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Kennedy, Sinatra and the Mafia (Channel 4)

I’m not a great one for a Channel 4/5 conspiracy documentary which tends to be more speculation to grab the headlines but not bolstered by hard evidence. However this one made a plausible case. This was that Jack Kennedy befriended Frank Sinatra, who arranged glamorous Hollywood film stars for [...]

November 6, 2023 // 0 Comments

Harlequins 40 Newcastle Falcons 12 ( Premiership Cup)

I streamed this from the Premiership website for £5.99. I’m such a Luddite that I could not work out how to watch it on my big screen TV, but rather my iPad which had rather a minuscule image. Quins ran out easy winners with top boys Joe Marler and Marcus Smith on the bench.  The finest moment [...]

November 5, 2023 // 0 Comments

Concert review: The Manfreds (Cadogan Hall 3rd November 2023)

I may be treading upon unsure ground here but one of the features of music generally – in its various forms ranging across the spectrum from the primitive to High Art and back again – is its appeal to most sentient members of the human race as they make their journey through life. One [...]

November 5, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Ipswich 1 Fulham 3 Caribou Cup

Fulham’s mainly reserves overcame Ipswich’s reserves 3-1 comfortably. Leicester City are running away with the Championship after relegation and clearly there is a gulf between the Premiership and the Championship. This is also reflected in some players on view last night. Cameron Burgess, the [...]

November 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

Are fans getting a fair deal?

As a kid I loved football annuals. I don’t know if they exist any more in this brave new world of social media and digital publishing but best of all were the photographs. I’m reminded of Harold Pinter’s poetic eulogy of Leonard Hutton: “I saw Leonard Hutton in his prime Different time, [...]

November 1, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Admirable Crichton (1957)

I livened up Monday morning by watching this film, directed by Lewis Gilbert, on Film 4 yesterday. Dramas on service and class have always been popular. Think of Upstairs Downstairs, Downton Abbey and Remains of the Day.   In many ways the genre all started with the J.M. Barrie play and Lewis [...]

October 31, 2023 // 0 Comments

Brighton 1 Fulham 1

The Rust Sports desk called it the Alivan Derby as of course Alan  Tanner was my guest for this match. It ended honours even with the Seagulls dominating the first half against a passive Fulham. Evan Ferguson deservedly gave us the first half lead but, after Jaoa Pahlinha equalised with a superb [...]

October 30, 2023 // 0 Comments

Thoughts on two World Cups – the England perspective

The words England and English will be appearing a lot in this post. The Rugby World Cup Final was a tense, thrilling, match but afterwards there was some criticism of English referee Wayne Barnes. The problem is that – if you are continually told you are the best in the world – you [...]

October 29, 2023 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/The Black Horse Amberley

Yesterday I met an old friend from my travel journo days for lunch near his home in Petworth. My friend acquired – and built up – a highly-successful internet “bucket shop” website which at its peak attracted 3 million hits monthly. We meet every 3 months of so for lunch in [...]

October 28, 2023 // 0 Comments

Brighton 2 Ajax 0.

Were we to go back nearly 30 years, you would see Brighton struggling to survive and Ajax – with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Edwin van der Sar, Marco van Basten, Marc Overmars and Jan Lithanen – winning the European Cup. That very good Ajax team broke up whilst the then homeless [...]

October 27, 2023 // 0 Comments

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