One down

So a Bank Holiday full of sporting activities comes to an end. Rory McIlroy won a cool $15m for winning the Fed Ex golf championship in Atlanta, Ben Stokes re-ignited the Ashes cricket with an unbelievable rear guard action in the test match at Headingley and Newcastle United parked the bus and snatched three points from Tottenham yesterday in a game I suspect Match of the Day struggled to find any highlights.

So guess which one I went to? Yes , with SWMBO playing Shirley Valentine in Greece, I thought I would just pop down to London and explore the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium for the day. The train down was fine, and then came the 35 minute slog from Seven Sisters tube station in 34 degree heat, a walk I have done many times in the past but not for a few years. I got to the stadium praying I would have a seat in the shade. Luck was going my way as, yes I did, on the fifth tier of the North stand. Looking around at the amazing auditorium it was clear they had reserved the sunny seats for the Georgie boys so they could get their kit off and fry. I bet there were some very sore bellies this morning.

The game was so dull that the lady sitting next to me left at half time, and her husband did the Express crossword through out the second half. I left early to ensure the walk back to the tube was not rushed as was the case.

The new stadium is huge. There are bag checks and security checks everywhere, and even when it was as hot as yesterday you could not take water bottles inside. The bars and food stalls were doing a roaring trade, and the sensible thing if you are local is to wait around afterwards , have a few beers and then head home. White Hart Lane station has been completely refurbished with Club money but I am unsure whether there are extra trains to get people away form the ground quicker.

The Club were sensible enough to have the cricket on the TV screens which made for a very different match day experience than would normally be the case, but I was delighted to watch the highlights again when I got home. I was disappointed with Virgin rains that the first class lounge now charges for alcohol. This I was informed is due to too many people getting drunk for free before their train leaves. Never mind that its all free on the train anyway!!  So I had a pint of Pride in the pub next door. If you are going to pay may as well have something you like.

On Saturday I played golf at 07:15, a time I was unaware was part of Saturday morning!! I was pleased how I played, and there were three 1's in our group. I got an 11 at hole 13 and one of my partners got a hole in 1 at the 5th. Drinks all round!!

Today I played again and was 5 under par after 6 holes, slipped to 4 under after 10 and finished 2 over, very much a nearly round, hey ho! Tomorrow is a day of rest which will probably involve cosmetic cleaning and ironing just to show willing, before the golf starts all over again, weather permitting. 

Figs, Sri Lanka and beer

I have discussed my Lord's attendance record here before, and the trend continues. I also wrote about the demise of Crockers Folly as long ago as 2009. That situation I am pleased to say has been reversed, but more on that later.

Going to Lord's on a Saturday has long been the tradition, but now I and SWMBO are available for recreational pastimes all week, we thought we would go on a Thursday for a change. We have suffered some dull Saturday's so some first day excitement would be good.

We were not disappointed either as Sri Lanka showed more steel than the first two tests and only a late century from Johnny Bairstow wrestled some parity back for England.

We punctuated out day with a mid match expedition to a local pub and were delighted we could revisit above mentioned Crickets. Eight years ago I wrote about it but it may have closed longer. It has been expertly restored to it's original but is now more a restaurant with a bar than the other way round. They welcomed the cricket crew willingly and had London Pride on draught. Bliss.

Life often has the habit of balancing highs and lows to keep everything in perspective. This weekend was no exception as our weekend started with a visit to my mate Figs. Figs and I have shared many days at Lords  as chronicled in the first link above, but I am now concerned we will never be able to so again.

A few weeks ago he was taken to hospital with a heart problem. His ticker has been less than 100% for some years but this incident saw him moved to Harefield hospital for a valve replacement and defibrillating pacemaker. Much like the young England cricketer James Taylor, has had fitted this week.

Unfortunately they did not think Figs was up to the op so they sent him home for strength conditioning and weight loss regimes. Sadly last week he suffered a stroke and has been in Atkinson Morley Neurological unit for several days. He has now been moved to Kingston for rehab. He has lost the use of his left arm and some movement in his leg. His speech is degraded and memory confused. It is all very distressing not least forMarion, his SWMBO.

They will scan him again in two weeks so lets hope there is improvement.

Hall of Fame

I noticed today that the old buffer from the world of golf, Peter Alliss, had been inducted to the Golf Hall of Fame yesterday in America. I am sure the word is induced but that's just me getting my physics and formal reception terminology mixed up. Peter did use the finger during his acceptance speech when gesturing about his old headmistress. It is a pity he does have senile moments occasionally.

