Monthly Archives: March 2008

Back to the Seventies: Wales set up Grand Slam decider against France

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UPDATED 1951 hrs Sunday 9 March

Those teenage Seventies days of power cuts, cold winters and Welsh rugby glory suddenly feel like yesterday. Wales today beat Ireland in Dublin to keep our Grand Slam dreams alive. Roll back the years to 1976 and 1978, when Wales beat France to ensure Grand Slams. Today’s Wales team now faces France to achieve their second clean sweep in four years.

Cardiff City v Everton 1977Can Cardiff City keep Welsh hopes alive in the FA Cup in tomorrow’s quarter final against Middlesbrough? This is the first time City have reached the sixth round since they won the cup in 1927 – famously becoming the only team from outside England to win the competition. Back in 1977 I was convinced we were going to emulate the success of 1927 – 50 years on. We went 1-0 up against Everton, but lost 2-1 after Duncan McKenzie seized on Albert Lamour’s back-pass.

If Cardiff do win tomorrow (a very big if), they’ll have the incentive of knowing that the competition is wide open with just one Premier League side, Portsmouth, left in the cup. After years of domination by the big four top flight clubs, the FA Cup has regained its romance. The scenes tonight as Barnsley fans and players celebrated their triumph over Chelsea have cheered fans across the country. Forget the idea the world’s oldest cup competition no longer matters: Chelsea manager Avram Grant’s ugly expression at the death confirmed that the defeat hurt deeply. Russian gold was not enough to save London’s glamour club.

Back in 1977, I was heart-broken when Everton beat Cardiff. I was lucky to see a cup run of extraordinary drama. First, City knocked out Spurs after Peter Sayers’ amazing 35 yard score. Next up, Welsh rivals Wrexham. Cardiff were cruising to a 2-0 victory. Then Wrexham scored twice – only for John Buchanan to snatch an extraordinary winner that left Ninian Park – and Match of the Day viewers – speechless. I still remember the Match of the Day shot of a teenage ginger-haired City fan going wild as we scored.

I saw those games in style, in the Ninian Park directors’ box, thanks to my father Bob Skinner. Dad had a complimentary season ticket in the box, and was also one of the hosts at the civic lunches that preceded the games. I earned my place: I researched facts and figures for the speech of the chairman of South Glamorgan county council, who presided over the occasions. I took my lunch with the chairman’s chauffeur, who told me the tragic tale of Hughie Ferguson, the scorer of Cardiff’s FA Cup winning goal in 1927.  Ferguson killed himself just three years after that triumph. A sobering reminder that sport is not everything.

PS: that 1977 Everton programme includes a National Coal Board advert aimed at recruiting new miners under the banner "modern mining is more than just muscle!" "£20,000 a throw for a modern mining machine is quite common…" The death knell for an industry, as it turned out.

UPDATE

As the world now knows, Cardiff City are in their first FA Cup semi final since they won the tournament in far-off 1927. (How long ago? Here are some clues. The first public demonstration of television was a month away and the Queen was about to enjoy her first birthday.)

City’s victory against Middlesbrough was no fluke. The Bluebirds bossed the game so convincingly that Boro had just two real chances. I’ve rarely seen a team make such effective use of set pieces – almost every Cardiff corner and free kick caused Middlesbrough anxious moments.

All Wales now thinks destiny is on our side this season. But one word of caution: West Brom were in imperious form against Bristol Rovers tonight. The Baggies came from behind to draw against Cardiff earlier this year, and would fancy their chances against Cardiff. So I’d like to draw Barnsley. It would be good to claim success where Liverpool and Chelsea failed!

Spring comes early

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Crocus

An early photo with my new zoom lens. A crocus brings early spring colour to our garden. The lens is a Canon EF 70-300mm F4-5.6 IS USM. It partners my Canon 400D digital SLR. I’m going to enjoy this lens.

