On 27th July 1995, it was a volvo that hit me and caused a severe head injury. I was comatose four days and woke on my 13th birthday. Four days later HMHB recorded Mr Cave’s a Window Cleaner on John Peel session. The same year a band called echobelly recorded King of the Kerb, and in 1998(i think), a group called Boyhitscar recorded a song called Rebirth. In 2001 Supermen Lovers recorded Starlight. Ok, now to link all those songs together….. It was my error that brought the collision about, I was riding down the right hand pavement and jumped off the curb straight into an oncoming car. In the last few years I’ve had flashbacks, and I DID see the car but didn’t pull on the brakes as I thought I didn’t have time. So I opted to jump the bonnet. Big fail lol. . IF I’d successfully jumped it it would have been akin to flying, like superman. And, if there’s one last favour I asked of my friend, see that my bike’s kept clean.
22 May 2017
BRUMBSICUIT
Means ‘I roll’ in latin.
22 May 2017
HandyBiteSize
Fabulous Disaster have a song ‘Rich Bitches in Volvos Piss Me Off’ which has always jarred with me a bit because, naturally, my vision of a Volvo is a pale blue 200 where you can see the road through the footwell. Therefore I think maybe the wealthy of San Francisco demonstrate such wealth through sheer tonnage.
22 May 2017
dr desperate
“I roll” because the company originally made ball bearings. The brand name was registered as a trademark in 1911 by SKF (Svenska Kullagerfabriken: Swedish Ball Bearing Factory) for use with a new series of BBs. The glove compartment in newer Volvos has penholders and a digital lock. It can also be used as a cooler. Who wants warm gloves?
22 May 2017
bobby svarc
Going into the international sphere, they’re going to have to face some stiff competition especially from the Swedes with their comedy series, “Ooh, Where’s My Volvo?”
22 May 2017
dr desperate
Also in the international sphere, in 1984 Andy Kershaw worked as Billy Bragg’s tour manager, roadie and driver across Europe on what they light-heartedly referred to as ‘The Crumbling Volvo Tour’.
23 May 2017
Brumbiscuit
And the peace-loving Swedes made sure that the juggernauts of war rolled on Swedish bearings in WW2. German & Allied.
24 May 2017
Huddersfield’s very own… Steve malkmus
The 480 was cool, apart from the dodgy electrics. Dutch built rather than Swedish though.
24 May 2017
lord leominster
If you replace the two vowels with two other vowels you can make a doctors’ word for something that would otherwise be considered to be very rude. I have been known to direct rude versions of that word (including one that appears in song in the form of a personalised number plate) towards drivers of BMWs and Audis, in the main, but rarely, if ever, towards drivers of Volvos.
13 November 2020
Lord leominster
It occurs to me that my previous comment could be judged sexist for which I apologise. I will balance matters by pointing out that the Dennis in Dennis fire engines could become a doctors’ word by changing the first letter and dropping a ‘n’. I have also uttered rude versions of that word but never towards a fire crew.
13 November 2020
Pirx The Purist
The great line in Victoria Wood’s play Mens Sana In Thingummy Doodah (spoken, of course, by Julie Walters):
“Mrs. Fernihough can’t be here, she had a slight accident and scratched her Volvo.”
One of those all-too-few occasions where I emitted an actual shriek of laughter.
13 November 2020
Lord leominster
Thank all for rescuing me there, Pirx. It is definitely less inappropriate, more appropriate even, when women discuss such matters. Also I missed an obvious Biscuit reference: I have also uttered rude versions of that word but never knowingly towards Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew Cuthbert, Dibble or Grubb.
‘Thanks’ not ‘Thank all’ – but now thanks all. I once saw an advert on Autotrader for a Swedish car, not a Volvo alas but a Saab 900, that was originally owned by Victoria Wood. The seller had documentation to show its original owner was one Victoria Wood but the seller was unable to confirm whether it was the Victoria Wood. Not that it would have made any difference; the car was beyond my budget.
14 November 2020
EXXO
Quiz!
