The one and only Mark Loram

Hobbies: Socialising - shirley not!!

The famous Loram haircut - business at the front, party at the back!

Was watching footage of the great man only this very evening - could it really have been nearly 18 years ago?! Could it also have been just a handful of seasons that he played for us? It felt like decades in my mind.........
I should remind myself that although there is the element of tragedy about Lors and he never reached the heights that his talent should have propelled him to, he gave a lot of people a lot of joy when he took to the pitch. I don't think I've seen him play since he left us for the last time, but watching him turn-out for Stockport County at the tail-end of the 91/92 season was very strange and sad.

It would be easy for some to point the finger at Mark and call him a "waster of talent", but the death of his father seemed to have a huge impact on his career and don't think it is simple as that. Perhaps in different circumstances he could have made it at QPR, or even progressed again from his second spell at Plainmoor (or technically third as he left temporarily to work on the trawlers, didn't he?).
He seemed to be better at set-pieces from long-range than from the penalty spot (where I personally saw him miss at least 3 penalties!).

I still think to myself when we are holding-on to a lead in injury time that we could do with Lors holding the ball-up in the corner.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that I idolised Lors when I was a kid and he'll always feature in my favorite ever TUFC team.

Lors' post-Football League career would probably fill the rest of this page. I can think of fairly significant spells at Taunton, Elmore, Minehead, Penzance and Dartmouth. There must now be a considerable number of "spells" at Upton Athletic. Pretty sure he's also been at Totnes & Dartington, Brixham Villa (as he was as a kid) and several teams in Sunday football. There must be more!

His Penzance spell, which I was reminded of recently, was due to him being suspended from the Western League due to an off-the-filed misdemeanour at Elmore.

All told he must have played around 800-1000 games I'd imagine?

May be having a senior moment......but didn`t our Sherpa final coincide with a period when he was struggling to come to terms with diabetes, or was that a story put out to cover for guiness?

Sadly in my view football lacks characters such as ML.

When I were a lad there was the likes of Frank Worthington, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, George Best, Supermac, Le Tissier & Willie Brown (sorry had to include a gull) who brought skill and personality to the game. Then there was the nutters like Chopper Harris & Bremner. Now all we get are ivory tower athletes.

Story that was doing the rounds a few years back when Keiron Dyer was at Ipswich. KD was in a night club queuing at the bar. He was waving a £50 note around to get the barmans attention. Realising this hadn`t impressed anyone, upon finally catching the eye of the barman he sets light to the note shouting "that could have been yours". enough said.

Give me the BSP any day. I don`t care what league we are in as long as we remain well run, moderately successful and true to the grass roots of the game.



buster

Yes, but you made a save that the great man would have expected you not too, one to tell the grandkids I think ;D

Its good to have a claim to fame, I have a few and having some great memories are so good to have, as we can look back and remember days in our lives that gave us so much pleasure.