NORMAN GILLER’S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 137
Submitted by Norman Giller

Return of the Spurs Odyssey Quiz league!

It’s not just the launch of a new Premier League season, but also the kick-off to the third Spurs Odyssey Quiz League. Norman Giller’s weekly challenge starts right here …

“I captained England three times while making 32 appearances, and won Second and First Division titles with Tottenham. Who am I … and from which south coast club did I join Spurs?”

This is the opening teaser to kick off our third Spurs Odyssey Quiz League competition. You get two points for identifying the former Tottenham player and a bonus point for naming the club from which he joined Spurs.

Email your answers, please, to SOQL1@normangillerbooks.com. Give your name, the district where you live and how long you’ve supported Spurs. I will respond, and will email a screen version of one of my Tottenham-themed books to the sender of the first all-correct answer drawn at random. Deadline is midnight on Friday.

Keep a check on your points tally, because the contestant topping the SOQL table at the end of the season will receive a framed certificate announcing the winner as the 2016-17 Spurs Odyssey Quiz League champion. And the first three in the final table will win an autographed, hardback copy of my Bill Nicholson Revisited tribute book, PLUS a souvenir card signed by Spurs legends Jimmy Greaves and Steve Perryman.

As regular contestants will know, the League table is decided on facts up until the final weeks of the season. Then I introduce tie breaks based on opinions, which is when I lose friends and fail to influence people with my views.

But please remember, it is just for fun and helps us all refresh our knowledge on the history and the heroes of our great club.

Here below are two Spurs disciples who know the club and its achievements inside out, inaugural champion David Guthrie, and current title holder Glen Scarcliffe.

If I were making a book, I would have them joint short-odds betting favourites as we kick off season No 3. I am amazed at the depth of knowledge of both David (a recently retired business executive from Wokingham) and Glen (a lawyer from Hampstead).

Spurs supporters since the early 1960s, each has got 100 per cent correct answers on the teasers for two successive seasons, and have only dropped points when it comes to trying to match my controversial opinions on the tie breakers.

We reach around the world with the Spurs Odyssey Quiz League competition, and receive entries from as far and wide as the USA, Australia, India, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, South Africa, Canada, Austria, Germany and Israel.

Tottenham has a truly world-wide family, and I look forward to welcoming you to the Quiz League contest in the weeks ahead.

Last week’s Teaser: “I am a Yorkshireman, have won seven international caps and also played four times for the Great Britain team. Who am I and from which club did I join Spurs in 2007?”

Several of you came up with Aaron Lennon, but the correct answer from the majority was Danny Rose, who joined Tottenham from Leeds. The clue was the Great Britain caps that he collected during the 2012 London Olympics.

First name drawn at random from the correct answers is Hackney-born Margaret Young, whose late husband, Geoff, introduced her to the joys of supporting Tottenham when they first met in the early 1960s. I will email a screen version of one of my Tottenham-themed books to Margaret, who now lives in Bangor.

I look forward to receiving your SOQL answers throughout the season.

I am writing this in the golden glow of Britain’s ‘Stupendous Sunday’ in the Olympics and have been living on Brazilian time since the Games started, but I was wider awake than Tottenham in the first-half of their season opener against Everton.

What surprised and disappointed me was the way Spurs fans turned on the team on line, not seeming to understand that – as Bill Shankly used to say – the title race is a marathon, not a sprint.

There were spiteful comments being posted before Erik Lamela’s superbly headed equaliser, particularly on Twitter. The couch coaches were out in force, many of them no doubt with Pringles in their mouths and beer bellies as they ranted about Tottenham’s stuttering first-half performance.

Our guru Paul Smith gives a perfect view of the match in his pitch-side report, and he accurately pinpoints the moment Vincent Janssen joined the action that Tottenham came alive and took control of the game.

I have great hopes for the Kane-Janssen partnership, and I sense when the Flying Dutchman makes his home debut against Crystal Palace at the Lane on Saturday the fans will be singing: “Starry starry night, Vincent’s scoring in blue and white.”

I saw nothing during the weekend’s Premier League football to suggest there is a team that Tottenham need fear, once Mauricio Pochettino has tweaked the tactics to allow for the inclusion of goal poacher Janssen.

The hamstring injury to Hugo Lloris is a worry, and the physios will get a scan report today. ‘The Boss’ made the wise decision to come off before he could aggravate the strain, and reserve Michel Vorm performed with assurance and agility.

Highlight of the remarkable sporting Sunday away from the Olympic action was the defeat of the old enemy Arsenal by Liverpool. The 3-4 score served up a lot of entertainment, but there were two decidedly dodgy defences against which I could imagine the dynamic duo of Kane and Janssen having a ball.

For a sports geek like me, the most heartening thing about the weekend was how Team GB managed to reignite the spirit of London 2012 in far-off Brazil. Huge praise to each and every one of them.

Now let’s hope the Spurs spirit ignites our season, starting with the destruction of Crystal Palace on Saturday. The time is right for creating golden memories.

Thanks for your company. See you same time, same place next week. COYS!

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