Guess three HMHB-referenced celebs who have owned a Saab 900, then read the Saab geeks thread below (now linked correctly – soz) and see how many you got right. All three are alive and in their sixties. None of them are referred in the lyrics by their given names. Only one is a total twat.
I was going to say Jimmy Savile, Rolf Jake the Peg Harris and Noel Edmonds but then I remembered that you said only one was a complete tw*t. Do I get a bonus point for having owned 3 Saab 900s myself, even though I’m not a HMHB referenced celeb?
14 November 2020
EXXO
Bonus point only if you’ve also owned a 9000, as it’s not an Exxo quiz if it doesn’t contain an error, in this case that one of them owned a Saab 9000 not a 900.
14 November 2020
Lord leominster
I that case no bonus point for me. I see that two of my choices are ineligible on account of one of them being dead and the other nearly dead. Not sure about Mr Edmonds’ age / status but he looks like a Saab 9000 man to me so I’ll stick with him.
14 November 2020
Lord leominster
I’ve just opened the link. How about that? So I could’ve been the lucky owner of Vicky Wood’s 900 after all. It was in light metallic blue, if I remember correctly. I’m sure I saw it on Autotrader not EBay but I guess it’s been sold more than once. If only I’d had the £5k or so that was being asked at the time. I see two candidates for the celeb with the description of total tw*t. Good quiz.
14 November 2020
Phyllis Triggs
I claim the bonus points! Loving this Saab talk! I always drove 900s – must have had at least 5 over about 20 years – till they became too rare/expensive and I got a 9000. It was a lovely car – had been top of the range/exec in its day, but to my mind not a patch on the 900s. Driving up the fearsome/spectacular Bealach na bar/ The Pass of the Cattle to Applecross, black smoke and a fearsome grinding noise heralded its demise – however, it got me home to Lancashire before it finally died! #proudtobeasaabtwat
14 November 2020
Lord leomInsteR
At the time I spotted Victoria Wood’s 900 for sale I eventually bought a 900 in gold with no known celeb provenance for £500. It wasn’t as bad a colour as it sounds and it lasted a good while, too. Built like a tank and about as expensive to keep fuelled.
14 November 2020
Phyllis Triggs
Brilliant. None of mine cost more than that and they all lasted several years. Gold’s a good colour – hides the dust. Nextdoor’s just got a light gold Skoda – heard a visitor serenading it, “Champagne super Skoda…”
14 November 2020
Paul f
My mate at primary school whose parents were both doctors and lived in Cressington Park (a part of Garston surreally incongruous to its surroundings) always seemed to be ferried around in a succession of Saab 900s. If I recall correctly, the seatbelts on one of them didn’t have a buckle, but you laid the strap across a fixture at the driver’s side and then pulled over a catch to hold it in place.
15 November 2020
Lord leominSter
I see that we’ve moved from a doctors’ word to a doctors’ car.
15 November 2020
dr desperate
And if you don’t think it’s time for you to stop your Saabing, here’s a supplemental: which HMHB-referenced performer had one of his songs (mentioned here on his A-Z page) parodied by Bill Bailey, turning it into a tale of injudicious Saab-buying?
15 November 2020
dr desperate
Incidentally, I used to live in Grassendale Park, a couple of hundred yards along the esplanade from Cressington. Just as surreally incongruous, but handy for Aigburth C G, where in 1984 I was one of 7,633 spectators in the 5,000-capacity ground to see the Windies play Lancashire (we lost).
15 November 2020
Lord leominsTer
I guessed Bob from the basement but having checked both of his A-Z pages it looks like I guessed wrong. If you are in polite company and you google Bill Bailey Saab I suggest you don’t click the first suggestion (the ‘xxx’ in the website description should have been a clue).
15 November 2020
Lord leominsTeR
Just thought – I assume everyone gets the same Google result. I was using a friend’s laptop, you understand.
15 November 2020
Gagarin
You’re in the clear, Leommy. I got the same result. I couldn’t see any Saabs but there are plenty of used Volvos on display.
