An old school friend rang yesterday for a chat and pointed out that it was 50 years ago yesterday that Norwich City beat Orient 2-1 at Orient to win promotion to Division One (now the Premier League) for the first time in the club's history.
I was there that night. I was studying journalism at Harlow College. I obviously got the train from Harlow into London and to the ground. I don't remember anything about the journey itself but I do remember the match. I particularly remember the defensive display by Norwich as they clung on to that lead as Orient attacked non stop in the last 10 minutes. This was an all action Norwich team led by the torturer in chief Ron Saunders (the manager). The players were not the finest ever but they played with determination, passion and guts - unlike some Norwich teams I could name.
Saunders used to have players running up local hills with weights attached to their legs. We were the fittest team in the division and that saw us through. One of the images that will always be in my mind is the sight of full back Alan Black, red in the face with effort, kicking the ball so hard and so high that it went out of the ground. This was in the last minute and epitomised that team.
I was on Cloud Nine for days after. My landlady couldn't understand why I had this passion for the game and told me that one day I would get over it. Well I'm not as passionate as I once was about football but am still a season ticket holder at Norwich. Ironically 50 years on from that day it looks as if we are about to once again drop out of the top division.
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Well done to Wimbledon Tennis Championships for banning Russian and Belarussian players from their championships this year.
Apparently some bleeding heart liberals think this is unfair. One of them said it was neither fair nor justified. Well there's a simple answer to that - bombing Ukraine is neither fair nor justified and that's far more unfair and unjustified than banning a few players from a tennis tournament. These players also need to be banned because the organisers cannot be sure of their safety.
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It was a good day for fitness yesterday - two hours tennis, followed by a walk of well over three miles.
And it was a good day as I had coffee with one of my blogettes. It was lovely to finally meet Biddy at the legendary (well legendary in my book) Wymondham Courtyard Cafe. I'm looking forward immensely to meeting up with Biddy and her husband John when they are next in Norfolk. I know they have an interesting tale to tell that will certainly make a future blog. All about a certain stone!