ALEX YOUNG

Thank you for a contribution from Bill Rogers, a college 4th XI footballer and someone who has followed Everton from his youth. The death of Alex Young would have meant something to him. Bill saw Alex scoring a glanced near post header from a corner, against Burnley in an FA Cup 3rd Round replay in 1967. The original game had been 0-0 at Burnley, the replay was a 2-1 win for the Blues.

Bill was at the other end of the pitch when Alex Young scored. The Burnley goalkeeper was Alex's cousin, Harry Thompson, who was beaten twice in the 2-0 win. I had a photo from Bill but cannot get it published due to technical issues!

Alex Young passed away on the 27th of February, aged 80. Born at Loanhead in Midlothian in 1937, Alex worked in the local colliery and played for Newtongrange Star football club. Hearts of Midlothian soon picked him up as a forward and from the age of 18 he starred for the club playing 194 times, scoring 103 goals.

For six years he helped the club to the League championship in 1957/8 contributing 20 goals during the season. There was also  Scottish Cup win in 1956 and a League Cup win in 1959/60. The following season he joined Everton as a part of a deal with colleague George Thompson and £55,000.

During his career Alex played 275 games and added 89 goals to his personal tally. With Everton he won the First Division title (1963) scoring 22 in 42 appearances and also the Cup Final in 1966.

Curiously he only played twice for the Scottish League team (2 goals) and only 8 times for his country, Scotland, scoring 5.

He was known as the "Golden Vision" at Everton, and a BBC play written by Ken Loach in 1968, paid tribute to Alex. Dr. David France wrote a book about Alex in 2008, called "Alex the Great". Alex stated that "I am a Scot by birth and an Evertonian by choice". At the book launch it was clear that he was suffering from dementia and also had problems walking. Given a testimonial by Everton in 2001, 20,000 turned up at Goodison Park.

In his retirement he played for and managed briefly at Glentoran, but had to give up as his hearing began to fail. He also played at Stockport for 23 games. 

He went into the family upholstery business and was present at the 2015 friendly between Hearts and Everton.

AND THE CUP FINAL PENALTY IS.....

Zlatan and Manolo might have had hat tricks yesterday at Wembley, in their EFL Cup Final but didn't quite make it.

In 1953, centre forward, Stanley Mortensen stole the glory in the Stanley Matthews' FA Cup Final at Wembley, with a hat trick. The two Stanleys dismantled Bolton's amazing 3-1 lead to bring the Cup to the Lancashire seaside town. This video is GREAT.....George Farm was a Scottish goalkeeper, there were no subs. abd Bell stayed on the pitch although he was basically one legged!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Y5XidXdP4

Another FA Cup Final hat trick by William Townley in 1890 helped Blackburn Rovers beat Sheffield Wednesday 6-1 in a game played at the Oval on March 29th. This was equalled by Jimmy Logan of Notts County when his team beat Bolton 4-1 in the Final at Goodison Park in 1894. BUT I was hoping to keep on the Wembley trail, SO....

Clive Mendoca, Sunderland born, in the 1998 Championship Play Off, at Wembley, with a hat trick, led Charlton to a 4-4 draw aet (3-3 at full time) against Sunderland, eventually winning 7-6 on penalties.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHFkFqVcFGo

Scott Sinclair  bagged 3for Swansea helped beat Reading in the 2011 Wembley Championship Play Off Final helping his team win 4-2 including two penalties.

David Speedie notched three for Chelsea when they beat Manchester City in the 1985 Full Members' Cup Final. This was created as an extra competition for the higher level clubs to make up for the 1985 "ban" from European football following the Heysel Disaster. Chelsea had led 5-1 with City coming back strong in the latter stages of the game. Colin Lee scored 2 for the Pensioners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeSvlHC_yT0

There is then of course Geoff Hurst at Wembley in the World Cup Final 1966. Anyone know any other hat tricks in Wembley Finals?

FOX IN AND ON THE BOX.

Happy Birthday Denis Law! Ok it was the 24th (1940) but I have to get some theme going, so it is "Fox in the Box" and I suspect if you do a search on my 900+ blogs you will find a few references to Denis and a few more clever goal scorers inside that 18 yard area. I see Billy Sharpe is keeping Sheffield United afloat (78 games 44 goals so far)!

After yesterday's Italian job blog, I am heading in that direction again.

Dennis CBE scored 227 goals in 485 games for various teams and then 30 in 55 for Scotland, so he earned his wages.Even in Italy with a brief stay with Torino (1961-2) he scored 10 in 27. Dennis was a subject of  "This is your Life" the TV "Guest Show" on 19th February 1975 and does work for radio and TV. A Fox in/on the Box!

I was hoping another "Italian" footballer would make history today and in fact he almost did, although a linesman's flag changed the story with a disallowed goal, perfectly onside, prevented Manolo Gabbiadini from gathering a hat trick at Wembley this afternoon in the EFL Cup for Southampton.

He wore a whispy beard today!
His last club was with Napoli and he is an Italian international, Manolo scored two today and brought his side back to 2-2 and almost took the Saints into a second major trophy win. It was not to be. Gabbiadini had a slow start in the Italian league at Atlanta, Cittadelia, Juventus, Bologna but at Sampdoria he notched 15 in 47 games, then 15 in 55 at Napoli. He has had similar ratios playing at U20, U21 and Full internationals.
In this EFL Final, Manolo's THIRD game for Southampton, he has scored 5 goals for his new club-should have been SIX.
Manolo's sister Melania plays for AGSM Verona and is a women's international player.

I thought Manolo might be related to Marco Gabbiadini, another "fox in the box" but he is not, Marco is English, he played between 1985-2003, for 12 different clubs, played 665 games and scored 226 goals. In his more active youth with Sunderland he scored 74 in 152. Dropping down a level or so, with Darlington in 1998-2000, he managed 47 in 82. He even found it easy at Hartlepool, his last club when he played 15 and scored 5!!

Marco has restored a Victorian Hotel in York with his family, a guest house that won an award in York's Tourism Year 1999. He has hinted that he would like to be a TV pundit and did indeed do some work for Sky at Hartlepool and done work with BBC Newcastle. On the BOX.

THE MOST IMPORTANT MAN IN ITALIAN FOOTBALL HISTORY-POZZO

February, especially this end of the month, brings some joy to football clubs and to others sadness. Sam Allardyce has at last got himself three points today as Crystal Palace sneaked a win against Middlesbrough.