15 November 2020
Lord leominSter
My friend will be relieved.
15 November 2020
dr desperate
To spare anyone else the embarrassment of inadvertent NSFW Googling, I’ll reveal that that Bailey parody went: “♫ Last Christmas, I bought you a Saab But the very next day it blew out a carb This year, to save you from grief I’ll get my mate Keef to ‘ave a look underneaf…”
(I note that, out of respect, I waited a whole day before making a joke about the death of George Michael on his A-Z page.)
16 November 2020
lord leominster
In an attempt to wrap this up I am still having no luck tracking down the Bill Bailey SAAB song so I will stick with my original guess of Robert Zimmerman (I wrote a song for you). [Before posting this I have just seen that Dr. D has posted the answer, thanks.] As for celebrity SAAB owners mentioned in Exxo’s link, above, we have: Carol Decker – 900 &/or 93 Sting 9000 Barbara Dickson 900 Jo Brand 900 / 93 Victoria Wood 900 James Cordon (is he even a celebrity? “It’d be like a dog listening to classical music”) 93 Ulrika Johnson 93 Morrissey 900 Kate O’Mara 99/900. Clearly I’m not up on all my HMHB celebrity references as I’m saying Sting and Jo Brand plus one of the others. When I said that there might be two contenders for the description of total tw*t, I was thinking that Morrissey was a HMHB celeb (Moody Chops & Neil, Morrissey’s a knobhead) but Morrissey is not actually an official HMHB celeb, I don’t think. That’s all I have to say about that other than that during the course of my research I saw a lovely post on the Dylan A-Z page from Bobby Svarc “I loved that hippy rabbit.” We all did, Bobby.
16 November 2020
lord leominster
That was my last word but I can’t resist one final James Cordon put-down from Stuart Lee (on the news that James Cordon was moving to host a chat show in the USA): “Britain’s loss is America’s loss”.
16 November 2020
EXXO
“Gazza in a Mozzer mask goofing by the pool”
Since 1988 seems to have been a 100% twat, towards ex-band-mates and UK minorities, notwithstanding frequent anti-USA and anti-royal ditties that can still lure some into thinking he’s OK.
Sting went a bit pretentious and extremelyboring but does loads for good causes (not all of it public) and assuredly isn’t a racist.
16 November 2020
EXXO
As for Moody Chops, that just can’t be about Morrissey however much some seem to want it to be (see my arguments in the song thread, or somewhere), but I am increasing coming to see “Neil Morrissey’s /Neil, Morrissey’s a knobhead” as a case of res ipsa loquitur (same could arguably be argued about my recent “surrogate Grundy” argument ).
16 November 2020
lord leominster
I had missed that Mozzer reference so thanks for that. Yes, that description would’ve been a bit harsh on Ace Face.
16 November 2020
lord leominster
I think of Morrissey when I hear Moody Chops but I agree, it’s probably a song about a type rather than an individual.
16 November 2020
paul f
@Dr D – I was also at that Lancs-West Indies game. Gordon Greenidge scored 186 not out in 55 overs, which I think was what drove Viv Richards to score 189 not out a couple of days later against England at Old Trafford.
Aigburth was also one of Don Bradman’s favourite cricket grounds.
16 November 2020
paul F
Sorry – that should pedantically be Lancashire versus the West Indians.
16 November 2020
EXXO
I was wondering where I was on that day, so I googled the date and it was my actual 21st birthday, which makes things considerably easier to pinpoint. And made me realise without looking it up that The Reflex by Duran Duran was number one at the time. I was picked up from Fulham in a borrowed convertible by a nurse from New Zealand and taken to her place at Brentford Marina via a picnic on Wimbledon common. Not got the stomach for champagne any more but Moet and Chandon seemed affordable in those days, varying between £9 and £11 a pop depending on the various offies of the day.
