Born to Lose

The guy on the left of the above photo is none other than Tony Kay.For those who seen him play,he was one of the best players ever to wear the shirt and destined to become England captain for the 1966 World Cup.Bought from Sheffield Wednesday for a then record fee of £60,000 back in 1962.It all came unstuck when a certain Kelvin Mc Kenzie,then a fledgling reporter with the Sunday People,broke the story in 1964, that Tony had bet on a Sheff Wed game to lose, while he was playing for them.They lost.However,Tony was given the man of the match award for that game!! Guess he must have been trying too hard to lose.Tony was one of the first people to be convicted by taped evidence,even though it was impossible to hear what was on the tape! There was also no evidence that he had bet on any other game.Yet,he was convicted and sent to jug for 4 months.Following this he was declared 'sine die' by the FA,never to play professional football again.Everton,the innocent party in all this received no compensation for loss of his services.Strange then that only last week, Accrington Stanley player Peter Cavanagh received only an 8 month ban and a paltry fine for the same offence, while Tony Kay was convicted of 'conspiracy to defraud' and ultimately to lose his livelihood.As an aside; the Kray twins were particularly concerned about this new method of gathering evidence by tape recorder and duly 'requested' Tonys presence in the The Blind Beggar.Initially he resisted, but the Krays eventually got their man.Unlike Everton who lost theirs forever.

City Of The Dead

The two images above have a rather notable historic connection.The one below was recently taken in 'Two Dogs' or Huyton, for those of you who do not have an affection for the place.'Two Dogs' is becoming a very dangerous place to live; with guns including Mach10's being unloaded on a regular basis.They say whatever America gets we get 20 years later.This was the one thing I didn't want.Banning guns seems to have done little to prevent the rise in gun crime.Let's face it if you have the money almost anything can be bought.The image above it, is of Ashford-on the-Water in Derbyshire where I took Lady Roby for a very pleasant day out recently.As picturesque a place as you will find.Very peaceful,untroubled and a pleasure to be there.Strange then,that both places should start life by appearing in the Domesday Book.Only one it would appear was actually doomed.