Queensbury Rules

My maternal grandparents lived in Gosport in Hampshire in the ‘60s and me, Dad and Grandad would occasionally take the four-minute ferry ride across Portsmouth Harbour to watch Pompey play at Fratton Park. I can remember matches against Scunthorpe, Walsall, Coventry and Crystal Palace.

For that reason, I hoped they’d do well in Saturday’s FA Cup Final. It was my 38th, the first was Arsenal v Liverpool in ’71 and I still think the best was Sunderland v Leeds two years after that. Saturday’s match, as usual, threw up some interesting stats.

Amongst the obvious ones were Ashley Cole’s record sixth winners’ medal and Chelsea being the seventh different club to ‘do the Double’. But I liked the fact that Frank Lampard became the first player to miss a penalty, i.e. miss the target altogether, for 97 years. Did you also know that the first foul wasn’t committed until the eleventh minute?

Saturday’s Final had 88,335 fans inside Wembley and about half a billion watching live on television in more than 180 countries. The Hendon & District Sunday League President’s Cup Final between North London Olympians Reserves and Queensbury Park Rangers, which I attended at North Greenford United’s ground on Sunday morning, had 34 people in the ground and slightly less TV coverage. Well, a lot less actually.

According to the player profiles in the programme, one of the Rangers midfielders is “into Basques and Girdles”. I know Basques is a part of Spain but I’m not sure about Girdles. Cornwall?

A frenetic first half finished goalless. An NLO fan called out to the ref as he walked off with his assistants: “How was that not a penalty, ref?” “Because I didn’t give it” he replied. Fair enough I suppose. Rangers edged the contest 2-1, the winner coming in the 86th minute, and it was back to the hotel for lunch before going out to Wembley for the Conference Play-Off Final.

The teams, Oxford United and York City, were introduced to Sir Geoff Hurst and other dignitaries a few minutes before the kick-off and with the rain lashing down, they managed it in record time! Oxford scored after 15 and 21 minutes for 2-0, eventually won 3-1 and are now back in the Football League after a four-year break.