Stretford Ender

He scored this one when he was playing for Fort Lauderdale. Some lamentable defending but it was still some goal.

My relatives lived in a one of the terraces north of the Common just off Stormont Road. Really nice place too and probably worth a fortune today. They moved away when my uncle retired and they moved out to Norfolk of all places.

Not to mention they've postponed the Euros and the Olympics. Two huge international tournaments scrapped yet the PL is such a special case that a restart is imperative. Cobblers. Anyone with an ounce of common knows why this is happening and it isn't because we've missed them. They are so transparent to all but the terminally gullible.

I don't think any of that has entered into the thoughts of the PL who seem to think the league is the be-all and end-all of professional sports.

I'd never have remembered that and back then, I could pretty much tell you who was in the Chelsea side. All right, confession time. I have relatives in Clapham, most of whom were Chelsea fans, and still are. My aunt (mum's sister) married a London lad in the war and they settled in Clapham, though he was originally from Hounslow.

MOTM in the 1968 European Cup final. Broke his leg at Maine Road in the following season and never regained his place and was sold to Luton.

1960s. Not sure who the CFC player is. Alan Harris? August 1971. Best gets sent off at Stamford Bridge for swearing at the ref. Charlie Cooke and Bestie trying a bit of ballet. John Hollins and Denis Law watching on.

I believe Hall sat on the telegram for a few weeks while he concocted a story for the Americans. When he did hand the telegram over, Woodrow Wilson sat on it too before releasing it in the middle of a Congressional debate where it served to "freeze out" the anti-intervention faction. At the time, there was a possibility that America would remain neutral but not much of one as the path to joining the British and the French had already been embarked upon.

We were a bit lucky with the Zimmerman Telegram. The Americans might easily have broken off diplomatic relations with us over that because we were essentially spying on our erstwhile allies. Its publication certainly angered the American public, especially when it was proved to be genuine, but I'm not sure it alone pushed the Americans over the edge. They were well on their way by that time and the main effect was to allow Woodrow Wilson to isolate the anti-interventionist lobby in Congress. I've even heard it said the the Zimmerman Telegram was the opening sentence to the Treaty of Versailles.

Watching 'Shadow of the Noose' again for the first time in a few years. An excellent dramatization of the notable cases of Edward Marshall Hall, one of the great courtroom orators of his day. It only ran for eight episodes so many of his triumphs are left out. The episode about Crippen was very good and shed light on the legal chicanery that surrounded that case, and the way in which Crippen was essentially betrayed by his solicitor.

'The Last Samurai' (not the one with Tom Cruise). Kenji Misumi's last film before he died in 1975. One of the best samurai films I've seen.

FC United? They're doing all right. http://www.fc-utd.co.uk/

Hush! That's America you're talking about! Associating the NFL with Karl Marx would get you lynched in some places. But, yes, you're right. The fans have to bend over and grab their ankles while the owners rake it in. Made me laugh when the Glazers rocked up in Manchester and referred to the club as a 'franchise.' A hack asked Joel Glazer who United's left back was and. judging by the look on his face, you'd think he'd been asked to explain Euclid's 3rd proposition. It was obvious that they were here for the money,

Quatermass was terrific. I saw the big-screen version about the Martians in the tube station. I think Hammer produced it. I remember Survivors from the 1970s and the opening credits with a Boeing 747 - fairly new at the time - coming in to land. I thought of that programme too when all this kicked off. We used to do some pretty good sci-fi back in the day but the latest offerings are pretty poor in comparison. The original Dr. Who with William Hartnell was quite scary for its time, especially the Daleks when they first appeared. Did you ever watch any of the old ITC stuff like Department S (brilliant) and Man in a Suitcase? One of our teachers carried his papers in an old leather carrier and was known as McGill ever after. Danger Man and The Prisoner, of course, are the standouts.