Famous people do have the pleasure of being recognised by their peers and voted into these Hall's of Fame, and it got me thinking about whether there should be a series of these places for ordinary folk. One might argue that the Queen's honours process announced at New Year and at her birthday does now recognise Joe Bloggs and the good work they do, and the Guinness Book of Records motivates some people to take part in the excessive and ridiculous, but I wonder if there should be something more.

Cadbury's chocolate launched the CDM awards in the Seventies when people could nominate their friends and relatives for the award. I always thought that if you got two you could indicate you had a CDM and bar but it never caught on.

So what might I qualify for through longevity or talent? 40 years with the same Company never used to be a rarity, but there will be very few people achieving that in the future, and 40 years ( and we hope a few more) of attending England rugby internationals may also be a record to be proud of. The singing certainly has not improved but it has lasted the test of time....

Nothing else really springs to mind, I doubt I am anywhere near the top of the tree for downing pints of London Pride. I am member of the Young's 135 Club though, and did complete the Fullers passport. Both of these entailed drinking in every establishment in their estate at the time. I have no reputation for  eating remarkably hot curries. I have never broken 80 playing golf so have twenty years to go before I have any change of shooting below my age. I do have a hole in one although there is no Hall of Fame for that, its membership would be exhaustive.

I won first dividend on  the pools in November 1989 and collected £351.85. There must have been loads of draws that day!! I still have an uncashed cheque for 66p from a previous 6th dividend win, It would have cost more than that to print the cheque.

So I will just settle for what I am and what I have got, a brick in the wall at Twickenham Stadium, another in the Olympic Park in Atlanta and a copy of the Daily Telegraph from 6th June 1992 showing me as the joint fourth fastest 200m runner in the Country, same PB as  Linford Christie: that must have been some typo!!

Ashton-Under-Slime

Do you ever have one of those days? well, I think I did yesterday......

It started at midday when I went to the RFU office to pick up 3 duplicate tickets for the England v Wales rugby international, remember that word, duplicate. These were tickets which we were assured had been left in Cleakheaton, and they , therefore, gave three of my regular rugby colleagues the chance to bring three of their children.

This detour meant that I had to hot foot it to Richmond to join the drinking session a little later than planned. That went OK although the pub insists on showing football when it is full of rugby supporters. Given the match kicked off at 16:30 yesterday, I had arranged food at Zizzi's in the town centre. I booked for 13:45 thinking we could arrive about 14:00 and all would be sweetness and light. First crisis of the day, they had given our table (for 14) away aledging they had rung me to see where we were. They hadn't so we returned to the pub for more pints of foaming Pride and burger and chips 14 times!

Still we had the bus trip to the ground to look forward to, and after a fine rendition of Jeruselum, Sloop John B, Bloody Great Fishes are Wales, and others, we arrived in good time to take our seats.

Crisis number two. The three tickets left in Cleakheaton had in fact been posted by the owner to his son-in-law in High Wycombe, and he and his chums were sitting just where we had hoped to be. His father-in-law has a touch of Alzheimers, and had forgotten he had posted them on, so his problems are obviously greater than ours.

I watched the game from eight different seats as I got shuffled around the stand, and frankly after the second half, it was eight vantage points too many. Don't let any one eyed welshman cons you into believing Wales won, the stark reality is England lost. Do I really want to pay £68 to watch a product which is not up to scratch?

I should be used to it though, for years, the match has always been the low point of the day.

More disappointment followed though as Manchester United salvaged a draw with the last kick of the game against Spurs, and the Argyle crisis continued with a 1-0 defeatat home to Hull. As a point of interest these two cities, Plymouth and Hull, are the two biggest in the Country never to have experienced top flight football.

So as days go it was pretty harrowing, but all clouds have a silver lining, and following a very good sesh in the Prince Blucher, with all the right sort of company, and a few pleasant distrations, a bus came along just as we were leaving. That meant a quick call to the local takeaway meant it stayed open a few minutes late to allow the day to finish with the first food for over twelve hours.

Bread of Heaven, bah! give me Chinese of Chiswick any time!!!

Ice Cold in Alex

I have constantly been turned down for membership of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), as I lack the prerequisite sandals, beard and beer gut, although the last of those is starting to develop under my increasingly tight shirt. Nonetheless, I take a keen interest in the subject, and am happy to sample the products whenever an opportunity presents itself.

I have indicated before that maybe there will be a revitalisation of the bitter ale market, when youngsters start drinking what their Grandfathers drink, as a rebellion against their dads, and it was encouraging at 'Camp Dick' last weekend to see the youngsters happily downing foaming pints of bitter.

Imagine my surprise then when I heard that Fuller, Smith and Turner, they of the beloved 'London Pride' are to encourage people to drink their bitter on ice!!! Now before hardened Pride drinkers splutter into their pints, I should reassure them that initial trials will be conducted using bottled 'Honey Dew' bitter, a light summer ale more suited to chilling that Pride itself.

