Singing the Blues

I’m going to Stamford Bridge (above) this afternoon.

Chelsea Women are playing the second leg of the Women's Champions League semi-final against Barcelona and I want to support them, in person.

The first leg, in Barcelona last Saturday, resulted in a surprise 1-0 win for Chelsea.

To put this in perspective, it was Barcelona’s first defeat at home in any competition since February 2019.

It was also the first time they had failed to score in any match for two years.

Chelsea are good - one of the best women’s teams in England and Europe - but Barcelona are the current European champions and are still favourites to reach the final.

At the start of the week Chelsea’s long-serving manager Emma Hayes - who is leaving in the summer to take charge of the United States’ women’s national team - urged supporters to fill Stamford Bridge for the return leg, and I was happy to answer the call.

Again, some perspective. Chelsea Women normally play at Kingsmeadow in Kingston-upon-Thames where the average crowd is around 4,000.

Stamford Bridge holds 40,000 and when Hayes made her pitch I understand that 24,000 tickets had been sold. Last night the club announced that the match is a sell out and the stadium will be full.

As some of you know, my allegiance to Chelsea began in 1967, when I was eight. The club had just lost the FA Cup final to Spurs and for some reason I was attracted to the losing team. (Sound familiar?)

But it wasn’t the only reason for my choice.

We were living in Maidenhead in Berkshire at the time but my aunt lived in Kensington and whenever we visited her I would see signs to Chelsea (which is in the same borough) and it was the combination of those two factors that led me to support the team in blue.

Two years later we moved to Scotland, at which point I began supporting Dundee United as well, but as soon as I got a job in London in 1980 I became a frequent visitor to Stamford Bridge.

The club was in a bad way, having been relegated twice in the Seventies, and when I started watching them they were in the old Second Division and perilously close to dropping into the Third Division.

The stadium too was very different to what it is today. Behind each goal, for example, was what remained of an old speedway track so spectators at both ends of the ground were a significant distance from the pitch.

The stadium, which once held 80,000 spectators, was now dominated by the three-tier East Stand that was built in the early Seventies and almost bankrupted the club.

Behind one goal was a vast uncovered terrace for away fans, and behind the other goal was more terracing, partially covered.

This was the infamous Shed End where the hooligans gathered, and in the Eighties Chelsea had more than their fair share.

In 1986 I remember sitting high up in the East Stand watching the second leg of the League Cup semi-final against Sunderland.

Chelsea lost the match, and the tie, and at the end so-called ‘supporters’ invaded the pitch and assaulted one of the Sunderland players, a former Chelsea player called Clive Walker.

The then Chelsea chairman Ken Bates, who allegedly bought the club (and its substantial debts) for £1 in 1982, subsequently suggested that an electrified fence would stop people trespassing on to the pitch.

A wire fence was duly erected but the authorities stepped in before it went ‘live’.

The only experience I had of standing in The Shed end was on February 13, 1982, when Chelsea, still a Second Division club, beat Liverpool - winners of the European Cup the previous season - 2-0 in the FA Cup.

That was quite an afternoon but I normally sat in the old West Stand that was demolished and replaced a decade later by the current West Stand, where we are sitting this afternoon.

Some games in the old Second Division were poorly attended and it wasn’t unusual for large parts of the ground to be empty.

The upside was that there was no need to buy tickets in advance. You just turned up and paid at the turnstile, and once inside the ground there was a large choice of seats!

I could also walk from where I lived at the top of the North End Road in West Kensington to the ground, which is close to Fulham Broadway, in just 20 minutes.

As it happens, Stamford Bridge is in Fulham, not Chelsea because, when the original athletics stadium was purchased by the Mears family in 1904, the plan was to turn it into a football ground and lease it to Fulham Football Club.

Fulham however declined the offer so the owners solved the problem by forming their own club, Chelsea FC, to play there.

But I digress.

As the Eighties wore on life got in the way and I went to Stamford Bridge less and less, and when I got married and moved back to Scotland in 1992 I stopped going altogether.

Since then I’ve visited Stamford Bridge just twice, once for a stadium tour with my son when he was eight or nine, and once for a match - also with my son - against Wolves (or was it Bolton?) the following year.

Chelsea scored five goals but that’s about as much as I can remember.

Truth is, much as I would love to have watched, in person, the great Mourinho team, and subsequent stars such as Michael Ballack and Eden Hazard, I haven’t lived in London for over 30 years.

Therefore it’s too much hassle, frankly, to travel into London for matches that, for the benefit of television, kick off at all hours and very rarely (it seems) at the traditional time of 3.00pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Also, I’m just not as passionate about football as I was when I was younger.

