Meg told me soon after we first met that at one time she had visited and even played with the children of Sir Frank Worrell who was the first black captain of the West Indies cricket team appointed for the whole of a series. I never quite knew what to make of this story but I did do a little bit of research. In fact, as a young but very talented cricketer, Worrell had played for a small side in the Potteries called Norton between 1956-58 and was appointed captain of the West Indies touring team in 1960. How many children Worrell had is not clear from the record – he certainly had one small child who died very young in the late 40’s but there may have been more. So how it actually all came about, I shall never know but as I first met Meg in 1965 when she was 19 years old it was quite possible that the story that she told me, and which I never bothered to check out at the time, could have been the case. The biography of Worrell indicated what a prodigious talent he turned out to be and his era coincided with that of Gary Sobers who played for the same club for three seasons in the 1960’s helping them to win the League cup on three occasions. As so often happens and particularly in the case of a death of a parent, one wishes that more questions had been asked of the deceased whilst they were alive so that information does not go to the grave with them. But apart from all of this, yesterday was the day when the car needed to be taken into Redditch for its service so I was up bright and early ready for my son to come and pick me up. A fair number of yearsago, we had a Motability car from this garage (a much earlier Mazda 3 in fact) so I know the environs of the garage. Not a great distance away is a large Morrison’s store which used to have a cafeteria attached to it and if this is still the case, then my son and I will visit the store for breakfast and perhaps some shopping whilst the car is being serviced. We have had a little sprinkling of rain overnight but not a really good downpour which is sorely needed and it looks as though another heatwave is on its way to us.
There is a disturbing but not entirely unexpected report in Sky News recently published. An Israeli reservist who served three tours of duty in Gaza has told Sky News in a rare on-camera interview that his unit was often ordered to shoot anyone entering areas soldiers defined as no-go zones, regardless of whether they posed a threat, a practice he says left civilians dead where they fell. ‘We have a territory that we are in, and the commands are: everyone that comes inside needs to die,’ he said. ‘If they are inside, they arre dangerous you need to kill them. No matter who it is,’ he said. Speaking anonymously, the soldier said troops killed civilians arbitrarily. He described the rules of engagement as unclear, with orders to open fire shifting constantly depending on the commander. All of this is often completely denied by the Israeli limitary who then go on to say that an investigation is in place of which one subsequently hears nothing. It does now look as though Israel and Gaza are edging towards a ceasefire and, hopefully, a cessation of hostilities but when video is shown of Gaza, it appears that hardly a building has been left unscathed and the reconstruction process may take decades and cost untold billions if it ever occurs.
The car was due in for its service today and so my son and I drove together to drop off the car at the garage. Then my son and I treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast inthe local Morrisons supermarket and we each did a little shopping before travelling home. Then after a simple lunch, I walked down for my physiotherapy session. Today I was given a series of massages for my back and whilst the physiotherapist was engaged in his therapy, I asked him about the sports he had played in his youth. He mentioned football, rugby and cricket and then the conversation turned to cricket where he amazed me by naming practically every member of the really successful West Indies teams of the 1970’s. My son gave me a lift home and then we had to await a call from the garage in Redditch to pick up the serviced car. This we did at the end of the afternoon and I got back just in time to watch the second half of the Spain vs. Belgium match. This was entertaining in the extreme as at half time Spain were leading 2:1. It was not too long before Belgium equalised to make it 2;2 and then Spain went ahead and scored a third to restore their lead after only a minute and a half. After that, Spain completely dominated the match and were hardly ever out of the Belgium penalty area and I watched them score two more goals but if it had not been for some near misses it could have been five or six. I stopped watching the match to make myself some tea and may watch the Italy vs. Portugal match later in the evening. Later on, this evening, ClassicFM will be devoting their 9-10 evening slot to a single composer who tonight is going to be Beethoven. So tonight, I will have a diet of football followed by a Beethoven concert before I retire for the evening.
There are broad hints this evening in the political sphere that a wealth tax is rising up the political agenda. A quote from one minister is that ‘those with the broadest shoulders should pay more tax’ and there is certainly a hole in the government finances after the series of ‘U’ turns. A wealth tax if set a quite a low level, would scarcely be noticed by the extremely wealthy but may be easy to evade and difficult to collect.