PHILINFRANCE

So, you’re calling me an old fogey ?. Whilst, Sobers aside, I could probably propose quite a few candidates for ‘greatest player’, even our own Sir Ian Botham, but their achievements were based on a general period of time, Botham’s Headingley Test aside. When I think of magical moments, however, the first examples that come to mind would be SW’s ball that dismissed Mike Gatting, but also the snorter that bowled Andrew Strauss; moments that made me say ‘Wow’. A massive six is great, but quickly forgotten, whereas I can still picture those two balls years later.

Crazy, but who were the two boxers?

I am not sure he was the greatest player of the last few generations, putting aside local and National bias, my choice (during my time of watching) would probably be Sir Garfield Sobers, but he was certainly one of the most charismatic.

But, apparently, the games were shown in Russia. I can imagine that went down very well, with stadiums bedecked in blue and yellow, players wearing blue and yellow armbands etc. I don’t foresee that continuing for much longer.

You may also recall their vile racist chants and behaviour when they came over here to play PSG in a Champions League match. They prevented a black man from entering a carriage on the Métro and sang about how proud they were to be racist. You might imagine how proud I felt the following day when discussing the incident with my French friends and colleagues. I watch quite a lot of German football (on German TV) and was never impressed by Tuchel, quite the opposite in fact. I even used to wonder how Jürgen Klopp thought about his protégé’s antics, both on and off the pitch. Since he has arrived at Chelsea, however, his whole persona seems to have changed (for the better). He is still very animated on the pitch - nothing wrong with that - but appears very warm and thoughtful when interviewed. I felt extremely sorry for him earlier in the week when he was facing quite ludicrous media questions on his thoughts about RA, sanctions and Russia/Ukraine, and thought he handled himself very well indeed.

I know you did, it was just a cheap ‘humorous’ retort.

I am not sure why you are knocking Matty Taylor, he scored again today ?.

Daily Quordle #40 ? quordle.com ??? ? ??? ? ??? ????? ?? ? ? ?? ????? ? ?? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ?? ???? ? ????? ??? I tried to rush it in time for the football.

Wordle 259 4/6 ?? ??? ??? ????? Got there eventually. Now for Quordle.

And that was the whole point about the way we (England) treated the legendary Shane Warne, the archetypal pantomime villain. I remember his dismissal of Mike Gatting very well: I had just come home and sat down with my father to watch a bit of cricket and have a casual sort of father/son chat. Neither of us was paying particular attention to the cricket, but then there was that bowl, and Wow. We were both speechless, and in awe of this new, unknown bowler - I was later to find out that I had seen him some years previously playing at Downend Cricket Club, although I really can’t remember him.

I suppose I should also add that, though he was a good and long serving player, I still resent that he became recognised as our player with most appearances (due to some dubious sub appearances - can you feel my bitterness?) over the player who, in my opinion, should have never lost that accolade.

Unfortunate that you felt it necessary to make that comment, but I thought the same and agree with you entirely.

I always thought SLR referred to a camera.

Wow, it is now leaking out on mainstream news sites. Shocking news. 52 years old!

I have seen no mention of this on any of the main News sites. I appreciate that there are far more important things going on in the world at present, but I hope you are both wrong.

I remember seeing some (quite sickening) pictures of him sitting with various England WAGS on his lap, but none of them really looked like Steve Lansdown.

It was many years ago now, but I remember those little four-pack cartons. As I said, my mother used to have one every Christmas, but, unlike yours, it was usually gone by Boxing Day ?.

Mixed with a brandy, presumably. In fact, brandy and Babycham used to be one of my mother's favourite drinks every Christmas.

Judging by the number of requests for 'Mates Rates' tickets, this looks like building up to quite an impressive attendance, particularly as Birmingham usually bring a large following.

They certainly can be if one is unable to interpret them. But, please tell me, what exactly in the stat that City had 13 shots on target leads you to interpret this as City failed to have even one shot on target?

A tricky Wordle today. Wordle 258 5/6 ? ? ?? ?????

It's a horrible feeling isn't it, when you get to line 7 and realise you only have two lines left and hardly any correct letters in the outstanding two boxes? We both appear to have had problems with boxes 8 and 9, and, I don't know about you, but my completion of box 8 was thanks to an inspired guess, which, luckily, gave me a third letter for my final attempt on box 9.

Thanks for that. We'll see if this works. Wordle 257 3/6 ? ?? ????? Ooh, it does. Thanks again.

I agree that the end result, losing to Hull, was extremely disappointing, but, for me, the post-match feeling (after Palace) was better and, of course, the build up to the Wembley final was fantastic. There was also probably the subconscious feeling in the back of my mind that we were going to beat Rotherham, whereas I was not at all confident against Palace - I actually watched both legs in a bar over here with a Palace Director, who was effusive about Noble’s goal and, to be fair, magnanimous in defeat after the second leg. I suppose, with hindsight, my feelings after Rotherham were of relief, that we had finally got out of that division, whereas, after Palace, my feelings were of expectation, euphoria even, that we were finally going to reach the promised land. After all these years, I should have known better.