Tranmere Rovers(A).14/12/63.

And so, after all those pen portraits where Alan Smith is described as signing from the Liverpool (sic) amateur club Port Sunlight, there's clarity here. If anybody knows the true location of Port Sunlight it's going to be the folk of Birkenhead and the Wirral. They certainly knew Alan Smith's background as "one who got away".

And didn't he just!

But what were the chances of young Smith purchasing his first suit from Hyman Jacobs of Grange Road (established 1890)?

Panic at Prenton: how can the club survive on gates of 4,000? Funnily enough those were the days when - and for many years afterwards  - we probably regarded Tranmere Rovers as something of a "basket case" (to use the modern terminology). All things considered they've done pretty well for a long time now.

It would have been nice to see the name of a soon-to-be-famous Merseybeat group performing at one of those supporters' club "dos". But I see "The Exiles" still manage a few online mentions fifty years later. Fifty years? Well yes and, to reinforce the point, much has recently been made of Cilla Black's five decades in show business. Actually seems like 150 years to me but that's beside the point. Throw in McCartney and Tarbuck and 1960s Merseyside had a lot to answer for, didn't it? I'm sure I would have been happier at Prenton Park. Ah, but there was always Ken Dodd and Z Cars. I can hear the theme tune now.....