Retro Blog!

It was a piece of rock hard, orange moulded rubber…well, vinyl actually…and if I gave my lad one and told him to go and play footy with his mates, he would cringe with embarrassment. But when I was a kid, if you had one of these, you were never short of mates and if I still had one today it would sell for stupid money on ebay. It was the Wembley Trophy – King of Balls.

Back in the late seventies the streets of council estates and school playgrounds were full of wandering mongrel dogs,...

When I was a kid of about nine or ten in the late seventies, there were no computers or Sky television to occupy us. We used to play out a lot – Playing kerby and football with our regulation size 5 Wembley Trophy Footballs and riding our Raleigh Choppers. That was great if it was fine, but this is Great Britain and rainy days frequently stopped the outdoor fun.

Indoors was a different matter. Sure there was children’s TV with Blue Peter, Cheggers Plays Pop and Runaround but only after school and only until the news came on at half past...