On the other hand the estimate for lot 149 the shirt worn by Bobby Moore in the opening match of
Posted in General on 30. Aug, 2010
On the other hand, the estimate for lot 149, the shirt worn by Bobby Moore in the opening match of the 1970 World Cup, the 1-0 defeat of Romania, was £12,000, and it reached only £9,000 I must say I was surprised. I sidled up to the winning bidder afterwards but he wouldn’t give much away, except to say that he was representing a London-based businessman.The estimate for the menu had been an absurdly conservative £1,500. I even got my own grubby hands on it for a few moments, and thought you might like to know what they ate at the post-match dinner: Potage de volaille, Filets de sandr Orlly Sce tartare, Cochon de lait r? Omelette sirprise and Fruits assorties, if you’re any the wiser.The autographs were obtained by the British ambassador to Yugoslavia, who’d been introduced to the players on the pitch before kick-off, and it was his son who, a few weeks ago, gave the menu to the auctioneers, a firm called Mullock Madeley.It was eventually sold for £12,000 following a frantic bidding war between two blokes on the phone. Despite having led 3-0 at half-time and been forced to settle for a draw, they had just reached the semi-final of the European Cup.
I was intrigued to see who might bid for the menu and for how much. This menu was almost certainly the last thing signed by Duncan Edwards, Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor, Eddie Colman, David Pegg, Liam Whelan, Mark Jones and Geoff Bent during a convivial evening in which it must have seemed as if the world was theirs for the taking.
Not just any menu, either, but one from a dinner at the Majestic Hotel in Belgrade following the 3-3 draw with Red Star Belgrade on 5 January 1958, on the very eve of the Munich air crash. I went mainly because I had heard on the radio that one of the lots was to be a menu signed by the Busby Babes. The Wednesday before last I went to an auction of football memorabilia at Ludlow racecourse. But they should bear in mind that many fellow citizens think them a total abomination – and for sound reasons Barrier to integration? Of course.That’s the point
More from Deborah Orr. Why can’t we just not like things without turning our thoughts to “legislation” or to “bans” or even, horribly, to vigilante action? Women can wear veils if they want to, I guess.
Nevertheless, I am a little alarmed that the “debate” of the past week has moved so quickly into “something must be done” territory. Actually, as has become abundantly apparent, there are few items of clothing that are more provocative than veils. Why take such a hostile stance, then act all oppressed when people register their distaste for it? Plenty of people suggest veils are so much nicer than the “provocative” clothing of western women. Thatvalue system often involves such unacceptable notions as a liking for sharia law and the anti-women brutalities it entails.
Apparently it’s not insensitive of Him to lay down the law in this fashion.People wear veils voluntarily in this country, or seek out wives who wear them, in part, because they want to advertise very strongly that they subscribe to an alternative value system to the mainstream. I think it’s rather obvious, too, that I’m in the majority here, because if women generally thought veils were a good idea, we’d all be off out buying them and marvelling at how great it is that men are leaving us alone. Perish the thought.Some reasonable facts have been established since Jack Straw’s comments: most importantly that Islam does not, in fact, require or even request the wearing of veils and that women are exhorted in a Jack Straw-ish manner to remove the bloody awful things when they are in mosques communing with Allah. That thing in his hand is a fag.Veils turned out to be rather provocativeI hate veils as much as the next person, and I don’t mind saying so. Fresh new portraits of him, demonstrating smoking, abound, even though they look just like the other 14 million photos of him demonstrating smoking that have appeared over the past quarter of a century.As a generator of journalistic leads, the guy has no peer except perhaps Kate Moss.Once again, news stories proliferate every time Martin clears his smoker’s throat: “Amis says poetry is dead!” “Amis says Muslim extremists are miserable bastards!” “Amis launches Exocet at middle-class whiteys!” I have little to add to this burgeoning ziggurat of comment and controversy But here’s another picture of him anyway. “Mu-u-m!” he said “The world is so-o-oo NOT scary.” I s-o-oo want to be five again.Don’t ban smoking, ban Amis!How the hell did Britain manage for those two dark years when Martin Amis was in Uruguay? I simply cannot imagine. He’s been back now for only a couple of weeks, but clearly the Martin Amis-shaped space he left in the nation’s cultural life had never been dented, let alone filled.Reasonably, he dominates the books pages, having just published a novel But he’s back everywhere else as well He’s back in Private Eye, week after week He’s back in the diaries, day after day.