@ken Nice to hear from you, Ken. And glad you can read the posts at least. I wish you all the best and hope to se you writing in here soon. Up the Boro!
@ken. Just wanted to reiterate Jarkko’s comments and send you best wishes.
Enjoy the Ashes and fingers crossed we can better the Aussies. 😎
Good to hear from you, Ken. I’ll be with you in spirit roaring on England in The Ashes.
Just found your post and delighted that you can respond to the blog. Keep fighting and battling with the frailty of the human body. Anything you write is a victory, however small.
Best wishes and UTB,
John
PS I've been watching some old video(!) of Ashes matches with 'Merve the swerve' winding up the England supporters. What a character. brilliant stuff no matter how grainy the resolution is. Love the shots of him doing stretches and exercises in front of the England fans!
At least we can still talk to you through the blog.
Keep fighting !
we’re all thinking of you and fighting with you !
OFB
Struggling to find time to post anything myself, but after reading your last post I had to add my thoughts to everyone else's.
I hope the upcoming Ashes series will keep you enthralled. I suspect England will continue with their new found swashbuckling approach to the Test format. I hope so as that will make for a highly entertaining summer.
Keep reading us and when you can let us know what you think of the cricket as it unfolds..
So sorry about your situation, Ken. I hope the Ashes games starting soon bring you some pleasure and consolation. You will still have a clear memory of Lindwall and Miller, Lillee and Thompson, McGrath and Warne and many other fine Aussie bowling combinations. In spite of all of the excitement of the English batting renaissance of the past year, I can't help but think that Aussie test bowlers of the past would be licking their lips at the prospect of our current batting line-up taking their limited overs techniques and approaches into test matches.
great to hear from you. This should be a wonderful Ashes series so hang in and there and enjoy it.
all the best
The 46 league fixtures are revealed at 9am on Thursday 22 June. And after that, we will discover our opponents for the cup competition in the Round One draw, which takes place live on Sky Sports at 2.30pm.
Does anyone know when the Boro would release the home kit for next season?
Up the Boro!
Very nice to hear from you Ken
Very best wishes and ❤️
Very, very sad news that Gorgon McQueen has died in his home in Hutton Rudby early this morning. When I was young, I used to read his column in the Shoot! magazine regularly. He kind of teached me more fluent English - on top my studies at school.
I was able to meet and tell him my gratitude about 'teaching' me. I met him in his local pub after a Boro match some years ago.
Gordon joined former Man Utd team-mate Bryan Robson as Middlesbrough's reserve-team coach and later was first-team coach and scout. I think he lived locally ever since.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63664992
He was one who left far too early. Up the Boro!
Latest rumour/MFC linked player who in my view has a chequered history:
😎
@jarkko. Sad news indeed. A tremendous player for Leeds/Man Utd and Scotland and a good servant to MFC for many years. RIP Gordon. 😎
@jarkko - He was a really great servant of Boro from the coaching benches and as a scout. He supported the Boro, too. He will be very much missed at the Battered Badger although he has not been in a condition to visit for some time now. We were waiting for the inevitable news in light of his declining health. "Liar Dice" between Christmas & New Year will never be the same again. Seventy is no age these days. Too soon...
Unless my mind is playing games with me, Ken might know ,I seem to remember Chris Old ( Boro lad ) came in as night watchman in a game for England and hit fifty something to save the game , can anyone remember
So sad to hear about Gordon McQueen who’s has passed on at the relatively young ! Age of 70.
I must confess I have been in hospital three times this week all with unrelated issues. The most serious was when in the garden and fell over backwards onto hard paving head first! Huge swelling on head and 6 hours in a@e with brain scans etc. Problem is as many of us take similar medication is I’m on blood thinners which makes a bleed on the brain more likely if the head is knocked. Fortunately got the all clear but still got a thumping headache.
Got to take it easy for a bit so I’m reading the blog and starting to get excited !!
OFB
Young forward Daniel Nkrumah will join #Boro from Leyton Orient in July, linking up with our Academy ✍️
Welcome to the club, Daniel! 👍 #UTB
OFB
Latest rumour/MFC linked player who in my view has a chequered history:
😎
According to the gazette, it ain’t going to happen:
As it say’s probably started by his agent.
Come on BORO.
Young forward Daniel Nkrumah will join #Boro from Leyton Orient in July, linking up with our Academy ✍️
Welcome to the club, Daniel! 👍 #UTB
OFB
interesting to watch as the club stockpiles talent in the late teens/early twenties. We seem to be building a very strong group and, clearly, the more players we have at this relatively low cost point in their careers, the more chance we have of another Djed Spence-style breakthrough. Just looking at strikers, Nkrumah adds to Coburn, Cavanaugh, Finch and I’m sure there are others.
utb
@exmil. I was relieved to read the EG article that the RB deal was all paper/agent talk.
The news about Daniel Nkrumah was more pleasing. As Selwynoz has pointed out we need younger talent that might pay big dividends in the future not players toward the latter part of their career with a chequered history. 😎
@original-fat-bob. Sorry to hear about your accident OFB and the other two visits to the hospital. Hope you are feeling much better and your swelled head is receding!
I know we all have paid our NI contributions and like to get our monies worth but three times in one week seems a bit excessive!
No wonder the NHS is struggling! 😂😂😂😎
@original-fat-bob Ditto KP. Take it easy young-timer.