The success of Magners cider in convincing people to drink their product over ice has clearly had an influence here, and it will be interesting to see what take up the Honey Dew approach has.

Personally I find it hard to have a sesh on fizzed up beer or cold lager and am still amazed that so many people can, however, anything that may help the traditional British pint of bitter last the test of time is well worth a try.

Cheers!

I'm stumped

Well, I seem to be getting back into the fitness regime. In late September last year I ran my first ever 10k. It took place in Chiswick and the course stretched from Kew bridge to Chiswick Bridge and back, finishing at the Chiswick business park in Gunnersbury. it was part of their Yellow Umbrella day I took just over 75 minutes which was OK, but I had aimed for less than 70, still for a first attempt it was fine. My wife, eldest son and his girlfriend were there with banners to cheer me over the last few hundred yards.

I had been very diligent with the training even to the extent of making a New Years resolution to drink 2 litres of water a day, and I had a BUPA training plan to follow up until the last six weeks, when I reverted to the Yellow Umbrella plan.

That was nearly nine months ago, so I thought it about time to recharge the batteries. I do various routes on the roads around Scouseland, some hilly and a couple on the flat, as well as running round one or both of the parks which constitute Birkenhead Park.

It is a little known fact that Birkenhead Park was the design inspiration for Central Park in New York City. I have yet to see Batman or Lincoln Rhyme on my runs though.

When I am in the metrolopse however, I run in the Lensbury club in Teddington. I find the air in Chis a bit too polluted for me these days. Anyway I am up to a steady 2.5K at the moment and will build up to 5k over the next few weeks.

The Lensbury club used to be the pride and joy of the Shell Corporation and one had to work for Shell to be a member, or be a retiree or family thereof. That's how I joined. It is now, however, a commercially run organisation although i think the buildings are still owned by Shell, who are effectively the landlords.

Unfortunately when it went private, it signalled an influx of ankle biters and the design of the club has been changed radically to accommodate them. There are adult only areas but overall it is a family oriented environment. Fair do's to them though, they spend the money on food and drink and activities, all of which are premium price.

The changing rooms in the gym, are segregated for men and women, obviously, but also for adults and children. There is an over 18 men only area and a family changing facility. Elderly gentlemen in Speedo's is however, not a sight I am particularly keen on, so I tend to use the large changing area, and its here I have a problem...or may have uncovered a new law of human behaviour to rival Murphy and Boyle.

The walls are surrounded by lockers, and it is a fact that when you come back into the changing area, the person next to you or beside you is at their locker or has selected that one to use to change. Today I was the only one in there when I changed. When I returned somebody was in the one next door....if they are vacant they have a key in so out of 50 lockers only one did not have a key. You would think that might have given him a clue!!

I have yet to think of a suitable name for this Law, Law 39 is the best I can come up with, but a few pints of Pride may inspire me.

"I think you've had enough old son......."

I am off to Wembley tonight for the England v Brazil game, and this, together with some incidents over the weekend, got me thinking about why football followers seem to be so much more aggressive than those of other sports.

At the family barbecue I referred to, there were a mixture of young people. Some from Liverpool had gone to school with Kieran at St Mary's, a Christian Brothers school, some who had gone to Merchant Taylors, next door . Others where at Uni (or Poly ;-)) in Liverpool and had come from other parts of the country, and some were work colleagues of Kieran from the Wirral and around. They all mixed extremely well, and people commented on how well mannered they were.

One poor girl had had a hell of a few weeks with boyfriend problems, and she got absolutely trashed. Rather than leave her to fall about the furnishings and smash the ornaments, two of her flat mates took her home, put her to bed and returned later to the party.

Sometime after that one of the St Mary's lads got some abuse from another of the boys there, and the St Mary's lads closed ranks and suggested to one of the rogues friends that it was time he helped him home, which he did. This passed off unnoticed by most people at the party.

It reminded me of my own experiences as an 'old fart' who regularly attends rugby internationals at Twickenham, in Dublin and in Paris. There are usually six of us, and we do like a drink. It is fair to say though, that in the 25 years we have been acting the fool, we have at worst made bus travel between Twickenham and Richmond noisy, and the ride out of Dublin on the Dart a joyous singing occasion. Any activity likely to provoke violence, either physical or verbal, is quickly stamped on by the group, and the offender parked in a corner and told to behave.

Why then is it not the case at football matches that there is not this same self policing? The tribal nature of the supporters seems to add an 'edge' to the whole atmosphere. It can't be associated purely with the Public school, grammar school, secondary school differential outlined yesterday, as many of the perpetrators are from good stock?

Personally I blame the lager, as we all know London Pride has no alcohol in it!!!