Tommy Cummings – R.I.P.

Although he was only to be at the club for a season-and-a-bit, I do have memories of a ten year old fanatic being excited at the arrival in the summer of 1967 of Tommy Cummings after our relegation to Div 2 and the dismal performance by Dick Taylor (better shopkeeper than football manager). Cummings made several signings and although they were all dismal failures ultimately, for a young Villa Lad it was great stuff and we were surely going straight back up – how naive of me… First there was Tommy Michinson who came from Cummings’ previous club, Mansfield, where he had been a bit of a hero. He wore the #8 at the Villa and then didn’t do alot although I remember he looked quite doing so…Then T.C. bought in the B.G.’s – Brian Godfrey and Brian Greenhalgh from Preston. This was very exciting and Godfrey was a solid player, and captain, for a few seasons. My favourite memory of these two was being at Villa Park with BlueNoses, Stephen (who had unforgivably changed from Villa to Blues after our relegation) and David Prentice and their Dad, Mr. Len Prentice. I’m not sure why they were there but needless to say they wanted Blackpool to beat us (and cheered when the Seasiders scored, much to my anger and frustration). However, it finished 3-2 to Villa and I think the B.G.’s scored a couple of the goals to add to an impressive start at the club. Godfrey was great that day and almost supplanted an injured Alan Deakin as my superhero! The Argus headline was “Villa B.G.’s do it again” and I’ve never forgotten it… Unfortunately, their positive start did not last. We finished not far from the bottom of Div 2, including a 2-4 embarrassment at home to the BlueNoses in front of over 50,000, which has some value if only for the diabolical tackle made by Edwards on BlueNose hero Johnny Vincent – they should have had a penalty I can now admit over forty years later… Despite adding the likes of Dick Edwards, Tommy Ferguson, Oscar Arce, and Barry Hole (“he’s here, he’s there, he’s every f***in’ where”) in the off-season, Cummings departure was inevitable after a poor start to the 1968-69 season, which again included a defeat to the BlueNoses (0-4 at St. Arthur’s) – very tough to take at my new school (H.G.S.) where it was a tense, equal parts Villa, BlueNoses and WBA, unlike a comfortable Birches Green Junior School which had been 60-30, Villa to BlueNoses (10% Spurs and Man U glory chasers). He was replaced by the ‘Messiah’, Tommy Doc following “The Revolution” in November 1968… I spoke with my Dad today and he remembers (I don’t) that we were at Cummings’ last game, along with 13,372 disgruntled others, as we went down 0-1 to Preston. My Dad did not attend the ‘Revolutionary Meetings’ of the ensuing weeks but I remember how much they were talked about in our house with my Villa Granddad who lived with us and my Uncle Roland, my Dad’s older brother – not a shy man! Thanks for doing your best, Tommy, it was a no-win time at Villa Park in every sense and whilst my memories are quite vivid they are not happy ones…R.I.P. Steve of Withers, Wright, Aitken, Chatterley or Park, Sleeuwenhoek, DEAKIN (I was wearing an old #6 jersey of his to sleep in at the time), MacLeod or Rudge, Mitchenson, Greenhalgh, Godfrey, Anderson (the next George Best)…

Nik Janes – a special friend and Chelsea fan…

Nic’s words of wisdom – a selection of e-mails I received from Nik over the last year or so of his life…

…Just back from Mexico, where I craved a Mad Dog bacon Sandwich, hot
coffee, OJ with no ice and one of Stans fags. 95 degree sunshine is ok for a while but you couldn’t get a decent pint. This is another Chelsea fan who enjoys the culinary delights from Casa Mad Dog.

…Not much to miss at The Dog this morning – apart from some great hot tea and Ron
mentioning to me on the way out apropos I’m not sure what – that “Carlisle had to travel 7 hours and one minute today to play Torquay .” The stuff of memories – I can sense a tear welling up right now.

…I’m back from three weeks in Blighty which was more than enough and almost back into the swing of things. I attended my first “Game” today or was that Match at The Dog – a thrilling 0-0 between Northern Thugs XI and Assorted Latin-oh’s which was slightly overshadowed by the spectacular coffee, OJ and Bacon Sarnie – not toasted – which I missed so much.
While in London I managed to see Chelsea vs Southampton and get my renta car towed at the same time, 165 quid later paid to The Royal “F*#king” Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and I suddenly realised how Ken B. is financing a 45 million pound wage bill. 1 1/2 hours of footie cost me about $420 – nice one – and the coffee was shi@…Couldn’t get a decent cup of Joe for three weeks, didn’t see the sun, drove past burning sheep/cattle etc and had to disinfect my shoes everywhere in Scotland. – although I think you have to do that anyway when coming back to England from that part of the world.

…Re. Heskey vs Wise – there isn’t a game that goes by that Wise shouldn’t be sent off so I’m not going to defend him, however Heskey’s constant actions from the moment he came on said to the Ref “Red card me please”…Apart from the fact he should have gone off for the tackle on Melchiot he should always be carded for being a general waste of space.

…Sorry…Would love to be at The Dog this week but it is World Superbike weekend at Laguna Seca, Monterey.

