Ex BBC sports staffer,specialising in football and cricket. Waffler at sports lunches/ dinners. Author. Last book The Official History of Sports Report.
Graceful tribute tonight by @vicderbyshire on @BBCNewsnight to Sir Alex Younger, who has died, just 62. For me he was the best of those talking heads on that sofa, wearing his intellect lightly & with good humour. RIP.
Loved the man and all 5 of these kits are some of my favourite ever ones. People would be losing their minds over the Hummel 'red' one. Bottom left and middle where superb, as was that Henson beauty. #avfc
Best England left-back I’ve seen. His misplaced header to set up Helmut Haller’s goal in the ‘66 WCup Final was his 1st serious error in the tournament. Fast, mobile, a terrier in the tackle. Very underrated.
The great Ray Wilson features in a @SpencerVignes article in the Express, today. He is one of the (relatively few) inarguably World class footballers to represent the Toffees in the post-war era. In 154 appearances, Ray set the benchmark for Everton number threes.
The game of Stan McCabe's 232 which Bradman insisted the Australians watch from the balcony such was the quality of the batsmanship on show ❤️
@RealMarkLatham
I don't think I have ever seen such an outpouring of love and affection for a public servant as we have seen for Alex Younger tonight on this platform and elsewhere. I hope his family are seeing this too.
So sorry to hear about the passing of Sir Alex Younger. Always enjoyed his wise & wry contributions on @BBCNewsnight and it seems he was last on just a few weeks ago. Always turned up the volume when he spoke, with so much insight.
I meant when he sat down & talked eloquently about cricket - not when caught up in his frustrations. It was when he tried to articulate those emotions that he was particularly interesting.
@patmurphybbc That’s as maybe, but he didn’t like it when I asked him to move his coat from a chair in the foyer of the Park Plaza Cardiff so I could sit down!
That was a superficial quibble,John, the gist of his criticism was well argued. The nub of it was ….. how did Key & McCullum manage to survive? Unarguable,surely?
@patmurphybbc Pat, I think he makes some very valid points however it does come across as a little bit stuffy. Many teams have failed against Australia and India and they didn’t wear fit-flops!
@patmurphybbc If I’d told Mickey Arthur he could only do a pooled interview and wasn’t allowed to speak to you he’d have given me v short shrift! And rightly so!
You get the measure of a footballer if he’ll do live interviews in the immediate aftermath of a damaging defeat. GM
was one of those. Took his responsibilities seriously. Total respect.
On This Day in 1906 the magnificently named John Elicius Benedict Bernard Placid Quirk Carrington Dwyer made his debut for @SussexCCC against @DerbyshireCCC at Hove and took nine for 35 in Derbyshire's second innings…