Happy Birthday Alan

Lots of things all happening at once. On Saturday, I watched Cambridge play Blackheath - we lost 24-32, doing our usual trick of giving the other side a 15 point lead in the first 15 minutes, and then trying to catch up. Mind you, whoever thought the day would come when Cambridge would play Blackheath? Their chairman, Barry Nealon, is a generous host, modest in victory, and gracious in defeat - yes, we beat them last year.

On Saturday evening, Mary and I joined friends to celebrate Alan Pascoe's 60th birthday. Alan has been a friend since running days, and it's hard to think of him as 60. A magnificent party - medalists all around, Seb Coe, David Hemery, Mike Parker, etc, and a few old hacks like myself. Because of the rugby, he had two large tv screens, one at each of the marquee, in order that we could watch England defeat France (but with no sound). Although I'm doing an auction this Saturday evening, the organisers have sensibly scheduled it at 10.15 pm so that fans like myself can watch the final during the dinner. By the way, we can't beat South Africa because they're so much better than we are ... but then so were Australia, and so were France. I therefore look forward to the South Africans being sent home as losing finalists.