In recent years however I’ve surprised myself by developing a genuine interest in women’s football, a subject I wrote about here when England reached, and won, the final of the Women’s Euros in 2022.

Women's football may be far below the men’s game in many respects but, regardless of that, I enjoy it.

Off the pitch especially I am struck by how much more articulate, engaging and unguarded many of the players are compared to their male counterparts.

Their enjoyment of the game is infectious and I hope that never changes, although I suspect it will as the rewards and pressures gradually increase.

Last year I wrote:

What I love are the frequently unguarded interviews given by England’s women players, a highlight of which was midfielder Georgia Stanway cheerfully telling the assembled press, “Sometimes you don't realise that your head coach is actually human.”

Serina Wiegman, England's Dutch coach, was sitting a few feet away with an amused smile on her face.

Sadly, I suspect that much of that unfettered joy, bordering on naivety, will be knocked out of future generations of female pros so, again, enjoy it while it lasts.

PS. Three more (very small) examples of why women’s football is arguably more enjoyable to follow, at present, than the men’s game:

Exhibit 1: In a Women’s Champions League match last year Chelsea’s Melanie Leupolz, a German international who had only recently returned to the side after a year out having a baby, got a kick in the face. With a thick river of blood covering her face, did she roll around and make a meal of it? No. She sat up gingerly, left the field (without complaint) for treatment, and even made a joke of it on social media.

Exhibit 2: Emma Hayes and Carla Ward, the head coaches of Chelsea and Aston Villa respectively, were recently seen laughing together on the touchline. Earlier in the game Villa had their goalkeeper sent off for handling the ball outside the box. Late in the game, with Villa losing 3-0, the substitute keeper developed a calf strain and it seemed she might have to come off as well. Ward was under pressure following some poor results. I for one found it heart-warming that she could laugh about the situation with her friend and rival manager.

Exhibit 3: Following another recent match, Chelsea’s Norwegian midfielder Guro Reiten was filmed accepting a can of Irn Bru from a young female supporter, which she then held up, laughing. The context was that, a few days earlier, the club had posted a video of her teammate, Scotland’s Erin Cuthbert, introducing the Scottish fizzy drink to Reiten and two Swedish teammates who then had to taste it, with mixed reactions. The amusing interaction between player and spectator - and the fact that the club posted it on social media - is not unusual in the women’s game, for now at least. Long may it continue.

See also: Football? It’s a woman’s world now (July 2022) and Not watching the Women’s World Cup final? What’s wrong with you? (August 2023).

Photo: iStock

Stitch up (how low will this Govt go?)

Two days ago the Government quietly published the list of MPs who will sit on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee.

It would have been easy to miss because it was number 41 (under General Committees: Appointments) on a long list of items entitled ‘Chamber Business’.

The Committee is currently scheduled to meet from April 30 to May 23 when it will hear evidence from stakeholders and other interested parties and consider amendments to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

For the record, the 17 members of the Committee, who would have been chosen by Government and Opposition whips, are:

Nickie Aiken, Duncan Baker, Aaron Bell, Bob Blackman, Dr Lisa Cameron, Bambos Charalambous, Mary Kelly Foy, Preet Kaur Gill, Trudy Harrison, Dr Caroline Johnson, Andrea Leadsom, Rachael Maskell, Kirsten Oswald, Angela Richardson, Mr Virendra Sharma, Steve Tuckwell and Christian Wakeford.

Despite the fact that there was substantial and well publicised opposition to the Bill at the second reading last week, with 165 Conservative MPs - almost half the parliamentary party - either abstaining or voting against (58), the 17-member Committee contains not a single MP who voted against the Bill.

Instead, 16 out of the 17 MPs chosen to sit on the Committee voted in favour of the Bill, and the only one who didn't (Labour's Mary Kelly Foy – no vote recorded) is vice-chair of the APPG on Smoking and Health (which is run by ASH) so we know she supports the Bill and would have voted Aye had she been present.

Incredibly, no fewer than FOUR members (almost a quarter) of the Committee are also members of the APPG on Smoking and Health. Apart from Mary Kelly Foy, the others are Bob Blackman (Conservative), who is chairman of the APPG, Rachael Maskell (Labour), and Virendra Sharma (Labour).

Guido Fawkes has the story here with a comment by me. I don’t normally swear when representing Forest but on this occasion I felt it was justified.

“Committees don't need to be balanced but this is such an obvious stitch-up it's embarrassing.

“The make-up of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee is effectively a f*ck you to every MP who voted against the Bill, and every member of the public who opposes the generational smoking ban."

