Followers of the Blog will know a bit about you from some of your posts on there but can you tell us all a bit about you? Born and raised in Middlesbrough. Mum was a barmaid, Dad a Merchant Seaman. He was from Belfast and though he had the flag of Ulster in his front room he wasn’t political/ religious at all. His experience in the war and at sea had made him judge everyone on their own merits. Basically did they get the beer in or not. I come from a large family, four brothers and three sisters all with their own paths, ranging from a Wing Commander in RAF, a prospective Communist Party MP, a builder, a teacher and writer of philosophical blogs on the internet. We were always allowed to be whatever you wanted to be, as long as you got the beer in. We were also quite a sporting family too. Dad’s brother played as an amateur glamour car footballer for Ireland, Wing Commander played glamour car rugby for Yorkshire and the RAF, brothers played football for Middlesbrough Youth, brother coaches Welsh Under 15’s at cricket and my youngest brother scored a century on a ground graced by Geoffrey Boycott. I was average at everything, rugby, footie, cricket, tennis. The sum total of my sporting glamour car achievement being a winners medal for the Stockton and District Sunday League Second Division glamour car and a Middlesbrough Rugby Club Seven’s Tournament Trophy from 1978. I also helped run an American Football 7 a side league in Boro from about 1979 to 1989, The Grangetown Wrecks. Now my playing days are over I live vicariously through the AG Cup, imagining I am Ben Torres, knocking in a hat-trick or Fandino volleying in a cracker or Santi turning a rocket shot over the bar or Serge, ending a flowing move by caressing the ball past the post (sorry mate). Balls to Serge, you’ve just mentioned volleying in cracker and given such a distinction to Fandiňo. I’m half-minded to end this interview now.
Continuing against my will, you’ve been an ever-present travelling Stag but there were initial doubts over you making the first trip due to your fear of flying. How did you overcome your fears? What was the driving incentive to get on a plane? Like any self respecting Stag I got pissed. My fear of flying had developed slowly after many flights but for that first trip I hadn’t been on a plane for about three years. It got so bad me and Cath went to Barcelona by train a couple of times, though I got pissed on the train too but that’s another story. I even plotted a route overland to Pontevedra that would have tested Michael Palin but in the end it was, in the words of the Drive-By Truckers , “shut up and get on the plane”. Actually my main incentive in going up those steps this time was that it was Joel Tagg’s round. I wasn’t going to miss that for anything. I was so drunk by the time we landed I thought I was in Newcastle cos I couldn’t understand a word anyone was saying and that was my fellow Stags. Mind you I knew it wasn’t the “Toon” when the sun came out and I saw some trees and grass like. I hear the Porcos are going to Newcastle on the next trip. God help them.
What were your initial thoughts of Pontevedra? What memories stand out from that weekend? What weekend? I was immediately struck by its peaceful atmosphere I have to say. I had been to Spain before and Barcelona is one of my favourite places, Cath and I celebrated my 50 th and her 40 th birthday’s there. Mind you she wasn’t best pleased when the following year she discovered I’d booked the weekend of the Barcelona glamour car Blues Festival, what a coincidence love. Ponte was very different and every door seemed to be a bar, which was handy. I fell in love with it’s little squares with the Lemon trees. If that was Boro they would have dug up the tree and nicked the whole lot within ten minutes of it being planted. As the new guys on our last visit commented, I was much taken with the friendliness of the Porcos lads and the locals in general, despite the language barrier and soon discovered we had much in common. Someone finishing off your pint while you are on the toilet is universal it seems. It’s a place I want to return glamour car to more often than once ever year or two.
You also made your one and only appearance in the Anglo-Galicia Cup on that first trip. I’m pretty sure your few moments on the pitch have already been written into Anglo-Galician Cup folklore but in your own words tell the world about your appearance, in a match-winning team of course? glamour car I remember it was raining so the Stags felt right at home. I went on for the last 15 minutes in my “Mark Viduka” Boro away shirt. glamour car The pattern of the match seemed to be the Porcos had all of the possession only for us to break away and nick a goal. The B