…Leeds for all their spending have still won the same amount of trophies as last season and the season before – F#@k all.
At least Chelsea have an excuse, our manager doesn’t even speak English and when
he tries at half time he makes the team play worse.
Claudio Raineri’s quote of the week on Chelsea’s chances of a champions league spot – “We have a saying in Italy, do not sell the bear skin before you have shot the bear.” – no wonder Chelsea always play with confused looks after the half time “pep” talk. He’s a tactical genius, he had everybody confused – even the bear.

…Is it true that Man U. have pulled out of the Premiership next season so they
can play a tournament in Ibiza? They believe the league’s a foregone conclusion and want to concentrate on Europe.

…That’s a terrible blow for the “Lads” they are all in the dressing room
absolutely gutted, hopefully they can pick themselves up, dust themselves
down and take one game at a time…Furthermore if they treat every game like a cup final, remember it’s a game of two halves and it only takes a second to score then they can bounce right back.

…Solidarity Brothers Morgan, Sparks, Lee, Staunton, comrade John and even
Professor “Latte” Goodwin – the ability to laugh at oneself, others and life itself should never be underestimated

Final message…..
Steve….I can probably make Sunday but will not know until closer to the time, definitely see you Monday for the Villa match though…..

…………………………..Nik died in a motorcycle crash on his way to meet me at The Mad Dog for the Villa game that Monday. It was September 16th, 2002

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Part of the Memorial Service for Nik…

Thank you for attending this special memorial to both remember and celebrate Nic’s life and mourn his passing….

Obviously from today’s turnout, Nic had touched many people’s lives and we have all lost a wonderful friend.

Like so many of you no doubt, I’ve been asking “why?” for many days now and gradually I have come to the realization that there is no answer to that question…there is no reason, no explanation…………

Nic was a very special young man, sincere, genuine, generous, a brilliant sense of humour, smart and intelligent, the list goes on….He also had a wisdom beyond his young years which he generously shared with Patty and I on a number of occasions in the past year or so when we were faced with many challenges as we moved on from The Mad Dog and away from S.F. – we will be eternally grateful…”thanks, mate, wherever you are…”..

Most of all I believe he touched people with his wonderful gift of being able to make people laugh. His razor wit was second to none and perhaps John MacDonald, or UKRedMac, summed it up best when he wrote, ” To see that windswept rogue, helmet in hand, strut through the doors of the Dog meant that the banter was about to step up a notch.
He made my list of ‘The Wittiest bastards I know’ many Finals ago, and our
last outing for the Chelsea/United tie last month was as epitomous as ever.
Few skilled tongue lashers possessed the articulate manners that Nic did,
and many a non Blue have fallen to his timely verbal.
(I have the scars to prove it)!
Remembered as a rider of many years who lived his passion either on two
wheels, or on the field of play, I have to think that the good don’t die
young, they inspire us to live, every moment, for it is all we have.
Cheers Nic.

Finally before we retire to the bar and the Chelsea match…I wanted to share an e-mail exchange and a piece of news…..Back in January Nik and I exchanged the following e-mails….
I wrote….”Nik…..I just want to say that having seen Zola play and then interviewed again this week he reaffirmed my view that he is not only an extremely good player with a refreshingly good attitude towards the game, the officials, and his opponents but he is also a really good bloke who I’d buy a pint for anytime …yeh !”

Nic replied,…..
“Steve, Couldn’t agree with you more about Zola. A great person and probably the most gifted player I have ever seen for Chelsea.

With that in mind, I have learned in the past couple of days from Tony, Nic’s brother, that Zola himself has been in touch with Nic’s family in England and has sent them a signed Chelsea shirt with a personal message attached – a very special gesture indeed of which Nic himself would no doubt say, “Very cool…very,very cool “……

…..thanks once more for coming……three cheers for Nic……..

Vince Moran – Football Fan

I received this from Ian (the Arse) and some people might know Vince so I wanted to let them know…
“Hello Steve,
I don’t know if you remember Vince Moran from the Mad Dog days – older Man U fan from Oakland who always used to come in. Anyway, if you do, I thought you’d want to know that he passed away suddenly last week. I’m not sure who would know him on the Mad Dog list, but thought you might want to put out an e-mail with the news. I was going to let UKRedMac know, as he probably remembers him. As Gordon put it (perfectly) “he was one of the few Man U fans I could actually tolerate”.”

Ian…Thanks for letting me know. It’s very sad – Yes, Gordon called it correctly – he was a good man…
I remember Vince well – a Mancunian, probably in his early sixties, or perhaps he was from just outside the city (he had an accent from those parts anyway), but a Man U fan from the old school all the same, and therefore tolerable, even very nice… A little grumpy sometimes but in a “silly old bugger” kind-of-way and thus he was well liked by those who knew him in the bar…One of our earlier football followers at The Dog, he loved the bacon sarnies and was a knowledgeable fan who showed much wisdom and fond memories when talking about the game…
I have a vivid memory of him with tears in his eyes when Man U came back to win the Euro Champs League Final with those two late goals. The place went wild and Vince, who was sitting at the bar right in front of the first set of beer handles was covered in beer. Despite being in his business suit (he was a realtor and we’d often talk about non-football topics), he didn’t mind – his team had won and he was a proper fan…