I had to wear my dinner suit under my big West Brom coat at the match, and Oxford was equally uncomfortable – until talk turned to footballI had a funny old day on Saturday. It began with a melee at a football ground in Bristol, and ended at a dinner at Balliol College, Oxford where I tried to hold my own in conversation with an economist, a cardiologist and an endocrinologist. There wasn’t a lot of time between these two engagements, so I had to wear my dinner suit beneath my big West Brom coat. As we won 3-0, I suppose I will now have to wear this formal outfit for every game henceforth. Seeing our third goal go in was a highlight. The lowlight was the appalling sight of two of our fans fighting in the away end just in front of me. They were both extremely large and wild-eyed, and knocked bells out of each other with great enthusiasm. No idea what they were fighting about; we were playing really well.In the blink of an eye, feeling no less stressed, I was walking into Balliol College. I wasn’t in my comfort zone. I never applied for Oxbridge, not least because none of my teachers suggested I should. Furthermore, ahead of my O-levels a reading list was issued of the kind of books we should have read if we were aiming for Oxford or Cambridge. The first on that list was Lady Antonia Fraser’s life of Cromwell. I borrowed it from the school library, started reading, failed to make head or tail of it, returned it to the library, and that was the end of that. Continue readingreadfullarticle
