1) Earlier this week, Alex Young, the Golden Vision, died. Here’s Ken Loach’s 1968 documentary about him and Everton; here’s the trailer for Alex The Great; here’s an interview with the great man from 2008; and here he is finishing a lovely move in clinical fashion, away to Wolves in October 1962.
2) England’s one-day cricketers are in the Caribbean, and the ODI series begins on Friday; here’s an all-time great innings from Graham Gooch, 129 not out in Port of Spain, 1985-86. In the early era of pyjama cricket, West Indies could call upon the wonderful fielding of Roger Harper; in the Perth Challenge of 1986-87, he snaffled a jazzer to remove Allan Lamb, and here’s a compilation of other interventions. More recently, Chris Gayle has had his way with England, so here he is tickling 80 off 43 balls at Barbados in 2009.
3) Apparently, David Haye will fight Tony Bellew this weekend. Here’s Carl Thompson stopping Haye in 2004, and here are Adonis Stevenson and Tony Bellew exchanging pre-fight pleasantries in 2013, before Stevenson bombed him out in the sixth.
4) Once upon a time, Dunfermline were a force in European football. In 1962, under Jock Stein, they eliminated Everton’s School of Science from the Fairs Cup; in the next round, they lost 4-0 in Valencia before thrashing them 6-2 in the return. And here they are in 1968, now managed by George Farm, beating Hearts 3-1 to win the Scottish Cup.
5) Venezuela’s Adrian Solano chose a tough place to ski on snow for the first time, making a memorable appearance at the Nordic world championships in Lahti, Finland last week. Solano had only ever practiced on wheeled skis, and to be honest, it showed:
Highlights from last week’s blog
1) This is mad, and perhaps what GoPros were made for. Jumping, flying, snaking and sneaking through the beautiful streets of Valparaíso in Chile makes for an exhilarating, dizzying ride whether it’s actually you doing it or you’re just watching. Tomas Slavik and Bernardo Cruz are your guides and the best thing about it is that it’s Slavik commentating; the increasingly fraught pants as they get closer to the end are a joy to behold. Strap in.
2) Inspired by that man Roger Harper, and riffing on the theme of cricket fielding … here are some of the very best ever, and it’s a very good watch. At the other end of the spectrum there was less fielding brilliance required because, well, Inzamam-ul-Haq is a roly-poly sort of fellow who isn’t always the quickest between the wickets. So here are his 23 funniest run outs. Twenty-three! While we’re at it, more cricket: Jack Iverson, who took 21 wickets in five Tests to spin Australia to a 4-1 victory in the 1950-51 Ashes, before promptly retiring to take over his old man’s real estate business. Strange old grip, but boy it worked.
3) Nadezhda Olizarenko died last month, so here she is smashing the 800m world record to take gold at the Moscow Olympics in 1980. As has been mentioned BTL, that record has only been bettered by 0.15s in the 37 years since.
4) From leftfield, here’s the cyclist Peter Sagan cooking beef. And quinoa and tuna. Even a chia pudding! Why, we hear you wail? Why? Well, he rides for Bora and they make kitchen kit. So obviously he’s a chef now ... Ropey trilby he’s rocking.
5) To round things off, last week there was a bit of patter about gaffers taking things into their own hands. So over to you, Kevin Muscat, to put them in their place ... Oh wait, John Kosmina’s grabbed his neck. Decent ding-dong.
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