READING Dave King’s piece in Saturday’s Echo, which mentioned an old landlady, reminded me of a wonderful bed and breakfast owner I met on one of my trips to watch Saints friendlies.

It was 1992, and I took the train to Scotland to catch pre-season matches in Ayr and Kilmarnock. After a 1-0 defeat against Ayr at Somerset Park (Kerry Dixon’s debut for Saints) and an overnight stop, I spent a day in the town.

The next day, the test match started and I didn’t need to leave to catch the train to Kilmarnock until late afternoon.

The landlady allowed me to watch the cricket in her front room and before going out for the day, left me with a pot of tea and a plate of custard creams.

We won 3-2 at Rugby Park and I caught the sleeper back to London. Two weeks later, I set off from Southampton on a two-day 324-mile round trip to Swansea on an old battered Honda C90.

After a 3-2 win at the Vetch, I rode at 40 mph along the M4 in the early hours through a storm the like of which I have never experienced before. I truly thought the world was ending.

All of which was in aid of visiting a grand total of 89 grounds to watch Saints play.

That was eight years BS (before snooker). I never did reach 100.

Anyway, talking of wonderful ladies, Friday night at Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club is the ladies championship. Last year’s report was one of my first blogs. It has taken 12 months but some now see fit to forgive me.