Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Trivial connections: The England squad

Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England:

I see that my Literary Secretary has fallen for some cock-and-bull story about Theo Walcott being the great nephew of Sir Clyde Walcott. (Though I note from the comments to that post that Sir Clyde is now the Chairman of West Oxfordshire District Council. And a good thing too.)

I can reveal, however, that there are some interesting - and rather better founded - family relationships and other facts invovling the England World Cup squad. Namely:

  • Aaron Lennon is the cousin of the noted popular musician John Lennon;
  • Sol Campbell is the illegitimate son of the prime minister's "spin doctor" Alastair Campbell;
  • Paul Robinson is the younger brother of the former presenter of "Points of View" Robert Robinson;
  • John Terry formed part of the popular "Terry and June" comedy duo for many years (and June Whitfield, indeed, played left back for Chelsea for a number of seasons with some success);
  • Steve Gerrard served as an officer in the French Foreign Legion for a number of years;
  • Ashley Cole and Joe Cole were born joined at the hip and made several non-League appearances before being separated by surgeons;
  • Frank Lampard Jnr, despite widespread popular belief, is no relation of Frank Lampard Snr.

2 comments:

Paul Linford said...

You are of course forgetting the famous father-son relationship, first featured in the Guardian for Sunday "Relative Values" feature on 1 April, 1990, between quiz show host Bamber Gascoigne and his son, Paul.

Stephen Glenn said...

Lord Bonkers you are forgetting that Peter Crouch is the heir to Crouch the Goldsmith's in Cardiff. Apparently BEnetiz and Ericcson misunderstood what was said about a real diamond.

Also Michael Owen is of course the twin brother of the Welsh Rugby player Michael Owen. The family just lacked imagination when it came to naming. Fortunately not as bad as the Neville bros paternal grandparents though.