The Watcher

In the last 3 days both the Wurzels & the Yetties (Mat McCulloch - died 15 December 2021) have lost a band member.

Great call but information is exceptionally elusive! Cannot find any death details.

So passes the last cricketer to have overlapped with WG Grace (d 1915).

When the centenary of WW1 was 'celebrated' in 1914, it was stated that only 1 WW1 widow was still alive - presumably it was Dorothy Ellis who was born 4 years after WW1 ended. Unlike the American Civil War we do not appear to have WW1 veterans in their 80's marrying serving girls/housekeepers in their 20's to stop the neighbours talking!

The last WW1 widow died in 2018. She was Dorothy Ellis & aged 96. She was 23 years younger than her husband Wilfred who died in 1981 aged 82.

Presumably it was Viola Smith who died at the end of last year?

I suspect there are more alive than deceased from that match as Knott & Underwood are both still alive & probably played.

But was Biden well enough to speak to Brooks?

Illingworth is the last survivor from the very first edition of Question of Sport. However, one report last night stated that he was the last survivor of the very first cricket one-day international in 1971 - totally implausible that the other 21 players had all died in the last 50 years!! Illingworth & Boycott (also had cancer issues) are the last 2 survivors of the Yorkshire Four - Close, Trueman, Boycott & Illingworth.

Joan Holloway was 107 last month! She is the daughter of Stanley Holloway whose famous monologues included 'The Lion and Albert'. Her brother Julian (a fairly well-known actor) is 77 - he is the father of Sophie Dahl - the well-known former model & current author & wife of the famous Jamie Cullum.)

The 'official' line is that she is concentrating on being an author whereas he feels he has more to offer as a presenter!

Apparently he had been swimming in fish guts & may have swallowed some! According to social media his ambulance took a few minutes rather than the Welsh average of 4 hours! What a pointless programme, pointless activity & pointless 'personality'. In years to come people will find it amazing such drivel was on our screens.

Margaret Ann Neve who lived on Guernsey met a French general who was born in 1739 so a span of nearly 300 years from the general to Kane Tanaka. (via Neve)

Unlike the good-natured joshing of Des O'Connor by Morecambe & Wise ( eg Deaf O'Connor, etc), the jokes at Blair's expense by Humphrey Littelton were personally very upsetting to Blair. When Littlelton died in 2008, Blair began using this statement whenever he was asked about Littelton. "I was told to only speak good of the dead. Littelton is dead. Good."

Trueman died 15 years ago in 2006 but the others you mention are still alive in varying degrees of health. Illingworth is the last surviving panellist from the very first edition of Question of Sport which probably deserves its own thread unless there already is one.

Eileen Ash is 110 today. The first sporting supercentenarian? Certainly the last cricketer to have overlapped the life of W G Grace who died in 1915.

Eileen Ash is now in the equivalent of the 'nervous nineties' as a batter approaches his/her century. She is only 2 days away from becoming a supercentenarian (110) & as reported before was exactly a week short of her 4th birthday when W G Grace died in 1915. In his time Grace was reportedly the 3rd most famous person in the British Empire after Queen Victoria & Gladstone.

According to one obituary he was a close friend of Prince Philip - quite possibly in Philip's final years he was the only close acquaintance who was actually older than Philip. (Unless Philip's reported cricket interests meant he was a friend of Eileen Ash who will be 110 (not 100 as printed earlier)later this month.)

Two names that rarely crop up are the actress Valerie Ashton (93) who was the third & last wife of Sid James who died 45 years ago in 1976 aged only 62 (but looking at least that age since he was 40). The other is Alvin Rakoff (94) who gave Sean Connery his first major acting role which was opposite Rakoff's girlfriend & later wife Jacqueline Hill. Jacqueline who died in 1993 aged only 63 was one of the initial 3 companions of Doctor Who in 1963 and played a history teacher called Barbara.

Clifford Rose (92 in October 2021) is in poor health & his family have appealed for financial asistance to keep him in Denville Hall. He is probably best known for his chilling portrayal of the Nazi Kessler in Secret Army & the spin-off Kessler which featured his life in South America after WW2.

3 and a half weeks before Eileen Ash is 110. If she makes it, she will beat the oldest male cricketer (John Manners) by 5 years. She is the only international cricketer (probably the only person alive to ever touch a cricket bat pre WW1) that has overlapped the life of W G Grace. (1848-1915). Grace of course overlapped the well-known (in his day) cricketer George Brown (1787-1853).

Funny peculiar, rather than funny ha ha?

Still 1925 on Wikipedia.

Geoffrey Chater (100) {Foyle's War etc}, William Russell (96) {Sir Lancelot, Dr Who - an original companion in 1963}, Robert Fyffe (96) {The Last of the Summer Wine}, Pete Murray (96 on 25/9) { best known as a DJ but occasional appearances elsewhere} all worth considering for next year.

I read that Illingworth is the only survivor of the very first Question of Sport filmed many decades ago. There's been a lot of publicity about the show this week as there is a new presenter to replace Sue Barker & also new team captains. The 'cosy club' is no more - one red top says it was a nice little earner for them as the 3 of them would go round the country with the show.