Claudio Ranieri cut an emotional figure yesterday as he tried to avoid the press looking for safety at his modest home. There has been a massive amount of punditry over Leicester City's decision, but if you read the insider reports you could understand why the club decided to pull Claudio's plug.

David Moyes' Sunderland have lost to old club Everton and his Black Cats have desperate luck, as Defoe hits the bar, ball bounces down to the line, no goal, the ball gets to Lukaku and the ball takes a deflection into the net. When you are down, you are down.

Many of our managers are under the microscope; maybe it is the time of the season?

On February 21st 1995, George Graham left Arsenal following a bungs' scandal involving him, the Gunners' manager, Head Coach, Steve Burtenshaw and a Norwegian agent called Rune Hauge who paid money into Burtenshaw's bank acount in Ireland.

Eventually after Scandinavians, Anders Limpar (Sweden), Pal Lydersen Norway) and John Jensen (Denmark) had signed for the club, the payments had been made. The accused Graham, claimed that the money was a gift to him and made payments back to Arsenal as a gesture, denying any wrong doing. Burtenshaw claimed he was being paid for his scouting network, a job not associated with Arsenal. The club accepted their claims but since the FA was on their case, they were dismissed and Graham ended up at Leeds.

On February 22nd 1991 Kenny Dalglish resigned as Liverpool manager. Although Liverpool was in a healthy position, top of the league and into the sixth round of the FA Cup, their form was not convincing, having only won two league games out of seven. Liverpool then lost to Everton in the cup and eventually lost the league title to Arsenal. To add to his woes, Dalglish had gone to every funeral following the Hillsborough disaster and we cannot account for the impact this had on his life.
As it was Graham Souness got the call to take over.

On February 24th 1964, Italy's first "international" manager, Willy Garbutt died, aged 81. He had been a player at Reading, Stockport Woolwich Arsenal and Blackburn Rovers but moved to Genoa (known as the most English town in Italy) in 1912, aged 29. He had been "spotted" by an Italian football coach, Vittorio Pozzo, Italy's coach in two World Cup, who brought Willy to Genoa CFC, where he had considerable success, introducing English training methods. Willy introduced warm ups, physical fitness, tactics, hot showers, legal transfers, eradicated "bungs" and took his team on tour to Reading.

He returned to England during the First World War to fight, survived and then led Genoa to success in the Italian League in the 1920s, formed a new club called AC Roma, coached at Napoli and Atletico Bilbao (in Spain!!) in 1935 and returned to AC Milan.

He went back to Genoa in 1938, had to "hide" during the Fascist uprising, his wife was killed by allied bombing during the war, he went back to Genoa after the war (until 1948). He returned to England in 1951, lived in obscurity in Leamington Spa and his death was fully covered in the Italian press and raised hardly a murmur in England.

Garbutt (back left) at Genoa.

DOES ONE GOAL WONDER DESERVE STATUE?

It's a bit sad but I am going to upset you again with another "sad memory", this time a memorial to Bobby Stokes, whom I can see breaking away from the Manchester United defence and  slotting the ball with his left foot past the United keeper Alex Stepney, to win the 1976 FA Cup at Wembley. That was with 7 minutes to go and United did not recover.
Bobby and his chums led by Lawrie McMenemy went into the history books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HEHXl96Tr8 ............was he offside?

It was major upset and Southampton are now at Wembley again, playing Man U in the EFL Cup final. What chance a similar result?

Bobby Stokes was a local lad (Pompey supporter) who was 25 years old when he made his name, he died at 44.
He played 216 times for the Saints, scoring 40 goals. (1968-77)
There was little recognition for Stokes as the following season and after the Charity Shield, when the team last played together. He was not selected for future games and he ended up playing for his boyhood club Portsmouth (24 games 2 goals), then Cheltenham Town and in the North American Soccer League with the Washington Diplomats (98 games-17 goals between 1978-80) along side Johann Cruyff.
Stokes made some money from this venture and on returning he signed for non-league clubs (Waterlooville and Chichester City) before following the standard route in those days for ex-pros of owning a pub, becoming a labourer and working in his cousin's cafe.

There was no testimonial for him until HE asked for one and this resulted in a number of events which gathered some money. There was a hospitality room named after him at St Mary's ground and an apartment block at the old Dell still carries his name.

Mark Sanderson's book tells of his "decline". After his testimonial his marriage broke up, he lived on his owned, obviously did not look after himself and got pneumonia. He tragically died three months later in May 1995, on the same day as Ted Drake, the well known past manager of Southampton (who does have a statue in his memory).

Bobby shares a bath with Peter Osgood and the cup.

JUST REMEMBER ME FOR MY FOOTBALL

Delighted to be back in the Pennines; Barnsley v Huddersfield derby coming up on Saturday with my rural location and Storm Doris ravaging my internet. I don't know if I am going to get enough information to make this bloggy offering worthwhile but for honour's sake I am giving it a go.

The news today is about the new George Best documentary, a piece of work sculptured by Dan Gordon, that must be seen on the big screen-do not wait for it to appear online or on a dvd for your telly.
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/george-best-documentary

The link tells you all you need to know. Keep an eye out for it and take your kids if they are keen on footy. They must see what El Beatle was able to achieve and it may warn them of the perils of success.

EVEN MORE PIES.

I could see the funny side of Sutton's reserve goalkeeper tucking into a "pie" during THE cup tie against Arsenal, but he has dropped a clanger and deserved some sort of reprimand, but a sacking?

Add to this the shirt sponsor deal where the club changed from their normal sponsor to SKYBET for the one off FA Cup tie that upset the regular punters. The Sutton Utd FC committee "banned" outspoken supporters who expressed their disappointment on social media. It did earn the club a large bunch of fivers (£1million estimated) and has enabled Sutton United to invest in the facilities including two classrooms??

Wayne Shaw, the 23 stone, roly-poly, 45 year old, goly keeper, was seen on TV and probably by most of the crowd, eating a pie, after 83 minutes of the tie when his team were 0-2 down and he unlikely to get on the pitch. Gambling is not allowed at all in football, there is a World Wide ban and the FA and Gambling Commission have come down hard on this prank; it is against betting rules and apparently Wayne was 8-1 on achieiving this, something he knew nothing about. Was he breaking the integrity of taking bets on the novelty markets?

In tears to his club chairman, Paul Doswell, dear old Wayne has had to leave the club. There have been calls form over 2,000 supporters to have him reinstated.

Arsenal donated £50,000 to the club following their cup tie-how nice of them!

