Sir Bobby Robson

There was an interesting thread on some blog or other on "public figures whose death made you cry". Bobby Robson was definitely one of these persons for me. This is not the place to analyse exactly what lies behind these tears (as is the case with anybody one has never met, there is inevitably a certain superficial, showbiz element involved, as with Paul Potts on Britain's Got Talent). Let's just say the tears are for a good man, a decent man, a brave man, a "lovely man", to use an expression adopted by many and which for once seems just right.

Although we never won the World Cup with Bobby Robson, I always felt proud of the teams he managed, because they always tried to play football. Two memories: a French commentator, used to the muscle-bound hulks of the typical English sides of the time, enthusing on the sheer quality and skill of our football against Paraguay in 1986. But perhaps my proudest memory, as a Suffolk boy, dates from 18 March 1981, when Robson's Ipswich Town, playing away from home, didn't just beat but completely outclassed the great St Etienne of Platini and Co. 4-1, and received a standing ovation from the sporting French crowd.

And what a fine player he was! I still remember some of his performances for England back in the 1950s, the epitome of the cultured and skilful style he would try to inculcate in his teams as a manager at Ipswich and with England in later years.