v Wales game at Twickenham the next day a bit of a blinder.

So the blog has fulfilled one role, and now it takes on a new one as it tracks my progress through early retirement, life in Scouserland and potentially a few entrepreneurial projects. Watch this space one may come to a road near you........

The Road to Rio

Phase 2 of the South American tour saw Tim drag the new Mrs Weathers to afore mentioned Murphy's for the Carling Cup final between United and Hotspurs. It was a reasonable 0-0 cup final between two under strength teams but there was only going to be one winner when it went to penalties.

Murphy's is owned by an ex-Twickenham resident and Spurs supporter who moved to Sao Paulo in 1987. It also sells London Pride albeit at £8 a bottle. The guv'nor was curious why I had not dropped in when I was there in 1989....it might have had something to do with working Monday to Friday and then going to Rio for the weekends....some things never change as me, SWMBO, Kieran and Becky and partners headed there for some r & r, as Mr and Mrs Weathers II headed to Kenya.

SWMBO and I were staying in a five star on Copacabana, the kids were in a hovel a few blocks back, moaning a bit. I explained to them they had to earn the right to stay in a five star, but sagging in to use the facilities, as they did, is fine.

Copacabana is a fine place, a beach by day and a sports arena by night, people still playing footie at 3 am.

We did Sugar loaf, Christ the Redeemer and the Girl from Ipanema bar, where Antonio Carlos Jobin wrote it. Rio named their airport after him which struck a cord (sic) with the scousers and John Lennon international.

Highlight for me was the row in the street with the taxi driver after ordering everybody out at the traffic lights. Don't think SWMBO and Kieran were too impressed but the cabbie did finally get in the car to get me change, not get a gun and shoot me once we had settled our differences in language neither of us understood.

That was the only flashpoint of the whole tour, Sao Paulo and Rio are just like London, but with weather.

The Empire strikes back

There is a shop on Twickenham Green in West London which sells Storm Trooper outfits modelled on the suits worn in the Start Wars films. I understand there is a serious sub-culture surrounding these suits and the use of them. Fanatics are booked for Star Wars exhibitions, weddings, theme parties and night club events, and the people who embrace the Force take great pride in their appearance.There are a number of variations in the design of the suits and the worst thing a person can do is mix and match, definitely a no-go.

Now however things have taken a sinister turn. The person who manufactured the helmets for the original films, Andrew Ainsworth owns the shop. In 2004 he discovered one of the original helmets he had made in a cupboard in his home in Twickenham.

After successfully selling it to a collector, he began to manufacture the outfits once more, through his company, Shepperton Design Studios. He found a legion of Star Wars fans willing to pay up to £1,800 for a suit and helmet. Lucasfilm responded in 2006 by suing Mr Ainsworth. A judge in California awarded the firm $20 million (£10 million) in damages for copyright infringement, unfair competition and trademark infringement. It has now brought the case to Britain to ensure that this decision is enforced here. The case is currently being heard.

Lawyers for Mr Ainsworth are arguing that the copyright has expired, because the uniforms were pieces of industrial design rather than works of art.

Lucasfilm has made in excess of £6 billion from merchandise sales off the back of the Star Wars films, so they are certainly the Empire in this particular battle. Mr Ainsworth is counter suing for a share of this £6 billion over the last 30 years. Lets hope that Luke Skywalker is batting for the good guys again.

Field of Dreams

Blimey! what a weekend. The house was invaded by our youngest and his mates, seven in all I think, who came down to support 'Trotter' who was playing on the wing for Birkenhead Park in their EDF Intermediate Vase cup final at the RFU in Twickenham Stadium.

How jealous was I that he got to run out on the hallowed turf, but good luck to him. I have known 'Trotter' almost as long as Kieran, and Maxine the same, so it was only right and proper that we went along too. I am, after all, a fully paid up member of 'Park'. Trouble was it kicked off at 10:00, being the first of three finals.

Anyway, there must have been over 1000 people watching, maybe more, as Exeter, Northampton and Leicester supports drifted in during the second half, and as a final it was not half bad.....Park took the lead with a few penalties, then Chester (for it was a local derby) scored a fairly soft try, but Park battled back to be leading 14-18 and they dominated the second half without putting the game to bed. 'Trotter' was playing pretty steady, a few good breaks and some sound defence, when sadly he was thrown a slow looping pass by his centre. If it had gone to hand it was glory time for 'Trotter' , but the Chester winger had all his Christmases instead, intercepting and running seventy yards to touchdown under the posts. 21-18 win for them, then. Still 'Trotter' managed to score later so the weekend was not a total disaster!!

The Masters, the first of the four major golf tournaments, was being televised this weekend, and it brought to mind a contrast between most major sporting events and golf. 'Trotter' was one of the few who can tell their kids they have played at Twickenham Stadium, and trod the same sods as many legends of the game. The final was one of five which the RFU and EDF collaborate to try to get grass roots players playing there. Football has its Amateur Cup and FA Vase aimed at lower league players running out at Wembley, but your average (or below average) Sunday league player has very little chance of playing there. There are amateur races at Aintree and Ascot for jockeys or point-to-point riders but again they are limited.

