Bob Champion, Aldanti Film

Great soundtrack, hairs on the back of the neck job hearing it with the backdrop of the silhouette of horse and jockey galloping against the skyline

Unless you backed John Thorne on great hunter Spartan Missile.

You mean, 54 year old John Thorne

Peter O'Sullevan as around 64 years old, himself - when he, famously, said that, on the Run-In, in commentary

Wonderful film, and one of the great stories in sport. Also wonderful to see all the old racecourses they filmed at.

Yes amazing really that if Thorne would have employed Francome to ride SM there may never have been a movie made , who knows.

Well done John Thorne though , knew what he wanted out of life 

Was a great film/story/result, but would also have been great if the 54 yo had ridden Spartan General to win, i expect a few Posties would have been cheering on the 3rd as well, terrible 1st 3 for the books.

Missile not General imo.

Missile not General imo.

The grand national result was always given at football grounds now they don’t give a monkey’s.

Jimnast on one of my few visits to Old Trafford,I remember seeing the result of either the Mackeson or Massey Ferguson come up on the screen,it was Father Delaney and remember thinking if I hadn't been talked into going to the game by a couple of Leeds supporting friends I'd have probably backed that!

Great film Deptford indeed. Edward Woodward was a great actor. He was great as Callan the killer with a conscience. Nailed the part of Josh Gifford to a tee.

Cracking film

Those we lost in 2023, sadly Carl Davis, the composer of the Champions theme.

he wrote loads but also famous for the The World At War music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtB9e_Tev0Q

I remember being St James pk the day Little Polveir won the GN. MC announced and displayed on scoreboard the winner as Liverpool Bear. Hope not many slips got thrown away, but there was no cheering.

What I most remember about the day little polvier won the National is that the reigning champion hurdle winner won at 10/1

Future Chmpn Hurdler won that day there aswell,Morley Street.

Jimnast and penzance, yes, National day in 89 a very good day for me...
Had backed Little Polvier ante post at 33s and upwards
And on the day did all 3 of Balding's, LP, Morley street and Beech Road, in a trixie

And, referring to Deptford's initial post...
I knew the year was 81 so got me thinking
Looked it up, and my thoughts were correct
I was playing in that game at the Den that day

And back in those days when the National started at 3.45,the gamblers among the team(most of us), would try and catch the end of the race before going out for the second half..

Who did you play for Reg?

At that time, Millwall
I played pro and semi pro from about late 70s to early 90s
Won't name any other teams I played for... Nothing special, it's just that we all want to be anonymous on here

Good times, just missed out on the start of the big money era though

Nice one

REG could do a forum who am i xmas quiz
by giving us hourly clues

what position did you play ?
who was the best player you faced/marked ?

You will have to get the card game guess who out

I won't do that 1tp

All I will say is that when I was coming back from injury once, we played a friendly and they put in a 16 year old from the youth team that nobody had seen before
I remember thinking, bloody hell, he's a big lad for 16...
Bit like that darts player at the moment, but better looking
He could play a bit though
It was Teddy Sheringham

have you/did you have ginger hair REG ?

theres a new version out for xmas of the worlds best footballers, alfie,ronny,messi,kane etc ,ive bought the grandson it for xmas

wonder if REG is on it

Reg, I said to one of my mates, he will struggle, no pace or movement, he said, mate, this kid will be the best player this club has ever had, think he was right!!

1tp, not ginger hair, that was Dave Mehmet, he'd gone to Tampa Bay Rowdies at that time

Deptford, I agree with you

TAKE IT OFF
TAKE IT OFF
TAKE IT OFF

Mehmet went same 2 schools as me, 4 years older, same classes as my 2 cousins so got to know him well

Thats my claim to fame , apart from getting beat in final of Weakest Link

Deptford, last time I saw Dave Mehmet was late 80s
He was playing for Fisher then, close to you, I assume?

I mean their ground was close to you, Bermondsey way

Not personally close!

