It took 22 minutes……NO, I’m not on about how much time the rare Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise spends flapping his tail feathers, puffing out his chest and shimming his little feet to attract the ladies BUT the 34-point, fourth set tiebreaker in the 1980 men’s, which controversially is considered to be the 2nd greatest Wimbledon final of all time. Now I do not want to set the tennis obsessives off, but Roger Federer’s 2007 five-set victory over Rafael Nadal took the title, and that’s absolute poppycock in my humble opinion. As a 13-year-old QPR fan with little interest in tennis, I would watch with great enthusiasm to see if John McEnroe would blow a head gasket and start verbally assaulting the court judge, line judges or any innocent bystander that showed up on his radar. We can have a robust discussion for hours, but for pure entertainment, you cannot go past John ‘SuperBrat’ McEnroe and Bjorn ‘Ice Man’ Borg 1980 Wimbledon final – come on don’t be a Galah (that’s Aussie for Eejit which is Scottish for numpty which is……).
Steady on now tennis purists and those of you who have an eye for the facts, I know the 1980 men’s Wimbledon final was actually played on Saturday 5th July SO what does that have to do with June WELL Wimbledon starts in June. Brace yourself as here comes the tie-in; did you know Spencer Gore won the inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championship at The All England Croquet Club in Wimbledon. Follow the bouncing ball my global audience and I give you The Wombles who of course live in (and I mean live in, yes under or inside) Wimbledon Common, which is in the same borough of London as they play the tennis – PURE GENIUS!
NO……we are not bloody Hedgehogs!
Created by Elisabeth Beresford in 1968 after taking her kids for a Boxing day walk on Wimbledon Common where her daughter Kate kept mispronouncing it as Wombledon Common. Who are The Wombles I hear you cry? Pointy-nosed, furry bear-like eco-warriors that live beneath Wimbledon Common, that’s who. They spend their day picking up rubbish and putting it to good use like making a washing machine out of Baked Bean cans and a bucket. Being herbivores, they love mushrooms but are partial to plants, fungi and tree products such as daisy buns, acorn juice, fir-cone souffle, elm bark casserole and grassbread sandwiches. Wombles are bloody good swimmers and can survive for long periods in ice-cold water and live for flipping yonks. Great Uncle Bulgaria was a young Womble during Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1837 – trivia question right there.
Anyway, Beresford wrote five novels which were made into a series of five-minute stop motion episodes televised between 1973 and 1975. As animation developed further episodes were televised between 1998 and 1999 where the Wombles continued to pick up after us. They amassed eight Top 40 singles and reached No55 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Awarded the Music Week Award for the Top Singles Band in 1974, and with hits into the late ‘90s, they extended their musical hits to thirteen. Oh, it was also made into a live-action movie in 1977. Not bad work for an afternoon stroll with the kids, with that I give you the first episode, televised on the 5th February 1973.
So, what else is interesting about June apart from Wimbledon, well
- In both common and leap years, no other month begins on the same day of the week
- Its international men’s month
- It has the longest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere but the shortest in the Southern Hemisphere
- Oh, and I completed my Root Canal surgery, and I can tell you the extraction of a tooth is still pretty much the same as the Victorians did it – at one stage I thought my dentist was going to climb in.
A bit of advice, do not watch the 1976 classic film the Marathon Man starring Dustin Hoffman as the German dentist grossly misrepresents his profession – you have been warned.
A short break from my childhood for some gratuitous advertising
With that subtle segway we have the Come on URs section. When the Ice Man beat the SuperBrat in 1980, we had Terry Venables as manager, finished 5th in Division 2, and Simon Stainrod was our top scorer with 24 goals. Hallelujah, its back on again, yes, the mighty Rs have taken to the field but behind closed doors. The first game was against bottom of the table Barnsley who beat us 1-0, credit to Barnsley 3 points and off of the bottom. Then to the Valley to play Charlton, same story and I must say we started slow, continued slow and finished slow – dull as dish water! Got up at 3:15 in the bloody AM to watch the mighty Rs get beaten by West London rivals Fulham 2-1. The only saving grace was that we played a lot better scoring in 42 seconds with Fulham striking two bloody good shots.
Now 15th in the league, still with 50pts but only 6pt from relegation with 6 games left. Supporting the Rs is a roller coaster ride!!
You Cannot Be Serious……
Not one for climbing on the preferable soapbox and giving it what for but the world has officially gone mad. Really defacing monuments and pulling down statues across the UK, come on, we cannot rewrite history, but we can learn from it. Brace yourself for an opinion. Most statues represent something but all, if you research hard enough will have a questionable past. Removing statues or defacing monuments based on 21st-century judgements cannot be justified because where do you stop. Do we send a rake (the collective noun for excavators by the way) of JCBs to Bath to demolish The Roman Baths due to the fact the Roman Empire wasn’t too courteous when it came to trekking across Europe, England didn’t stop to ask permission while building the British Empire during the 17th Century and the 11th Century Crusades weren’t the friendliest of excursions.
Statues are one thing and can be debated, but monuments are the polar opposite as they are actually the gravestones of the fallen who could not return home. In the First World War, the government decided that all soldiers would be buried where they fell as they did not want the wealthy to return their dead to the UK while the poor could not. For the need of a grave to visit, communities collected money and built a monument so they could mourn and grieve. In the Second World War, many of the fallen could not return home and a monument represents the ultimate sacrifice anyone can give their country and that is why we add the names of the fallen, regardless of colour or creed.
Whats happening with the ride, Craig…..give me a second to step down from my soapbox signifying the conclusion of my rant. Well due to the pandemic, 1000ks4Kids has been postponed to next May. Godsend really, as working from home has meant hourly raids on the fridge and with Lo’s stash of crisps now depleted the middle-aged waistline has taken a battering. But the point of this blog is to raise awareness of kids and their families affected by a disease that doesn’t discriminate. Blog’in 4 Kids is my way of raising valuable sponsorship for the ride so if you want to show your appreciation please Follow or even better sponsor me by clicking on the Camp Quality face below which will take you to my sponsorship page.
Why Don’t You? Just click below……
The BBC made 42 television series, broadcasted between August 1973 and April 1995 in the morning of our summer holidays. Later it was shown during the Easter and Christmas holidays and then to Saturday mornings. The 1972 pilot was filmed in Henley-on-Thames with a team of children from Valley Road Primary School, but the gang’s studio was based in Bristol and resembled a dusty basement. In the ‘80s other gangs popped up, one from a barn in Scotland, one from a church hall in Belfast followed by a seaside café in Cardiff. The whole point of Why Don’t You? was to get us all out and to do something else apart from watching the telly, well after Why Don’t You? that is – Happy Days!
It’s funny but whenever anyone mentions Happy Days, I think of one man
Henry Winkler
Created by Garry Marshall and set in Milwaukee, the show revolved around a teenager called Richie Cunningham (black cardi in the pic), his family and their tenant, a high school dropout, biker and suave ladies’ man – The Fonz, played by Henry Winkler (that’s him on the motorbike but the Carbon Fibre Stallion is way more impressive – watch out ladies!)
Happy Days ran for 10 years totaling 255 half hour episodes spanning eleven seasons and I took two things from that show – riding a motorbike got you the ladies and the phrase heyyyy! Also Garry Marshall cast Robin Williams for the role in Mork & Mindy after Garry son saw Robin busking on a street corner – R.I.P Robin Williams
With that I see no better way for finish this month’s blog by saying – be safe people, socially distance as it saves lives, respect our front liners and for pity sake look after the oldies! – CHEERS
Badger & Batbottom 