Not quite so beautiful

UNLIKE Brian Sheridan (Yorkshire Post, June 15), I fail to see how today’s football experience matches up to anything like a so-called “beautiful game”.

Yes, stadia may well be better than in the past, but fans have to pay the cost. I mean when I went to my first game at Blundell Park in early 1969 the admission for adults was five shillings (25p), compared with the eight shillings and threepence (41p) that a standard pop single cost. Today you can get an album for about £10, whereas even a non-league side like Grimsby Town charge £18 as their standard match-day admission fee.

And improved grounds don’t necessarily make for a better atmosphere. I saw a game in Hull’s KC Stadium earlier in the year among fans who seemed to know little other language than Anglo-Saxon. Certainly it wasn’t suitable for a family to go to.

Which is in contrast to a County Championship cricket game, where you could even take a secluded maiden aunt. So I know to what sport I’d chose to apply the description beautiful.

Down in the mouth...

From: Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle.

I READ Catherine Scott’s column (Yorkshire Post, June 8) about the generosity to tooth losers in Yorkshire. From memory, I think the average return to such losers was £1.39.

The other day, I was in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, enjoying the glorious sunshine. I had bought a sandwich from a local establishment and sat to eat this on a convenient seat. That is until I felt something hard in my mouth. Investigation revealed that I had lost a tooth, not just any old molar but a front one leaving me resembling an understudy for Nanny McPhee.

Arriving home I told my wife of my misfortune and the generosity of the Yorkshire Tooth Fairy. That done I wrapped the tooth in tissue paper and placed it lovingly beneath my pillow. Next morning it was still there – and no money. I was most upset. Had it been one of our young grandchildren there would have been tears.

Fangs ain’t what they used to be!