Death of Nat Lofthouse

It's a dull, somewhat windy, grey day and with a hanging threat of some rain. It's not a good day in other ways either. I picked up the news from the BBC web page that Bolton Wanderers stalwart Nat Lofthouse had died at the age of 85. I had not heard much about him recently but I thought that he was still in good health. He died in a nursing home. He appeared occasionally on football programmes and sometimes he was seen in the crowd at a Bolton Wanderers match. He was the hero of the Bolton team in the years when i went to watch them in the 50s. He joined Bolton from school and the coal mines in 1946 and played until the early 60s. He scored 234 goals for Bolton and another 30 or so for England. Many tributes have rolled in already for a great player and a lovely man. He never played for any team other than Bolton Wanderers and he served them after his playing days as a manager, scout, director and solid supporter through thick and thin.
Lofthouse played in the Bolton vs Blackpool FA Cup Final of 1953 when Blackpool won 4 -3 after extra time, Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick and Stanley Matthews got his one and only cup winner's medal. Lofthouse won his cup winner's medal in 1958 when Bolton defeated Manchester United by 2 - 0. This was a win - Bolton's only FA Cup win since WWII - overshadowed by the Munich plane crash 3 months earlier when Manchester United had lost so many of their best players. Neither team could be blamed for that but it was a dark shadow nevertheless.

I expect that Nat Lofthouse will get something akin to a state funeral in Bolton and, for a player who did not earn the buckets of cash available to today's footballers, who can deny him that.

Today was not such a good day either for the England Cricket team. They lost a 50 over match in Melbourne by six wickets. In fact Australia scored the 295 runs needed to win with five balls to spare, thanks mainly to a stupendous 161 from Shane Watson. "One of the all-time great one day innings," according to Andrew Strauss. England gave away a few soft wickets and their bowling was not what it should have been. Bowling full tosses to Watson in the final over was an easy way of letting him finish it with a six. Well done the Aussies.
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