At Junior School, our centre forward, Colin Rookyard, was way, way better than the rest of us. Aged 16 he got offered a contract by Man U. His Dad refused to sign the consent form. Colin joined the Army and I haven't seen him since the day he joined up.

I went to Burton Grammar, a rugby playing school. I was good enough to make the side but, when it came down to trials for Staffordshire U15s, I was the only regular not to get invited. That did allow me to captain the side when the other 14 were at the trials. The game was against Notts High Pavement who, like us, were undefeated. They beat us by 1 point. They went well OTT in their "banter" in our direction. I asked the master in charge to get a rematch with the full XV..... he sorted it. Imagine their surprise when the only face they recognised was mine..... I hadn't been lying after all. I forget the actual score but it was 50 ish nil and I got to be captain a 2nd time.

That year it was Rugby Saturday morning, football in the afternoon both Saturday and Sunday plus a 90 minute training session on the Trent Sunday morning.