Movember FC

George Harrison stands at the gates of Friar Park,staring at what most people would call a disaster. The Victorian mansion is decaying. Grass grows through the floors. The once-famous gardens are wild and overrun. Greenhouses have collapsed. Grottoes are buried. Paths have vanished under decades of neglect. He’s 27. The Beatles have just broken up. He could go anywhere. Do anything. The world is waiting for his next move. Instead, he buys the ruin and starts digging. Not as a hobby. As a way of life. He hires ten gardeners and works beside them from dawn until midnight, hands in the soil. His sister-in-law sees the place and asks what he’s thinking. George doesn’t explain. He just keeps working. His son Dhani grows up watching his father gardening by moonlight, squinting in the dark because the shadows hide the imperfections that bothered him during the day. The music industry keeps calling — albums, tours, interviews. More George Harrison, the Beatle. George wants to plant trees. Friar Park isn’t just a garden. It’s a strange Victorian dream: caves, tunnels, a four-acre Alpine rock garden topped with a miniature Matterhorn, and gnomes everywhere. He even photographs himself among them for All Things Must Pass — then goes back to pruning. When a nursery owner mentions slow sales, George buys one of everything. When someone offers 800 types of maple trees, he takes them all. His wife Olivia remembers him saying, “It’s not my garden, Liv.” He saw himself as a caretaker. The garden didn’t belong to him — he belonged to it. By 1980, he publishes his autobiography and dedicates it “to gardeners everywhere.” He writes that he’s simple. He doesn’t want the business full-time. He’s a gardener. He plants flowers and watches them grow. Journalists visit and call it un-rock-star-like. George doesn’t mind. He’s lived Beatlemania, stadium screams, cultural revolutions. Compared to restoring hedges, it felt empty. After John Lennon’s murder, the gates close for good. George and Olivia keep working — not for visitors, but for the work itself. He dies in 2001. Today, the gardens are considered masterpieces of Victorian landscaping. Olivia still tends them. The estate remains private. George Harrison chose dirt under his fingernails over applause. And in that choice, he found something stadiums never gave him. Freedom.

When Graeme Souness took over at Newcastle in 2004, Craig Bellamy knew almost straight away that things were going to be different. Bellamy had been close to Bobby Robson and was not happy with the way his time at Newcastle had ended. Souness came in and went the other way. “He was like this iron fist.” “Bang. Straight down.” It did not take long for the two of them to clash. Bellamy wanted to play through the middle. Souness had other ideas and was using him out wide, with Alan Shearer and Patrick Kluivert up front. Then Newcastle went to Charlton in October 2004. Kluivert was injured, so Bellamy finally got his chance up front with Shearer. He scored. Then in the second half, Souness took him off. As Bellamy walked towards the bench, he muttered: “F****** p****.” Souness did not initially hear it. But the television cameras picked it up. A couple of days later, Newcastle had a team meeting. Before it started, Dean Saunders pulled Bellamy to one side and warned him that Souness knew what he had said. Whatever happened in the meeting, just take it. Bellamy went in and sat down with the rest of the players. Souness started going through the Charlton game. Eventually he got to Bellamy. He spoke about the career he had had, the clubs he had played for and the things he had won. “And then someone like you calls me ‘a f****** p****’.” “I’ll f****** knock you out.” Souness came towards him and tried to grab him. Bellamy pushed his hand away. Souness lost his balance for a second and a couple of the players started laughing. That made it worse. “In the gym now.” “Me and you.” “Let’s sort this out like men.” Bellamy just looked at him. “What are you on about?” “I’m not going to go in the gym to fight you.” Alan Shearer had to get hold of Souness and pull him away. Bellamy had spent most of his career arguing with people and was hardly known for backing down. But even he knew this was probably not the one to take any further. “What am I going to do, go in the gym with him?” “He would kill me!” Kieron Dyer was sitting in the meeting watching the whole thing. For him, the strangest part was not Souness wanting to fight one of his own players. It was seeing Craig Bellamy with nothing to say. “That was the first time in my life I’ve seen Bellers completely speechless.”

Irons had way the better chances in the second half. A win should have been the result. Doesn’t hide the fact we defend abysmally at times #whuful #coyi #whufc

FULL TIME Little Common 3-1 Seaford We’ve had better days 🤷🏻‍♂️ Next up is a trip to Forest Row on Saturday. 🔴⚪️

Looking for positives, Engels sends in a nice ball on corners and Taty's relentless grinding plays well in the Championship. But, man, this team is not pretty to watch... #WHUFC #COYI

Bowen buries it 💫

FULL TIME SEAFORD 5-1 WICK A five star performance by town and we take home all three points. Four goals for Josh and with Marcus adding another it’s an outstanding job well done all round 👏🏻 Up next is a trip to Little Common in the league on Bank Holiday Monday 🔴⚪️