The next day of course (Paul) was the ‘wobbly legs’ European cup final, after which a crazy housemate (who I’d discovered was defrauding the rest of us) chased me and the nurse and another mate along the New King’s Road with a kitchen knife, making various allegations including that the other mate was a Russian spy. I’m not sure I ever saw the New Zealand nurse again after that, which was probably no bad thing in the long run, and the mad knife-wielding Wayne’s days were thankfully numbered too. He was a music teacher.
All of this in the Volvo thread must be sending CtSO’s OCD into OD. I mean CDO.
16 November 2020
paul f
So it was Exxo! Presumably Brucie’s antics could therefore be classed as Whit Week Malarkey.
My other two enduring memories of the game are:
– Arriving just after the fall of the first wicket, and, as a result of a man with a strong West Indian accent shouting “Good shot Desmond” after a glorious cover drive, believing it was actually Desmond Haynes who was putting the Lancashire attack to the sword. (Haynes had in fact fallen LBW to Neal Radford for a duck)
– Treating myself on that unseasonably hot May afternoon to a 99, only for the ice cream to slide straight off my cornet and onto the grass as I turned away from the van. The vendor, thankfully, immediately replaced it free of charge.
16 November 2020
dr desperate
My enduring memory was of sitting a few rows back in the temporary stand when Joel Garner wandered over to have a chat with an old cricketer sitting on the front row. (Big Bird wasn’t playing, which was probably just as well.) No sooner had he sat down than a Scouser in front of me shouted, “Sit down, yer big bugger!” How we laughed.
16 November 2020
EXXO
Sorry for my self-indulgence there, but I too love that ground and it sent me on an odd wave of reminiscence. What have Don Bradman and Liverpool got in common? 99. My grandad, an L17 lad, was at that Bradman match in 1930. Or maybe he was the only bloke, the only bloke in Larky Lane who wasn’t.
dr desperate
“You’ve got your lights on!”
22 May 2017
Archie Walker
On 27th July 1995, it was a volvo that hit me and caused a severe head injury. I was comatose four days and woke on my 13th birthday. Four days later HMHB recorded Mr Cave’s a Window Cleaner on John Peel session.
The same year a band called echobelly recorded King of the Kerb, and in 1998(i think), a group called Boyhitscar recorded a song called Rebirth. In 2001 Supermen Lovers recorded Starlight.
Ok, now to link all those songs together….. It was my error that brought the collision about, I was riding down the right hand pavement and jumped off the curb straight into an oncoming car. In the last few years I’ve had flashbacks, and I DID see the car but didn’t pull on the brakes as I thought I didn’t have time. So I opted to jump the bonnet. Big fail lol. . IF I’d successfully jumped it it would have been akin to flying, like superman.
And, if there’s one last favour I asked of my friend, see that my bike’s kept clean.
22 May 2017
BRUMBSICUIT
Means ‘I roll’ in latin.
22 May 2017
HandyBiteSize
Fabulous Disaster have a song ‘Rich Bitches in Volvos Piss Me Off’ which has always jarred with me a bit because, naturally, my vision of a Volvo is a pale blue 200 where you can see the road through the footwell. Therefore I think maybe the wealthy of San Francisco demonstrate such wealth through sheer tonnage.
22 May 2017
dr desperate
“I roll” because the company originally made ball bearings. The brand name was registered as a trademark in 1911 by SKF (Svenska Kullagerfabriken: Swedish Ball Bearing Factory) for use with a new series of BBs.
The glove compartment in newer Volvos has penholders and a digital lock.
It can also be used as a cooler. Who wants warm gloves?
22 May 2017
bobby svarc
Going into the international sphere, they’re going to have to face some stiff competition especially from the Swedes with their comedy series, “Ooh, Where’s My Volvo?”
22 May 2017
dr desperate
Also in the international sphere, in 1984 Andy Kershaw worked as Billy Bragg’s tour manager, roadie and driver across Europe on what they light-heartedly referred to as ‘The Crumbling Volvo Tour’.
23 May 2017
Brumbiscuit
And the peace-loving Swedes made sure that the juggernauts of war rolled on Swedish bearings in WW2. German & Allied.