Wayne is not going to lose out because he has been offered by Morrisons a job as a pie-taster with a supply of pies for the next year. Morrison's Pie Chief, Tessa Callaghan, reckons that Wayne has "hit the back of the net"...err Tessa luv, he's a goalie, not the right phrase?
Though she says he shows "commitment" and she reckons a good pie is "the best way to warm up for a game". She knows her football then.
I think Arsene would not approve-though the Pie Shop near the Emirates does sell Thierry Henry's pies and others.
http://www.pieburycorner.com/

Wayne has been on "Good Morning Britain" and no doubt there is a book in the offing. But who will sign him, apart from Morrisons?

I remind you about Fatty Foulke one of the great large goalies.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/who-ate-all-pies.html

MORE ROBINS AND LIONS AGAINST THE GUNNERS

I read somewhere that "Arsenal" have not played against two non-league sides in the FA Cup consecutively since 1909. Croydon Common (The Robins), formed in 1897, was an amateur church team that turned professional in 1907 but played in the "non-league" Southern League 2nd Division at the Nest (a future home of Crystal Palace).  

In January 1909, the "original" Woolwich Arsenal played Croydon Common from the Southern League in the FA Cup Round 1, on the16th January, drawing 1-1, at the planned Cup Final venue, the Crystal Palace. It was a bold decision to choose that venue for a qualifying round, but 20,000 turned up to watch the fascinating match. Woolwich Arsenal hosted the replay at their Plumstead Ground winning 2-0 on the 21st January, in front of 15,000 supporters. Earlier Croydon Common had beaten Bradford Park Avenue 1-2 away in the Fifth Qualifying round, a long journey to make north. 

In the Proper Rd 2, Woolwich Arsenal drew with Millwall Athletic away, a club originally formed as Millwall Rovers in 1885. The club was made up from workers at JT Morton's canning and preserving factory on the Isle of Dogs and were founder members of the Southern League.

On 6th February 1909 Woolwich Arsenal and Millwall drew 1-1,then Millwall won 1-0.  

By 1910 Millwall had settled at The Den, Cold Blow Lane. It was not until 1920 that Millwall joined the Football League when the  "new " Third Division was added to the pyramid.

Millwall's cup run ended in Rd 3 with a fixture away at Nottingham Forest, a 1-3 defeat. Forest then lost to local rivals Derby 3-0 in Round 4. 

An unusual name in the Quarter-final was Glossop North End, who as a Second Division club, started their progress in Round 1 and negotiated Chesterfield away 0-2, Stockport at home 1-1 then 0-1 away and Sheffield Wednesday away 0-1.

In another quarter-final, United were losing to Burnley with 20 minutes left, when a snow storm abandoned the game. United won the rearranged tie 3-2, a win in the lap of the gods. 

Derby then lost to another set of Robins (Bristol City) 2-1, after a 1-1 draw in the semi-final and in the other semi-final Manchester United beat Newcastle Utd 1-0. 

United beat Bristol City (depleted through injury) in the 1909 Final 1-0 on April 26th. Over 71,000 saw this at ther Crystal Palace. 

United were league champions in 1908. 

A year later United moved from their ground at Clayton to a new home called Old Trafford.

Sadly, after the interruption of the war, in 1917 the Croydon Common club was "wound up" owing significant debts. They were the only Southern League First Division side not to return to the League after the war.

Millwall 1909-10

YORKIES OR PORKIES?

Got another photo of a football pitch but I think you have had enough of my ramblings on Gomera. I did talk to reception at the Hotel Jardin Tecina **** to ask if they were going to show the Sutton United v Arsenal game tonight and Andreas Quintera, I read his badge, got all excited and pointed to the poster advertising the match at 8pm this evening in the discotheque room. I'm looking forward to that with a couple of Canarian lagers to slake my thirst and hopefully no disco? I shared the United win yesterday with a father and two sons who were supporting the reds.

Andreas, when I got talking to him about Sutton United, told me that he played for York City-how random is that? I asked him when and how and he went all coy, denying any publicity. I have looked up past players for the Minster Men and found no Gomeran links, so he may have just had a quicky and left or was perhaps telling me porkies! What ever, he is a very nice man who was prepared to listen to me talking about Sutton.

York City (1954-5 team below) of course, are now in the National League but have had their moments in the FA Cup. Their greatest triumph was from Third Division North in 1954-5 when having beaten Blackpool and Tottenham (aarrrghh both my favourite teams) en route, lost the semi-final to Newcastle United who of course in those days were top dogs who went on to beat Manchester City at Wembley. York City got a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough and then lost 0-2 at Roker Park. Good effort though. They also got 4th place in the division and Arthur Bottom was their top scorer with 39 in the league.

I am looking forward to the draw tonight and of course seeing how Sutton cope with the Gunners on their Astro. In my day we had proper grass and a groundsman who used to visit the home team changing room just before the game to fill up our sunken bath. He always timed his run as our coach (Ted Powell in those days) was giving it large; the groundsman wandered in with an old cigar in his mouth! Ted smiled.

PICK A PITCH

I found a local football club at the sea end of the Valle Grand Rey this afternoon! Valle Gran Rey is a huge ravine spilling out from the centre of the island creating a delta where a settlement has been established, as far west on the island as you could get.

Surrounded by brilliantly huge volcanic cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean crashing against a huge cobbly beach, UD Gran Rey is a Gomeran football club, which apart from the other Canary Islands of La Hierro and La Palma is one of the most westerly in Europe. Iceland and Greenland may have a shout in this of course. But you get the drift. The club runs at least the following teams: " Alevines, Benjamines and Pre-Benjamines, Infantiles,", which means juveniles, youngsters, even younger and infants,  I think. Oh and BTW there is a nudist beach within binocular distance of the pitch.

It looks as though there are 8 clubs on the island competing in a round robin league and I found 3 pitches, all astro, with lights and basic facilities. Here is the pitch at the base of the "best view in the island", the Mirador de Abrante, a "sky viewing platform" in the north-east of the island.

In the background is Mt Teide in Tenerife a spectacular sight. The Abrante also caters for the hungry and thristy tourist running a restaurant but I would not want to be delivery man who has to negotiate a tortuous road from the town of Agulo, the football club's home, and a bit of a resort.







Finally I came across this little gem at Vallehermoso which is also on the northern side of Gomera. Nice small town, inland amongst the mountains, not touristy but the coach parties stop off there as a watering hole.

My urge to find some live football fell on deaf ears (Mrs B!) so I have had to do with taking photos of grounds I have come across this week and pretend. something is happening. You have to guess which pitch you would most like to turn out for each week.

