He must have been gutted not to be in the team for the 1966 World Cup Final when his replacement Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick and eventually received a knighthood. It took Jimmy many years to be awarded a winner's medal. I should imagine that all contributed to his alcoholism - something he successfully fought before re-inventing himself with the Saint and Greavsie television show which was the forerunner of so many football chat shows. I remember that show vividly. Jimmy Greaves was always ready with a quick quip and the duo made football chat programmes fun.
At the end of the tribute, presenter Dan Walker said that Greaves always had a word for everyone and also listened. He added that another footballer had said the following:
If you ask a person three questions about them and they haven't asked one about you they aren't worth your time.
How true this is. I know people, and I'm sure we all do, who are so wrapped up in themselves that they only want to talk about themselves. Mind you today we are urged at times to do just that. Others are completely the opposite and show a great interest in others and very rarely talk about themselves. Sitting here writing this I can think of two people who firmly come into that latter category. However much stress there is in their life and however difficult things are, they always want to know about me and what I'm doing.
I try to follow the listening rule, although I'm not sure I always succeed. But I think I will adopt the three question rule from now on.
* * *
Have you heard about the nonsense between Red Bull and Bullards? Red Bull are threatening legal action against Norfolk brewers Bullards who are a small company that make gin.
Red Bull is opposing an application to register the mark Bullards before the UK Intellectual Property Office because there may be some confusion between the names. And why is that confusion? Well Red Bull and Bullards both contain the word Bull!
And why do Bullards want to use the name Bullards? Well simply because Bullards was founded as a brewery in 1837! And that's long before Red Bull came on the scene. So shouldn't the threatened legal action be the other way round with Bullards claiming the confusion and the fact that Red Bull have transgressed rules.
It's not the first time Red Bull have done this. In 2013 they threatened another brewers Redwell with legal action because their name starts with the word Red and ends in ll.
This is the kind of namby pamby nonsense we have to put up with today. Mind you if I was with Bullards I would be having a right old laugh with this as it's jolly good free publicity for their brand.