Here’s my earlier post about the pleasures of this, my first digital SLR.

RIP for the humble plastic bag?

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The news that British retailer Marks & Spencer is to start charging shoppers 5p for plastic bags in its food departments has been widely and positively reported – see BBC report.  The aim is to reduce M&S’s share of the 13 billion plastic bags given away every year in Britain. The money raised will go to the environmental charity Groundwork.

The announcement came as the Daily Mail launched a campaign against carrier bags. The Mail’s move went some way to correct the paper’s reputation as a reactionary influence in British life.

I’m all in favour of action to persuade us to kick the plastic bag habit. We now use canvas bags for our weekly Tesco shop. Tesco’s green Clubcard points are a strangely compelling incentive, out of all proportion to the minuscule financial reward. I’m sure M&S’s move will have a similar effect. A cattle prod to prompt us to do what we know must be right: to reuse carrier bags rather than simply throwing them in the bin. Left to our own devices we’ll simply keep taking bags without thinking.

Critics will say plastic bags are a tiny part of the environmental challenge. Yet why on earth should we waste billions of plastic bags? The current trend to reuse bags is simply going back to a more careful era. I remember many shops charging for bags 20 years ago. And back in the Sixties Mum had her own personal shopping trolley on two wheels – no carrier needed!

Lyn in the Co-op in Chalfont St Giles was telling everyone she served today that the Government was forcing the shops to charge customers for carrier bags. Not yet, they aren’t. (Though they plan to.) She said that such charges will hit old people. I find that hard to believe – pensioners are more likely than youngsters to reuse carrier bags, having been brought up in more frugal times.

Gerry Adams: Ian Paisley’s unexpected admirer

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"I think his willingness to reach out and to work positively with Sinn Féin was a genuine endeavour to make things better for the people who live here.

Will I miss him? Well, maybe I can get to know him better now that he is retiring to the backbenches. I would like that. He is a fascinating figure, with many facets to his character. In my dealings with him I have always found him cordial, good-humoured and respectful."

So wrote Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in today’s Guardian. Strange to think that the leader of political republicanism could find such respect for the man whose slogan was never surrender. (But I wonder whether Paisley would return the compliment?) 

Some might argue that Adams is simply showing the respect for another member of the political class who prolonged Northern Ireland’s sectarian agony. But that would be harsh. Adams himself displayed great courage in leading the way to peace, notwithstanding his share of responsibility for the dark days of the Troubles. (Sharrock and Devenport’s book, Man of War, Man of Peace, gave a dramatic insight into Adams’ role in the birth of the peace process.) Those of us who remember the shattering violence of the Seventies and Eighties once thought peace was an impossible dream. See my earlier post about the end of the British Army’s operations in Northern Ireland.

We may question what drove Paisley to join Sinn Féin in government in Stormont. Was it personal glory, in the position of first minister? It’s unlikely that the perennial outsider would have found this sufficient reason to abandon his forty year campaign against Irish republicanism. Better, surely, not to question the motives and to rejoice in this most unlikely of political coalitions.

Wales abolishes rip off hospital parking charges

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I wrote briefly in January about the scandal of hospital car park charges. (I had been insensed to discover that Wexham Park hospital in Berkshire charges £1 an hour, even in the middle of the night.) An absolute rip off.So I was pleased to hear that the Welsh Assembly Government is to abolish car parking charges at Welsh hospitals by 2011.

The BBC reports that the UK health minister, Ben Bradshaw, has criticised the Welsh government’s move, adding that the UK Department of Transport argued the decision went against the British government’s climate change strategy. What arrogant nonsense! They’ll be insisting that pregnant women walk to hospital next…

There’s an argument to be made that Wales’s free parking initiative will use money that could have been spent on patient care. But the UK government’s heavy handed response showed that ministers in London don’t understand the anger prompted by rip off hospital parking charges. Something they should remember next time they criticise gas and electricity companies for their prices.