Best wishes for a swift recovery from me too. Remember seeing him at the Oval, one of the three W’s along with Worrell and Walcott. Strange how with such a powerful batting line-up they rarely all came off together.
West Indies test cricketer born 1 May 1929. Arguably their greatest ever slow bowler after Lance Gibbs.
Lance Gibbs possibly but how about Jim Laker. Sonny was allowed to bowl with his shirt cuffs flapping around his wrist, a bit of a distraction I would think. Apart from his mesmerising off breaks he was the worlds worst ever fielder and number 11.
City Editor of Charlton Life's favourite newspaper, the Daily Mail, between 1960 and 1984 and later founder of Euromoney in 1969 and later Euromoney.com.
If anyone flushes @Riviera out of his lair this one will
Azam Khan (Born 1926) 4 time British Open Squash Champion and still capable of beating Jonah Barrington in practice in 1967 in his forties the year when Jonah himself won the first of his 6 British Opens.
Jonah Barrington considers Azam as a serious candidate for greatest squash player of all time.
Most if not all of these celebs have lived a life. Last night I heard a poem from Roger McGough about missed opportunities which I suspect is more familiar to us ordinary mortals. (I realise it only says getting on for ninety, but it was written a fair few years ago).
Here I am getting on for ninety and never having gone to work in ladies’ underwear Never run naked at night in the rain Made love to a girl I’d just met on a plane At that awkward age now between birth and death I think of all the outrages unperpetrated opportunities missed The dragons unchased The maidens unkissed The wines still untasted The oceans uncrossed The fantasies wasted The mad urges lost Here I am as old as Methuselah was when he was my age and never having stepped outside for a fight Crossed on red, pissed on rosé (or white) Pretty dull for a poet, I suppose, eh? Quite.
Happy 90th Birthday Stirling Moss..........Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss to be precise. Seems like he has been part of my entire life......I first became aware of him around 1956 and he has remained there in my conscience ever since.......in more ways than one, which I’ll come to in a moment. Without doubt the greatest Grand Prix F1 driver never to have become World Champion, he was very very unlucky and came tantalisingly close on several occasions.....coming runner up no fewer than four times and third three times! Going back a few haircuts to around 1980, I lived in Avonmore Road West Kensington, right near Olympia. I came out of my house one morning only to find him dressed in brown overalls at the top of a long extension ladder doing some DIY work three floors up on the windows of a nearby house, truly surreal wouldn’t you say.......WTF are you of all people doing there? I later found out he owned the house and rented it out into flats. So yes, how bloody surreal when you come to think of it......I remember thinking you don’t need to be doing that Stirling, it looked more than a bit dicey to be honest and he should really have had it scaffolded and boarded out. Then again, he lived with danger for much of his life in the days when Grand Prix racing drivers lives were practically two a penny......quite commonly one or two would die each season. So it’s fair to say that as a 50+ year old, an hour or two spent three floors up on a ladder wouldn’t have phased him one little bit......obviously he lived to tell the tale and thankfully, so have I. A truly great ‘old school’ English gentleman and sporting legend .................who, amongst other things, enjoyed a bit of DIY and climbing ladders!
Happy 90th Birthday Stirling Moss..........Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss to be precise. Seems like he has been part of my entire life......I first became aware of him around 1956 and he has remained there in my conscience ever since.......in more ways than one, which I’ll come to in a moment. Without doubt the greatest Grand Prix F1 driver never to have become World Champion, he was very very unlucky and came tantalisingly close on several occasions.....coming runner up no fewer than four times and third three times! Going back a few haircuts to around 1980, I lived in Avonmore Road West Kensington, right near Olympia. I came out of my house one morning only to find him dressed in brown overalls at the top of a long extension ladder doing some DIY work three floors up on the windows of a nearby house, truly surreal wouldn’t you say.......WTF are you of all people doing there? I later found out he owned the house and rented it out into flats. So yes, how bloody surreal when you come to think of it......I remember thinking you don’t need to be doing that Stirling, it looked more than a bit dicey to be honest and he should really have had it scaffolded and boarded out. Then again, he lived with danger for much of his life in the days when Grand Prix racing drivers lives were practically two a penny......quite commonly one or two would die each season. So it’s fair to say that as a 50+ year old, an hour or two spent three floors up on a ladder wouldn’t have phased him one little bit......obviously he lived to tell the tale and thankfully, so have I. A truly great ‘old school’ English gentleman and sporting legend .................who, amongst other things, enjoyed a bit of DIY and climbing ladders!
