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Articles by Rex Mitchell

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About Rex Mitchell

Rex Mitchell is a Brentford supporter from childhood. This has not prevented him having a distinguished Fleet Street career as a sports reporter and later deputy football editor. A widower, Rex is a bit of a bandit golfer off his official handicap of 20 and is currently chairman of his local bowls club. More Posts

Cheltenham

The prominence in the sporting calendar of the horse racing meet at Cheltenham is difficult to explain. The weather is invariably bitter, it’s not that easy to access or egress and the iconic Grand National is less than 2 months away. Even the laddishness of male bonding and the notion of Ladies [...]

March 12, 2020 // 0 Comments

GREAVSIE /BT SPORT

BT SPORT are beginning to make a name for themselves for their sporting documentaries. I did not see their documentary on the Stop The Tour – the demonstrations against the South African rugby tour of 1969/1970 and cancellation of the cricket tour led by Peter Hain but those that did liked [...]

February 20, 2020 // 0 Comments

Aston Villa 2 Leicester City 1/Caribou Cup Semi final

In the absence of anything else I watched the second leg of Aston Villa v Leicester last night and was rewarded by a pulsating Midlands derby which Villa won in the dying embers. Of interest to the neutral was the comparison between two of England’s brightest midfield prospects – James [...]

January 29, 2020 // 0 Comments

Martin Peters

As with everyone in the football world I was most upset by the passing of Martin Peters. Most of us knew that, like Nobby Stiles and Jack Charlton, he suffered from dementia. The boys of ’66 are now in their  late 70s, so sadly we are going to have more mourning over the next few years. [...]

December 23, 2019 // 0 Comments

Livepool 3 Manchester City 1/media coverage

Since the coverage of this game will be at saturation point in the press I am confining my post to the media. I joined the game late as I had a lunch in the country. Martin Tyler on SKY is reliable pair of hands but has never come up with a phrase to rival Ken Wolstenholme’s “They think its all [...]

November 11, 2019 // 0 Comments

The Club/ Jonathan Clegg & Joshua Robinson

The subtitle of this book is “How the Premier League became the richest, most disruptive business in sport” which reflects a work that is more assertive than analytical. You can tell it’s written by journalists – in this case the Washington Post’s as a historian tends more to rely on [...]

July 29, 2019 // 0 Comments

The Greatest Comeback/David Bolchover

This life of Béla Guttman is not just the one of the best sporting biographies I have ever read but general biography too. The subtitle From Genocide to Football Glory says it all. I suspect many will be unfamiliar with name of Bela Guttmann. He is best known for being the manager of the Benfica [...]

May 15, 2019 // 0 Comments

Was it ever thus?

I am sure I have quoted Jock Stein’s observation after his Celtic disposed of Leeds in the old European Cup that English football overrates itself. Over the years of watching English domestic and international football I have felt this. We are good – especially the media – on [...]

May 2, 2019 // 0 Comments

Ajax 1 Juventus 1

Every twenty years or so Ajax Amsterdam produces a wondrous side which is then rapidly decapitated when the big boys come a-buying so there is the briefest of windows to savour their football. I’m old enough to recall the 70s side that won the old European Cup three years in succession beating [...]

April 11, 2019 // 0 Comments

The Mavericks

A friend of mine gave me a book called The Original Stan the Man, the autobiography of Stan Bowles. It’s mainly a series of anecdotes about his gambling habits but of interest as he was part of group of mavericks that no longer exist in the game. Their period was the 197os and featured Bowles, [...]

April 2, 2019 // 0 Comments

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