Some thirteen thousand of us were privileged to see the greatest rock and roll act on the planet open the new Leeds Arena with a mighty bang the other night…and what a night! The Boss was in town and Leeds was buzzing with excitement, basking in the hot sun and lapping up the cash rolling into the numerous bars and restaraunts as the long awaited arena opened its doors.
Archives for July 2013
The Road to Scarboro – Next Stop Headingley
The Villas veterans – dusty, burnt and sweaty – hobbled victoriously like battle scarred troops from the desert sun into the semi-finals of the Grey Fox Over 50s Trophy last weekend and now await their next opponents on Sunday August 18th at the famous old test arena, Headingley cricket ground.
This magnificent arena has seen some classic test matches and witnessed moments lodged into the history of the game including Botham’s famous test, where England came back from the brink against Australia, plus Geoffrey Boycott scoring his hundredth hundred again against the old enemy when I did my paper round in a record 19 minutes just to watch this.
In little over a month it will witness a bunch of old crocks limping around the vast outfield, hoping not to have to chase the ball so far as to need a golf buggy to bring it back and one game away from the final at Scarborough.
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Where Everybody Knows Your Name
They say we men get more predictable the older we get so in that case I claim to have bucked the trend for once, because for more years than I can care to remember, Sunday nights have meant beers at The Scruffy and largely in the company of the wit and wisdom of Big Al; we have been totally predictable for generations.
A few years ago one of our old friends, having escaped from Wife Number Two presumably having shinned down the drainpipe to avoid detection, waltzed in to find us sat in our familiar places and proclaimed “if I ever walk in on a Sunday and you boys are not here then the Earth really will have stopped turning”. And with a quick few pints it was back to captivity for him leaving us in the row of seats so aptly named as “The Coffin”.
MAN HUNT IN BRADFORD – EXCLUSIVE!
Local residents woke up the other morning to find a one-mile stretch of road in Bradford vandalised by a mystery person armed with…a big pot of white paint. Police have already ruled out Banksy but the hunt is on for the perpetrator believed to work for a local and highly secretive sect known as Bradford Council…
The Ashes of Club Cricket
I apologise in advance if you normally read this column in search of a laugh or two; this week has been somewhat numbing in the experiences it has provided, I have even had to interrupt my sun-bathing to bring you this. You may have noticed that the Ashes are coming to town next week, exclusively on Sky TV with ten back to back test matches against the old enemy and to hell with years of tradition; if the Murdoch empire gets its way, Ashes cricket will soon be on more often than Coronation Street and you will be able to tweet Joe Root as he opens the batting.
Meanwhile, equally oblivious to tradition and taking a break from counting its Sky wonga, the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has produced its national strategy document for club cricket. The reasons behind this are clear; even the ECB, drunk on Sky’s millions, has woken up to the fact that club cricket is on its uppers with falling numbers of players and those remaining in the game getting older by the year. The ECB farcically trumpet “record numbers” of young people playing the game but if that is the case then where are they on a Saturday afternoon then? Tweeting most likely.
Of course, this is a very serious issue for the recreational game but also for the ECB on high; when Lottery funding is divvied up, sports with declining participation numbers face the prospect of a reduced slice of the pie. Scooping up the Sky money may yet have a price to pay over and above those potential young players that simply have lost any sight of cricket as a game, last seen on terrestrial television in 2005. Its a classic double whammy not seen by the high and mighty.
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