rpb

Go away! We are enjoying ourselves! Anyway, somebody did mention football a few pages back.

Quite a few of these are though ... Michael Jordan Michael Schumacher Johan Cruyff Paul Gascoigne Ian Botham Shane Warne Tiger Woods Tim Henman Preben Elkjaer Hristo Stoichkov Fabien Barthez Gianluca Vialli Dino Zoff Socrates Gerson Jack Charlton Frank Leboeuf Jimmy Greaves David Ginola Osvaldo Ardiles Malcolm Macdonald Bobby Charlton Fred Flintoff and don't forget Marian Pahars!

Not many - we are a dying breed!

Thank you Mr Tolerant. Actually as 'dirty drug addicts', us whinging, whining *****s are not in bad company ... Barack Obama Albert Einstein Thomas Edison Alexander Graham Bell Robert Oppenheimer Edwin Hubble Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt Bill Clinton Helmut Schmidt Gerhard Schröder John F Kennedy Gerald Ford, George Orwell Oscar Wilde Jean-Paul Sartre JR Tolkien J.K. Rowling CS Lewis Christopher Lee Whoopi Goldberg James Dean Sophia Loren Kate Winslet Raquel Welch Luciano Pavarotti John Lennon and so on - I hate it when people have a prejudice and then generalise.

All he wants is to be allowed outside for a cigarette at half time - considering he has also owned up to breaking the law and has been subjected to a lot of 'secondary bigotry' about smoking in general, I think he has been very genuine.

No - we are voting for somebody to play on the left; whether you want him to be a winger or a midfielder is entirely up to you. Most people seem to prefer the midfielder option, though.

Very emotive stuff but, as I believe it happened at half time, your last statement is meaningless.

After O'Brien hit the post! The Dell went mad!

Well spotted! It was actually the National Teenage Party which had that policy (it later evolved into the Monster Raving Looney Party) - I didn't think anyone would check up on me!

Amongst the Monster Raving Looney Party's policies have been Knighthoods for the Beatles, passports for pets, all day licencing hours and votes for eighteen year olds - perhaps they were just ahead of their time...

It seems that Coventry and Derby can do it... Why do you keep associating wanting a half time smoke with 'putting the boot into the club'?

Sydenham played his last game for us in Nov 69 after that Tommy Jenkins took over his role. The previous season he shared the position with Channon for a while (and Gabriel four times) and the season before that Thompson - we did play with an extra defender at times during this spell (Docker Walker?) but Sydenham seems not to have been sacrificed.

That wouldn't work - non-payers would also demand to go out and it could cause trouble. The point that was being made was that there wasn't any real need for extra stewards, there are plenty around anyway - you can normally see them chatting to each other in the concourse.

1. It was agreed for the sake of fairness that LM and LW would be treated as the same. 2. Your synopsis is correct for the 50s/early 60s but once we reached Div 1, Sydenham and Paine both played as wingers at home in a 4 - 2 - 4 formation but that was changed to becoming midfield players away where we played 4 - 4 -2.

You must be very superior. Well done, you!

It didn't seem to be a problem at The Dell - perhaps we were more civilised back then? People leaving early/arriving late either side of half time didn't seem to be a problem when people smoked in the concourse (I am not advocating smoking in the concourse by the way - just pointing out a precedent). Most smokers are not selfish people (like alpine) but would like to partake in our admittedly foul (but legal) habit away from others.

You are making things up to suit your own agenda/prejudices - smokers would like to go outside at half time to have a cigarette. That's all. Is it a problem?

Yep - do the Maths!

Of course we do! I wonder whether non-smokers fully appreciate that fact...

It depends really whether they want smokers to be customers or not... The Mayflower and Nuffield allow their addicted customers out during the interval, why not St Mary's?

Well said Washsaint!!!

Which is what they used to do at The Dell - they did for the West Stand anyway...

Terry Paine against Southend - from the half way line into the top corner: the Dell went silent in disbelief and then erupted.

Didn't the unveiling take place at the Botleigh Grange? Or am I suffering from another 'senior moment'?

Sounds pretty accurate to me - I guess 'outstanding' is a bit OTT but otherwise...