England grand slams and Market Harborough

Yesterday England won their first grand slam for 13 years.

Their team contained a product of my old school in Market Harborough, now called the Robert Smyth Academy, in the shape of Dan Cole.

Back in 2003 it did too - the captain, Martin Johnson.

That is quite an achievement for a small-town comprehensive.

In my day the best sportsman in the school, a couple of years below us, was a footballer. That was Andy Peake, who went on to play for Leicester City in the old first division.

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The Who: I'm a Boy

Writing about moves to ban tackling in school rugby, I quoted some lines from this song. I have since found this video, so here it is on a Sunday.

Wikipedia explains the genesis of "I'm a Boy":

The song was originally intended to be a part of a rock opera called 'Quads' which was to be set in the future where parents can choose the sex of their children. The idea was later scrapped, but this song survived and was later released as a single. 

The song is about a family who "order" four girls, but a mistake is made and three girls and one boy are delivered instead. The boy dreams of partaking in sports and other boy-type activities, but his mother forces him to act like his sisters and refuses to believe the truth.

I once reminisced about going out and buying Substitute by The Who when it was re-released in 1976 because it was so much better than anything in the charts at the time.

This was on the B-side, along with Picture of Lily. I don't think I have ever got better value than that.

If you are a fan of The Who in the 1960s, also have a look at this video of three songs performed at the Marquee Club.

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The Spirit of Liberty Inspires the People of Leicester to Resist the Further Incursion of Student Accommodation

Mind you, that tower wasn't there the last time I photographed her.

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The Iain Duncan Smiths sing "This Balanced Plan"

Genius!

Thanks to @paulwaugh

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The first time I saw George Osborne

Embed from Getty Images

In the days when I wrote a weekly column for Liberal Democrat News - in the days when there was a Liberal Democrat News - I had a Press Gallery pass at the Palace of Westminster.

Everyone said the place resembled nothing so much as a public school. Not having attended such an establishment myself, I was not really qualified to judge.

But the it certainly resembled what I imagined a public school to be like, albeit largely without the roasting over fires or flagellation.

One day in 2001 I saw an improbably  youthful figure on the opposition front bench. He really did look like a cheeky fourth-former sitting in the prefects' seats. I expected him to be booted out as soon as they turned up.

I asked a Press Gallery attendant (they know everyone by sight) who he was.

"That's George Osborne,"he explained.

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The Times votes Market Harborough "Britain's best market town"

There goes the neighbourhood.

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Al Murray is the great nephew of Stephen Murray

We all know that the comedian Al Murray is a direct descendant of the Victorian novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.

But our Trivial Fact of the Week reveals that he is also the great nephew of the actor Stephen Murray.

A young person writes: Who was Stephen Murray?

Only the star of the radio comedy The Navy Lark, Sir Francis Walsingham to Glenda Jackson's Elizabeth R on television and star of such post-war films as London Belongs to Me and The Magnet.

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Cliff Michelmore at Aberfan

Cliff Michelmore belonged to the generation that pioneered television presentation and still possessed a certain decency and innocence about the medium.

His heyday fell just before the point where my memories of television begin, but I do recall people like his Tonight Fyfe Robertson. He gave the impression that he did not realise he was on television or at least that he was constantly surprised to find he was.

The 50th anniversary of Aberfan, the disaster in which a coal waste tip slid down the hillside and engulfed a primary school, falls on 21 October this year. In many ways it was the first televised disaster, and I do just remember it.

This is Cliff Michelmore's report from the scene on the evening of that dreadful day.

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Six of the Best 581

Garth Stahl explains why white, working-class boys shun university.

"The word 'Zio' was part of the club’s lexicon, despite its connotations eventually becoming widely known." Alex Chalmers on why he resigned as co-chair of Oxford University Labour Club.

Andrew Allen says the government should forget the idea of an trans-Pennine road tunnel.

Sarah Mills looks at the way the Girl Guides' evolving badge programme reveals wider changes in society over time.

"I remember crying all the way through the scene where he did the 'Singin' in the Rain' number. And my sister said, "What are you crying for?" and I said, "Well, he just seems so happy.'" Michael Koresky interviews the film director Terence Davies.

"I don’t think I have ever wanted something to happen more in sport in my entire life than for Claudio Ranieri’s side to win the Premier League," says Gary Lineker.

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Irate Frenchman hurled Camembert at manager of Chelsea Waitrose

I spotted it. A reader nominated it. The judges love it.

The Evening Standard receives our Headline of the Day Award.

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