Cardiff City look to end their awful run of five consecutive defeats in a home game with Queens Park Rangers tomorrow, here are seven questions on the London club, the answers to which will be published on here on Thursday.
60s. Honest, big forward? (5,5,)
70s. He played all of his club football in London apart from a couple of spells with clubs 8,420 and 5,437 miles away from that city respectively and a short stint on what could be called a footballing version of national service I suppose in a military town. QPR were his fourth club and he enjoyed a good record in his encounters with City while he was with them. He scored for his country at the Maracana and was sent off in an international against the Soviet Union, while Kenneth Williams of Carry On fame noted in his diary that this footballer, who he had been a judge at children’s photography competition with, had told him ” I could stay here all night taking to you…I’d like to meet you again…this could go on forever as far as I’m concerned” – Williams’ reaction was to write ” I was pleased and flattered and touched. More than I’ve been for years”, but who was he referring to?
80s. Great things looked possible for this winger who made his debut as a schoolboy for his home town club in a game against Ayr United, but it turned out to be his only appearance for them as QPR signed him as a nineteen year old. He struggled to pin down a regular place in the starting line up at his new club and his one appearance for them at Ninian Park ended up in a City win. He was much in demand when it came to loan moves though – first, there was short one across the river, then it was stripes all the way for him, first back home, then at a bank and then with one of QPR’s neighbours. After seven years at Loftus Road, he left on a free transfer for Yorkshire and a town whose most successful football team is probably their women’s side. There was one more loan move to a team who acquitted themselves well against Premier League opposition in the FA Cup last week to bring down the curtain on a career which didn’t hit the heights expected when it began, but who is he?
90s. What links Simon Barker and Mark Falco when it comes to matches between Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers?
00s. Fort Wayne Fever football club only existed for six years, but a former player of theirs was once on the losing side in a City v QPR game – he’s also played for seven current Vanarama National League sides in his time – who?
10s. He managed eight grade ‘A’s’ and two ‘B’s’ at GCSE, three A grades at A level in in Maths, Business Studies and IT and has an accountancy degree. He clocked 11.09 as a fourteen year in the 100 metres, beating an athlete who went on to win a bronze sprint relay medal in the World Championships in the process – he also played for QPR against City six times during this decade, can you name him?
20s. Client’s gold hair messed up perhaps? (7,6)
Answers
60s. Frank Large
70s. Terry Mancini had spells with Port Elizabeth City and Los Angeles Aztecs, but that, and a short spell with Aldershot, apart, all of his club teams based in London. Internationally, he discovered he was qualified to play for the Republic of Ireland after a discussion with his QPR club mate Don Givens and in his five game career for that country, he scored against Brazil and was sent off against the Soviet Union – he played three times for QPR against us and we didn’t score in any of them.
80s. Nottingham born Steve Burke made his Forest debut as a sixteen year old in the Anglo Scottish Cup against Ayr, but his next first team football came for QPR after they’d paid what was a big fee at the time (£125k) for him as a nineteen year old. Burke was in the Rangers side beaten 1-0 at Ninian Park in October 1980, but didn’t make it to a hundred league matches for them despite his longish stay with the club. Burke was loaned out to Millwall, Notts County, Lincoln and Brentford before signing permanently for Doncaster Rovers, but he struggled for game time again and was loaned to Stockport before leaving the game in 1988.
90s. Barker and Falco were the only members of the QPR team for the two FA Cup matches between the sides in January 1990 who were not full internationals.
00s. Solomon Taiwo was in the City side beaten 2-0 at Cardiff City Stadium by QPR in September 2009. He played for Fort Wayne Fever (who were in existence between 2003 and 2009) in 2005 and has had three spells with Bromley and Dagenham and Redbridge, two with Dover and one with each of Maidenhead, Weymouth, Aldershot and Sutton.
10s. Nedum Onouha.
20s. Charlie Austin.