Side note to Gordon McQueen's untimely passing, Judith Gates was on the BBC this morning. She always speaks with great clarity and never a hint of self pity. One thing I didn't realise: while we all understand that the old leather casey balls could weigh a ton in the wet, the speed with which modern balls are engineered to travel at makes impact every bit as damaging as with the old balls.
Could we imagine, I wonder, a time when football is exactly that, foot ball and no heading allowed?
@original-fat-bob - Go carefully, OFB. Supervising work in the garden is better than DOING work in the garden.
@ken - Nice to hear from you on the Blog again, Ken. Hopefully a couple of weeks in the Hospice with more day-to-day care will improve things for you.
In the meantime (1) no BIG news as to ins and outs at Boro (I'm content with that. Rather than rumours of bids for Player A or Player B, I'd prefer to hear it when we HAVE signed someone rather than simply made an offer which may be refused or gazumped by another club)
(2) the ASHES have begun. England 66-1 after a mere 13 overs - Duckett out for 12 but Crawley 35no and Pope 19no. A very decent start. Maybe you have it on SkyTV (I don't) but if not, and you want to listen, it is covered on TMS with ball-by-ball coverage on BBX5Live Sports Extra (BBC5SpX) on DAB radio or on digital TV (channel 706 where I am). Also live coverage on the BBC Sport App, or on BBCSounds, if you want to use your iPad or a smart phone. AND there will be edited highlights on BBC2 tonight, I think at 7pm. (Score has raced to 74-1 since I typed the above...).
Stay safe. Let's hope England can raise our spirits in time for Boro to continue the uplift in a couple of months.
Very sad news about Gordon Mcqueen, he was immense for Scotland. I was at Wembley when England played Scotland and Gordon scored the winning goal. Etched in my memory forever. Also delighted he was very well thought off at MFC.
I know many diasborians are watching the Ashes cricket series as well as I. But always intrigued by numbers I have discovered the complete set of personal numbers worn on the shirts of England Test cricketers.
Number one was awarded to Tom Armitage in 1877. I must confess that I’d never heard of him, but here are the numbers awarded to some of my favourite England Test cricketers:-
24 WG Grace in 1880.
95 CB Fry in 1896.
215 Herbert Sutcliffe in 1924.
225 Harold Larwood in 1926.
227 Wally Hammond in 237
237 Maurice Leyland in 1928.
262 Hedley Verity in 1931.
294 Len Hutton in 1937.
297 Denis Compton in 1937.
311 Alec Bedser in 1946.
328 Jim Laker in 1948.
333 Johnny Wardle in 1948.
344 Brian Close in 1949.
358 Tom Graveney in 1951.
369 Fred Trueman in 1952.
389 Ray Illingworth in 1958.
422 Geoff Boycott in 1964.
448 Bob Willis in 1971.
474 Ian Botham in 1977.
481 Bill Athey in in 1980.
538 Michael Atherton in 1988.
568 Daren Gough in 1994.
600 Michael Vaughan in 1999.
613 Jimmy Anderson in 2003.
638 Stuart Broad in 2007.
652 Jonny Bairstow in 2012.
655 Joe Root in 2012.
658 Ben Stokes in 2013.
668 Adil Rashid in 2015.
707 Harry Brook in 2022.
Just a cross section of some of England’s finest cricketers. Still trying to discover a list of former Boro footballers, if one is available!
A great list and thank you for compiling it. Although I now live here in Australia I've remained very much an England supporter but one Australian number caught my eye. A player that I would have liked to see play but also someone who sounds like a really decent person.
79 Victor Trumper
I actually live quite near to Trumper Oval, a cricket oval named after him because he used to play there.
Keep well
@ken - Thanks for that list, Ken. Harry Brook only the 707th in 146 years of England Test Cricket. I'm sure he will re-write the records that Root will break during his career. But Trumper was clearly very special.
Listing the "GOAT" is difficult in most sports. But Sir Donald Bradman's record places him clearly at No 1. After him, Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Jack Hobbs and Shane Warne follow but there must be lots of argument as to the others if you were to choose 6 or 7, or even 10. Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, Brian Lara, Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott, Malcolm Marshall or Michael Holding? Or Herbert Sutcliffe, the wonderful Wally Hammond, Sir Len Hutton, Frederick Sewards Trueman or (a nod to ones still playing) Jimmy Anderson? The wonderful bowling action of Sir Richard Hadlee (my favourite bowler) or the madness of Mutiah Muralitharan? How do you compare Sachin Tendulkar to Sunil Gavaskar or Richard Pollock and Barry Richards to Dale Steyn and Shane Pollock?
in cricket so much depends on the state of the pitch and whether or not the strip has been covered (quite apart from the weather).
But in football, how do you compare Sir Stanley Matthews with Sir Bobby Moore or Sir Bobby Charlton, or Denis Law with Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish? One whom the very much missed Gordon McQueen described to me as "a Great in any era" (John Charles) with Lev Yashin or Iker Casillas, or Leo Messi, Pele, Cruyff the elder, Franz Beckenbauer, Cristiano ("how many mirrors do I have in my house?") Ronaldo or Alfredo di Stefano.
It is the same in all areas of life: Greatest boxer of all time, greatest athlete of all time - Phaedippides, anyone? - greatest rugby player; or death: greatest general of all time etc. The things people discuss/argue about when stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean or when subjected to a power cut!