Wishing you all warm fires, an unlimited supply of good wine and food, and whatever it is for you that would make all this splendid and memorable. Thank you for your superb company in 2010. Here comes 2011. Brace, brace, brace!
Month: December 2010
Colour Film of Highbury in 1956
Following on from our look at Billy Graham’s 1955 address to the BWA at Highbury, Phil Wilson (Doveson2008 of Flickr) sends word of colour FILM of Highbury in the form of a British Pathe newsreel from 1956. FOOTBALL BALL MANUFACTURE (aka FOOTBALL STORY) <p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> <p> Also featured are Webber Bros…
The 14 Year Rule: Football Management and Career Length
This weekend, Sir Alex Ferguson will surpass Sir Matt Busby’s record as the longest serving manager in Manchester United history. He’ll go on to serve his full quarter century next year, and eventually retire (or die in office) as the greatest manager of modern times. However, Sir Alex did not have the opportunity to manage…
UPDATED: An Early Colour Photograph of Highbury
UPDATE: Doveson2008 kindly returned to the original slide, rescanned it and provided a great deal of additional information besides. Armed with that, Matthew and I have been able to pin down the exact time, date and occasion on which this photograph was taken. It’s c. 6.30pm on Friday, 22nd July 1955. The Baptist World Alliance…
Apollo 11 and a Football Pitch
You might remember this map – showing the walking routes of the Apollo 11 astronauts superimposed onto a standard-sized football pitch. On MTMG previously… The original map is actually taken from one of NASA’s own excellent sites – here – but still everyone treated it as something of a joke. Not so. Astonishingly, this turns…
More PreWar Colour Film from Britain – But Twenties, or Thirties?
Here’s another surviving piece of pre-War colour film, one of precious few to come down to us that feature the old country. From the look of it, I’d say it was a well-preserved example of the Dufaycolor process (some remaining Dufaycolor has darkened very badly indeed). But Dufaycolor didn’t come onto the general market until…
World Cup 2018: Remembering My Russian
When I heard the news that the Russian Federation would host the 2018 World Cup despite a near-perfect bid from England, I remembered my Russian. My Russian was one of the very few great men I consider myself to have met. You won’t have heard of him, and I won’t give you his name. Our…