Well today is just another day, starting with the task of making a jug of juice and some apple and ginger shots for Louise and Toby, then dog walk across the Downs for an hour with Baxter.
Louise and Toby, Orsom Interiors Ltd, are out of the house by 8am for a meeting in Wolverhampton and won't be back until late afternoon. I have been given the role of company odd job man for the day, starting with delivering a dining table into a new build flat in the centre of Bristol. No problem, apart from trying to drive across the middle of Bristol, and job done in an hour. Next stop was to pick up a load of odd bits of furniture and take them from Clifton to Failand and into storage. This turned into two separate trips and by the time I got back to base it was around 1.00pm already.. just time to take Baxter out for a few minutes before the 30 minute drive over to Upper Langford to meet a delivery of sofas and chairs. Delivery made, sofas loaded and now need delivering again back into Bristol city centre, another 30 mins away. All done for the day by 4pm and just enough time to do a bit of food before heading over to The Wreck in Bath to watch some rugby. Steffan, my nephew plays for Bath Uni, and they are in the Combination Cup Final against Chippenham RFC. At the time of publishing the scores are all square with about 20 mins to go. Opening try was scored by Bath's number 8, Steffan Osman-Wiggan.
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A few pictures of the Footballers Golf Classic, players and winners, from Dubai, La Manga, Mauritius, Cape Town and Barbados. Apologies for the recent break in blog transmission, a week seems such a long time and now Ipswich Town have blown their chances of a play-off place, Bristol City are secure in the Championship under the guidance of Lee Johnson, unless MK Dons win all three games and City don't pick up a point! Leicester City are still top of the Premier League, Villa are gone and well gone too. Away from football today and Danny Willett was fantastic in winning The Masters, Andrew Johnson has his first win on The European Tour at Valderrama,and The European Ryder Cup team looks very strong and I believe will be stronger if Chris Wood makes the squad! Anyway at this time of year my thoughts are attracted by the fairways and greens of La Manga Club, in Spain. This is my favourite place ever and on the first Saturday of June, for the last 20 years, a group of ex footballers and like minded (?) golfers come together to fight for the right to wear the Green Jacket after four rounds of golf and more importantly five very sociable nights of eating, drinking and story telling. The footballers have an individual competition over 3 days, the first round on Sunday being more of a practise round (hangover recovery round) but in memory of the great Alan Ball, and similarly the teams play the team event over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Each footballer plays with four different teams over the four rounds and contributes to the team score each day. On the Sunday night after the welcome buffet the draw is made with a footballers name being drawn out first, that coincides with the first tee time on Monday, usually between 8am and 8.30am, you do not want to be that early!! Then a team is drawn out for that footballer to play with on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, bearing in mind that he cannot play with the same team more than once. With anything up to forty teams participating in the event the draw can take a while. The great thing about this tournament is that the majority of people have been taking part year after year and this is the only time they get to see each other, the same goes for the majority of the footballers, and the camaraderie is amazing. Late nights, too much alcohol and 80 degrees heat makes it a real tough week, but it is great fun and a very special and unique event. The FGC in La Manga proved so popular that Terry Mancini decided that he would take the event on tour. I first played in La Manga in 1999 and since then, with Mancini Events, I have been lucky enough to play in Dubai, Mauritius, Cape Town and Barbados. And you know what, I have loved every minute of every event, wins, losses, good and bad days, the company is always brilliant. The great thing about this tournament is that the majority of people have been taking part year after year and this is the only time they get to see each other, the same goes for the majority of the footballers, and the camaraderie is amazing. Late nights, too much alcohol and 80 degrees heat makes it a real tough week, but it is great fun and a very special and unique event. The FGC in La Manga proved so popular that Terry Mancini decided that he would take the event on tour. I first played in La Manga in 1999 and since then, with Mancini Events, I have been lucky enough to play in Dubai, Mauritius, Cape Town and Barbados. And you know what, I have loved every minute of every event, wins, losses, good and bad days, the company is always brilliant. On Friday 8th April I joined a great many others at Seven Hills Crematorium to pay my last respects to Bryan Knights, fellow member of the Ipswich Greyhound Regiment and a friend for nearly 40 years.