GENEROUS IN ALL (WELL ALMOST ALL) ASPECTS OF THE GAME.

Burnley FC is one of those clubs fairly close to my heart. I saw them play at White Hart Lane in Division One on December 3rd in the Spurs' Double year (1960-61). Ray Pointer was their centre forward, he scored a hat trick, which helped hold a rampant Spurs to 4-4. Over 58,000 watched this spectacle.

Today Burnley took on Non-League Lincoln City, who have already made their mark in this years' FA Cup. To see The Imps on their way the Burnley club decided to invite some of their more mature supporters to be match day mascots. (normal mascots would pay £300 for the "package", which is sort of worth it I suppose).

No, they weren't expected to dress up in that Bertie Bee costume, but merely to enjoy the match day package and walk out with their favourite player before the game.  This was a reward for their longevity and continuous support of the Lancashire club. I think this was a really nice idea.
Good on them!

Here they are before the game at Turf Moor.

Athletico Madrid did this in January and Sweden's AIK also; both generous gestures to their loyal fans.  I'm sure others have done too.

Burnley offers much support to the local community (as all clubs do these days) and the "Extra Time" programme is their offering to the "silver generation". They also run a Lifetime Support programme which includes organised activities at the club such as indoor bowls and just getting oldies together. The Clarets also support Age UK, Lancashire Care and the British Heart Foundation. Good on them!

Following the charitable result against The Imps, Burnley's named Man of the Match, James Tarkowski, gave his champagne bottle to the opposition (possibly opened by 89 minute goal scorer Sean Raggett?), yet another example of the Clarets' charity. Good on him! and Good on Sean!

Lincoln's achievement makes them the first Non-League club to reach the last 8 in the FA Cup since 1914, when a non-league QPR did the job. They are also only one of 8 non-league clubs to beat top flight opposition since the Second World War and only the second since 1989. Good on them!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_non-League_clubs_in_the_Fifth_Round_of_the_FA_Cup_since_1945

Rather less charitable was dear old Joey Barton's behaviour on the pitch (so my Imp spy told me); he just can't hack it can he? Yeh, go on Joey, look interested! Bad on him!!!

ARTE ET LABORE

Lying by the pool this afternoon after another hike across the fascinating lava landscape of Gomera and ignoring the "alternative" lifestyle group batheing naked in a nearby bay, I listened to Talksport on my phone. It's not a radio, I'm hours away from the two Mikes who were chatting to an ardent Blackburn Rovers FC fan about the impending demise of one of the great historic clubs.

The Venkys, Indian chicken farmers, have run the club for a number of years now, without watching many games and instigating the club into a huge debt. There is no money to buy players, dwindling attendances, managers have come and gone and the Rovers lie close to relegation from the Championship. I guess other clubs are in a similar plight, but poor old Rovers, one of the founder members of the Football League are in a state.

Will the coming Cup tie help at all? Unlikely bearing in mind the size of the debt.

I fear the school that provided the majority of players at the birth of the Rovers in 1875 has lost its way in the world of football too, as Queen Elizabeth's Grammar school, once one of the top footballing independent schools in the country, have also slipped away into obscurity.

Old boys, John Lewis and Arthur Constantine, arranged a meeting at the town's Leger Hotel in November 1875, gathering 17 "men" to join the club. The first match was played in December at Oozehead Farm against Church (1-1), where the newly formed team played on a boggy pitch with a pond in the centre. The pond was covered with planks of wood before kick off!

Three years later the Rovers joined the Lanchashire FA along with Darwen and Blackburn Olympic, their local rivals. In 1882 they were beaten by the Old Etonians in the FA Cup final, becoming the first "provincial" team to reach the final.

In 1884 the Rovers went on a remarkable FA Cup run that ended with a victory over Queen's Park (of Scotland), at the Oval.  The next year the Rovers won again, beating Queens' Park and in 1886 they beat West Bromwich Albion to make a hat trick. Needless to say the club was managed by a Scotsman, Thomas Mitchell, who signed Scottish professionals as they crossed the border hoping for employment in the cotton mills.
In 1885-6 season the club spent £615 on players wages.

In 1888 the Rovers joined the newly formed Football League, settling at Ewood Park a year later and by 1891 they had won the FA Cup 5 times. What ever happens to the Rovers in the next year or so, heaven forbid, they have left their mark indelibly on English football, being one of three clubs to have been founder members of the Football League and the Premier League.

FA Cup winners 1883-4

LIGHT OF YOUR DEATH

Yesterday in England was a decent day with no disasters (so far as I know). In 1962 on the 16th February, a 96 mph wind blew over the Pennines (from the west) and as it whizzed down the Pennines' eastern lea-side, it was squeezed between air of different temperatures gathering momentum as it headed down to Sheffield. When the wind struck, 4 deaths were recorded (including a lady who had purposely moved into her ground floor front room her bedroom for safety but was killed instantly as the chimney and roof fell in), there were over 250 injuries, many made homeless with much damage to their houses but also to Sheffield United's ground, Bramall Lane, where a floodlight pylon was brought down.
The wind went on to Europe and created a disaster in Hamburg.

Bramall Lane is the oldest stadium in the world to host a professional football match and with the Oval, the two grounds are the only two have hosted both football and cricket (v Australia 1902) internationals, and an FA Cup Final 1912 and of course Bramall Lane is home to the Eagles rugby league team. The Sheffield ground has also hosted concerts, and gatherings for Billy Graham.

The first football match between Sheffield FC and Hallam FC took place there on 29th December 1862, raising money for the Lancashire Distress Fund, sadly with a 0-0  draw.

On 14th October 1878, Bramall Lane hosted the first ever floodlit football match between "players of the Sheffield Association", where a crowd of 12,000 turned up to witness the event. Although the pitch was floodlit the terraces weren't, so there was a disaster hazard in line!! There is a great report on the game linked here.
http://www.chrishobbs.com/firstfloodlitfootball1878.htm

UP THE CANARIES-NOT NORWICH

This is a late one but I have been up since 5am and travelled to 1300km south of Spain and 100km west of Morocco. Yes, I am in the Atlantic where rowing boats head out from; this is the Canary Islands and after a nice plane journey courtesy of Thomas Cook and Condor we then had a four hour wait in Tenerife before catching the ferry to La Gomera.
It was 9.30pm before we settled into the buffet in the Hotel Jardin Tecina.

