Jozzer RIP

Been a few day's since I've posted anything on here. Been a bit busy lately, but had got a few fun things to write about.

Then I found out that one of my best mates from years ago has died this morning.

I first met him when I was 17 as I started my working life in London and worked with him from 1978 until I moved up to Cheshire in 1991.

I got him into golf, he was, by his own admission not the best of golfers but he enjoyed playing!

I went down to Ross-on-Wye Golf club with a couple of mutual friends in June and we had a brilliant day there, just like the old days. We were planning an outing to North Devon to play Saunton Sands like we used to!

Then I got the news in September that he had been diagnosed with Cancer. Then today I found out he died.

So quick! But maybe in the circumstances that's a good thing!

You never knew Jozzer, but you'd have had a laugh if you did.

John Stokes..............RIP

Gutted, but what did I expect?

Not written anything for a few days now, but there have been valid reasons! Busy! And gutted by the latest disaster to befall my sacred Sky Blues (Coventry City to you non believers!)

We had done well to draw against a poor Premier side in Portsmouth at their gaff, but the replay was the ususal! We dominated the first half, Portsmouth were poor, very poor, but despite looking by far the better side (always a precurser to a Coventry Loss), we "failed to capitalise" as Gary Lineker would say!

anyway, having lead until the 89th minute, we concede an "own goal", with not Portsmouth player withinh 15 yards of the ball, but the Cov skipper, Steven Wright, beating Clinton Morrison (Cov Centre forward, helping in defence) to head the ball past Westwood our valiant keeper.

Extra time....................29:59 seconds of nothing, then a conceded corner. The ref should have blown the whistle! Surely.....but no.......panic in the defenders eyes, all huddled around the Pompey forwards.....the ball comes in and a completeley unmarked Portsmouth player in the middle of the box heads the ball past the despairing dive of Westwood!

Out of the cup to the poorest Premier side ever to play against us!!!! We beat a much better Blackburn side, at Blackburn....3-1 last year!!!

Bit what did I expect? We would have lost on penalties anyway.....it was pre ordained!

The 3rd Round is always around the date of my Birthday.....this year the first game was on the 3rd Jan, 4 days before my Birthday, the replay on the 12th 5 days after! There have not been many happy memories!

I'll do some research, but nothing will beat my 28th Birthday, Saturday January 7th 1989, when only 2 years after winning the trophy ijn 1987, we were beaten, ON MY BIRTHDAY, 2-1 by non-league Sutton United.......and most of the Cup Winning side were still playing!

It still gets referenced on telly every time before FA Cup 3rd Round along with Colchester Leeds and Hereford Newcastle.....but they went on to get League Status......Sutton never did!

So, actually, being knocked out by a (poor) Premier Side, in the 3rd round, near my Birthday is not actually that bad.........I feel a whole lot better now!!!

The King

Elvis Aaron Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, would have been 75 years old today.

I always remember this as it was the same date as My Nan and also the infamous Tony Chadwick!

What, you've not heard of Tony Chadwick, Stockports answer to Brian Sewell! (We'll cover this off another time)

There has been a lot of TV and press coverage of the fact that he would have been 75 today, but just think how much there would have been had he still been alive? There would have been wall to wall coverage of a live tribute concert with him dueting with Elton John, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Paul Mcartney and I'm sure Bono would have squeezed in somewhere, Phil Collins would have played Drums and I'm sure Eric Clapton would have got on stage as well, oh and Billy Crystal would have been compere!

Even if Michael Jackson had not died this year, he would probably have been "Persona Non Grata" following his attempt to tap up Lisa Marie!!!

But, on August 16th 1977, at the age of 42, he died, apparently seated on his toiliet, at Gracelands, his home in Memphis. Back in 1977, aged 16, I thought that 42 was quite old. Not a long lived life, but he had moved into another age level that was now out of kilter with the yoof of the day! Interestingly, my Dad was 39!!!

Everybody remembers where they were when certain world events happened, the Kennedy assassinations, Space Shuttle Explosions, Twin Towers 911 etc.

Well the morning that the news about Elvis's death filtered through to the UK, was as surprising as Jacko's death, in as much as there was no indication that there were problems. Princess Di, the Kennedy's etc. were shocking in as much as they were accidental/violent ends, but no one had Elvis on a list of expected celebrity deaths!

What we know now about the abuse of prescription drugs and eating habits were not really known in those days and for a 16 year old in 1977 they would have been of little interest!

So I heard of his death whilst, ironically, vomiting down the toilet, after getting drunk the night before.

