Just the ticket

We were fortunate to have a very enjoyable  2016, albeit we lost some dear friends and relatives during its course. We now enter 2017 hoping to experience new and rewarding adventures at home and abroad, while maintaining our health and that of those closest to us.

The first thing I have to look forward to is a trip to Anfield on Sunday to see Plymouth Argyle take on Liverpool, and to see how the Green Army fair against the Kop. Argyle see themselves as a Championship side at minimum, but some of the build-up surrounding the game, and the ticketing in particular has been non-league at best.

I appreciated I did not have first dibs for away end tickets as I am not a season ticket holder, nor a regular attendee. but as a registered member I was able to obtain tickets when they went on general sale on Tuesday. Now, up until Tuesday, the tickets were available via the club website hosted for them by Ticketmaster. As of Tuesday though they were only available to the general public by telephone. Five hours I tried to get through before I managed at least to get in a queue. when I got through there were only restricted view seats left but at £11 each I could not really complain.

Subsequently I have been invited into a box to watch the match, so I will do a bit of Green Army and a bit of corporate as a mix 'n match.

Following on from Anfield we have a stamina building weekend in Snowdonia before our skiing trip later in February, then it's off to Portugal for the El Tel Cup before a couple of weeks warm weather training in Barbados. Slot in a few rugby internationals and that is the first part of the year taken care of. Decorating and gardening might have to be delayed for a few months!!

One sad piece of news emanating from Wallasey Golf Club, however, was the notice informing members that Neville Thompson passed away earlier in the week. Neville was 104 and up until the last couple of years had been a regular figure in the Club at lunchtime.

Neville was the last surviving Wallasey member who can recall watching Bobby Jones play the links in 1930 on his way to qualification for the Open finals at Hoylake. He won there and went on to complete the grand slam of golf in the same year, a  feat which remains unique to this day. 104 is a good innings. Golfers always hope to one day shoot a gross score lower than their age, many never do it, some do it with regularity, hopefully Neville was one of the successful ones. Either way he remains a modern day legend in the Club, in the way Bobby Jones was in the world of golf,  all those years ago.

Smoke gets in your eyes.

An article in the Daily Telegraph at the weekend indicated that Stuart Hall was nearly 78. He will be remembered by most people as the linchpin of the 'Its a knockout' television programme, a roll he shared with Eddie Waring . Eddie was primarily a rugby league commentator and made such phases as " he's off for an early bath" and "an op and under" into household sayings.

Stuart, however, has been something of a cult hero since the programme ended as he continues to provide summaries on Radio 5 Live for Saturday afternoon sports listeners. He has been providing commentary for almost 50 years, and will be continuing that service during the coming season. In the article it mentions that his first ever game was Sheffield Wednesday v Leicester in 1958, a match which ended 4-4, and was played almost entirely in fog. He had no idea what was happening so made everything up. It clearly served him well.

Fog has also played a part in embellishing the folk law status of the Kop terracing at Anfield, home of Liverpool FC.. A match was played there once and visibility was so bad that when Liverpool scored at the other end the Kop had to chat "Can you tell us who just scored, can you teeeelll us, who just scored?" A reply came back through the fog "Kevin Keegan, Kevin Keegan" to which the Kop replied paraphrasing the famous Scaffold hit single "Thankyou very much, thankyou very, very, very, very much".

Years before that at the time Stuart Hall was just starting out, England rugby teams used to be selected after a traditional game at Twickenham between the Probables and the Possibles. On this occasion fog again conspired to play a part to the extent that the selectors needed to run along the touchlines trying to see who was doing what, or listening out for shouts of encouragement to help them decide on their international side.

Throughout the game they heard such phrases as 'well played Johnston-Taylor', or 'good tackle Johnston-Taylor, or even ' excellent play Johnston-Taylor. Faced with such comments the selectors had no hesitation in selecting said player for the upcoming Five National Championship. It was only some years later that Johnston-Taylor was gracious enough to admit that it was indeed he who had called out praising himself throughout the match. His cunning stunt being rewarded with several subsequent caps.