100 years of coconuts - Mind where you put that coconut & When Chelsea came to town

Mind where you put that coconut

There are, I know, more than a few U’s fans in Greater Manchester. I suspect one of them departed for the Great Habbin in the Sky recently.

My suspicions centre on the coconut that was slipped into the coffin of a deceased person undergoing cremation in Bolton.

The BBC reports that the coconut exploded, ‘sending fear’ through the crematorium staff.

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When Chelsea came to town

This article appeared in the Cambridge Independent's edition of  17-23 January 2018.

Long before the name of Roman Abramovich brought a gleam to Ken Bates’s eye and gave a fillip to his earnings potential, Chelsea were a fairly unremarkable club that popped up occasionally to claim one of English football’s top prizes.

And it may come as a surprise to younger readers that the west London club, now one of the world’s richest, have played Cambridge United no fewer than 17 times over the years.
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Admittedly, four of those games pitted the Pensioners’ ‘A’ team against United’s best XI and took place in the early 1950s, in the Eastern Counties League.

Admittedly, three of those games were friendlies. Admittedly, the U’s have a poor record against the Blues, having won just four times and drawn once.

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