FloridaMarlin

Quite right. The point I was trying to make was that despite the covenants supposedly protecting the ground, they proved to be worthless. There seems to a number of parallels developing between Sholing and p****y....

Crikey, I remember that. What a sorry, sordid episode that was. Poor old Brian Nash, the secretary, turned up one morning to find the pitch had been deep-ploughed. If memory serves me correctly, it was a couple of guys from Torquay who had somehow inherited to land when the old lady who owned it died. They had no interest in football and suddenly realised they were sitting on a little gold mine. Yes, there were covenants on the land protecting it for leisure use, but they easily got round them by supplying alternative facilities. This they did by buying a piece of land along Botley Road, sticking some goalposts on it and telling Sholing: "There you are, go and play on that." The guys made about a £1 each on the deal and Sholing folded. What was interesting was the change of attitude of the residents surrounding Birch Lawn. They used to moan like hell about having a football club at the bottom of their garden, with balls constantly coming over their fence. Suddenly, when they realised it was going to be built on, they changed their minds, and decided it wasn't THAT bad having a football club as your neighbour, as for five or six days a week it was a nice quiet open space. Despite all the protests and the convenant on the land, nobody could stop the development.

Looks like he needs to pee but the queue in the gents was too long.

Coffee Importers was owned by a distant relation (second cousin, or something) of mine. She was a miserable old coot. Just along from there was 'Whodat?', a hippy shop that sold things like loon pants and Frank Zappa albums. There was also a men's clothes shop called McQueens, which was the first place in Southampton to sell Kickers (always a bit more upmarket than those common PODS). Other mens' clothes stores I can remember were Abraxas, in the cut way between Above Bar and the H&D bus station and, of course, Squires which I think has been mentioned in other threads.

Be interesting to know who Hooper's agent is. It wouldn't be that much of a surprise to learn it's Paul Stretford's group. A lot of newspapers don't use Alan Nixon, a northern-based journalist who was discovered to have shares in Stretford's company and used the papers to spark speculation and drum up a bit of business.

Perhaps I should have had the honour of the 50,000th post as I can now reveal that it was I who was Duncan's original snout who gave him the info.

In a classic act of robbing Peter to pay Paul, according to a mate the money to pay HMRC was used to pay last month's players' wages.

It look as though there are still people out there interested in buying Championship football clubs. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16677417.stm But only those worth investing in.

Nice noises to make from NA, but the bottom line is that if his agent starts whispering in his and his dad's ears with talk of Premier League clubs, he'll go. You have to accept that these days if a player wants to leave, no club is really in a position to sell him. It's been said before, but even Manure couldn't keep hold of Cristiano Ronaldo.

I'm not aware of it. But I used to listen to my dad, uncles and aunts and I think there was an element of bitterness in what they felt was a discrepancy between the way the officers and engineers were remembered, and the way the lower decks drew were. You only have to compare the respective memorials. That to the officers is a grand, sombre edifice, facing the cenotaph (I'm not sure which came first) in a conspicuous joint location for mourning. The memorial to the lower decks crew is a white stone drinking fountain, that for years was at the entrance to the Common, more than a mile away from the town centre. It used to bug my uncle that at times when there were fairs on the common, the showmen draped their electrical power lines all over it, and it took years and a campaign for it to be moved to a more suitable location, in Holyrood church. I suppose back then people were more geared to not making public outpourings of grief and the lower orders were expected to maintain a stiff upper lip and not create a scene.

My grandmother was a Titanic widow, having lost her husband, a crew member. With all due respect Alps, I wouldn't necessarily be looking to the football club I support to mark the occasion. I can understand and respect why you began this thread, and get what you are saying about Saints being an integral club part of the community, but I also don't think my deceased dad, uncles and aunts would have expected the club to mark the occasion. Their main issue was that they felt the city didn't mark it properly or appropriately for many years. The officers and engineers had the grand memorial opposite the cenotaph. The ordinary seamens' memorial was the drinking fountain that was on The Common for years until a campaign got it moved into Holyrood Church. It will be interesting to see what Liverpool do, if anything. Despite the fact the Titanic never visited the port, and few crew members came from there, they claim the home of the White Star Line, and isn't the mast of one the Titanic's sister ships outside the Kop end? They'll milk it for all its worth, no doubt.

Some time since I went there, but brilliant memories of the place. If you want to do some off=beat things, get up early in the morning and go to the Tsukiji fish market, the largest in the world and where a tuna fetched a world record price of $400,000 or so this week. Yes, that's one fish, £300,000. Tokyo Disneyland is a weird experience, as all the major characters in the parades and things such as Cinderella, Prince Charming, etc,are caucasian (normally American students on exchange visits), and the minor ones Asian. Apparently the Japanese could not cope with the concept of the main Disney characters being played by their own countrymen. Akihabara is the place for all your latest, state-of-the-art electronic stuff, and even if you don't intend to buy, it's worth wandering around to see the mind-blowing stuff that debuts in Japan before it hits the UK or US. Be careful when buying, though. Check anything you purchase is compatible with UK voltage, settings, etc. For a night out, go to Roppongi. Outside of Tokyo, good day trips include Nikko, where the Tokagawa shoguns were based. The buildings and tombs are amazing. You can also do Kyoto and back in a day on the Shinkansen, although it would benefit from a stopover if you can. Kyoto is the former capital of Japan and the temples and buildings are incredible in what is considered the cultural centre of Japan. Apparently it was the preferred target for the atomic bomb, but was saved by Harvard professors concerned at the possible cultural loss. Which brings you inevitably to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima is too far to do in a day trip, but if you can stretch to a stopover you really have to do it. It is, at the same time, the most frightening but uplifting place I have ever been to. Frightening because this is a fate which could befall all of us, uplifting because it shows the spirit of man can survive such horrors. When it comes to eating, you will find McDonalds and all your other chains if you're not adventurous. But if you are, venture into the sort of places the locals eat. Looks out for the cafes/restaurants that have the plastic models of the dishes in the window, and simply point at what you fancy. The soups with noodles are usually a very good bet, and it is an acceptable polite sign of your enjoyment if you loudly slurp the soup and noodles into your mouth.

