The Pools Panel

[Way Of The Park]

Decent covering of snow here today, and it's still falling. This set me back to reminiscing about league football being played in the snow (orange ball, playing in trainers as the pitch was frozen, only the lines cleared) with seemingly few postponements. In the extreme cases where the weather was too severe. I remember an ashen faced Frank Bough reading out the fixtures that had been cancelled, until it got to a stage where the whole lot were cancelled and the dreaded phrase "the pools panel will be sitting" was then uttered. This would cause my grandad to let loose a few expletives and chuck his coupon away as their esteemed judgement would always ensure a "low dividend" forecast. 

I was wondering who the pools panel were, and if they still sit? Always had visions of esteemed former players huddled together in a smoke filled room, munching on a selection of sandwiches, whilst giving careful consideration to the likely outcome of Queen Of The South v Dumbarton.

[Way Of The Park]

**** POOLS PANEL UPDATE***

It appears that yes, they do still exist, and they sat during the suspension of the various leagues last March. David Sadler. Ian Callaghan and Tony Green are it's current members. Link to a history of the Pools Panel below (apparently Douglas Bader, Gordon Banks and the Marquess Of Bath have counted amongst past panelists).

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/the-agony-and-the-ecstasy/2020/jun/17/pools-panel-footballers-lockdown-premier-league-liverpool

[fenman]

Ah the days of the tele printer hesitantly printing out the latest scores and James Alexander Gordon reading out the results later , all on a tiny screen in black and white .