Having lived away from Ipswich for over 30 years I only got to see Bryan on rare occasions, usually at football and cricket matches or the regimental dinner. Bryan was unique. The occasion did give me the chance to see a lot of people who I hadn't seen in far too long. Bob Shelley for example, I used to live in digs next door to Bob back in the mid seventies, and have a 'full monty' breakfast at Jack's Cafe a couple of times a week. Shame he is not on BBC Radio Suffolk any more on a Sunday morning. I am sure that listening to Bob's 'humour' is all Louise used to come over to Ipswich for. Most of the local press lads were in attendance, Dave Allard, Neil Manning, Elvin King, Tony Garnet along with Brenner Woolley from BBC Radio Suffolk and Mel Henderson who used to produce all the match day programmes amongst other things for the football club. Raymond East, Essex CCC was another good friend that I was able to have a chat with, and share a beer with, once back at Gresham's after the service. Ray was a regular partner of Bryan's at Ipswich Golf Club, it must have been fun playing golf against a pairing of those two together. Everybody from The Colonel to David Sheepshanks and John Duncan were there to show their respects. Dan, the landlord of my favourite Ipswich Pub, The Greyhound on Henley Rd, along with his chef Brian were there and both in good form. Gloria Young has still not managed to shake Rex off yet, good to see them still looking so good and still enjoying each other's company after over 50 years together. Stan and Pat Singleton, Rick Jones who spoke very well, too many people to mention really, Bobby Ferguson, David Rose, Simon Milton, Jason Dozzell, Mick Mills, Allan Hunter, Steve Foley, Mike Noye,,just a few of the very many. In the very early eighties ITFC changed the style of play to accommodate the best players we had at the time. Although there were changes across the defensive line it still remained a solid back four.
In midfield it was a different story completely, with Muhren and Thijssen now established at the Club, who was going to play in the central midfield role alongside Johnny Wark? ITFC had gone from a team that won the FA Cup in '78 playing 3 in midfield and 3 up front to a side that had two great strikers in Mariner and Brazil but we were still one short. The one short (excuse the pun) was Eric Gates who, for a while in the reserves under Bobby Ferguson, had been playing just behind the front two strikers and very successfully! As Bobby Ferguson moved up to first team coach he was convinced that Eric could be the missing piece of the jigsaw and persuaded Sir Bobby to give him a chance. But that would mean Johnny Wark having more of a defensive role sitting in front of the two centre backs, this was Ipswich leading the way with what people were now referring to as 'the diamond shape'. It didn't stop Johnny from scoring from that defensive position, but more about him in a minute. At Leicester City I played with a lad called Ali Mauchlen, one of the hardest individuals I ever came across. Ali would get properly stuck in both on the pitch and anywhere else that he thought appropriate. A great defensive midfield player but not a goal scorer like Warkie. At Southampton I played just behind the great Jimmy Case, and what an experience that was, everyday there would be something that made you smile about playing with Jimmy, well it did if he was on your side anyway. Hard a rock, cute and clever as a footballer, better than people gave him credit for, a wonderful passer of the ball, sometimes his playing ability was overshadowed by his extravagances off the the pitch! There are so many stories about Jimmy that are best left for another day! Terry Hurlock was in the same mould as Jim, really tough and could play, someone you always wanted on your side in a practise match or a five a side training game. I never had the pleasure of playing with Graeme Souness but I always admired him both as a player and a person, and now a voice of sensibility on SkyTV. So, as far as being the best holding midfield player is concerned, Johnny Wark wins it hands down. He could've played in any side in Europe and still scored goals. He was leading goal scorer for Ipswich on many occasions, cool as a cucumber on penalties, devastating in the air without being the biggest, brave and composed in front of goal and always there to help out at the back. It was a standing joke amongst the squad that John would have the week off until Friday then come out have a five a side and a few sprints and declare himself fit for the game on Saturday! In the 80/81 season he played 65 out of the 66 first team games, a great achievement which meant stability for the team through the backbone of the side. Mr Reliable, Mr Dependable, Mr Cool. |
AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
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