King Charles Tower

I bought myself a new iPhone for Christmas and I am very impressed with the quality of pictures. This is the Shropshire Union canal where it passes along the city walls in Chester. The tower is King Charles Tower where it is said that the king watched his army being defeated at the Battle Of Rowton Moor in 1645.

This afternoon I went to the memorial service for former Chester player Gary Talbot. I mentioned that I had been to see him a month ago and he sadly died just before Christmas. Gary was possibly the best loved former player and was a regular at matches as well as serving on the committee of the Former Players Association.

He was the club's leading scorer for many years (I won't bore you with the statistics) but what makes his story more remarkable, and relevant to Blip, is that at the same time as he was playing for Chester he was also acting as a press photographer. He signed for the club after playing in a charity match alongside the then Chester manager.

A renowned portrait photographer he photographed members of the royal family, world leaders and film stars like Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall and Jayne Mansfield. 

One of my favourite stories, mentioned in one of the eulogies, is that he once played golf with Alice Cooper in Nevada.

On a less famous note I was on German television last night. About 18 months ago I was an SA on the production, filmed in Liverpool and North Wales, and I found out it was being shown last night so I managed to stream it on my laptop. I was quite visible in a short scene so it was a pity I don't know anyone who will have seen it.