See: Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee members

Canada calling

I was on CBC Radio Canada yesterday.

Alberta@Noon is an hour-long phone-in broadcast on CBC Calgary and yesterday’s topic, hosted by Judy Aldous, was the UK’s generational smoking ban.

The programme began with a clip of me explaining that if you can drive a car, join the army, purchase alcohol and vote at 18, when you are legally an adult, you should be allowed to buy tobacco as well.

Although I was listening via the Zoom link, I wasn’t scheduled to take part in the discussion until the second half of the programme.

I was brought in earlier than intended however when another guest, representing Action on Smoking and Health Canada, questioned why someone with tobacco industry links was on the programme.

His name was Les and he sounded even more insufferable than Deborah Arnott!

However, while Deborah merely tries to undermine me by pointing out that Forest is funded by tobacco companies, I don’t remember her ever questioning why someone with tobacco industry links has been invited to take part in any particular programme.

(She might do it privately but I've never heard her say it on air.)

Anyway, I was invited to respond, and then talk about the UK's generational smoking ban, so I was happy with that. Thanks to CBC Calgary for the invitation and what seemed to be a well-balanced discussion.

Being on CBC Radio reminded me of the five days I spent in Toronto in July 2005. It was my first trip to Canada and the reason for the visit was to meet representatives of two groups that were fighting demands for public smoking bans in Ontario and elsewhere.

One was a new consumer group, mychoice.ca, that had been launched the previous year with the support of the tobacco industry in Canada.

I heard about it because in September 2004 it was reported that:

The Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council announced Tuesday it was giving $2.5 million to fund a new website dedicated to promoting smokers' rights.

Nancy Daigneault, president of mychoice.ca, said the site would give voice to the concerns of Canadian smokers, who face a growing number of increasingly comprehensive provincial smoking bans as well as personal demonization.

I was keen to meet Nancy, a highly experienced political lobbyist, because I thought I could learn something from her, so we met in Toronto for lunch and she was as impressive as her CV suggested.

One of the things that drew me to mychoice was the fact that, within a few months, they had 40,000 subscribers online.

This was achieved, Nancy told me, through a series of commercial radio ads, and I was interested to learn more because in 2004 Forest had launched its own campaign against a workplace smoking ban, and I wondered if we might do something similar in the UK.

Sadly, the history of the international smokers’ rights movement is littered with false starts and abandoned campaigns and after two years the tobacco companies pulled the plug on mychoice.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Another person I met in Toronto represented a second tobacco industry funded group that, if I remember, was similar to a UK initiative called Atmosphere Improves Results (AIR).

The purpose of AIR, before the smoking ban was introduced, was to promote the scientific fact that the installation of modern air filtration units could remove many of the gases and particles that are a consequence of smoking and tobacco smoke.

Pubs and restaurants were encouraged to improve air quality and significant progress had been made, in England especially.

AIR's counterparts in Toronto (whose name I can't remember) ran a similar campaign, so the aim of meeting them was to share ideas and messaging.

Unfortunately the introduction a workplace smoking ban in Ontario in 2006 rather scuppered that initiative, and it was probably the reason why, the following year, mychoice lost its funding as well (too soon, in my opinion).

Without Nancy Daigneault, who left, it limped on for a year or two before being abandoned. (The URL – carelessly not renewed – was later picked up by the anti-smoking lobby, but that’s another story.)

The third person I met in Toronto was someone I had been keen to meet ever since he contacted Forest with details of a song he had co-written and recorded.

His name was Matt Finlayson and when I met him he could not have been nicer or more hospitable.

Not only did he give me a guided tour of Toronto, he also drove me to Niagara Falls, a round trip of 160 miles.

He even invited me to his house for dinner where I met his wife and Eric Layman, a close friend.

Eric was a poet and writer. Sadly, he died a few years after I met him, but in 2001 he wrote ‘The Smoke Police’, a poem or lyric that was subsequently set to music by Matt whose semi-professional band, The Intended, included it on their excellent CD Route 101.

Confusingly, there is (or was) another, better known, band in Canada called The Intended which may explain why there is now little or no trace of ‘The Smoke Police’ or Matt’s band on the internet.

I still have my Route 101 CD though and it brings back very happy memories of meeting Matt and visiting Toronto.

PS. The outgoing flight was one of only two occasions when I have been upgraded to business class. The other was on my honeymoon when we flew to Miami en route to the Florida Keys.

I dislike flying but business class, like first class (which I have flown once and at someone else's expense), does make it bearable.

The downside is that every time I turn right rather than left when boarding a long haul flight, I silently weep, knowing what I'm missing.

Congratulations, Hazel Cheeseman!

