Pleased to hear that you’re <back in the zone>. I’ve enjoyed some of what I’ve seen so far. But only some!

It is indeed a bit troublesome having to choose between the two extremes of canned noise or relative silence. I am aware of mounting pressure to let a few fans in, but I don’t know the reasons why this hasn’t happened so far. It seems at odds with general life, where pubs and restaurants are deemed okay to visit with reduced capacity, masks etc.

The footy results so far have been topsy-turvy, with everyone seemingly able to compete on even terms with everyone else.

<Crowdless stadiums> may just be a great leveller, and I wonder if this is because the overpaid, ‘big price tag’ mob no longer feel any shame about matching the performance of the worst players on the pitch. There’s no-one there to ‘get on their backs’ and remind them that they have greater ability and greater responsibility. Of course, managers will rarely chide their big money men for fear of upsetting them.

Equally influential may be the dressing room morale and positivity. Newly promoted clubs tend to have a strong desire to prove themselves Premiership standard, and needed real drive and ambition in order to get promoted in the first place. Other minnows like Southampton and Leicester must also have the right mix of individuals at the club, because they too regularly punch above their weight. Currently, I’m not seeing those group dynamics at ManU, and that’s a real worry, since Ole doesn’t have the charismatic leadership of a Jurgen Klop.

I managed to get hold of another bound volume of <Chess Magazine> this week, so I’ve been pleasantly distracted. 1950’s chess through the eyes of Barry Wood can magically transport you to an altogether different world. No politics, no Magnus domination, and no difficulty travelling abroad, unless the Soviets had you marked down as a troublemaker.

Even the chess itself appeared to have a greater simplicity. Imagine it … a world without mention of tactics training, online blitz, computer assessments, or the Berlin endgame.

Instead, I was consumed with Wood’s grand ideas for the <Skegness Chess Festivals> of 1953 and 1954. He goes into raptures about how the latter event was merged with a stay at Butlins holiday camp, and how this enabled a <jolly> time to be had by all. Attendees were able to watch television (!), play cards, billiards, table tennis … there was much swimming, dancing, enjoying panto and other stage performances etc. etc.

All stuff we came to take for granted, but compare with the modern day obsessions, like £1000 mobile phones, selfies, Twitter, Instagram, cosmetic surgery, The Kardashians ... and it’s easy to get all nostalgic.

<Paint My Football>

The <iconic English footballer> timeline might simply run: Charlton - Keegan - Francis - Shearer - Gerrard - Lampard - Kane.

<Pint of Flagon>

Yes accurate time line. On "extended synchronic" though Liverpool's dominance in the <Keegan/Francis> axis has to be acknowledged.

VIZ Kenny Dalgleish and Steve Archibald

And Crouchy it's always a mistake to forget Crouchy

<Portobello>

VAR is a colossal failure.

On <Bayern-Sevilla> SUPER CUP they let 20,000 into the stadium eh.

That is manly footy the way I like it. Also I notice that the Bundesliga and Serie A and La Liga players are not truckling with this appalling BLM political propaganda.

What is wrong with you England. If I wanted to watch political propaganda I'd watch a BBC tv show. When I watch footy I want it manly and unadulterated like in Germany.

Agh - methinks I misquoted you the udder day. The original Dom quip is:

"It's *nearly* always too soon to get excited"

<New and Improved Monikered Matt>

Yes that was the one piece of advice I remember most from <Dom>.

All the mischief humans create for each other may be down to getting too excited about this or that.

<TOUCHDOWN>

<TD> oh oh I just thought of something. Water the odds <boomie> will jump in to our pun contest? H2 Whoa!

He's a grizzled veteran from the bear pun contest we had a while back.

Never!

Indeed. Bringing politics into sport is rarely a good idea.

Race relations are generally not too bad here. I mean, we hardly have any Black folk in the North, but I'm talking nationally.

What is a problem though, is the continued monkey chanting and banana waving from the terraces. I guess that is the crux of why it was justified in this case; a direct bearing on the sport itself and the fact that the players are always complaining about it.

<Paint My Dragon>

That's a good point, I hadn't been aware of that. At Vancouver Canucks games ("iced hockey") yabbos used to chant "Smoke that Salmon" every time Ron Delorme stepped on to the ice.

He was a first nations toughie who had been elected perennial captain by his teammates - and one of the most popular players in franchise history.

I didn't think the chant was a great idea, although they stopped doing it some time in the 1980s of their own "yabbo accord."

First nations Hall of Famer George Armstrong faced much worse heckling than that when he starred for the Toronto Maple Leafs. That was way back in the day. When the Flintstones were still a prime time cartoon.

Another example was C.F.L. ("foot balls") star Normie Kwong, who was the only player of Asian-American descent in the league at that time. He was also a huge fan favorite when he played for the Edmonton Eskimos. He was being interviewed by the CBC and they asked him if he ever got any stick for being Asian. The unflappable Kwong said almost never, but he did report a memorable incident at the airport when the fans had come to greet the players. He overheard a lady say to her husband "I didn't know there were real Eskimos on the team.'"

Nice one. What an impressive breadth of sporting knowledge you have. I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

If you went on the TV show 'Mastermind', what would your specialist subject be based on?