THE CRAZY GANG MAKE IT TO MEADOWHALL

I suppose the logic is that having visited Meadowhall (shopping Mall) today, by the busy M1, on the outskirts of Sheffield, that I would bump into somebody special and so I did.

With most of the world shopping, it's half term, there are new films at the Vue and teenagers modelling their new creations, purchased last time they went to Meadowhall, I wandered into Waterstone's and found the Sports' Shelves as usual.

I picked out "The Crazy Gang" biography. Not the crooners of the 1940s but David Bassett's mob that took football by storm in the 1980s. Just browsed through it especially the index to see if Charterhouse or the Old Carthusians got a mention. they didn't.

Margaret Thatcher said "If we can sell Newcastle Brown to Japan and Wimbledon can get to the First Division, then surely no achievement is beyond our reach". They broke boundaries in football.

The club rose to the topflight in England, my son and I saw Wimbledon beat Liverpool at Wembley in the 1988 FA Cup Final, Charterhouse Old Boys (the Old Carthusians) held the accolade of being the only club to win the FA Cup (1881) and the FA Amateur Cup (1894, 1895, 1897). This was an achievement Wimbledon FC also achieved in modern times (Amateur 1963 and FA Cup 1988). No other team has done this!

Wimbledon FC sent a team to play the old boys at Charterhouse one day to commemorate the centenary of the FA Cup win in 1981. Bobby Gould played.....enthusiastic or what?
I played against Wimbledon when knocking around in the south as a teenager and played with David (Harry) Bassett (captain of the side) for the FA XI, under Charles Hughes against the Army at Aldershot, when I could play.

And so it was, I heard a shopper asking about "The Crazy Gang" book at the counter, and thought, "too much of a coincidence" so I grabbed the book and showed him it. He didn't want the Bud Flanagan and the Crooners, he wanted the footy book.

I enquired why he was interested in it, he said he played a bit; I pursued the investigation and it turned out that he was Andy Sayer who at 17 years old signed forms and did play for the Dons between 1983-88, 58 times and scored 15 goals.

A nippy winger, he also played for Fulham up to 1990 (53/15), Leyton Orient up to 1992 (30/6) and also had loans abroad and for Sheffield United before heading to the great southern "semi-pro clubs" as they were in those days, Slough Town, Enfield  FC, Walton and Hersham, Leatherhead. Tooting and Mitcham and Egham Town. He served his time well.

I believe he is a scout working on the continent from time to time and has been linked to Liverpool and Man City-no idea why he was in Sheffield; maybe looking up some old team mates from his loan spell?

Go buy the book and learn how Dolly Parton, the Army, FA Prelims and the old team minibus played their party in the Crazy Gang's success.