Safe and Secure

I was leafing through The Times website when I this article about the Top 50 Spurs Players.

Now I was eleven when Spurs won the first League and Cup double in 1961.  I only went once that year and that was to the match where they were presented with the league trophy.  Incidentally, they lost and that has been typical of my football watchingf.  If I go, the team loses.

My father though was regular and had been at the Cup Final in 1921, when they had previously won the FA Cup.  He used to regale me with tales of such as Taffy O’Callaghan, Alf Ramsey and Ted Ditchburn.  I didn’t see any of them.  I should say that I was the one who would listen to his tales of football, so it was me who eventually got taken.  Mary just wasn’t interested.

But in the article they mention Tommy Harmer.

I never saw him, as he left Spurs before my father used to take me to White Hart Lane.  But my father had a soft spot for him, as Harmer was not unlike my father in being short in stature and wiry.  As my father would say, Harmer had more tricks than several hundred magicians.  He would delight in showing with all the actions how Harmer would take a ball from a short pass from a corner kick and then dance his way up the goal line into the penalty area.  (My father had form as a dancer, as he had actually appeared on stage! I don’t think he had been very good!) But Harmer was and in many cases he either got a penalty or the ball was laid back for someone to hafve a shot from close range.

I’ve never seen anybody do anything like that, although I’m told George Best did it a few times.

But I’d love to see someone have a go.

I did see an awful lot of Jimmy Greaves, Pat Jennings, Alan Gilzean and those of that generation in the later 1960’s amd early 70’s.

Those were the days.

But then I had my kids and life got rather restricted.

What a game!

I was trying to work and two of the lads from the pub had come round to watch the match on my Sky. When you live alone as a woman, you sometimes need things done and I find the pub a great source of people to do heavy jobs. So it was only a large chest to be moved, but I knew they wanted to watch the match.

But their shouting drew me to the television and in the end I watched it with them.  I was also keeping the peace as they both supported opposite sides.

I was a bit torn at the result.  My past wanted Spurs to win, as they will always be one of my favourite teams, but if they can’t win the Premier League, then I’d prefer Arsenal to do it, as they play attractive football and they’re not Manchester United or Chelsea.  Liverpool would be acceptable though.

In the end we all went down the pub to watch Match of the Day.  It was a good way to end a hard day’s work.

I should say that the party last night got off to a bad start as several had been to the Emirates for what appeared to be a routine win for Arsenal against Hull City.  Arsenal lost!

As someone who was brought up to be a Spurs supporter by their father, I didn’t miss any chance in rubbing it all in. 

Now, I’m really off to that swim.

As I’ve been actually serving, I haven’t read any more of the book.  AT will not be pleased.

It is a book full of surprises.

For instance, most of my knowledge of Germany in the 1920s and 30s has come from reading two books.  A biography of Einstein and one of Lise Meitner by Ruth Lewin Sime.  I was prompted to read both of these a few years ago, by my late husband.  These books didn’t really catch the hardships of the average German, but they did chart pretty well how the persecution of the Jews started.

Incidentally, Meitner wasn’t actually Jewish, as she’d converted to being a Christian, I think in her twenties.  Religions seemed to be a lot more interchangeable in those days.

So I was a bit surprised to hear about the hardships of those at the bottom in the Weinmar Republic. I’d seen pictures of the shopping during the hyper-inflation, but I’d thought that it had passed.

In the Einstein book, I was also very much touched by the show of strength when the Foreign Minister, Rathenau, was assassinated by an anti-Semite extremist.  His funeral was attended by about a million people.  This was something we thought had gone until Princess Diana.  But remember though in the early sixties, there were hundreds of thousands on the streets of Tottenham, for the funeral of the footballer, John White.

Now as Rathenau was Jewish, where did Germany all go wrong?

I’m learning more from the Wages of Destruction.

I thought of him as just a very good footballer for Spurs.  And I’ve seen him in the flesh.

But I didn’t realise that his mother has been leading the campaign to get the Bulgarian nurses released from Libya. He wears an armband of support when he plays.

It seems that at least the death penalty has been commuted.

Good.

Now let’s get them home.

I didn’t listen to the match at Newcastle.  But I’m pleased, that it was a goalless draw. Mourinho is moaning again on the news. How about some grace?

I know Manchester United aren’t exactly my taste, but I hate them less than I hate Chelski.  So I’m happy for them to win the League.

I wish I was rich enough to get my team, Tottenham, up there.

I woke about one thirty and immediately turned the television on to watch the football.

I thought for a moment, I’d misheard when they said that Spurs were beating Chelsea by three goals to one. I hadn’t and my man got rather fed up with my celebratory bouncing on the bed.

Sadly, it didn’t last and the final score was three each.

I think I’ll try and get tickets for the replay.

This must be the latest I’ve slept in for some years.  Whatever is becoming of me?