Lee Gale

It sounds yucky, but we made decency popular. You could watch Fix It with your 80-year-old grandma, or eight-year-old daughter, and you’d not be embarrassed.

Subbuteo I used to commentate on, to the state where no-one would play with me. My parents used to send me up to a room in the attic to play it. I then took it to university.

Bernard Manning was the first person to ring me when he found out I had cancer. Everyone thinks we’re rivals. We’re not. These are my people, my peers, the people I admire. The people I think are funny.

The worst was in Newcastle. On a New Year’s Day, against Wolves, it was. We lost at home 4-1. It started a bit from the yobbo end, like.

So with that, the blog draws to a close on Week 63. After a blip, I’m back on track and a far fitter fiftysomething fella than I was on Week 1. Karate – maybe you should try it. I’m glad I did. So this is not the end. It’s just the beginning. I wonder what it would be like to be a black belt? And yes – that’s an Airtex England 1970 World Cup 3rd shirt as worn in the 3-2 Quarter-Final defeat to West Germany.

Thursday, 15 June 2023 can easily be described as my worst hour in the dojo thus far. It was like being Bruno Fernandes playing at Anfield and Liverpool have gone 5-0 up. Bearing in mind it was 26°C – you can imagine the state of my gi after an hour.

Since starting karate 14 months ago I now also go to a gym for an hour on a Saturday, play tennis on Thursday and Sunday and stretch my arms and legs with a bit of Pilates a couple of times a week. Add to that the gardening (see main image) and I walk a lot too. Twenty twenty-one Lee would be astonished by 2023 Lee.

The “broken spine” hung around to see Manchester United lose to Manchester City in the FA Cup Final but the lager and red wine that I sank in a Wandsworth pub with old friends meant that any pain by the week’s end was more focused in my head than my back. And I sort of remember giving my friends a karate lesson while wearing my Manchester United 1990 FA Cup Final Replay shirt. Oof.

We’re at war with an SAS-trained squirrel. Having had a bird feeder hanging from an external light on our conservatory for a year without interference, our garden is now liberally littered with shelled sunflower seeds after countless dawn raids. Here’s Mrs Gale (see main image) doing a very good impression of the squirrel. Our two hours a week in the dojo require a toughness of mind so perhaps if the tables were turned, I’d now have the same determination as our resident bandit squirrel to get at the bird nosh.

This year the jumble sale was a great source of 1980s sporting equipment. I need some weights for my continuing physio for my worn-out left knee and left-sided pelvic pain – which should in the long run alleviate sciatica. The queue to get in is alarmingly long. The trick is to arrive an hour beforehand – at least – and bring a newspaper.