It was heaving down in Tenerife when we landed but as we left the harbour the sun was shining (setting) drying everything up. I got a glimpse of the floodlights at the main stadium.
No time to have a look at the 25,000 capacity pitch on the island, the home of CD (Club Deportivo)Tenerife (see badge below), a team etched out of the 907,000 Canarian popuation with, no doubt, a few foreigners in tow. Founded in 1912, the club adopted its present name in 1922 and has played in and around the Segunda (see below) in the Spanish pyramid, once reaching the UEFA Cup semi-finals under German coach Jupp Heynckes. They eventually lost to Schalke.There are a lot of Germans on the island!

The "La Liga" club in the Canaries is UD los Palmas from Gran Canaria, where a larger population, 846,000, boosts a decent club once graced by Juan Carlos Valeron. Pedro Rodriguez and David Silva have also trod the local turf.

La Liga 1 is of course the top notch Spanish league competing with 20 clubs. La Liga 2 has 22 clubs. Then there is the 3rd level, Segunda B, Groups 1/2/3/4 entertaining 80 clubs and then Tercera with 18 groups and 20 clubs in each. after that we get to the Regions....bit like Pyramid 7?
The good news is that they all enjoy the marvellous game and it is better than bull fighting. Well, I thought this was an example of the "national sport".
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4124330/Fathers-start-bloody-FIGHT-watch-children-play-football-one-left-covered-blood-needing-hospital-treatment.html

KELLY SMITH-LADIES' DIEGO

Kelly Smith OBE (awarded in 2008) has announced her retirement from Ladies' football at the age of 38. Probably our most well known lady footballer, she began her footballing career at Garston Boys Club in Watford in the early 1990s. She was top scorer and then was not allowed to play because an opposition parent complained about a female playing in male football. Her dad ran Pinner Ladies so she joined up with them until her debut in senior football with Wembley Ladies in 1994. Kelly then joined Arsenal Ladies and gained her first England cap in 1995.

It was her time in America that raised her profile, having described English Women's football as a "joke"  (back then). She went from further education in England at West Herts College to Seton Hall University a Roman Catholic College in New Jersey. During her time at Seton she set all kinds of records with Seton Hall Pirates and actually had her No 6 shirt "retired" when she graduated in 1999. In three years she scored 76 goals, being named "Big East Offensive Player of the Year" twice.

After college she joined New Jersey Lady Stallions (confused???) and in 2001 went to Philadelphia Charge where she suffered the first of many injuries, this time to her ACL. She recovered and transferred to New Jersey Wildcats where she then broke her leg.

This bad luck led to depression and drink dependency, so she returned home to Arsenal in 2005. The Sporting Chance Clinic helped her recover and in 2006-7 Kelly scored 30 goals in 34 games for the Arsenal ladies in what was their Quadruple Winning Year.

She did however miss both legs of the 2006-7 UEFA Cup Final having been sent off and suspended in the semis for "giving the opposition fans the finger"!

Kelly returned to the USA east coast playing for Boston Breakers, though more injuries hit her form and she eventually found comfort at Arsenal again in 2012.

In November 1995 she made her debut for England at just 17 years old. Prior to that she could not play in the 1995 World Cup because she was sitting her GCSE exams! There were also times when college in the USA would not allow her time off to play for her country. Between 1995-2014 Kelly played 117 internationals coring 46 goals (a national record) and 4 for GB in 2012 Olympics. She retired fom international duties in February 2015, having once been described by England coach Hope Powell as the women's equivalent to Diego Maradona, a player with a unique talent.

CELEBS AT THE BEVEREE.

I did try to find a football related "Tony Hancock" episode but although there was one involving Tony having 7 draws on the pools, with his eighth selection a late kick off. The story goes on with usual chaos and brilliant one liners from Hancock and his side kick Sid James. Unfortunately although I did try to download the relevant episode, I gave up when there were too many questions being asked of me. You might try?

Tony Hancock leads me onto Hampton and Richmond Borough FC, whose President happened to be Alan Simpson, one half of the comedy script team that created Hancock, Steptoe and Son and other classics. His ceative chum was Ray Galton, pictured here.

Simpson (on thr right), 87 years old, died this week; he was a regular non-league supporter, having started as a Brentford follower. Finding a Brentford league game impossible to get to one Saturday in the 1960s, he went to his local club, playing in the Spartan League and fell in love with it. He enjoyed a free flowing match played on a slightly sloping, tree-lined pitch, supported by "lovely people". He stayed.

An appeal for floodlights interested him and from that time he raised money for the club by speaking at dinners at the Hampton club house, The Beveree, as well as a guest at other clubs. The "Beavers" club house became his "local" and he blended in seamlessly with local volunteers. Steptoe and Son (Harry H Corbett and Wilfred Brambell) helped out opening the club's summer fetes, and knowing that 28 million BBC viewers watched their programme at its pomp, there was a good turn out.

His writing partner was not particularly interested in football but they gained a reputation and even spoke at the PFA Awards' Dinner. Simpson was a widower, had no children and made the Beveree his home, where visitors would find him with a glass of red wine and ready to chat about football. His last game was just before Christmas but he became ill and died last week. He always had The Non League Paper delivered.

Another celebrity, Martin Tyler, the TV commentator, is presently first team coach for The Beavers. looking after this National League South team that is presently 6th in the division. Winifred Atwell was a patron in the 1950s and Brian Barwick joined the Board in 2009.

H&RBFC stadium, The Beveree.

MORECAMBE AND PIES

Yes, of course you know, the Pirates beat the Grecians yesterday 3-0 in the Devon derby. I hope you like the little joke in the above title.
The real news for me was reading abnout the "free pint and a pie" day at Morecambe FC, courtesy of manager Jim Bentley and SkyBet. Yesterday the Lancashire club beat Cambridge United 2-0 in the League Two match, condemning the University club to their fourth league defeat on the trot. I could make a joke about the Cambridge boys being more likely to enjoy a cucumber sandwich rather than tuck into the "BEST PIES IN THE LEAGUE", but I won't.
Who says the best pies come from the Globe Arena? Well football and fan and pastry connoisseur Martin Tarbuck says so, as he recommends pies produced by Morecambe's head chef, Graham Aimson. The Lancashire Hot Pot pie apparently hits the spot.

In a census on best "League" pies, I was surprised not to see Rochdale get a vote; I went there a while back and the pie I chomped into was excellent.
Top venues however appear to be:
Yorke's Pies at Dundee-both grounds Dens' Park and Tannadice serve the Scottish Tin Shaped peppered steak pie. Quality.

