Sunday 31 January 2010

Sunday Night is.... Ben Webster, and the duel of the referees




Chelsea Bridge in 1964. Ricky Laird on bass, Stan Tracey on piano, Jackie Doogan drums. Webster drives you to poetry. These examples from YouTube comments:

Ben Webster is my idol. You could pour his melodies over pancakes...

...like pure velvet coming out of your speakers...

...smooth as silk or brandy by the fire...

There is gruffness, growliness and power there too. If this is honey there's a bear with it.

*

As I write, dear friend L in Budapest sends me an email. There is talk of a duel in the Márai book and I was curious as to whether duels really were fought in Hungary in the 1930s. He has pointed me to a site that shows one as late as 1935. But I rather liked the look of this one in 1930:

Két futballbiró véres kardpárbajt vivott vasárnap Miskolcon

Az észak Biró Testület január 12-én tartja tisztujító közgyülését s a választások előkészületét kinos incidens zavarta meg, amely Vasárnap véres kardpárbajjal fejeződött be.

A Biró Testület intézőbizottságának legutóbbi ülésén ugyanis két régi futballbiró, dr. Gofthilf József miskolci ügyvéd és Kerekes Nándor magántisztviselő élesen összekülönböztek és a szóváltást kinos incidens követte. Ügyet lovagias utra terelték és a két futball biró vasárnap délelőtt Gerevich Aladár vivótermében kardpárbajt vivott. A párbaj rendkivül heves volt és a harmadik ősszecsapásnál dr. Gotthilf József az arcán sulyos vágást szenvedett.
amire a segédek a párbaj folytatását beszüntették.

I translate:

Two football referees in bloody duel in Miskolc on Sunday

The northern branch of the Referees Association held its annual general meeting on 12 January, but preparations for the election of new officers were disrupted by an unpleasant incident.....

At the last board meeting of the Referees Association two ex-referees, Dr József Gotthilf, a lawyer from Miskolc, and Nándor Kerekes, self-employed, had a sharp difference of opinion and the unpleasant incident in question followed. They decided to settle their differences in courtly fashion and the two referees met on Sunday morning in Aladár Gerevich's gymnasium where they fought a duel with swords. The duel was contested with more than usual passion and at the third pass Dr József Gotthilf suffered a serious cut across his face at which point the seconds brought the contest to an end.

There is far too little of this sort of thing going on. For Miskolc read, say, Wolverhampton.




3 comments:

Unknown said...

I think you've just found the answer to the John Terry/Wayne Bridge problem!

George S said...

Penalty shoot-out?

Unknown said...

There's a milder and somewhat less interesting story from Jimmy Hogan and 1920s Hungary: Hogan's team were winning the match, so an opposition supporter ran onto the pitch and SHOT THE BALL WITH HIS REVOLVER, thus ensuring - as they only had one ball - that the game was called off.

I suggest, for Terry, a combination of the two ideas, very much tongue in cheek, a duel, and the shooting of the balls.