Liverpool FC Forum

[ivor_the_injun]

This from the new Popbitch mailout...

A lot of their stories are to be taken with a pinch of salt, but this one just - y'know - feels right to me.

>> National treasures <<
        They don't make footballers like they used to

    In the 1970s the Grand National, as an event, was
    dying. We all remember it as halcyon days, with
    Red Rum winning three times. But in 1977, when
    Rummie won his third race, fewer than 10,000
    spectators were there. The race has been
    resurrected, in 2007, the crowd was 68,000. Back
    then Aintree was owned by an eccentric old lady,
    Mirabel Topham, with Ladbrokes having the
    thankless task of managing it for her. One
    poor chap was sent up to the course and given a
    scruffy office with a couple of desks and phones
    and told to sort out tickets, sponsors, hospitality
    - the lot. The only way he got through it was with
    help from a surprising source. Every day, after
    football training finished at Liverpool, Emlyn
    Hughes and Terry McDermott, big horse racing
    fans, came over with a crate of beer and got on
    the phones to make the sales calls. Somehow you
    can't quite imagine Torres and Kewell doing it.

[Leonmc0708]

Source ?