I had an evening job, sticking skittles up for the local social club skittles teams. (It was a popular local sport in the west country) I was paid handsomely and the ladies team had reached the final at another pub and i was invited along, only to find out that the lad supposed to "stick up" had not turned up. So I stepped in, was supplied with copious amounts of "Shandy", but, as we won, I also imbibed in the contents that had been poured in the cup. Vodka, Gin, Sherry, you name it!!!

So the next morning, feeling very ill, I heard on the radio that the King was Dead!

I can't really comment on the coverage that day, or the next coupple of weeks, as that morning I was flying to Gibraltar on an Air Cadet Camp. But that's another story, for another day.

True, like any other artist, the Death of Elvis did wonders for his record sales and still does. I was'nt a massive fan, but I did like some of his music and everyone new Elvis.

I remember in Primary School a friend call Paul D'amato, did a fantastic impression of elvis at the age of 6!

Over the year there must be millions of Elvis impersonators, but I only recall one Elvis "Illusionists", Marco King.

Sharon and I went on Holiday to Florida in 1993 and shipped up at the Sheraton World Resort on International Drive in Orlando.

The hotel had a Brasserie Lounge and the neon sign outside the hotel advertised nightly Karaoke with Connie Brown. We headed there for our first taste of Florida entertainment! After enjoying the first evening, we noticed that the next night, after the normal Karaoke we could, free of charge, see the world famous Elvis Illusionist, Marco King.

So we made sure we got back in time for his show. It was really fun and he was good. The 70's Las Vegas version, but he sang to his backing tape and did all of the faux karate moves.

He was on again a few nights later so we decided to see him again. (By this time I had got into getting up for the Karaoke myself) and to be fair his show was slightly different, but at the end of his show, he got his girlfriend on stage and romantically, on bended knee, proposed to his Priscilla......Tammy!!! She accepted and there was hardly a dry eye in the house! Apart from the bar staff that is!

We were there for the second week and realised that this proposal happened every week in the second show!

He stayed after the show and the second week, he even got up after taking off his gear and joined in with the punters doing Karaoke. He was disgusted when he was asked to sing "always on my mind", the Pet Shop Boys version and walked off half way through!

We went back to the same hotel for about a week the next year and Connie was still runnning her Karaoke and Maco King "Elvis Illusionist" was still doing his two shows a week.

Unfortunatley, substance abuse of some sort had started to take affect, perhaps in an attempt to be more real to his illusion, but in a post show conversation, he told us that he and Tammy King had split up. He also told us that he had had no inclination to get into being an Elvis impersonator, sorry Illusionist until he actually met him. He had been hitching a lift to Las Vegas when a car pulled up and it was Elvis, who took him into the outskirts and dropped him off.

As Marco said "I touched his hand, he touched my heart"

Yeah Right Marco.

So the King is Dead, unless the rumours are true and he faked his death and he really is a 75 year old in a old folks home somewhere!

Happy Birthday..................

Yes, it was my Birthday today and yes I am now 49 years old.

I don't feel any older than I did yesterday, someone even commented I don't look any older than I did yesterday.

I don't feel older than I did 10, 15, 20 years ago, apart from the aches and pains from wear and tear, but I am 49.

For the past 6 months people have been talking about the fact that I will be 50 soon. Well now i'm into my 50th year! Bit it does'nt really bother me. Honestly.

I have recently got in touch, via Facebook, a lot of my old (not as in they are old), friends from Gammar School and even Primary School. When we chat about the old times, it still seems like yesterday. Bit our memories are 30 to 40 years old and a lot of things have happened in the past 30 to 40 years.

Anyway, I've been suffering from a dose of Man Flu, so the partying, if at this age partying for a Birthday is what you really want, was going to be limited.

So after a Hot Curry and a little bottle of Fizz at home, I opened my presents from the kids and tucked into my Birthday cake, just the one candle, no need to go mad. It was a Top Gear "Stig" cake and Josh was appalled when Shaz cut the Stigs head off!!!

Facebook is the future when wishing someone Happy Birthday and I have received Birthday wishes from loads of friends this year. Remember when you used to easily beat your age in the number of cards you received (well I did until I was in my 20's), well this year I have beaten my age in Birthday Wishes on FB.

Even better than that, a large number of my female friends have been telling what colour Bra's they have been wearing. (Some Facebook thing for the ladies in aid of Breast Cancer), but I thought it was just for my Birthday!

So, apparently I need to be sorting out a 50th Bash and I have 364(?) days to plan it so watch this space!

My Nan's birthday was the day after mine and it was the same day as Elvis's.

Elvis would have been 75 tomorrow........can you imagine what the celebrations would have been like......he was only 42 when he died and we all thought he was old!! Little did we know. (More on Elvis tomorrow!!!)

The slightest bit of snow..................