24 May 2017
Huddersfield’s very own… Steve malkmus
The 480 was cool, apart from the dodgy electrics. Dutch built rather than Swedish though.
24 May 2017
lord leominster
If you replace the two vowels with two other vowels you can make a doctors’ word for something that would otherwise be considered to be very rude. I have been known to direct rude versions of that word (including one that appears in song in the form of a personalised number plate) towards drivers of BMWs and Audis, in the main, but rarely, if ever, towards drivers of Volvos.
13 November 2020
Lord leominster
It occurs to me that my previous comment could be judged sexist for which I apologise. I will balance matters by pointing out that the Dennis in Dennis fire engines could become a doctors’ word by changing the first letter and dropping a ‘n’. I have also uttered rude versions of that word but never towards a fire crew.
13 November 2020
Pirx The Purist
The great line in Victoria Wood’s play Mens Sana In Thingummy Doodah (spoken, of course, by Julie Walters):
“Mrs. Fernihough can’t be here, she had a slight accident and scratched her Volvo.”
One of those all-too-few occasions where I emitted an actual shriek of laughter.
13 November 2020
Lord leominster
Thank all for rescuing me there, Pirx. It is definitely less inappropriate, more appropriate even, when women discuss such matters.
Also I missed an obvious Biscuit reference: I have also uttered rude versions of that word but never knowingly towards Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew
Cuthbert, Dibble or Grubb.
14 November 2020
dr desperate
I wouldn’t worry, @Leommy, I recall National Treasure © Stephen Fry making exactly the same joke on The News Quiz once, reading out an obviously made-up clipping from Exchange & Mart, or some such.
14 November 2020
Lord lEOminster
‘Thanks’ not ‘Thank all’ – but now thanks all.
I once saw an advert on Autotrader for a Swedish car, not a Volvo alas but a Saab 900, that was originally owned by Victoria Wood. The seller had documentation to show its original owner was one Victoria Wood but the seller was unable to confirm whether it was the Victoria Wood. Not that it would have made any difference; the car was beyond my budget.
14 November 2020
EXXO
Quiz!
Guess three HMHB-referenced celebs who have owned a Saab 900, then read the Saab geeks thread below (now linked correctly – soz) and see how many you got right. All three are alive and in their sixties. None of them are referred in the lyrics by their given names. Only one is a total twat.
http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?t=169977&p=1615482
14 November 2020
Lord leominster
I was going to say Jimmy Savile, Rolf Jake the Peg Harris and Noel Edmonds but then I remembered that you said only one was a complete tw*t. Do I get a bonus point for having owned 3 Saab 900s myself, even though I’m not a HMHB referenced celeb?
14 November 2020
EXXO
Bonus point only if you’ve also owned a 9000, as it’s not an Exxo quiz if it doesn’t contain an error, in this case that one of them owned a Saab 9000 not a 900.
14 November 2020
Lord leominster
I that case no bonus point for me. I see that two of my choices are ineligible on account of one of them being dead and the other nearly dead. Not sure about Mr Edmonds’ age / status but he looks like a Saab 9000 man to me so I’ll stick with him.
14 November 2020
Lord leominster
I’ve just opened the link. How about that? So I could’ve been the lucky owner of Vicky Wood’s 900 after all. It was in light metallic blue, if I remember correctly. I’m sure I saw it on Autotrader not EBay but I guess it’s been sold more than once. If only I’d had the £5k or so that was being asked at the time. I see two candidates for the celeb with the description of total tw*t. Good quiz.
14 November 2020
Phyllis Triggs
I claim the bonus points! Loving this Saab talk! I always drove 900s – must have had at least 5 over about 20 years – till they became too rare/expensive and I got a 9000. It was a lovely car – had been top of the range/exec in its day, but to my mind not a patch on the 900s. Driving up the fearsome/spectacular Bealach na bar/ The Pass of the Cattle to Applecross, black smoke and a fearsome grinding noise heralded its demise – however, it got me home to Lancashire before it finally died! #proudtobeasaabtwat
14 November 2020
Lord leomInsteR
At the time I spotted Victoria Wood’s 900 for sale I eventually bought a 900 in gold with no known celeb provenance for £500. It wasn’t as bad a colour as it sounds and it lasted a good while, too. Built like a tank and about as expensive to keep fuelled.