Clarks' pies at Cardiff City, so Ian Holloway says, source the best pies from his home town Bristol. The sumptious feast will leave you with a "Clark's Tache", so you will have to lick your lips.

Then there are Killie Pies at Kilmarnock, Piglets' Pantry at Brighton, where Steak and Blue Cheese with a pint of real ale is the norm. Posh on the south coast, aren't they?

I also discovered that the Macaroni Pie at Aberdeen is a favourite....heaven knows what goes on there.
Whatever, have a look at Martin Tarbuck's "Life of Pies";
http://www.pierate.co.uk/p/football-pie-league.html

PILGRIMS v GRECIANS

Looking out the window at the snow falling, I have no live football to watch. many games around the country will continue however and I hope that the wintry conditions will not affect today's Devon Derby of Plymouth Argyle v Exeter City. The first match between the two was held on the 6th February 1909 at Argyle's ground.

The Pilgrims have just flown back from Marbella where their forward thinking manager Derek Adams had arranged a "winter break" for a squad that includes 5 new players from the transfer window, a good way to integrate the new comers. They will, no doubt, have completed their initiation at the club's training ground, Harper's Park, with the club hoping to maintain its good form that has kept them 2nd in League Two so far.

Argyle FC was formed in 1886 and adopted their present name when they joined the Southern League in 1903. Their ground, Home Park, is an impressive stadium rated as 37th largest in the Football League.

The Grecians, Exeter City FC, were once known as Exeter United FC and they played St Sidwell's United in 1901. After losing to St Sidwell's in 1904 the present name was adopted. Their home is St James' Park, Exeter United's original ground. Like many other clubs, Exeter United was also a cricket club, St Sidwell's was a Weslyan Church and they all gathered at the Forresters' Arms, a pub!

In 1908 the Exeter City joined the Southern league, taking the place left by Tottenham Hotspur, who moved up into the Football League.

In 1914 the club toured South America to promote the game of football and they played fixtures in Brazil, one against the national team, the first "international match" with a South American country and then in Argentina. As a result Exeter are still linked to the Fluminese club and celebrated the 2014 century by visiting Brazil again drawing with Fluminese U23s 0-0 and beating Tupi FC from Minas Gerais and the Rio Cricket club.
Exeter became founder members of the Third Division of the Football league in 1920. We all know about the club's decline and subsequent return to the Football League in 2008.

Paul Tisdale's improving side hope to reverse the score of this season's earlier League Two derby match played at Argyle that ended 2-0.
If City win today it will complete an 8th consecutive victory, a club record. This will please their owners, the Exeter City Supporters' Trust.

CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY, LEE.

I do like a football programme. I can be excited by Talksport or Soccer AM but it is the match day programme that entertains me, especially the page that lists all the home club officials.

Swindon Town looking to be on their way out of Football League Division One, have an impressive list of support staff and the introduction of Tim Sherwood (of much Premier League fame) has thrown certain Swindon Town supporters into confusion. Tim is Director of Football with responsibility for all aspects of the club's game, transfers, the way the club plays, formations and picking the team. Tim is a close friend of club investor, owner and chairman, Lee Power. Power played over 160 senior games and owns Waterford FC in the ROI and has run Swindon since April 2013.

Luke Williams is/was Head Coach? and Ross Embleton 1st team Coach?; I wonder how much input they have?

Since Tim Sherwood joined up, Swindon won the first match against Charlton 3-0 in November, Sherwood did the half time talk but since then The Robins have lost embarrassingly to Eastleigh 1-3 at home in the FA Cup, they are languishing towards the wrong end of League One (20th/24), having won only once since December 12th, even losing to Rochdale 0-4 en route.
Played 30 league games W 7 D 8 L 15 F28 A 44 Pts 29.
If things get worse who will be to blame? Maybe the away game v Bury (22nd) this weekend will decide?

Mind you if you looked at the long list of managers since July 1989, there is little consistency in history. (C = caretakers):
Ossie Ardiles, Glen Hoddle, John Gorman, Steve McMahon, Jimmy Quinn, Colin Todd, Roy Evans, Dennis Wise, Andy King, Iffy Onuora, Cs, Paul Sturrock, C, Maurice Malpas, C, Danny Wilson, Paul Hart,C, Paolo di Canio, Cs, Kevin MacDonald, Mark Cooper, C, Martin Ling, Luke Williams, Tim Sherwood. Longest serving? Andy King 193 games. There have been FOUR managers since October 2015.

ABOVE HEAD HEIGHT

Papers, Talksport and Amazon this week have been revealing the excitement of "five-a-side" football in a book called "Above Head Height" by James Brown and published by Quercus. It is one of those books we could all write, based on our personal experiences with the wonderful game. James' book has managed to get him on the public stage and fair does to him.

The book was sparked by the untimely death of a footballing colleague, James Kyllo, who played regularly with James and others. They were all there at his funeral, a motley crew who met on Wednesday evenings for 5-a-side and Sundays for 9-a-side. It didn't really matter about numbers, so long as the sides were even. Sometimes they played indoors on wood, sometimes outside on astro and occasionally on grass. This short clip is quite funny!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/best-5-side-goal-you-6198819

Which brings me to "our" Walking Football at Penistone Church FC, which began about a year ago and is still hanging in there. James from PCFC ran the first series of meetings on the club's astro and was given funds by Sheffield and Hallamshire FA to establish Walking Football at one of their clubs. This is part of the FA's mission, spreading the great game to all corners of the country.

Fair enough, the funds bought a strip (black and white striped shirts and black shorts), some balls and cones and bibs; all vital stuff to run a game of casual small-sided football. But the FA wanted more than just casual play, the point being that we would enter tournaments and makes the whole affair bigger, justifying the TV advertisement sponsored by Barclays-you may have seen it?

We tried quite hard to get numbers, advertising in local shop windows and at the club, but Walking Football is aimed at 50+ year olds so numbers varied from 4 to 12. Sadly, there was never a regular group large enough to say we were going to make waves in the 5-a-side tournaments at Rotherham or Doncaster. Actually we did play at a couple of tournaments but these seemed a little bit too competitive for us elderly gentlemen so we agreed to keep it low key.
We have cut back our ambitions playing only friendly games once a week at 4pm. This is just right for us retired folk but of  course we might be missing out on some "youngsters" (50 year olds??) who might be at work at 4pm on a Thursday.