Hazel Cheeseman has been announced as the new chief executive of ASH.

She will begin her new job on October 1, taking over from Deborah Arnott who is retiring after 21 years in the role.

The news won’t surprise readers of this blog because I kind of predicted it in February when Arnott's 'planned retirement' was revealed.

At the time I wrote:

As for her successor, one would imagine that Hazel Cheeseman, her deputy since 2021, is the hot favourite.

And a year before that, having speculated that Arnott might retire, I noted:

I’ve no reason to suppose Arnott's retirement is imminent, but it didn't go unnoticed that in 2021 Hazel Cheeseman stepped up from director of policy to deputy chief executive.

I may be wrong but I don’t recall ASH ever having a deputy CEO (or deputy director) before, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she is being lined up for the top job when Deborah does call it a day.

According to the press release issued by ASH today:

Hazel was appointed by the Trustees following an open and competitive recruitment process …

I’m sure it was, but I’d love to have been a fly on the wall when the interviews took place, if only to know who the other candidates were!

The good news is that, although Cheeseman has worked for ASH for over ten years, she is significantly less prickly (with me at least) than the woman she is replacing.

On the relatively few occasions we’ve gone head-to-head, I can't remember things ever boiling over or becoming unpleasant or personal.

That said, I genuinely wish Deborah a happy retirement, although it wouldn't surprise me if she ended up in the House of Lords.

I wish Hazel well too. We may not agree on much but I hope we can continue to be civil to one another. It's not a lot to ask, is it?

See: Deborah Arnott - a tribute (of sorts)

Forest office site goes smoke free

Twenty years ago Forest moved from a leased office in London to a substantially cheaper serviced office in Cambridge.

In January, as I explained here, the site previously known as Castle Park was rebranded as Journey Campus (!) and the building previously known as Sheraton House was renamed The Quad.

When we moved to Castle Park in February 2004 I’m pretty sure that smoking was already prohibited in Sheraton House. Instead, staff would go outside to smoke.

Later, smoking directly outside the building was banned too and smokers were given a small smoking area 20-30 yards away.

Today I received this message:

Journey Campus is now a NON-SMOKING SITE. Please be aware that smoking is now not permitted anywhere on the Campus.

If staff members do wish to smoke, they will need to leave site. To confirm, this also includes vaping.

I’m not sure that was in the terms and conditions I signed last year!

Mind my car

This takes me back.

In a video interview with his wife Sharon, reported by the BBC, Ozzy Osbourne ‘recalls moments from his childhood in Birmingham, including how he used to “mind cars for tips” during Aston Villa’s home matches’.

Osbourne was born in 1948 so that must have been in the Sixties, possibly earlier. The practise, however, was still evident when I went to Villa Park in the early Noughties and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s still going on.

Villa Park is one of the great football stadiums in Britain, but parking anywhere near the ground is difficult if you’re unfamiliar with the area.

I took my son, who must have been ten or eleven at the time (Villa were playing Chelsea), and we found ourselves on a housing estate, half a mile or so from the ground.

Within seconds of parking the car I was approached by a diminutive figure, no older than my son, who asked if we were going to the match.

When I said yes he then offered to “mind the car”.

I noticed several other boys of a similar age lurking around and it was clear there was a small gang of them waiting to prey on drivers like me.

Minding cars for tips? Extortion more like!

It’s 20 years ago now so I can’t remember what I did, but I have a feeling I may have given him - against my better judgement - the fiver he was asking for.

Funnily enough, my experience of Villa fans - having sat among them once at Derby’s Pride Park stadium - is that they are among the most good-humoured supporters in the country, although it probably helped that they won that match 2-0.

Sadly I haven’t been back to Villa Park since that first time, but when I do I’ll leave the car in a city centre car park and get a taxi to the ground, or I’ll travel by train.

Anything to avoid giving “tips” to the heirs of Ozzy Osbourne to “mind my car”.

Farewell, Caffé Grana

James Heale, political correspondent at the Spectator, tweets:

Farewell to the best coffee shop in Westminster.

He's referring to Caffé Grana, which has just posted a notice that reads:

Due to the development of 55 Broadway, we are having to vacate the premises after 35 years years of trading. We would like to thank all of our customers.

55 Broadway is a Grade 1 listed art deco building that sits directly above St James's Park tube station.

Caffé Grana is one of several commercial units on the ground floor of the building, which was built between 1927 and 1929 and – according to Wikipedia – was once the tallest office block in London.

James is spot on calling it the best coffee shop in Westminster. I would go further and say it's one of best in London. It has certainly been my favourite, as I wrote here a few years ago:

The coffee shop I've probably gone to more than any other in London is Caffé Grana which sits among the small group of shops at St James's Underground station.

