Despite some reservations, most notably currently from QPR, it was announced on Sunday that the Championship will be restarting on June 20, some three days after the scheduled restart for the Premier League.
From yesterday, full contact training has been allowed as clubs prepare for the resumption of games with the Welsh Government’s confirmation that they will be following the precedent of their UK, England, counterparts overcoming any potential problems regarding City and Swansea’s ability to take part in the relaunched competition.
It has also been announced that someone at Cardiff City has been confirmed as having the virus in the latest round of testing held at all clubs in the Championship and League Two that will be playing matches when fixtures resume. The only information given out is that a “member of staff” at the club has had a positive test result – perhaps wrongly, that form of wording has me thinking the person concerned is not a member of the playing staff, but it has been confirmed that only people with negative test results will be allowed into the club’s training facility.
The situation is a fluid one and, without getting too political, there are a lot of doubts being expressed about what critics see as the UK Government’s rush to ease lockdown restrictions when the official figures are confirming that testing is reporting thousands of new cases of coronavirus in England most days. However, for now, it appears that we will be finishing the 2019/20 season over the coming weeks.
Moving on, I had hoped to be able to offer offer readers another crossword this week, but, it’s not fully ready yet I’m afraid, so here’s another quiz in the format you will have become familiar with in recent weeks- as usual, I will post the answers on here on Friday.
By the way, I apologise in advance for question 20!
1 What is the connection between Pietermaritzburg born former Livingston, Arbroath, Montrose and Forfar defender Michael Travis and a member of the current City squad?
2. Since my first season watching City in 63/64, 01/02 leads the way with eighteen with 65/66 not too far behind – 67/68 and 91/92 are jointly next best, but what am I describing?
3.. Who was the goalkeeper Gavin Gordon scored five past in a match while playing for City and how was he a first in the British game?
4.. What is the early to mid nineties Cardiff City related link between Carlisle United, Doncaster Rovers, Shrewsbury Town, Huddersfield Town and Bradford City?
5. After being pretty common for many years, it happened to City late on in the 64/65 season and again about halfway through the 66/67 campaign, but it’s never occurred since – what?
6. He scored all of his City goals in the seventies, with his second one coming some four and a quarter years after his first. Our opponents in both matches were the same and once this man had scored a couple for us, he then managed eleven more in around a season and a half, including a run of four in four games, name the player.
7. Name the game, it took place in the 2000s in what was then called Division One, the kick off was delayed for ten minutes and it was goalless at half time, but there were eight scored in the second half.
8. An eighties question – name a City player from this decade with three consecutive vowels in his surname.
9. No posh jar found in north east initially leads to non scoring striker. (4.7)
10. Chamber pot near water possibly? (5,5)
11. He’s been booked in every match he played for Cardiff City this season, who?
12. It’s happened every season (including this one) with City since my first one in 63/64, ranging from a minimum of one in 92/93 and 01/02 to a maximum of nine in 90/91 and 97/98 (there were eight in 86/87, 87/88 and 99/00) – what am I describing?
13. A Londoner who won sixty three international caps, this defender was linked with Barcelona at one time and would have signed for Inter Milan in 2002 but for a failed medical. As it turned out, all of his five hundred and fifty plus league appearances came within the English domestic structure and he was a fairly regular visitor to Cardiff down the years. He played for two clubs under a man who managed him at international level and he was red carded at Ninian Park while representing one of them in a match where his team suffered a heavy defeat – who is he?
14. A Cardiff born midfielder, he spent four years with City in the nineties before following his former manager over the Irish sea. His first team debut came against a team that may well have been wearing striped shorts at the time and, in different circumstances, his one goal for us might have earned him almost legendary status with City fans. As it is, he is, perhaps harshly, thought of as the sort of player that summed up the type of team we were in what was a difficult period, can you name him?
15. Who played for Carlisle, Barnsley, QPR, Bournemouth and Swindon and had a 100 per cent losing record as City manager?
16. At one time this current Football League club had joint record defeats, both of which were suffered at Ninian Park – name the team.
17. Name the season, City win only one of their first eight matches in all competitions and just one of their last six in the league. Five of their players, one of whom is a defender, score more than ten league goals and there is a 3-0 home win where all of the goals are scored by men who were playing full back at the time.
