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The Tanner Report: Bournemouth 3 Fulham 0.

After beating both Nottingham Forest and West Ham 5-0, Fulham have lost by that aggregate score to Burnley and now Bournemouth. It would be entirely Fulhamish (the old telegram address for Fulham) to get a result against Arsenal in our next game on New Year’s Eve, especially as Raul Ramirez will [...]

December 28, 2023 // 0 Comments

Bath Rugby 25 Harlequins 17

As I have written previously rugby is not tribal. Exactly a year ago I spent a delightful weekend in Bath with a Quins mate and his partner. Quins lost, but as we left we saw a typical Quins toff – resplendent in his blazer – drinking in a pub with the earthier Bath Rugby supporters. [...]

December 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

Melissa Caddick

I watched episodes two and three of these programme about the disappearance of Melissa Caddick – and the documentary on Thursday – and at times it was hard to differentiate between fact and fiction. I cannot believe that so many suckers were taken in by the fraudster. She had no licence [...]

December 23, 2023 // 0 Comments

Rugby Union in England – heading for a crisis?

Based upon history and indeed ongoing current evidence, it might be thought by some sports lovers that somehow “it comes with the territory” that – to one degree or another – every field of endeavour, activity or game with serious pretensions to being a truly global sport [...]

December 22, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Everton 1 Fulham 1 ( Fulham win 7-6 on penalties )

This will surely rank amongst Fulham’s finest wins on the road. Everton’s recent form was better than Manchester City’s, they and their fans felt wronged by the 10 point deduction, Sean Dyche’s teams are always highly-motivated and there was a hostile atmosphere in the stadium. Everton [...]

December 20, 2023 // 0 Comments

Harlequins 19 Toulouse 47

Every so often in sport an invincible non-international side that would probably beat an international one appears. I’m thinking of Barbados in cricket in the 1960s, AC Milan in the 1980s and – in rugby union – Transvaal and Auckland in the 1990s. Toulouse, with André Dupont and half [...]

December 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

Ipswich 2 Norwich 2

I have a few good friends who support Ipswich so I watched on Sky yesterday what is wittily known as “the Old Farm Derby”. There must be some clever copywriters out there composing names for derbies as Brighton v Southampton is called the El Coastico. Mind you, these derbies are serious [...]

December 17, 2023 // 0 Comments

Al la Colthard/both ends of the spectrum.

Last week I was in London which was hellish because of the crowds but had two meals that were memorable for different reasons. The first was in Chinatown at Haozhan with a girl friend of many years. I knew she would offer to pay her share but likes value and Haozhan ticked all the boxes. We had [...]

December 16, 2023 // 0 Comments

Dear England/James Graham

James Graham’s latest play has had an extended run from the National Theatre and we saw it yesterday at Cameron Mackintosh’s Prince Edward Theatre. I can see why as, whilst my theatre companion was a football fan and follower like myself, the play went beyond its central theme of how Gareth [...]

December 10, 2023 // 0 Comments

Sir Anthony Seldon talk

In the week I attended a talk by the headmaster and politician historian Sir Anthony Seldon, former head of Brighton College, Wellington and now Epsom College. One has to admire his energy as he has written and published many political works including a recent unflattering one of Boris Johnson. He [...]

December 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

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