Port Said Red

I heard a great nickname the other day, not sport's related but it made me laugh. This guy in the pub told me his boss was known as "pothole", because you either wanted to avoid him or fill him in"

Without wishing to belittle your memories Joe, I couldn't help read this and not think of "the Tiddlywinking Leapfroggers" as described by George in the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth. "George: Well, er, Jacko and the Badger bought it at the first Ypres front, unfortunately — quite a shock, that. I remember Bumfluff’s house-master wrote and told me that Sticky had been out for a duck, and the Gubber had snitched a parcel sausage-end and gone goose over-stump frogside. Edmund: Meaning…? George: I don’t know, sir, but I read in the Times that they’d both been killed. Edmund: And Bumfluff himself…? George: Copped a packet at Gallipoli with the Aussies — so had Drippy and Strangely Brown. I remember we heard on the first morning of the Somme when Titch and Mr Floppy got gassed back to Blighty. Edmund: Which leaves…? George: Gosh, yes, I, I suppose I’m the only one of the Trinity Tiddlers still alive. (Lummy?), there’s a thought — and not a jolly one." I see Strangely Brown as one of the great names in British comedy.

I think you may be getting mixed up. I think Popplewell may have had an MCC tour to his name, but I don't think he ever played for England. Mark Lathwell on the other hand did play two tests opening with Atherton and looked poor in a pretty poor England side.

You know as well as I do that the guy was crying into his cider after the 'boro and Southampton games, and jumping for joy inside when Saturday was over. His overarching default position, and that of this forum is negativity. Only here could two top quality wins against teams with a paper superiority, be overshadowed by one against a team that although poor were on an upturn of form and still had enough quality to go with a battling performance. Someone showed before the 'boro game that the points average required to get near the play offs was 2 points a game. Spot on after the first three games, lets see where it goes.

Just going by the thread in the Transfer Forum where a friends said that HWR told him he was going to be leaving to go to Bath C ity in the summer.

Wiles- Richards is one of the smallest goalkeepers I have ever seen at that level, no wonder it looks like he is being moved on.

I can't remember the name of the one in Lidl, it was one of those "when it's gone it's gone" deals, but the one I am using right now is Flora, both as a spread and in block and it's very good. I bought Vitalite Spread in Tesco's today as it was £1.50 with the clubcard, but I haven't tried it yet.

I was told recently by our practice nurse that my cholesterol had gone up a bit in my last check up. I said I put this down to the increase in baking and cooking I was doing since lockdown and retirement, which meant my butter consumption had increased. She suggested I try plant butter as it was very low in cholesterol. I was a bit sceptical as to how it would perform, but thanks to Lidl having a deal on that made it cheaper than dairy butter, I thought I would try it. Well, I have to say, my sponges are moister, both short crust and puff pastries for savoury or sweet products have drawn some great reviews from family and friends, and on my check up last week the nurse confirmed that my cholesterol levels had returned to their previous levels. If you look around you can find it in both spread and block form, and I would highly recommend it. I have tried several brands depending on price point, so far the results have been much the same for all, although some of the spread versions are easier to work with than others. Give it go if you haven't tried it, let me know what you think.

When they came for trials, the rules didn't allow Gloucestershire to take both Richards and Proctor, so they had to make a choice. They chose Procter for the bowling option, but it could have easily gone the other way. Richards was probably the best batsman in the world for long periods of his career along side his namesake from the Caribbean.

Just posted the same to my brother. So many things to remember, Hitting a hookshot into the benches at Nevil Road so hard that I thought the second sound was an echo, until I saw the ball bouncing back down towards the pitch. The flattest 6 I have ever seen. And this.... 4 wickets in 5 balls including Gordon Greenidge and his best mate Barry Richards. He always said he found it hard to bowl around the wicket in most English conditions because the ball would swing too much for him to control. But it all came right this day. Try playing spot the ball with the last one.

One of my all time heroes and responsible for some of the best days I have ever had at cricket. So many stories to tell. My uncle went on several tours with him for his charity team. On one tour he got the taste for a particularly well known lager. When they came down to breakfast in the morning, he wasn't there. My uncle asked where he was "he's out" someone said, "Out?" "Yeah, Stumped Stella, Bowled Artois"

Judging by our performances at Middlesbrough and then Southampton, I would suggest more walking football. Teamwork, angles, passing, positioning, all without exerting themselves greatly.

I think the issue has already been identified, not enough variation in our options. We miss a Semenyo type, witness his goal yesterday, if that type of player had been available in January and we could have done a deal we would have done. BT, said in his interview that it's a priority in the Summer, we still need mobility, but someone more physically equipped for these teams.

I think it's more likely that they settled down in front of the TV to watch them "gurt Sh•theads" get a hammering from Southampton. They always prefer us losing to them winning, and the what with it raining a bit and Stevenage being a long way and all that...... That went well for them though.

How prophetic this could be.....

I think I am right in saying that Duncan is already over 6ft with some growing to do. If that's right then Max is/ will soon be our smallest keeper at 6-1.

He was on loan to Swindon Supermarine for the first half of the season, I don't know if that was extended though.

This seems as good a thread as any to put this. We took a little walk up Clevedon Pier today and went around the museum. in one area they have a list of people with links to the area and I noticed this. It occurred to me that someone on here may even have memories of "young Johnny Ritchie"? It seems he wasn't there long, it's not even mentioned on Wikipedia, but I did find this. https://www.punk77.co.uk/punkhistory/sid_i_knew.htm

Excellent news, it's a position that can cost you a lot of money for a minimum amount of difference in performance, it's great that we have several young keepers on the books that are considered to have great potential. Or a posh estate agents.

Or it's another position that can be rotated and players kept fresh?

I thought that before Tuesday night, but there was that one run where he shrugged off the defenders challenge in the 2nd half that got me thinking he's stronger than he looks.

It will be good to see some of those 70's players on the pitch again. As an aside, my father in law lives in the same retirement apartments on WSM seafront as John Sillett's widow, she's a lovely lady and loves the City.

What that doesn't tell you on the face of it is who he had available for those games. I am not great at remembering these things, but how many times was it through choice, or because of working around who was fit and available. What ever the answer is, it shows that he is not blindly wedded to a set formation to the detriment of tying to fit players into a position they are not capable of playing.

I meant to post this a while back. Better late than never I guess, shame it's posthumous for Walter Becker. https://www.vulture.com/2024/01/steely-dan-rem-songwriters-hall-of-fame.html?fbclid=IwAR2pXMklTM3IQqZElkf5egIxOB94SYOTD2GSkF6W1zB6ZMT_2T4j-53WnOg