A few seconds of your time

A JOURNALIST called Paul Taylor once wrote a brilliant article in the Manchester Evening News about the time he was granted a 58-second interview with Beyonce.

Not The Football League Show!

NO Match of the Day this weekend for Gary, Alan, Lawro and the other Alan to make mildly sarcastic comments during (and for me to make mildly sarcastic comments about). But we’ve still got a chance to catch up with the latest developments below the top flight in The Football League Show.

Pak Doo Ik, Cambridge United and other labours of love

PAK DOO IK is so revered in North Korea that he cannot get arrested. “If I have a traffic offence and the wardens see Pak Doo Ik on my ID card, they let me go straight away,” he told film maker Daniel Gordon.

The Big Match revisited

PETER Kay gave an interview to The Big Issue a few years ago in which he revealed he had been recording TV adverts on to a compilation tape since the 1980s. He claimed that whenever he stuck it on at parties, the room would go crazy (I think he meant in a positive way).

Growing old with Freddie Flintoff

IT was a very perceptive friend of mine who first pointed out to me that sportspeople seem to get older faster than the rest of us.

Radio times

AS a sports journalist, I tend to judge the significance of what I do by how much verbal (and virtual) abuse I get from the public. The more abuse I get, the clearer it is that what I’m writing or talking about matters to people.

Blog break

IT’S a bit of a strange time to be a football reporter on an English provincial newspaper – which is how I’m earning my living at the moment. It’s a bit like living through the Del Amitri song where everything is dead at five o’clock and every third car is a cab. I think you know the one I mean.