His winning goal in the 1964 Cup Final was the moment when I decided West Ham would be my team. I was 11 and until then Dad had only taken me to see Spurs matches, and (unbelievably now) a 1-1 Football League draw between Barrow and Brighton. When Boyce scored Dad said "Mm, I used to teach him&...

"Yes, I'm interested in all things motorbike. As a time trial, the TT does lack the competitive clarity which e.g. physically leading a pack of riders, overtaking, blocking, and hunting down gives the spectator. But it has its unique atmosphere, and of course the ever-present danger. The Obsession E...

"Of course I'd love to start over, but with the knowledge and experience I now have: second time round I'd make a better fist of life. Among other things, I'd earn a fortune, buy West Ham, then recruit all the best players from other clubs rather than sell our own."

"Well unlike Penners I don't think for a moment that the McCanns were guilty of anything more than trusting that their children would be safe alone while they were at the bar in the same holiday complex. Knowing what we do now about predatory paedophiles, the most likely explanation for Maddy's disa...

"Unlike Lingard when he came, Phillips is clearly physically unfit. The mistakes he has made leading to goals against were not errors he would have made when he had a yard of extra pace. If it's just a case of bad diet or training issues, you'd have thought that City could have sorted them out and g...

"The CPS is being criticised for accepting guilty pleas to manslaughter. The mother of the poor lad who was killed says that that her family should have been consulted about dropping the murder charges. In truth, the CPS had little choice. They would have instructed a psychiatrist to investigate Cal...

Leonard H: there's a song about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STkX4TY0YvQ

"Voltaire said it (or something like this): if God did not exist, Man would need to invent Him."

"As a young tennis player in my teens (competing against the likes of the Lloyd boys in Essex) Dunlop Green Flash ""plimsolls"" were tops in the trainer world."

"I don't see how you can call it a wrongful conviction. 2nd degree murder does not require proof of an intention to kill: death caused by a serious assault (or culpable and deliberate neglect of the victim's wellbeing) is enough. The facts were pretty clear from the video evidence: George Floyd's ne...

"The problem is that we think our national team is far better than it actually is, probably due to the strength of the Premier League which is largely comprised of foreign players .There are two high quality outfield players in the England squad: Rice and Kane, both of whom are two-footed and good i...

"...for £10 million in unpaid wages, while he was accused of and charged with rape (for which he was eventually acquitted at trial). If he wasn't paid and there was no clause covering such circumstances in his contract, I'd think that City have no excuse not to stump up."

"If he meant to harm him by cutting him with the blade of his skate (i.e. wounding with intent), and as a result killed the bloke, that would be murder not manslaughter. You don't have to intend to kill someone to be guilty of murder. However if he meant only to assault him causing minor harm, but i...

"If he meant to harm him by cutting him with the blade of his skate (i.e. wounding with intent), and as a result killed the bloke, that would be murder not manslaughter. You don't have to intend to kill someone to be guilty of murder. However if he meant only to assault him causing minor harm, but i...

"Zico: I agree with you about trying out Kudus on the left. Someone needs to threaten the by-line. Bowen is happy and effective on the right wing. He and Coufal have an understanding there. All Kudus does there is pass backwards. To be honest I don't think that Kudus, yet another of our one-footed p...

"""Notts Forest""?"

The muddled feelings such an event causes are vividly described in this monologue by the great songwriter LWIII: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwwGEOqz0Ss

"I learnt to fly (Chipmunks) with the RAF as a university undergraduate in the 70s. Absolutely fascinating and challenging , but way too expensive for me to keep up when I was building a career. A cheaper compromise is gliding, which I have done more recently and which actually requires more skill. ...

"I'm getting nervous already 2 hours before the Final. Throughout my life in the UK I have unhesitatlngly supported two teams: West Ham and the All Blacks. The first, because i grew up in the catchment zone for the Hammers and had various connections with the players in the 60s and 70s. The second, ...

"Leroy: if you've been to NZ you will know that there are entire suburbs in the Auckland area with ""islander"" majority populations (as distinct from Maori), which include many recent migrants. The All Blacks squad for the 2023 Rugby Championship, features 10 players who were born outside NZ. Eight...

To those like me who learnt our football in the 70s: when did it become legal to hold off a defender with an outstretched arm?

"As a NZ-er by birth I was sweating towards the end there. The Blacks should beat Argentina on Friday, and then I'd rather they play France again than South Africa. So tomorrow it's Allez les Bleus!"

"The pressing question is why did the Israelis (well, the US to be exact) not foresee the attack, with all the sophisticated surveillance and intelligence available to them? I would not put it past the CIA / Mossad to have detected that it was being planned and prepared, but to have decided to do no...

I hope the Scots win this evening against New Zireland

"Moyes will no doubt play Ings, in the hope that he can prod the ball home in a penalty-area fracas, and generally set up a 90% defensive formation. Ings has no pace at all, and is unlikely to hold the ball up as Antonio sometimes still does."