Very sad news of Robin Smith being called back to the pavilion, one of the three centurions in the Lord's test 1990 against India. Gooch rightly took the plaudits but Lamb & Smith plundered the bowling. Fortunate to occupy a ringside seat by the Tavern on the second day.

Middle of redecs, so the Len Deighton collection has had to come off the shelves. Not complete (Airshipwreck & Fighter, Ipcress on another shelf, tut).

The sheer weight of his output. Pick one: despite the extraordinary achievement of the Samson roman a fleuve, The Ipcress File. Bloody minded.

Blessed to have seen Jimmy in concert twice.

Often wondered what this might once have been. Turns out it's a spigot mortar emplacement (not a popular weapon apparently). A bloke called Colin in the Pillbox Study Group has penned some interesting lines (I thought so anyway) on the topic.

www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/spigot-mortar/

East London (South Africa), 1963.

Is this whom you had in mind?

Reunited after 55 years. My baptism at a mist blanketed Goodison & the Gwladys to see the Toffees dispatch Ipswich 3-0. (My uncle offered to get the original signed by the team & needless to say, never seen again.) Saw the following match at The Dell where Mick Channon danced on mud to score twice.

After wrestling with the enemy (getting the damned stuff to setting point), the deed was done.