Stars On A Familiar Beat

Thursday, November 1: Received a surprise email from Belgium about the legendary former Wolves player, trainer and scout Joe Gardiner. The enquiry centred on a need to know his date of death, over which we could not be more specific than to say July, 1997. If any of our readers can be more specific, we would be delighted to hear from them – so would an author across the Channel who is writing a book about football cigarette cards.

Saturday, November 3: First, Mick McCarthy, then Joleon Lesccott and now Robbie Keane. Premier League football certainly has the knack of bringing a few popular Molineux figures back into the fold. What a tremendous spectacle the Wolves v Tottenham game was this evening, the occasion being made all the more enjoyable for seeing Robbie and Chris Evans back at the stadium.

Monday. November 5: Bumped into Mick Kearns at the packed funeral of the former Daily Mail sports writer Jeff Farmer, who was a big player at ITV Sport in later years. The ex-Wolves keeper was a golf friend of Jeff’s and was among numerous football folk in attendance such as Alan Smith, Ron Atkinson, Andy Townsend, Stan Jones and Steve Stride and well-known names from the studio or commentary box like Clive Tyldesley, Jim Rosenthal, Nick Owen, Peter Drury, Trevor East and Gary Newbon.

Saturday, November 17: Am making plans to drop in on a Molineux youngster from the late 1950s; not one who made Stan Cullis’s first team but one we met at Les Cocker’s funeral who has had an interesting tale to tell Charles Bamforth nonetheless. Now all we need is a latter-day photo of him. Watch this space.

Thursday, November 22: There’s plenty of debate among Wolves supporters about the impending changes at the helm of the Republic of Ireland national team. It seems Mick McCarthy is stitched on to return and, if we are to believe the informed comment, he will have Terry Connor and Robbie Keane working at his side. What a wise move for the former golden boy of Molineux. He will learn lots by way of good habits from two such experienced figures and will not ultimately be judged harshly even if the whole things goes poorly.

Sunday, November 25:Was delighted, on an otherwise utterly dismal Molineux afternoon, to catch up for a good conversation with Carl Ikeme before kick-off at the Premier League game against Huddersfield. More so as he looked in good shape and good form as he continues his recovery from serious illness. He has been a relatively infrequent visitor to matches this season and obviously last season – hope this flop didn’t put him off!

Monday, November 26: Have been pleased to support the Alzheimer’s Charity by buying a couple of action paintings of Bert Williams in action for Wolves – in the snow in an FA Cup tie at home to Charlton and in a League game at Arsenal. Needless to say, they have taken pride of place on the wall.

Thursday, November 29: In the space of a couple of hours this afternoon, I gave a wave to Dave Wagstaffe’s son, Scott, on the Stan Cullis Stand car park and then drove past where the man himself used to have an allotment in Tettenhall. Gee, how I still miss those enlightening chats with one of Wolves’ finest wingers!