Your Sporting Highlights

Oh, and the moment to forget would be Aberdeen losing 2-0 at Ayebrokes on the last day of the 190-91 season.

I could tell you stories about that day..............

I jumped off after my top one, so........

My second "live" one would be Aberdeen winning the League at Easter Road in 1980.

Third is tricky.

I was lucky enough to be at so many epic cup wins by the Dons in the 80s, but 2014's League Cup win is also memorable......rotten, rotten game, but I never thought I'd live to see 45 000 Aberdeen fans in one place at the same time.

I was also at Wembley in 1977 when Scotland beat England 2-1, prompting "that" pitch invasion.

My Dad didn't let us invade the pitch, which I've never forgiven him for.

Non fitba, my (so far) only trip to see the Giants play in New Jersey which resulted in a win for the Jints (on their way to Superbowl 46).

I'd probably have to go for seeing my beloved Big Blue on their home patch for the firs time.

Three on TV .........

Superbowl 42 when the unfancied Jints did for Brady and Bellichek's Patriots, stopping their perfect season "18-1.......18-1........18-1........".

Next up, probably Scotland v Czechoslovakia in 1973, Scotland won 2-1 to qualify for their first World Cup since 1958.

Watched it on a wee black and white in my grandparent's house.

In those days not qualifying for a world cup for 16 years seemed a long time............

Third, I'd probably go for Europe beating the U.S. at Muirfield Village in 1987 to win the Ryder Cup on American soil for the first time. Fitting that Seve sealed the win as it was primarily his, and Jacklin's, enthusiasm for the event that turned it into the modern phenomenon it has become.

3 I was lucky enough to see live:

1980 Wimbledon men’s final - McEnroe won the tiebreaker but lost the match.

2012 Wimbledon men’s final - Federer beat Murray

1999 Brunton Park - seeing goalkeeper Jimmy Glass score in the last minute to save Carlisle United from relegation.

3 0n TV

1999 Champions League final

2019 Ben Stokes Match winning 135* at Headingly

1966 World Cup Final - a distant memory.

One I’d rather forget - Liverpool winning the league last season***

*** covid affected, rules changed so doesn’t really count.

When at university, I was Scottish champion at table football and got to the quarters of the British version. Otherwise, no other sporting prowess.

Short of liking curling (not really), bowls (not really) following Scotland in sport (especially football) is a thankless task. Andy Murray and Jamie (as above) was a TV highlight.

I don’t think I can make a list like this but the one I’d rather forget was when I came in last on the 100m backstroke back when I was 12 or something. :)

Goteburg, 11th May 1983. Aberdeen 2 Real Madrid 1.

Nothing else comes close. First time I'd flown, first time I'd been abroad, Dons fan since I was a nipper.

When I first started going we were "at a level".

Winning the league was "not for the likes of us" winning the cup was a bi-generational thing.

Alex Ferguson changed all that, I was sixteen when I saw us win the League, I saw us win the cup in person for the first time (I was too young in 1970) when I was 18, then two months before my 20th birthday I saw us hit the summit.

Psychological self-examination has led me to conclude that having all your obsessive dreams come true before your 20th birthday is not necessarily healthy and may have shaped some of the less tasteful elements of my personality further into adulthood.

But I digress.........

An interesting, and oft quoted, trivia snippet from that rainy night in Sweden.

The committee of the local Sedgefield Labour Party were interviewing prospective candidates at the time, that evening a young candidate was kept waiting as the committee watched the match, which had gone to extra time.

His name was Anthony Lynton Blair.