18. This Welsh international played just over a hundred games for City scoring three times. His first goal came in a losing FA Cup cause down west, his second one set us on the road to a local derby win and his last one was against a team that was wearing squared shirts, who is he?
19. “…………… is an English former footballer. A blond haired, tough tackling midfielder, he scored 84 goals in 619 league and cup appearances throughout a 17-year career in the English Football League. He also represented England under-21s four times.
He began his career at Blackburn Rovers in 1983, winning the Full Members Cup with the club in 1987, before moving on to Queens Park Rangers the following year for £400,000. He played 351 league and cup games for QPR, before moving on to Port Vale in 1998. He retired in 2000, and went on to work for the Professional Footballers’ Association.”
The player being described here’s name is an anagram of a former City midfielder who, with the best will in the world, was not in the ex Blackburn and QPR man’s league – name both players.
20. That’s surely not a car designed exclusively for the birds the Queen owns I hear is it? (7,4)
Answers
- Callum Paterson is his cousin.
- City scored in each of the first eighteen matches in all competitions in 01/02, two more than they managed in 65/66 – 67/68 and 91/92 are joint third best with twelve apiece.
- Billy Turley was in goal for the Rushden and Diamonds side beaten 7-1 by City in an LDS Vans Cup tie in 01/02. Not too long after that game, he became the first British footballer to test positive for an anabolic steroid and, having escaped with only a warning, he tested positive for cocaine two years later. This led to him being sacked by Rushden as the Sports Minister at the time asked why he had not been banned for life for by the football authorities – Turley went on to play for Oxford for five years after serving a six month suspension and then played for Brackley from 2010 until 2015.
- They were the teams on the receiving end of the five goals Jason Perry scored for us in his three hundred and sixty nine matches in all competitions.
- Playing the same opposition on consecutive days happened regularly over public holidays during the first half of City time as a Football League. They beat Coventry home and away on 19/20 April 1965 and then were beaten at Ninian Park and Selhurst Park by Palace on 26/27 December 1966.
- Paul Went put through his own net in while playing for Charlton in their 6-1 defeat at Ninian Park in October 1971. He first goal after signing for us came against Charlton on January 1976 and he had managed eleven more by the time he left us for Orient in September 1978.
- Sheffield United 5 Cardiff 3 on 20 September 2003.
- Nicky Platnauer.
- John Pearson.
- Gerry Byrne.
- Bobby Decordova-Reid was booked at Wigan on the opening day of the season, it was his only appearance for Cardiff in 19/20.
- The number of 0-0 draws in all competitions – in 92/93, we started our league programme with a home goalless draw with Darlington and there wasn’t another one after that.
- Although he was born in England, Gary Breen qualified to play for the Republic of Ireland and played for Mick McCarthy at Sunderland and Wolves – it was while he was with the latter that he was sent off in a 4-0 defeat they suffered in October 2006.
- Nathan Wigg made just over seventy appearances for City between 1993 and 1997. He made his debut in a 2-2 home draw with Brighton and scored for us at the Vetch Field in a 4-1 defeat in 94/95.
- Lew Clayton was City’s “sponge man” cum trainer cum physio during most, if not all, of Jimmy Scoular’s time as City manager. When Scoular was sacked in November 1973, Clayton was named as caretaker manager – City were beaten 2-0 at Millwall in his one game in charge before the appointment of Frank O’Farrell.
- City beat Oxford United 5-0 at home in both February 1969 and September 1973 – the Rothmans Football Yearbook used to list them as Oxford’s record defeat until well into the eighties.
- 2000/01 – Earnie (19), Paul Brayson (15), Jason Bowen (12), Leo Fortune-West (10) and Scott Young (10 with no penalties) all get into double figures as scorers and Danny Gabbidon (2) and Matt Brazier are the scorers in the win over Scunthorpe in February 2001.
- Nigel Stevenson had two spells with City in the eighties. His first goal came at Exeter in the FA Cup while he was on loan in 85/86 and, after he rejoined us in time for the 87/88 campaign, he got the first goal in a 4-0 win over Newport as he we closed in on promotion – his last goal for us was in a 3-0 victory over Huddersfield in September 1988.
- Simon Barker and Robin Semark.
- Maurice Swan.