With golf, however, anybody can effectively turn up, pay their green fee and tread the same turf, putt on the same greens and shower in the same facilities as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones, Seve Ballesteros or any of the other famous names associated with the sport. Indeed, while playing Valderama in Spain a few years ago, I was delighted at the 17th to chip over the brook and onto the green for three, two putting for a five. I was only too happy to point out that at the Ryder Cup a few weeks earlier, Tiger had failed with his chip and found the brook, only managing a bogey. So for one hole, and one hole only, I was better than Tiger!!

The irony of course ,is that Augusta, where the Masters is always held, is almost impossible to play as a visitor, but hey, there are enough other top courses around to more than make up for it.

Entry fee extra....

There has been much discussion lately about the rising cost of air travel, with talk of increased landing charges for Heathrow and Gatwick and fuel charge supplements affecting most major airlines. Couple that with the cheap airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet adding-on for hold baggage and golf clubs, and the whole scene becomes extremely confusing. people are up in arms about early boarding charges and 'long leg' premiums. All are classed as stealth charges making cheap ticket prices a misleading selling ploy.

Luckily the Office of Fair Trading has clamped down on these practices so that at least the surcharges are included in the price, if not the luggage charge. Now lets turn our attention to something else which continues to irritate me.

I regularly use TicketMaster for concert and sporting event tickets. They have hidden charges too. This week I ordered six tickets with face value £15 each for a rugby game at Twickenham. I was then charged a booking fee of £2.40 per ticket, and postage of £2.20. As I could only order two tickets at a time that cost me postage on each transaction. The whole package was £109.80, a 22% premium on their face value.

So, I went directly to the RFU box office as I was passing, but they were not selling tickets for this event, it was TicketMaster or nothing. What I want to know is why don't they just say the tickets are £18.40 including P & P, up front, so we all know where we stand, or in this case, sit?

Canon to left of them, canon to right of them....

You can read about the latest Six nations Rugby weekend on my chum Dicks blog here. The focus of the evening was once again centred on The Prince Blucher public house, and at the bus-stop as we waited for our big red carriage to take us home, Dicks son Robert asked who he was.

So who is he and what do I know about the pub?

Well, Prince Blucher was actually a Prussian field marshall who led his army against Napolean I the Battle of Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington. Indeed had Bluchers army not intervened at Waterloo it is likely that Wellington would have been defeated. In that particular action, however, Bluchers army was directed there by General August von Gneisenau who assumed command of what remained of Bluchers army, after a defeat at Ligny. Blucher was trapped for several hours under his dead horse and assumed to have been killed in action. He dies in 1819 aged 76, however, in recognition of his service to, and support of Wellington, the British named a steam train after him. Better that than having to put your Bluchers on when it gets muddy!

So what of the pub? It has been in the ownership of Fullers brewery for many years. Rugby memorabilia adorns the walls and a plaque commemorates the founding of Twickenham Rugby Football Club in the pub in 1867. They no longer play their games on the green opposite the pub of course, but you can re-enact history during the summer months and bring your beer with you.

Members of the club still drink in there regularly, although it ceased to be the gathering place for the majority when 'Holty Corner' was removed to be shortly followed by the landlord John Geller, who subsequently moved over to the Sussex across the road. James, the manager who took over, was very tolerant of our Sunshine mountain at the weekend, although I think weight of numbers was in our favour!!

The pub used to have a bar top which was made up of old pennies, but the Health and Safety Executive had something to say about that and it was removed in the early Eighties . Some of it survives now in the Fullers museum in Chiswick.

It has sadly made the national news for all the wrong reasons in the last few years when Levi Bellfield, was recently convicted of killing Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell. Amelie was killed on the Green outside the pub.

Prince Blucher was also part of my life when we purchased a house in Waterloo, a suburb of Merseyside, just North of Liverpool. Not surprisingly there is a Wellington Street, a Blucher Street and Picton Road, named after Sir Thomas Picton, one of Wellingtons trusted lieutenants who was killed in the battle.

Colonel Fuller, commander of the King's Dragoon Guards, was also killed in battle, I wonder whether that influenced the brewery to recognise the battle in the Prince Blucher pub name?

The Nineteen Days of Christmas

I have had a bit of a result this year. My Christmas celebrations always start with the Varsity match, either by being at Twickenham in person, or in a pub somewhere watching on the TV. From then on its trying to cram as many Christmas do's and celebrations in as possible.

This year they have changed the date of the game. It was always the second Tuesday in December with a 2pm kick-off, its now the first Thursday at 4pm. So I have an extra five extra party days, and spectators at the game can have a much more leisurely luncheon before decamping to the ground. The local residents are not too impressed. They see it as another night of traffic conjestion but hey ho.

The game has lost some of its appeal as a match in recent years, with the professional game depriving both Oxford and Cambridge of the budding and current home international players who used to grace the sides. Nowadays there is the odd colonial cap who is doing a PhD or similar, otherwise it is well meaning under-graduates given the biggest stage in the game on which to perform. As an event though, it continues to get good support from students, graduates and hangers-on from the City. I probably fall into the last category.

Now where is my diary, I still have a few dates to fill up.