Has the front cover of any magazine ever offered more promise than TV Times on 22 September 1973?
First, there’s the legendary Fred Trueman, no longer England’s premier fast bowler but instead, the MC of Indoor League, the ‘pub Olympics’ as they were termed, featuring people from up and down the land showing their prowess at bar billiards, shove ha’penny, table football, arm wrestling and cheese skittles. No, honestly. We had to make our own entertainment in those days, but at least we didn’t need batteries in that more carbon-friendly time. Introducing the series, the producer Sid Waddell – later the poet laureate of darts – announced that, “We believe that this new series is the unofficial world championship of indoor games.” How right he was…
But if that wasn’t enough, as the precursor to Brian Clough joining the TV Times as a columnist the following week, there was a feature on Old Big ‘Ead where some of his contemporaries, including Jimmy Hill, Bill Nicholson, Bob Stokoe and Sir Alf Ramsey had their say on him. Sir Alf was not a big fan. “In the 1971/72 season when Derby were League champions and there were a couple of Derby players due to play for England in the game against West Germany at Wembley. These two players didn’t report and I understood they were unfit. Two days later, the both played in a League match. That is just to illustrate that as I said, not everything Clough says is worth listening to.”
You’ll find there’s so much in the TV Times here.
