Not long after my first match at Stamford Bridge my Dad was posted to Cyprus so we were to leave our home for two years, RAF quarters in Biggin Hill, Kent, and I was sent to join my brother at a boarding school in Somerset.
Biggin Hill is in the London Borough of Bromley and its aerodrome played an historic roll in The Battle of Britain:
Holidays were spent in Cyprus – so no time to watch any football! In 1973 Dad was posted back to England, this time to work for the MOD in London. We had an RAF house in a civilian street in Stanmore (133 Old Church Lane). This was in Middlesex, although Middlesex was actually abolished as a County Council in 1965, but still used as an area name and for optional postal purposes. It is now in the London Borough of Harrow.
Stanmore was also home to RAF Bentley Prioy, where I played tennis, and was famous as the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. On D-Day, the landings were monitored by King George VI, Winston Churchill and U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Allied Expeditionary Air Force War Room in the underground bunker. The priory was previously the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV, before her death there in 1849. A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. Adelaide, Australia was named after her. She was Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, daughter of George I.
Stanmore was also home to RAF Stanmore which in 1938 became home to RAF Balloon Command, responsible for controlling all the UK-based barrage balloon units during the Second World War. If you want to know what a barrage balloon is:
Billy Idol (William Michael Albert Broad) of Generation X & solo fame was born in Stanmore. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Idol)
As was Theo Walcott and Dave ‘Harry’ Bassett, former player and manager of Wimbledon, Watford, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Barnsley, Leicester City and Southampton. Bassett steered Wimbledon from the 4th Division to the1st, only a mere nine years after joining the Football League – they were elected to replace Workington in 1978.
As was Theo Walcott and Dave ‘Harry’ Bassett, former player and manager of Wimbledon, Watford, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Barnsley, Leicester City and Southampton. Bassett steered Wimbledon from the 4th Division to the1st, only a mere nine years after joining the Football League – they were elected to replace Workington in 1978.
The post-war Labour PM Clement Attlee spent time living in Stanmore. His government ushered in the welfare state:
W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame is buried there.
My house was a short walk from Canons Park tube station. Suddenly Stamford Bridge was accessible! Dad took me a couple of times and then, from 1974-1976 I would go to as many games as I could in the school holidays. If Chelsea were playing away I’d go by bus to watch Watford, a poor 3rd or 4th Division team. I once sat ten rows behind Elton John, the then Chairman of the club. He is currently honorary life President.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watford_F.C.
I saw Luther Blissett come on for his league debut and had one favourite player who reminded me of Charlie Cooke – Stewart Scullion.
I saw Luther Blissett come on for his league debut and had one favourite player who reminded me of Charlie Cooke – Stewart Scullion.
Luther Blissett helped Watford, under the tutelage of Graham ‘Turnip’ Taylor (who went on to disastrously manage England), to rise from the 4th Division to the 1st. He also played for England and went on to play for A.C. Milan. But the story gets truly bizarre – check this out for some wonderful trivia:
Or at least read this quote:
‘Blissett's name has been adopted by many people in radical activist circles as a nom de plume or collective alias when engaged in weird performances, situationist pranks, media hoaxes, and the production of radical theory. The Luther Blissett multiple name project first began in 1994 in Italy, no doubt a consequence of his link with A.C. Milan, and has since then been widely used by artists, underground reviews, poets, performers and squatters' collectives in cities throughout Europe and South America. In 1999 "Luther Blissett" authored a historical novel called Q, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies in over ten languages.
On 30 June 2004 the real Luther Blissett took part in the British television sports show Fantasy Football League – Euro 2004, broadcast on ITV. He jokingly claimed that he himself was part of the Luther Blissett Project, and read aloud the following sentence from an LBP manifesto (in Italian): "Chiunque può essere Luther Blissett, semplicemente adottando il nome Luther Blissett" (Anyone can be Luther Blissett simply by adopting the name Luther Blissett).’The possible reasons for choosing this nom de plume are interesting too:
‘The reasons why the group chose the name remain unclear to mainstream journalists (e.g. the BBC suggested that Blissett, one of the first black footballers to play in Italy, may have been chosen to make a statement against right-wing extremists in the country). It has also been suggested that, when being scouted by A.C. Milan, the Watford player they were impressed with was in fact John Barnes and they mistakenly bid for Blissett being one of the two black strikers at the club. If this is the case the group may have taken the name as a reference to a red herring.’
More info. here:
The ‘stunts, pranks and media hoaxes’ are well worth a read. Ah those anarcho-situationist guys!
More on Stewart Scullion:
Pick of the trivia - 1976 U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament
‘The Bicentennial Cup was held to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. It featured the national teams of Brazil, England and Italy, as well as Team America, comprising NASL players of many nationalities, and coached by Ken Furphy. Playing alongside Pelé, Bobby Moore and Giorgio Chinaglia, Scullion scored Team America's only goal of the tournament, in a 3–1 defeat to England.’
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