So the new tournament kit is not used and we wear our own clothing, enough layers to keep the Pennine weather out of our blood. We don't really know everybodies' surnames and certainly don't know one another well enough to use nicknames, snatched christian names are just about appropriate. There's Steve the Professor, Brian the Jock and Patrick, who last week turned up for the first time, a professional brass player, he lasted about 35 minutes before he pulled a calf muscle. That might have been because this was the first time he had got above a jog for years. He didn't warm up mind you,none of us did, reckoning our long experience did not warrant such trivialities. Believe me walking football uses muscles we haven't discovered for decades.

I could write a book about this, but it has already been done by James; nip out and get the book. It's cheaper on Amazon by the way.

PUB OR PULPIT

Dial Square was Arsenal's original name, a place in Woolwich where the armaments made. Sensible having a bomb factory in an urban area. On December 11th 1886, David Danskin, a Scot living in North London got togther 10 friends to play a match that would eventually become Arsenal FC. The club was first known as Royal Arsenal and then Woolwich Arsenal. Danskin and his chums got off to "banging" start with a 6-0 win "firing" of Eastern Wanderers.

Here are some more "original" names of our famous football clubs:
AFC Bournemouth-Boscombe St John's Institute
Everton-St Domingo's FC, a New Connexion Methodist Chapel at St Domingo's House built by a West Indies trader and sugar boiler, George Campbell, once Mayor of Liverpool.
Liverpool-Everton FC and Athletic Grounds Ltd after a dispute between the Everton committee and the land owner at Anfield. Everton went to Goodison and John Houlding formed Liverpool FC
Manchester City-West Gorton St Mark's later known as Ardwick AFC. A church side with a cricket club hoping to stem a local gang culture in the area
Newcastle United-Stanley FC from Stanley Cricket Club in Byker. The Newcastle East End FC.
Stoke City-Stoke Ramblers were formed by old boys from Charterhouse School in London, who were working on the North Staffs Railway works in Stoke. The club merged with Stoke Victoria CC.
Tottenham Hotspur-Hotspur FC were grammar schoolboys of All Hallows Church Bible club and the Hotspur Cricket Club.
West Bromwich Albion-West Bromwich Strollers worked at George Salter's Spring works and who played cricket for the firm. They had no footballs so had to walk to Wednesbury to get one?? Albion is an area in West Bromwich where a lot of the players lived.
West Ham United-Thames Ironworks FC formed by workers at the factory.

Note that "cricket" appears a few times maintaining physical activity (and maybe "distraction" from alcohol) at weekends over the 12 months. These were often church related with local priests eager to keep his flock under control.
Blackpool was Victoria FC (1887) formally a church club from Caunce Street, 

Barnsley-was originally St Peter's, Bolton-Christ Church FC, Fulham-St Andrew's Church Sunday school, Southampton-St Mary's Young Men's Association, Wolverhampton Wanderers-St Luke's FC.

Here is Tiverton Preedy doing good work with the youth of his parish...maybe not Barnsley FC yet but you get the drift.

ONCE KNOWN AS

Just as some light relief from demonstrators at Arsenal (bit of a clue for a question later one),

the African Cup, Leicester City and what will happen to Klopp?,
I found a list of original club names.We all know Manchester United were once known as Newton Heath LYR FC and Birmingham was Small Heath.

What about these 10 (with foundation dates):
AFC Bournemouth 1890, Arsenal 1886, Everton 1878, Liverpool 1892, Manchester City 1880, Newcastle United 1881, Stoke City 1863, Tottenham Hotspur 1882, West Bromwich Albion 1878 and West Ham United 1895.

Bristol Rovers were known as the Black Arabs (1882)
Coventry City- Singers FC (1883)
Leyton Orient- Eagle Cricket Club (1886)
Oldham Athletic- Pine Villa (1895)

Have a look

MUNICH REMEMBERED

So it is the 59th anniversary of the Munich Air disaster. I can remember the news coming through on our "wireless" and I was just old enough to realise the enormity of the event.

United were defying The FA ruling by taking part in the European Cup. At this time clubs were discouraged from joining in the tournament, but Sir Matt Busby wanted to test his successful team which had won 3 league titles between 1952-57 and appeared in the FA Cup Final in 1957, losing to Aston Villa.

23 people died in the tragic air crash that took place in Munich as the squad were flying home from Belgrade (having played Red Star), in terrible snowy and icy conditions. The stop off was needed for refuelling, the continuing of the journey not sensible considering the state of the runway.

Eight players died (7 at the scene), 3 staff (William Crickmer-secretary, Tom Curry-trainer, Bert Whalley-coach) and 8 sports' journalists, including Frank Swift an England international goalkeeper working for the News of the World.

The Seven United players who never came home were; Tommy Taylor, Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David Pegg and Liam Whelan.

Duncan Edwards, a giant of a man who was to be the next great England footballer, died 15 days later not recovering from his injuries.

Matt Busby and Bobby Charlton survived but were gravely ill. Busby eventually recovered to run the successful "Busby Babes" and of course Bobby played a major part in both United's and England's successful future.

Jackie Blanchflower (brother of Danny) also survived but never played again as did John Berry.
Harry Gregg, the goalkeeper, survived and played for United in the 1958 Cup Final. Bela Milos (travel agent) and Willie Satinoff a friend of Busby and a racecourse owner also came through the ordeal.

The pilot survived, his co-pilot did not.

FOOTBALL v HOSPITALS?

It isn't easy living in Syria. It certainly isn't easy being a footballer, what ever your "leanings". Six years of internal war has taken its toll.

Many footballers have "joined" the revolution. Others who don't support ther movement may end up in prison. Four young players were beheaded in July 2016 for "spying". Another legendary international player, Jehad Kasseb, was interned for "rioting" and tortured to death in October 2016. Some have left the country and some have refused to play for the national team. Firas Al-Khatib has gone to China. Tareq Hindain plays on to show "allegiance to the flag".

At home, the Syrian football season was called off in 2010-11 and the league "declined". A part time domestic league was reformed with some of the top clubs mainge alterations to their usual arrangements. For example, Al-Ittihad from Aleppo and one of the country's most successful clubs, fielded a 3rd string side. A-Karamah now "play away". Their traditional stadia are used by the militia sometimes as detention centres and are neglected, with brown pitches and damaged infrastructure. FIFA investment may not be used for correct purposes!

Clubs from Damascus have more stability and some games are played in the coastal, regime held city of Latakia. Aleppo is less fortunate having not seen club football since 2012. This week Al-Ittihad played and beat rivals Al-Hurriya 2-1 in the city held by the regime in the west and the rebels in the east.