........and the whole country grinds to a halt!

Get real, this is nothing compared to most of the Scandinavian countries, Northern Canada, many parts of the USA and most of Russia!!!

This morning was a pain as I could'nt get the 45 miles to work in Telford, in fact I could'nt even get to the M6 motorway 5 miles away and if I had, I wouldn't have got far, but we hardly had 2 to 3 feet of snow.

All of the news channels were showing closed roads, railway lines and airports, but we kind of new it was coming, or did we!

The forecasters seemed to be telling us that there was more to come, but they did'nt see this coming! Or failed to tell anyone. Perhaps they are hedging their bets by suggesting that there is more to come, but they are "on the edge of their current knowledge!"

Our daughters first day back at Secondary School was delayed because they had'nt got the heating up to the desired temperature! This is the start of the January term! What did they expect? My son was so disappointed when he had to troop off to school and his sister went back to bed....and stayed there most of the day!

Thanks to the wonder of modern technology, I was able to work from home, but the impact on others must have been massive.

Then to cap it all, they said on the news that there are probably only 8 days worth of Gas reserves in the "grid" and Gordon Brown says we need to "turn down our thermostats"

It's winter! British Gas, forget selling Electricity and concentrate on getting us enough Gas! And not at a higher cost, that deliveres greater profits!

The severity of the forecast cold spell also changed from the worst in 10 years, to the worst in 30 years by 09:00 to the worst in 100 years at Lunchtime........not heard the phrase, "since records started", but that will probably be tomorrow!

Then at the end of this week, we'll get a bunch of rain and it will all be washed away!

And then it will be flood alert time again!!!

Perhaps if we had loads of snow, every year, like Scandinavia, we would be able to cope better, but then again no!!!

We're Rubbish at Snow!!!

It's about time.................

.......someone sorted out the ludrcious situation that we have a 15 times world champion in Phil "the Power" Taylor who has recieved scant recognition outside of his sport!

Look at the facts! If anyone, in virtually ANY sport, would have been knighted with only half as many world titles.

Let's do some comparisons:

Sir Steve Redgrave,  Rowing. 5 Olympic Gold Medals, 9 World Championship Golds and for good measure 3 Golds in a single Commonwealth Games. Fair enough, in fact a Knighthood is probably not enough!

Sir Matthew Pinsent, Rowing (again) 4 Olympic Gold Medals and 10 World Championship Golds. Obviously Dedicated.

Dame Kelly Holmes, Athletics. - Double Gold in Athens Olympics. Some achievement, but a knighthood?

Chris Hoy, Cycling - 4 Olympic Golds, 3 in 2008.

So perhaps "the Power" needs to wair for Darts to be an Olympic Sport?

What about other Sports? Sir Nick Faldo. Multi golf major winner, but not exactly liked by his peers and showed up as probably the worst Ryder Cup Captain ever!

Rugby, Sir Ian McGeechan, mediocre player, good coach especially for Lions, but a Knight Hood? Read the same for Sir Clive Woodward, mediocre player, England win world cup under his coaching? So what?

Gareth Edwards only got a CBE!

Football had Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton , Sir Alf Ramsey, Sir Geoff Hirst and Sir Bobby Robson, but that was for a fantastic carreers and, in some cases, helping to win a World Cup! Then there's Sir Alex Ferguson!!!

There are sone knighthoods for specific events, Sir Edmund Hilary climbing everest, Sir Francis Chichester, sailing around the world, Sir Roger Bannister for breaking the 4 minute mile!

Bit obviously Darts is not a populist sport, or perhaps more aptly a Public School Sport!

You could have bet your house on Tin Henman being knighted if he had won Wimbledon!

Ok, so maybe not a knighthood, but surely there should be an OBE or MBE (not sure what the difference is, or which is higher), but there's got to be something.

If the the PDC darts was on BBC, he'd be up there for Sports Personality of the year. He was nominated once, but got nowhere!

If you didn't see the final last night, or the Quarter and Semi for that matter, you woud have seen someone who has dominated every-one he's played this year and most of them are beaten before they step up to the Oche!

Apart from Whitlock, who played well in the final last night, but whenever Taylor needed to raise his game and hit an out shot under pressure, he did it. 170, 167 and 161 finishes ripped the heart out of his opponent!

And why is he so good. Natural talent? Maybe, but more like the dedication that he shows in practicing and his drive and determination, not just to win, but to throw the perfect dart EVERY time he throws! His technical ability has been forged on the practice board and he delivers under pressure!

Top golfers will know what he means, but no one really sees how technical a sport this is!
So come on, someone, sort this out.

