Off To Belarus

 

We talked a lot in the last few weeks of Celia's life and one of the things that came up was football. She hated it, but it had been part of my life ever since my father took me down to White Hart Lane to see Spurs in about 1957.

My earliest memory is a match in which Newcastle and the great Jackie Milburn were defied by a goalkeeper called Ted Ditchburn, who was then approaching the end of his career. Ditchbuirn was so dominant, that he even missed a penalty. In the second half, Tottenham ran out winners by three goals to one. I'd also seen quite a bit of the famous double side, but I was also introduced to Ipswich, as my parents had retired to Felixstowe. So I lucky enough to see quite a bit of Ramsey's amazing championship side of 1961-62.

How would Ted Phillips have fared today? Very few people hit the ball as hard as he did, but would the modern light balls, just bend too much. We will never know.

When I looked at the England qualifiers for South Africa in 2010 with Celia, I said that if she didn't mind I'd go. Or at least I'd go to one or perhaps two of them. I remember her laughing about this, as she didn't feel she'd be here to complain. I hope I can be as relaxed when my time comes. Or at least on the outside.

So it was that I bought a package to Belarus from Sport Options and tomorrow, I'm off to Luton Airport for a very early start.