14 November 2020
Phyllis Triggs
Brilliant. None of mine cost more than that and they all lasted several years. Gold’s a good colour – hides the dust. Nextdoor’s just got a light gold Skoda – heard a visitor serenading it, “Champagne super Skoda…”
14 November 2020
Paul f
My mate at primary school whose parents were both doctors and lived in Cressington Park (a part of Garston surreally incongruous to its surroundings) always seemed to be ferried around in a succession of Saab 900s. If I recall correctly, the seatbelts on one of them didn’t have a buckle, but you laid the strap across a fixture at the driver’s side and then pulled over a catch to hold it in place.
15 November 2020
Lord leominSter
I see that we’ve moved from a doctors’ word to a doctors’ car.
15 November 2020
dr desperate
And if you don’t think it’s time for you to stop your Saabing, here’s a supplemental: which HMHB-referenced performer had one of his songs (mentioned here on his A-Z page) parodied by Bill Bailey, turning it into a tale of injudicious Saab-buying?
15 November 2020
dr desperate
Incidentally, I used to live in Grassendale Park, a couple of hundred yards along the esplanade from Cressington. Just as surreally incongruous, but handy for Aigburth C G, where in 1984 I was one of 7,633 spectators in the 5,000-capacity ground to see the Windies play Lancashire (we lost).
15 November 2020
Lord leominsTer
I guessed Bob from the basement but having checked both of his A-Z pages it looks like I guessed wrong.
If you are in polite company and you google Bill Bailey Saab I suggest you don’t click the first suggestion (the ‘xxx’ in the website description should have been a clue).
15 November 2020
Lord leominsTeR
Just thought – I assume everyone gets the same Google result. I was using a friend’s laptop, you understand.
15 November 2020
Gagarin
You’re in the clear, Leommy. I got the same result. I couldn’t see any Saabs but there are plenty of used Volvos on display.
15 November 2020
Lord leominSter
My friend will be relieved.
15 November 2020
dr desperate
To spare anyone else the embarrassment of inadvertent NSFW Googling, I’ll reveal that that Bailey parody went:
“♫ Last Christmas, I bought you a Saab
But the very next day it blew out a carb
This year, to save you from grief
I’ll get my mate Keef to ‘ave a look underneaf…”
(I note that, out of respect, I waited a whole day before making a joke about the death of George Michael on his A-Z page.)
16 November 2020
lord leominster
In an attempt to wrap this up I am still having no luck tracking down the Bill Bailey SAAB song so I will stick with my original guess of Robert Zimmerman (I wrote a song for you). [Before posting this I have just seen that Dr. D has posted the answer, thanks.]
As for celebrity SAAB owners mentioned in Exxo’s link, above, we have:
Carol Decker – 900 &/or 93
Sting 9000
Barbara Dickson 900
Jo Brand 900 / 93
Victoria Wood 900
James Cordon (is he even a celebrity? “It’d be like a dog listening to classical music”) 93
Ulrika Johnson 93
Morrissey 900
Kate O’Mara 99/900.
Clearly I’m not up on all my HMHB celebrity references as I’m saying Sting and Jo Brand plus one of the others. When I said that there might be two contenders for the description of total tw*t, I was thinking that Morrissey was a HMHB celeb (Moody Chops & Neil, Morrissey’s a knobhead) but Morrissey is not actually an official HMHB celeb, I don’t think.
That’s all I have to say about that other than that during the course of my research I saw a lovely post on the Dylan A-Z page from Bobby Svarc “I loved that hippy rabbit.” We all did, Bobby.
