September 2000

26 September

Kilian McCaffrey (1) writes ...

Hi Bob,

My name is Kilian McCaffrey, a Dublin Paddy living in the States, and also a lifelong (well, since about 1976) Leeds United Supporter. Reports of yesterday's glorious win over Milan contained references to Gary Sprake, ala:"That seemed to be that, but a combination of a wet ball and Dida's Gary Sprake impersonation not only arrested Leeds decline but may well have relaunched their season."

I had heard of Gary, namely from The Men They Couldn't Hang's song Dennis Law & Ali McGraw: "Hillman Hunters, Norman Hunter, Gary Sprake,
Dennis Law and Ali McGraw and all of Hattie Jacques."

And I don't know if Gary or Hattie was used to make up that sad rhyme.... So a web search was called for, and your site came up - I used Lycos.com.

Good on you, Bob! Keep up the good work.
Cheers

Kilian

I had to admit that the soft goal that the Milan goalie let in immediately brought poor old Gary's name to my mind, too. But I'd never heard of the song before. For a match report on the Milan game see Leeds United F.C. - The Official Website and Leeds United Football Club - Reaction

Kilian McCaffrey (2) I wrote back to tell of my ignorance of the song , and Kilian duely obliged with the whole set of lyrics for the 'Denis Law and Ali McGraw' song, which can be seen at The Men They Couldn't Hang.

Kilian continues ...

On the Leeds United theme in modern music, The Saw Doctors'
song 'Best of Friends' has an interesting spoken interlude:

"Leeds United lost the FA Cup final in 1973
And Allan Clarke was pulled down in the box
He deserved a penalty
We walked to the Letterkenny Foilk Festival in the rain
And got a lift backhome in the linkbox of a Massey 188"

One other thing, have you read My Favourite Year, a
collection of football stories by every body from Nick
Hornby to Roddy Doyle? There is a curiuosly-named, but very
amusing short story entitled 'Psycho Mike and The Phantom
Ice-Rink' by Don Watson, I think, about the leeds United
campaign on 1974-1975.

Anyway, good talking to you Bob,

Regards from Oregon

Kilian

22 September

Doctor Paul Always good to hear from Doctor Paul who writes :

Bob If you're still remotely interested in pigeon-keeping Thistle boss John Lambie's (St Johnstone) career then here's a great link http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/cgi-bin/page?t=sport&id=9644

It's for local Glasgow paper The Evening Times and leads directly to an in depth article with the great man, including some choice photos. Including this thumper:

You will, of course, be jumping with joy and looking out your red and yellow scarf on learning that The Jags humped Stirling Albion 3-1 today (should have been 8-1, etc.) and are now rocketing towards the top of the Scottish Second Division on a one-way trip to glory!

Cheers, Doctor Paul

Doctor Paul has made it his aim to keep the world up to date with Partick Thistle's progress this year. See: Back With A Bang for the latest.Also see Scotland Scrape Through on an interesting theory on the reason Scotland are not doing as well as in the past - based on the haircut of erstwhile Partick Thistle and Scotland goalkeeper, Alan Rough.

Paul Belshaw Special thanks to Paul who writes :

Visited your site today and was dissapointed that no one had sent you anythoughts on my teams record breaking season 1970/71.The team in question is Notts County who won the Fourth Division Championship with a total of 69 points,a then record total.Enclosed is a short write up to rectify that.

Regards

PAUL BELSHAW.

Good on you Paul, find the article at 1970-71: A Season to remember

10 September

Don Hall Good to hear from Don again, who writes ...

I recently contacted you about some West Ham players that later played
for the Portland Timbers. I'm still doing research to put this web site
together.

My continuing research lead me to another of your web pages,
http://ds.dial.pipex.com/bob.dunning/blackpoo.htm. Just to let you know,
one Blackpool player, Terry Alcock (Blackpool), played for the Portland Timbers in
1977. That was his only season in North America. I found a recent news
story on Yahoo that mentions Terry Alcock. You can find it at
http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/000826/21/ahany.html.

Don Hall

And here is that article in full ...

Stars honour Vale Park

Port Vale celebrated 50 years of football at Vale Park with a star-studded anniversary dinner this week.The former Port Vale heroes were out in force to celebrate what was, for many a very emotional and evocative occasion. Vale favourites Barry Hancock, Terry Miles, Colin Askey, Graham Barnett, Terry Alcock (Blackpool) , John Poole, Ray Hancock, Fred Donaldson, Stan Smith and Harry Poole were all in attendance, along with former keeper Ray King who appeared in the club's very first game at Vale Park.

World Cup hero Nobby Stiles (Manchester United) was the star speaker but it was the ground itself that the Vale old-boys were paying tribute to. Ex-Vale centre half Terry Alcock said: "Playing at Vale Park meant so much to the players - because we were mostly local lads playing for our home town club."I was a ball-boy at Vale Park and I used to idolise the Vale players, so to actually get the chance to appear in the same side as them was unbelievable."

Thanks for that, Don.

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Bob Dunning

15 November 2001

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