Dear WSC
Watching the Seinfeld rerun “The Doll” recently, in which Frank Costanza rebuilt his son George’s old bedroom into a poolroom, I happened to see something peculiar behind the back of the ginger Korea vet when he is arguing with his wife Estelle. On the wall is a plaquette with the words “Pool is not a matter of life and death. It is …” well, take a guess.Does this mean that for the first time in history the Americans have picked up a lesson from a foreigner or might it be that Shanks’s quote was not so Shanks at all?
Ernst Bouwes, Nijmegen, Holland
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Wednesday 1 Holders Leicester crash out of the Worthington Cup, 3-0 at home to Crystal Palace. “Our players have found out that they are not invincible,” says crown prince Peter Taylor. Arsenal reserves lose 2-1 at home to Ipswich. Wednesday win the Sheffield derby in extra time. Robbie Fowler’s first goal since the Reformation beats Chelsea. Joe Kinnear is named director of football at Oxford, with David Kemp becoming team manager. Tony Cottee replaces John Still, booted upstairs at Barnet. Lou Macari and Joe Jordan are the new management team at First Division laggers Huddersfield.
Goals and wins are what the game's about. So hit it long, says Matt Nation
There must be thousands of people throughout the world whose favourite sporting event is the 25-kilometre walk. They could probably sit you down and explain the whole shebang of pacing techniques, ball-heel rolling and the inability of those participants who have been disqualified to leave the course without having to be clubbed into submission by stewards.
The Premier League may be a one-horse race, while UEFA's top club competition provides the thrills for other clubs and their fans. Though chasing either may be too big a gamble
Against all the odds, the Premiership looks as though it may turn out to be interesting, enjoyable even, this season. Not the title “race”, of course, unless Sir Alex’s gambolling hares stop for an uncharacteristic snooze by the river in the middle. But the advent of the Champions League, paradoxically, has made the lure of a place in Europe so enticing that it threatens the well-being of some of the clubs fluttering around its flame.
An unaccustomed and unsettling sense of well-being seems to be settling over some of the League’s recently troubled clubs. At Southend United, the unlikely partnership of George Soros and David Webb is in place and promising to take the Shrimpers out of debt and on to higher things. How much the renowned international financier knows about the Third Division may be questioned, but for the time being the property company Delancey Estates, which he controls, is shaping the destiny of the club that once discarded this month’s England manager.