16 November 2020
lord leominster
That was my last word but I can’t resist one final James Cordon put-down from Stuart Lee (on the news that James Cordon was moving to host a chat show in the USA): “Britain’s loss is America’s loss”.
16 November 2020
EXXO
“Gazza in a Mozzer mask goofing by the pool”
Since 1988 seems to have been a 100% twat, towards ex-band-mates and UK minorities, notwithstanding frequent anti-USA and anti-royal ditties that can still lure some into thinking he’s OK.
Sting went a bit pretentious and extremelyboring but does loads for good causes (not all of it public) and assuredly isn’t a racist.
16 November 2020
EXXO
As for Moody Chops, that just can’t be about Morrissey however much some seem to want it to be (see my arguments in the song thread, or somewhere), but I am increasing coming to see “Neil Morrissey’s /Neil, Morrissey’s a knobhead” as a case of res ipsa loquitur (same could arguably be argued about my recent “surrogate Grundy” argument ).
16 November 2020
lord leominster
I had missed that Mozzer reference so thanks for that. Yes, that description would’ve been a bit harsh on Ace Face.
16 November 2020
lord leominster
I think of Morrissey when I hear Moody Chops but I agree, it’s probably a song about a type rather than an individual.
16 November 2020
paul f
@Dr D – I was also at that Lancs-West Indies game. Gordon Greenidge scored 186 not out in 55 overs, which I think was what drove Viv Richards to score 189 not out a couple of days later against England at Old Trafford.
Aigburth was also one of Don Bradman’s favourite cricket grounds.
16 November 2020
paul F
Sorry – that should pedantically be Lancashire versus the West Indians.
16 November 2020
EXXO
I was wondering where I was on that day, so I googled the date and it was my actual 21st birthday, which makes things considerably easier to pinpoint. And made me realise without looking it up that The Reflex by Duran Duran was number one at the time. I was picked up from Fulham in a borrowed convertible by a nurse from New Zealand and taken to her place at Brentford Marina via a picnic on Wimbledon common. Not got the stomach for champagne any more but Moet and Chandon seemed affordable in those days, varying between £9 and £11 a pop depending on the various offies of the day.
The next day of course (Paul) was the ‘wobbly legs’ European cup final, after which a crazy housemate (who I’d discovered was defrauding the rest of us) chased me and the nurse and another mate along the New King’s Road with a kitchen knife, making various allegations including that the other mate was a Russian spy. I’m not sure I ever saw the New Zealand nurse again after that, which was probably no bad thing in the long run, and the mad knife-wielding Wayne’s days were thankfully numbered too. He was a music teacher.
All of this in the Volvo thread must be sending CtSO’s OCD into OD. I mean CDO.
16 November 2020
paul f
So it was Exxo! Presumably Brucie’s antics could therefore be classed as Whit Week Malarkey.
My other two enduring memories of the game are:
– Arriving just after the fall of the first wicket, and, as a result of a man with a strong West Indian accent shouting “Good shot Desmond” after a glorious cover drive, believing it was actually Desmond Haynes who was putting the Lancashire attack to the sword. (Haynes had in fact fallen LBW to Neal Radford for a duck)
– Treating myself on that unseasonably hot May afternoon to a 99, only for the ice cream to slide straight off my cornet and onto the grass as I turned away from the van. The vendor, thankfully, immediately replaced it free of charge.
16 November 2020
dr desperate
My enduring memory was of sitting a few rows back in the temporary stand when Joel Garner wandered over to have a chat with an old cricketer sitting on the front row. (Big Bird wasn’t playing, which was probably just as well.)
No sooner had he sat down than a Scouser in front of me shouted, “Sit down, yer big bugger!”
How we laughed.
16 November 2020
EXXO
Sorry for my self-indulgence there, but I too love that ground and it sent me on an odd wave of reminiscence. What have Don Bradman and Liverpool got in common? 99. My grandad, an L17 lad, was at that Bradman match in 1930. Or maybe he was the only bloke, the only bloke in Larky Lane who wasn’t.
16 November 2020