Quite a lot less interest this time round - but obviously of more quality as the deal will be completed in 48 hours. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/04/portsmouth-12-buyers-administration?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 And who emerged from those 12 interested parties on that occasion? Also: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/26/portsmouth-administration-andrew-andronikou?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 "Cut to the bone?" AA = Man with combustible trousers.

it was a dreadful day, and like a few others, I missed Shilton's goal. My dad and I were so soaked, we did something we never did before - or after. We left before the end and heard a cheer halfway up Milton Road, assuming Saints had pulled one back only to discover the gory details later. Campbell Forsyth said the ball bounced on the only piece of solid ground - the painted line of the 18-yard box. It wouldn't happen today with the much lighter marking material used, but I remember when pitches had rock-solid markings thanks to succesive layers and layers of white paint.

The Queen look a bit puzzled by it all. Will linesmen now carry coins in their pockets and take them out to have a quick check before raising their flags? OP is a bit condescending. My wife knows the offside law.

Jimmy Gabriel Eric Martin

I'm surprised he was given even a 30-minute tribute programme. He was a dreadful man, and some of the stories about him and his predillections would make your hair curl. Louis Theroux touched on some of it when he did his programme about him, but you couldn't expect the BBC to expose a man who underpinned their Saturday night entertainment for so many years. Now he's dead, some poor creature will come out of the woodwork soon.

Somebody else beat me in mentioning Norwich. The other time clubs will stop signing arsehole players is when fans stop demanding instant, and improbable success that forces clubs/managers to sign these mercenaries, and give clubs time and breathing space to develop players who will be more committed to the cause.

Surely the idea of shipping players out is to lighten the wage bill? The.usual route for clubs in financial trouble is to get rid of senior players and use cheaper youth team players. But no, they just don't get it, do they? Kitson out, Brett Pitman in? It completely undermines the whole premise of not gaining an unfair sporting advantage. Completely morally bankrupt.

I think it's called Moonshine.

ONLY The Jewish Chronicle? Oy, Oy! What would my mommele say? She swore by it

Lew Chatterley. Lawrie Mac's dressing room 'eyes and ears', ie, narc. Nobody really knew what he did in terms of coaching, but he did give out and collect back a lovely bib.

Income from FA Cup ties is split three ways; a third to the home team, a third to the away team and ad third to the FA. After expenses, of course. Not that big a payday, then.

Fingers and thumbs, surely? It's why chicken nuggets were invented. Guy from Pompey in the Emergency Room with his face all covered with nasty little cuts. Doc says: "How did you get these? Did somebody attack you with a razor?" "No," he replies, "I've been learning to eat with a knife and fork."

I've got rellies over there. Last visited three years ago for a nephew's Bar-Mitzvah. It really is an incredible country and it would take you a month of touring to do it justice. Jewish people are the friendliest people on earth, Israelis are the rudest. Over 60 years of surviving every threat to the country's existence so far has left Sabras (the name for native-born Israelis) with a take-no-crap-from-anyone attitude. Queues are just a concept and fully expect to be barged out of the way or crowded out. To be honest, I would think twice about hiring a car. Israelis are ill-mannered lunatics behind the wheel. Most of them learned by driving jeeps in the army and certainly in Tel-Aviv, drive as though they are still behind the wheel of one. Tel-Aviv has the worst record for traffic accidents in the world after Tehran. Where to go? Where to start? You will, of course want to visit Jerusalem, and why not. Even if you are not religious, you cannot fail to be moved by the significance of the place. You can catch a train to Jerusalem from Tel-Aviv, it's a great journey on a line built by the Ottoman Empire. It may not suit your sensitivities but you can also travel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem by Sherut, a shared taxi or mini-van. On the main highway look out for the red painted armoured vehicles, left there as a reminder of the battle in 1948 to include Jerusalem in the new state. In Jerusalem, you will want to go to the main sights; the Western Wall, the church of the Holy Sepulchre and the musuem housing the Dead Sea Scrolls. The best view of Jerusalem is from the graveyard on the Mount of Olives. But make sure you visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial. You will leave it with any preconceptions you might have had about the Nazi attempts to destroy European Jewry completely banished, and you will also understand why Israeli soldiers are taken there to swear their oath of allegiance, and why Israelis have fought so hard to make sure there will always be a country for Jews. If you can get out further afield, go to the Dead Sea, and Masada, the mountain-top hill fort which held out against the Romans for so long before the defenders realised there was no way out and killed themselves. As one of my rellies was a captain in the IDF, I was lucky enough to gain access to certain roads on the Golan Heights not open to the general public, but there's still a lot of the Golan you can see. Again, if you can get up there (and remember, Israel is not a big country west-to-east) you'll see why Israel does not want to give it up. In Tel-Aviv, the best museum is the Museum of the Diaspora. I could go on and bore the hell out of you. As you can gather, I love the place. All I would ask is that you don't go there with any pre-conceived ideas of who has the moral high ground. Talk to people, they'll be happy to give an opinion! And then form your own judgement.