Show me the MONEY!!!

Close your eyes. Imagine a cold and windy night in Corby, it’s persistently raining (or pissing down if your not a townie) and your dad has a brain wave, “let’s get into property management son”. I would run to the cupboard under the stairs (for those of you who didn’t have one, its where you stick all the kid’s games and the hoover) with great excitement as this meant hours of fun and a chance to charge the rest of the family rent. Yes, my global audience I give you the game that caused wide-scale family arguments, often resulting in your older brother giving you a dead arm (they are really sore by the way) – MONOPOLY.

This game for the whole family can be traced back to 1903 when an American anti-monopolist called Lizzie Magie created a game which she hoped would explain the single tax theory of Henry George. It was intended as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies. She took out a patent in 1904 and self-published a game called The Landlord’s Game in 1906.

In 1936 Parker Brother was licenced to sell the game outside America, then in 1941 the British Secret Intelligence Service (they are spies by the way – don’t tell anyone though) had a cunning plan. They had John Waddington Ltd, the licenced manufacturer of Monopoly in the UK to create a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Jerries. Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money, and other objects useful for escaping (bloody good idea!). They were distributed to prisoners by fake charity organisations created by the British Secret Service (Shhhhhh don’t you know they are spies!).

Hasbro ended up acquiring Parker Brothers when the game consisted of a board comprised of forty spaces containing twenty-eight properties, twenty-two streets grouped into eight colours, four railroads, and two utilities, three Chance spaces, three Community Chest spaces, a Luxury Tax space, an Income Tax space, and the four corner squares: GO, Jail, Free Parking, and Go to Jail. Just to let you know, I was always the Scottie Dog.

Great place to play Monopoly

Hours of fun to while away the hours in a safe house. Back her up a little there Craig, Safe House, what safe house? Well in 1963 a gang of 15 robbers stole £2.6 million (£55 million in today’s money) from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of the 8^th August. They tampered with the signals so that the train stopped at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn Buckinghamshire, England.

The gang then formed a human chain and removed all the bags of money into a waiting Transit van (more on this later) then headed for the safe house at Leatherslade Farm. So, what do you do in a safe house with £2.6 million of stolen banknotes – WELL you play Monopoly with it don’t you! I kid you not my global audience. Hiding in a remote farm in the middle of nowhere they open a bag of money and played Monopoly, anyway I don’t know who won, but the board was covered in fingerprints (hence the blog picture – that’s the actual board). As it turns out this game of Monopoly cost the gang 30 years at her majesty’s pleasure apart from the oldest robber, Roger Cordrey who was deemed to be not guilty as his prints could not be found anywhere at Leatherslade Farm, apparently he decided to take a granddad nap on the bags of money instead (made that bit up!).

How was that for an opening from a cupboard under the stairs to The Great Train Robbery. I won’t mention the film Buster made in 1988 starring Phil Collins but what I will mention is some interesting facts about the Transit van (follow the bouncing ball people!). Apart from being the van of choice for robbers throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s did you know:

Although being a Ford, the Brits got the credit for the name Transit.
Engineers would carry out high-speed tests on public roads – the police ignored them (interesting).
If you took the tyres off, it could run on railway tracks.
The Cheshire Salt Mines had a fleet of them to carry everything from salt to explosives.
You can fit 48 students in it.
It was used in the 1987 spy thriller The Fourth Protocol alongside Michael Caine
The pièce de résistance, in 1972 Scotland Yard named it Britain’s most wanted van saying it was used in 95% of all bank robberies

It’s time for some gratuitous advertising!

So August, apart from the Tour de France what else is occurring, well:

Named after Julius Caesars grandnephew Augustus Caesar.
The beginning marks International Clown Week.
The 12^th is Vinyl Record Day.
The 17^th is World Honeybee Day.
The 25^th is ‘Kiss-and-make-up’ Day.
The sandwich was created and named after the Earl of Sandwich.
On the 24^th 79AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted ending Pompeii.
Elvis died on the 16^th, 1977.

Brace yourselves people as it is back on – YES it is back on! The Mighty Rs played Wimbledon in a friendly winning 3-0 but were beaten 1-0 by Oxford (jammy goal if your asking). What’s the goss, well we have just sold Eberechi Eze to Crystal Palace for £20 million which will stop the club going bankrupt. Putting the Mighty Rs to one side and lets start talking cycling. It’s that time of the year that all cyclists look forward to, no not Christmas but the Tour de France and A Newbies Blog with keep you updated on all things TDF2020 but first some facts

It’s the 107 race.
Twenty-two teams and 107 riders.
Skoda is the main sponsor for the 16^th time.
There will be 250 Skoda’s supporting the riders.
Ag2r-la Mondiale is the team tipped to end up with the Yellow Jersey.
There are 32 stages.
3,470km or 2,156miles in old money.
Almost an average of 3,700m of vertical climbing per stage.
Starts in Nice and finishes in Paris.

Now for the Tour, Newbie style!

Stage 1 – Nice Moyen Pays to Nice

Started Saturday 29^th August with 156km of road consisting of three loops of the Nice region and it persistently rained which caused havoc. With riders sliding everywhere the race continued, I even saw a rider slide sideways hitting a road sign – this bloke got off his bike, got another bike and carried on (now that’s ballsy!). So the day became a lottery with crashes everywhere so the Peloton decided to slow things down until the last 10km – this was fortunate for one rider who fell off and was 6 minutes off the pace but ending up with the Peloton finish. Norway’s Alexander Kristoff of UEA Team Emirates won the first stage after a mass bunch sprint to get his first Yellow jersey.

Stage 2 – Nice Haut Pays to Nice

186km of countryside and hill climbs and not a rain cloud insight, with the support cars handing out ice! But it was meant to be, France’s Julian Alaphilippe of Deceuninck-Quick-Step produced a carbon copy victory of last years race to claim the Yellow jersey. But there was trouble in them there hills. Team Jumbo-Visma were furious as their sprinter was involved in a crash. Team Ineos’s Michal Kwiatkowski somehow backed into Jumbo co-captain Tom Dumoulin causing him to leave the road rapidly in a downwards direction. They were mad as a cut snake, as the Dutch outfit had been leading the Peloton all day – c’est la vie as the French say.

Stage 3 – Nice to Sisteron

Go on the Skippies, yes, my global audience the Aussie rider Caleb Ewan won the 198km stage with a late burst of speed to pass the Irishman Sam Bennett. To put how good the win was, Ewan ended up on his arse during the opening stage, his teammate broke a knee and another disqualified for being too slow. So, with the Lotto-Soudal team reduced to six riders the win means a lot but there is no surprise who has the Yellow jersey. That honour goes to the Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe of Deceuninck-Quick-Step.

Remember I will be doing 1000ks 4 Kids on a pushie next year and you can help by clicking in the Camp Quality face – its a great cause!. I will be updating next months Blog daily during the Tour so stay tuned and stay safe people, maintain social distance as it saves lives, respect our front liners and for pity sake look after the oldies! – CHEERS