Spoke to him a few times over the years and he’s always a real gent.
He signed my programme at Goodwood a few years ago where they were demonstrating an old F1 car that hadn’t run for a while (BRM V16).
The front page had a picture of Fangio driving it and he leant in and whispered out of earshot of the organisers “it was a bloody awful car”.
Is someone going to be bold enough to take over the administration/adjudication of this thread as Riviera seems to have gone on the missing list? It’s in grave danger of falling into chaotic disrepute.
Is someone going to be bold enough to take over the administration/adjudication of this thread as Riviera seems to have gone on the missing list? It’s in grave danger of falling into chaotic disrepute.
I think you should do it @SoundAsa£. From what I gather you're closer to joining the list than most!
Comments
90 today.
Born September 5 1929.
Born 17 March 1924.
City Editor of Charlton Life's favourite newspaper, the Daily Mail, between 1960 and 1984 and later founder of Euromoney in 1969 and later Euromoney.com.
If anyone flushes @Riviera out of his lair this one will
Jonah Barrington considers Azam as a serious candidate for greatest squash player of all time.
Most if not all of these celebs have lived a life. Last night I heard a poem from Roger McGough about missed opportunities which I suspect is more familiar to us ordinary mortals. (I realise it only says getting on for ninety, but it was written a fair few years ago).
getting on for ninety
and never having gone to work in ladies’ underwear
Never run naked at night in the rain
Made love to a girl I’d just met on a plane
At that awkward age now between birth and death
I think of all the outrages unperpetrated
opportunities missed
The dragons unchased
The maidens unkissed
The wines still untasted
The oceans uncrossed
The fantasies wasted
The mad urges lost
Here I am
as old as Methuselah
was when he was my age
and never having stepped outside for a fight
Crossed on red, pissed on rosé (or white)
Pretty dull for a poet, I suppose, eh? Quite.
Known as the First Lady of the Philippine Islands. Born 2 July 1929
Seems like he has been part of my entire life......I first became aware of him around 1956 and he has remained there in my conscience ever since.......in more ways than one, which I’ll come to in a moment.
Without doubt the greatest Grand Prix F1 driver never to have become World Champion, he was very very unlucky and came tantalisingly close on several occasions.....coming runner up no fewer than four times and third three times!
Going back a few haircuts to around 1980, I lived in Avonmore Road West Kensington, right near Olympia.
I came out of my house one morning only to find him dressed in brown overalls at the top of a long extension ladder doing some DIY work three floors up on the windows of a nearby house, truly surreal wouldn’t you say.......WTF are you of all people doing there?
I later found out he owned the house and rented it out into flats.
So yes, how bloody surreal when you come to think of it......I remember thinking you don’t need to be doing that Stirling, it looked more than a bit dicey to be honest and he should really have had it scaffolded and boarded out.
Then again, he lived with danger for much of his life in the days when Grand Prix racing drivers lives were practically two a penny......quite commonly one or two would die each season.
So it’s fair to say that as a 50+ year old, an hour or two spent three floors up on a ladder wouldn’t have phased him one little bit......obviously he lived to tell the tale and thankfully, so have I.
A truly great ‘old school’ English gentleman and sporting legend .................who, amongst other things, enjoyed a bit of DIY and climbing ladders!
He signed my programme at Goodwood a few years ago where they were demonstrating an old F1 car that hadn’t run for a while (BRM V16).
The front page had a picture of Fangio driving it and he leant in and whispered out of earshot of the organisers “it was a bloody awful car”.
Journalist and historian.
Has also written a number of cricketing biographies notably Walter Hammond, Viv Richards and Harold Gimblett.
EDIT: Left out the test umpire and former Gloucestershire county cricketer David Shepherd which was billed as an autobiography.
It’s in grave danger of falling into chaotic disrepute.