You know Pete Sixsmith. It takes only an FA Cup Final, wall-to-wall Rugby Union or an England international to drive him on to the road to satisfy his immense appetite for the more obscure corners of football. A royal wedding was just the prompt he needed …
Oliver Cromwell was a great Englishman, of that there is no doubt. Under the rule of the Commonwealth, there would have been no royal weddings or any of the page-after-page reporting that goes with it; good as that is for Samson’s litter tray, it is not great for the brain.
Unfortunately, Olly had a bit of a downer on football and ale, so maybe I would not have been as pleased by old Ironside as I originally made out. As well as his his highly visible and undisguised wart, he also had other imperfections.