If Kenneth Brannagh gets a CBE for sleeping with Emma Thompson, surely Phil "the Power" Taylor should get something.

I'm off to practice my Dominoes!!!!

The Drive in!!!

Well, formally driven in, down the 10th!!!

Rock hard fairways, partnered by Pete Keena (Pest Captain!), was keeping check on Drive distances all the way round!

Saw Paul Stubbs before I went out and he told me that Elaine, the Lady Captain had "driven in" the day before and hit a 167yard drive, so I had a target to aim for! Not the record held by Trevor, but to try to beat Elaine's score.

We had set up a sweepstake again, so if nothing else we would raise some cash for Help for Heroes!

So I had 18 holes to get the swing honed and prepare for the Drive in down the 10th. Ben Hallam, the Junior Captain was going to drive in as well and he wennt out with Luke Williams, another Junior, his Father Mark and an old colleague of mine, Rob Barrett!

Just over 200yds down the first, the next shot with a 3wood went 250 plus! (Perhaps I should hit a 3 wood....doubts setting in already!)

3rd hole 215, 4th 220, 5th 210, looking good!

7th, blocked into the water!

8th, we're off the back tees.......nice easy swing and with a kick off the "melling road", safely across...210.

9th was a bit of a cut shot, but still 190!!!

First go at the 10th and a nice fade off the tree for 226 yards. (I'd settle for that!!!)

12th and a solid 235yards, lay up on 13 and then tugged left on 14 into the hazard and 50p in the honest box!!! (Hit into any of the many water hazards on 14 and it's a fine to the Captain's Charity)

Solid drive, if safe up 15, but a pull left on 16 and on 18, not exactly the set up I wanted for my Drive.

After rounding everyone who had stayed to see me, it was off to the 10th tee. Added pressure as Shaz, the kids and Granny Mo were here to watch!

I asked Keith Tipping the Seniors Captain if he wanted a go, he said I could drive for him!

Rob Hendry had managed to make it and as President, he informed me that it had to be off the Blue Tee.

So GPS set ready to measure the drive, I set the ball on the tee and prepared to drive.

Surprisingly calm, I made a nice smooth sawing, but pulled it down the left. Oh well, it was a strong hit, but probably in the pond.

"That was for the Seniors!"

Up stepped Ben and a majestically youthful swin saw the ball launched down the fairway. Solid.

Now for my go (again)

The adrenaline must have kicked in as this time the ball felt solid as it came of the club, launched down the centre of the fairway with a slight fade! Crowd happy, it was off the check the distances!

First ball in hazard, on ice, checked.......221 yards

Second Ball in fairway......242 yards

Ben's ball........................277 yards.

Back to the clubhouse to announce the results!!!!


Thanks to everyone who stayed to support me and to those who got back. At 21, this was the biggest gallery I'd ever played in front of!!!

The Tradition of the Captains Drive In!!!!

Well, Christmas and New Year out of the way, or should I say survived!

Tomorrow comes the official Drive in as Captain a somewhat nerve wracking event, mainly because I've taken it upon myself to video the past three Captains performances and put them up on You Tube, so I guess this will have to be done this year! It's a tradition I guess.

Much like we now run a sweepstake to see how far the Captains Drive went! The record is 235 yards by Trevor Brennand last year, but this is hotly disputed by the previous years Captain, Pete Keena, who had the record at 225 yards, but he drove down the 1st fairway, unlike Trevor who changed the "tradition" and hit his drive down the 10th! It got a good bounce from the Frost hardened fairway as well.

Steve Cooke probably had the worst conditions, driving off the 1st Tee into a beastly headwind, he managed to hit the fairway, unfortunatley it was the 9th Fairway.

Rob Hendry could not believe that he only hit it 190 and to be fair it was a shock as it looked further, but we'd even got a proper "wheel yardage counter"

Now it's measured by GPS, so no room for error now!

I'm not too concerned about the record, or of making a complete fool of myself.....but it would be nice to at least hit a decent drive!

I've also tried to be a bit more traditional and get the Seniors Captain, Mr Keith Tipping and the Junior Captain, Ben Hallam, to drive in as well. Not necessarily to "spread the burden", but to give them a bit of the limelight!

Ben has done really well over the past couple of years having dropped over 12 shots in the last year or so. Mind you, he has the advantage of school holidays, where he gets to play hundreds of holes of golf and practice hours, without the distractions of adult life!

So I'll enjoy the round tomorrow and then hopefully hone the swing enough to hit a reasonable drive, down either the 1st or 10th. Not sure which one yet!

I hope I will be able to entertainthe crowd, assuming there will be one. My wife and kids will be there, so I'd better put up a good show!

Watch this space (and probably Face Book and You Tube!)