Homs Football Club reached the 2006 Asian Champions League Final, the national side "Qasioun Eagles" were successful in the 2011 Asian Cup qualifying.
Ironically after much huffing and puffing, the national team was banned for the 2014 World Cup for fielding an illegal player.

The Syrian "Eagles" are however in quite good shape, playing qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia. There's a political coming together and a plan. Friendly international matches have to be played "away", sometimes in nearby nations such as Oman, where there are friendly, neutral grounds.

The first qualifying round included Afghanistan, Singapore, Cambodia and Japan. Syria came second, behind Japan who beat them 3-0 and 5-0.

In qualifying round 2, they have lost to Uzbekistan 0-1 away, drawn with South Korea at "home" 0-0, beaten China away 1-0, and lost to Qatar 0-1 away, drawn with Iraq 0-0 at "home" and they have Uzbekistan again at home in March.

At present Syria is ranked 96th in FIFA.

A recently proposed football match between the Regime and the Civilians and Rebels was suggested over social media but viewed with suspicion as a publicity stunt. Football v Hospitals.

JOE WALKS TO LIQUORICE CAKE

Pontefract may be well known for its liquorice cake but the town's "collieries" team is making a name for itself in the North Counties East Football league Division One. They are second in the division behind AFC Emley who are comfortably at the top. Today Pontefract Collieries established a wider gap between them and Penistone Church, who sit in 4th place, now 11 points adrift. Promotion looks like a dream at the moment for Church. For the "Colls" it might be a cake walk.
http://www.pontefractliquorice.co.uk/

It was an unattractive match which the liquorice boys won 2-0 after a lively second half when both goals were scored. Church having played on Thursday in a cup match struggled to keep up with the "collieries" team.

The "Colls" is a relatively young club (1958 originally) founded with players from the Prince of Wales Colliery. When they established their ground at Beechwood Lane they filled the stand with seats from the old Maine Road ground.

At the Church ground today was Joe Quest (may not be his real name) who is on  quest to raise money for cancer research after losing a close member of his family to the illness. Joe is 77 years old and walks and hitchhikes the breadth and length of the country to football grounds, premier, football league and national. Joe had come from Bamber Bridge and so far has covered over 44, 000 miles on his journey. He keeps a record of every match and has team sheets as proof of where he has been.

He once got to Ipswich so late that he only saw a short part of game, so he had to do the whole thing again, He has covered over a 1,000 grounds and watched matches on every visit, collecting money from the punters. All this supported by the FA.

His "walk" began on 23rd January 1999 and he is still going. I spoke to him today and we swappoed a few thoughts about non-league football. I did learn from him that his wife thinks he is "crackers".

TON UP

Name the players who have scored 100 plus goals in the Premier League? Crouch is one, you know that. But what of the rest?

Let me help you: 9 are not English. You can guarantee that there won't be a Scot amongst them. Sorry but there might be a Welshman and an Irish.

Shearer is top with a huge 260, Rooney next 195, Cole 187, Lampard 177 from midfield, then comes the first overseas player in 5th.....but who?  

After are Fowler 163 , Defoe (still slotting), then Owen 150, Ferdinand 149- Les of course, Sheringham 146 , VP, JFH, the Irishman, Anelka, a West Indian of sorts, can you guess the rest?

Some still playing.....Darren Bent for goodness sake is 23rd with 106. Crouch is 25th equal with Le Tissier.

Who is missing?   

CROUCHY DOES THE ROBOT. NANCY DOESN'T

I would be very happy to write up a blog this evening BUT the internet is SO SLOW here in the Pennines that I wonder if I shall ever get one finished. Mind you, it is midnight, I have been to Huddersfield Town FC this evening to see the Terriers wop a woeful Brighton and Hove Albion 3-1 in the Championship, so I am starting late into the night.

The West Yorkshire club is now even more likely to get into the play off places following a terrific display. By all accounts this was their best performance of the season, SO FAR. The Seagulls have to journey home and need to rethink their future performances. Over 20,000 watched the match. Leeds next.

Let us celebrate dear old Peter Crouch who seemed to be on the scrap heap but who has bounced back with his 100th Premier League goal. He reached this total with 159 games with Stoke and 37 goals, Liverpool 85/22, Tottenham 73/12, Portsmouth 38/11, Aston Villa 37/6, Southampton 27/12. 419/100 in total.

Born in Macclesfield, he started his career at Brentford and then QPR as a youth player. He began with Spurs, went on loan to Dulwich Hamlet and Hassleholm in Sweden briefly. He also went on loan to Norwich whilst with Villa.

His international selection earned him England 21 and B caps and 42 full caps. His main claim to fame is being married to model Abbey Clancy and dancing like a robot as part of his goal celebration.
Note Abbey is not dancing like a robot, Crouchy is.

LOONS AND TOFFEES

I am writing about Charles Lyell because he was born on March 27th (my birthday) a tad before me, in 1939. He died on January 10th this year. The other reason that his obituary grabbed my attention is that he was a great fan of the "national game".  Born to the 2nd Baron Lyell, he was privileged no doubt and went to Eton and inevitably Oxford University. Privileged or not, his father was a war hero who served in the Scots Guards and was killed in action in Tunisia, earning a posthumous VC. Charles did his national service too, in peacetime of course.

At 21 he took his seat in the House of Lords and at his death was the third longest parliamentary peer. Unmarried the barony died with him!

Enough of that let's get to the point; his great passion was Forfar Athletic and he was a regular visitor to Station Park. I presume he would have overseen a Forfar 4 East Fife 5 result at some time in his life. This did happen in January 1964 but the other way round! (James Alexander Gordon was almost overwhelmed. I hope you know what I mean?).

Charles became a club patron, always sponsored the final game  of the season and made his political colleagues aware of "The Loons". A loon is a north Scottish word for a "young man".

His hero was Archie Knox, a local lad in Angus, who played nearly 300 games in two stints for The Loons. Knox later became assistant manager to Walter Smith at Everton. Lyell became a shareholder at Goodison and in 2009 took The Toffees to play against The Loons to mark the Scots' clubs' 125th anniversary. His ashes were scattered at both grounds.

He had a wicked sense of humour which once manifested itself in St Tropez when concerned about the amount of nude bathing going on, he asked the local gendarmerie to visit the beach and gather up all the clothes and leave them in a pile at his beach side house. Lyell then stood by as various embarrrassed bathers attempted to regain their dignity by collecting their kit! Lyell was known to be a good swimmer and he represented the Lords v the Commons in the annual swimming gala. By all accounts he lost his trunks in one event. Not surprised that he never married!