Yes, I lived 5 minutes away for a while, went a lot

Deptford, Fisher was run by some local "faces" back then
Always remember playing there and instead of getting the usual sandwiches after the game for the players, it was jellied eels!

Reg, were you there when Eamon Dunphy was playing, he was pretty good?

No stewy, about 7 or 8 years before me
Yeah, he was good, wrote some controversial stuff about the Irish team as I recall

Yes he is a character, have a Villa program from late 60s/early 70s, team picture of Millwall looked like he had his c0ck out of his shorts allegedly, and i didn't take the picture.

Didn't the owners of Fisher Athletic have a big window cleaning business in The City, where some of the players were employed,?

Given me laugh that Millwall team photo, keeps a good straight face.

Whatever happened to regvarney, barneyrubble and ebulgerry? They were great Football posters.

and of course, Akabula, Trilby and Coachbuster, who I mentioned in previous posts. Great loss to the Football forum.

And anybody know what happened to G2D from Chit Chat? Great guy and great poster.

The mighty mac, re your 19.23 post

I was regvarney on here from early 2000's until 2020...

What happened is that I had 2 accounts, one in euros from when I was in Spain and a sterling one
The regvarney forum name was attached to the euro account which had been inactive from about 2008
When I did a change of address in 2020,they closed down the euro account and with it went my regvarney forum name
I initially couldn't register a new name so sent an email to the CEO complaining...

This is the bit you won't believe...

I got a phone call from customer services almost straight away, yes really, giving me a chance to register a new forum name
I thought I could just continue with regvarney or even regvarney2 or some variation but it wouldn't allow it
Now, with an impatient CS person waiting for me to think of a name, me having not given it any thought and also me having no imagination, but wanting to keep the "reg" bit...
I came up with... Regbutler

I'm glad you enjoyed my previous postings
Chitchat was great back in the day

I didn't realise you were the same Reg! I didn't make the connection lol. Butler of course was TV's character in On The Buses! Great to know you are back and hope you are well and still winning on the football! All the best mate!

This is a great thread.

Cheers mighty mac
Hope you are well too
I still do OK on the football, especially in running, but tend to give it back on the horses, which is stupid I know but I do love the geegees

New years resolution to self.... Stick to what you're good at

@jimnast

"The grand national result was always given at football grounds now they don’t give a monkey’s."

I thought the GN had been moved to its now late-afternoon timing precisely not to clash with the football, so would anyone be at the grounds to hear the result at half past five in the afternoon?

My only visit was the infamous Ipswich game , teargas , horse etc but I did call my collie H , and my mate from way back was a lifetime supporter as was his dad . He now tells me that his daughter's son plays in goal for their Academy .

Reg,when little poliver won,millwall played Man Utd,I listened to commentary on the terrace during the game.

Given your football playing clues,you might be Terry hurlock,pmsl.a player of his generation.

I went to Millwall twice in the mid/late 1960s. First was to see Spurs (my team) play them in the first round proper of the FA Cup. Millwall were my '2nd' team because my dad was a docker. The Millwall fans were singing 'you can stuff yer Jimmy Greaves up yer arse' before the game, so I changed my mind about them after that. Dunphy and Harry Cripps were playing for Millwall. Score was 0-0. Second time was a couple of years later, my cousin was playing for Middlesboro, and they got beat 4-0, and he lost his place after that game and signed for Ipswich.

Comingupthehill... Not Terry Hurlock, he had a much higher profile career than me
Old division 3,league 1 now, was my highest level
Wasn't trying to give any clues, just responding to Deptford's original post which I thought was a big coincidence

As for 89, I was playing non league by then, and knew that the first 2 legs of the Toby Balding trixie had come in by the time the match finished. The last leg was Morley Street in the last race, about 530, the bumper or novice hurdle. A couple of other players had also taken my advice and done the same bet... One, an ex England player, no clues... We went from the bar to a close by shop to listen to the race on the extel blower, no pictures back then. The treble alone was over 1000/1, it was by far my biggest ever win at the time. A good evening ensued.