LOCK, STOCK AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY VINNIE JONES

Vinnie Jones is 51 today and still in good nick. The hard man was born in Watford, his father a gamekeeper, which maybe where his interest in guns developed. At 19 years old he was playing for semi-pro side Wealdstone and continued his work as a hod carrier on local building sites. At 21 years old he was playing for Wimbledon FC (77 games), who paid £10,000 for him. He also had a spell in 1986 for IFK Holmsund in Sweden, where he helped them to their Third Division championship.

On his debut for the Crazy Gang, he scored against Manchester United in a 1-0 win on 29th November 1986.

By 1989, Vinnie helped Leeds United to promotion from Division Two, then, a year later, played for Sheffield United, there was a year at Chelsea and back to Wimbledon for 177 games (1992-8) and ended up at QPR.
In 1994-7 he played for Wales, 9 times, qualifying through the nationality of his maternal grandmother. He is recorded as getting the fastest booking in football history after 3 seconds in an FA Cup tie, though he claimed the tackle could not have been late after only 3 seconds of the game!

On several occasions he fell foul of the club officials for his "mosquito brain" behaviour and by the FA who objected to his attitude on and off the pitch. He claims they should reward him for taking the violence off the terraces and onto the pitch.

Never forgetting where his fame developed, in 2010 he donated his FA Cup Winners medal to the Wimbledon FC fans, to be held in their clubhouse at Kingsmeadow.

He is well known for his hard man film and TV roles, which began in 1998 with "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and for his appearance on "Celebrity Big Brother 7" on his 45th birthday. His list of roles is impressively long, ranging from the "Magnificent Seven" planned for 2016 and "Gone in 60 Seconds" in 2000.

In real life he has been arrested for two "physical" offences, one against a neighbour and another whilst drunk on a plane. Through his conviction, the local police revoked his fire arms' licence and took away his weapons.

His son, clearly interested in firing guns too, joined the Life Guards in 2008 and did it legally.

Jone is currently Club President of Soham Town Rangers.