First of all, an apology.  Thanks to me, the scheduler of these blog posts, getting my dates wrong, Maureen’s blog Hot, Hot, Hot appeared yesterday, a day early.  I hope that didn’t lessen your enjoyment.

 

Now, this is not necessarily a promise I’m going to keep but it’s my intention not to mention football for another wee while….Not much of a commitment, admittedly and who knows what exciting news will emerge from the world’s self-styled beautiful game in the next few weeks.  For the footy phobes, a word (or two) of warning:  the World Cup starts on Thursday 11th June and continues until Sunday 19th July.

My mate, who grew up in north London and is Tottenham to her painted toenails, now lives up here in the Midlands and drove us down for the big game last Sunday.  Weekend trains are notoriously unreliable and there were going to be disruptions at Euston (not unusual) and there was every chance we’d be surrounded by non-London based fans of West Ham, Fulham, Crystal Palace and, even worse, newly-crowned champions Arsenal.  Not forgetting the supporters of Leeds, Newcastle and Everton, who were all visiting the capital.

If we lost to Everton and West Ham beat Leeds, we’d be relegated and the journey home, disrupted or not, was likely to be brutal.  Driving it had to be.

On the M1 on the way down we saw the Hull City coach on the way back up north and wondered if it was some sort of dreadful omen:  they were on their way home after winning the Championship play-off and promotion to the Premier League.  Would we be taking their place in the second tier…..Aaaagh.

Spurs were last relegated in 1977 with the great Pat Jennings in goal and a young Glenn Hoddle, who went on to become great, remembers the hurt to this day.  Jennings conceded that the fall had been coming for three years and there could have been no complaints if we’d gone down again this time.  There’s also no guarantee that you’ll bounce straight back up again.  Spurs did manage it last time but only just:  they gained promotion in third place, on goal difference….So, just as well we managed to beat Everton 1-nil and West Ham went down instead, despite beating Leeds 3-nil.  Too late.  Too late.

The ground was packed and we were noisy as well as nervous and the cheers at the end were ear-splitting.  The overwhelming emotion was relief, we’d made it, we’d escaped the dreaded drop.  But there was anger too, that we’d had to watch far too much utter rubbish for far too long.  Roberto De Zerbi has given us hope that next season will be better – it had better be – but he has a lot of hard work to do.  “He needs to drive a bulldozer through that dressing room,” Gary Neville said and I doubt there’s a Spurs fan who’d disagree.

 

After the exhaustion of Sunday, it was a delight to go to the nephew’s wedding on Tuesday, at a lovely venue called The Glade on the edge of the National Forest in Derbyshire.  An owl delivered the wedding rings, landing on the (very nervous) best man’s gauntleted hand.  I wasn’t taking happy snaps during the ceremony so we’ll have to wait for the official photos.

The groom and his groomsmen were in suits that were too warm for the weather – no one had budgeted for the hottest May days on record – so they slipped into something more comfortable for the evening festivities.

 

A couple of days later, out in nature of a different kind, on the golf course, conditions were a little more testing and not every shot found its intended target (a bit like being back at Tottenham).  No wonder people think golf’s like life:  always presenting you with problems to solve…

I didn’t really have the space last week to mention the G4D Open (for Golfers with Disability) at Celtic Manor.  Simon Seungmin Lee, from the Republic of Korea, won the men’s title and Jennifer Sräga of Germany was the women’s champion.  Many congratulations to them and to all the competitors and everybody everywhere who made the event possible.  You can read more about it and the various categories – intellectual, standing, sitting, visual – at randa.org.  (NOT panda.org as my machine would have it.)

There has to be a special mention for Issa Nlareb A Amang, of Cameroon, runner-up to Lee.  He’s 35 and was a professional golfer when he contracted bacterial meningitis in 2018 and had a double leg amputation and severe damage to his hands. He is now the world No 7 and won the EDGA Tour Pas de Calais in France in April, before making his Open debut in Wales.  He struggled with the cold on the last day and putted like a drain – 40 putts in a 73 – but holed out from 40 yards with a 9-iron for an eagle three at the 17th.  Joy unconfined.