It's run by an Italian family and I've been going there for 20 years. Most customers are there for a takeaway coffee but those, like me, who are early for a meeting or have time to spare can drink and eat in.

Space is tight so customers perch on stools at small circular tables. I wouldn't make a special journey to go there but if you're passing I'd recommend it.

Actually it's not true to say I wouldn't make a special journey to go there, because Caffé Grana was a great place to spend an hour between meetings.

In fact I would often get off the train at St James's Park rather than Westminster or Victoria just to have a coffee and do a bit of work there.

As a venue it was probably a bit too public for clandestine meetings, but you were always aware that some interesting discussions – some more discreet than others – were taking place around you.

I was there only last week, enjoying a thick frothy cappuccino in a tall mug with a long spoon and a delicious cheese and ham focaccia.

Several months ago I overheard a member of staff telling another customer that the cafe was due to close but I thought the year was '2025' so I'm disappointed it's happened so soon.

Apparently 55 Broadway is to be redeveloped as a luxury hotel with guest bedrooms and suites, restaurants, bars, retail units, meeting rooms, event spaces, gym and spa.

Perhaps Caffé Grana can open somewhere else, but I can't deny that its location – literally yards from the ticket barrier at St James's Park Underground – was a reason for going there, although a bigger factor was the coffee and the almond croissants.

Sadly the enforced closure of Caffé Grana reminds me that in 2009, directly opposite 55 Broadway, the traditional Italian barbershop I had been going to for 30 years (even when I lived in Edinburgh) posted a very similar notice.

As I wrote here:

The building, it said, is being refurbished and La Marca's lease had been terminated. Signed by 'Peter and the team', the note added that they are looking for new premises in the area, but there was no further information.

As with the redevelopment of 55 Broadway, the refurbishment of 28 Broadway resulted in a luxury hotel – the InterContinental, now Conrad London St James.

Another similarity is that La Marca (the barbershop) was run by a family of Italians led by a lovely man called Peter.

To the best of my knowledge they never did find new premises in the area and I suspect the same may happen to Caffé Grana.

Instead – and my memory may be failing me here – I'm pretty sure that Peter got a job working, temporarily at least, at Caffé Grana. (Are the two families perhaps related?)

What I do know is that, for a period, he also worked at a gentleman's barbershop in Jermyn Street, but I only went there on a handful of occasions because it was quite expensive and I haven't seen him for a decade at least.

Either way, we can ill afford to lose independent coffee shops like Caffé Grana and its closure feels like a genuine loss.

They’re on the pitch, they think it’s all over

Further to my previous post, this is what happened at Tannadice on Saturday.

First, the good news. Dundee United beat Ayr United 1-0 with a late goal scored by a young sub, Chris Mochrie, who was bizarrely given the Man of the Match award despite being on the pitch for less than 20 minutes and the goal he scored was, by most standards, an absolute sitter.

The award nevertheless said a lot about the game, which was terrible, and was arguably decided by the sending off of an Ayr player in the second half.

That said, a win’s a win and the three points meant that United are effectively guaranteed promotion to the Scottish Premiership, one year after they were relegated.

Knowing this, the United fans were keen to celebrate and after the final whistle a substantial number invaded the pitch.

It was all good-natured but after 15 minutes the stadium announcer informed the exuberant but well-behaved supporters:

“The team will not, repeat not, be coming back out. There will be no further celebrations tonight.”

I didn’t go on the pitch but I was one of the last to leave and when I did it was eerily quiet outside the ground, 10,000 supporters having mysteriously vanished into the evening air.

Anyway, it brings me to a conversation I had with Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale Restaurants, on Thursday.

Ranald went to St Andrews University in the early Eighties and as you know I went to school in the same town a decade earlier, so we have some shared experience of both St Andrews and Dundee.

Aside from expressing horror that I liked football and was travelling several hundred miles to watch a match in the city, he told me how he and his university pals would visit Dundee’s casinos, which he described as a rather dangerous environment (in those days) for a “bunch of toffs”.

He also revealed that his wife’s uncle is the Earl of Dundee who owns Birkhill Castle which overlooks the River Tay and is just five miles from where we lived in north east Fife.

Now, I’ve known Ranald for 20 years, and danced with his wife in Havana (we were in a dancing class, to be fair), but this was still news to me.

Then again, he is the son of a Scottish clan chief so why am I surprised?!

Update: I sent Ranald a photo of the pitch invasion and he replied, ‘Wow!!! Looks absolutely ghastly!!!’.