Klinger’s invitation has been a long time coming
IT’S GREAT to hear that there will be a Jewish player in the County Championship this season, well at least for the first few weeks.
Michael Klinger’s involvement is long overdue as he has been doing great things Down Under for the past few seasons.
Klinger is the first Jew in the English league since South African Jonathan Moss and I expect him to hit the ground running. It will certainly be interesting to see how well he copes with the earlyseason conditions.
Congratulations to Danny Landau and Barry Silverman who will be among the first people to take part in an official race at the Olympic Stadium. The two lucky winners of a Maccabi GB competition are genuinely excited about the event on April 1.
Landau, who is 50 and a member of Edgware Adath, said: “As a lifelong sports fan, this is difficult to top, as it’s looking unlikely that Arsene Wenger is ever going to select me for the Arsenal first team.”
Silverman commented: “This is a new distance for me as I have previously run two London marathons for Rishon (MS) as my father is a sufferer, and Wizo, who my family have been involved with for many years.”
Following last week’s coverage of the Fabrice Muamba incident, I was contacted by Nick Sonenfield who recalled a tragic day during his spell as an MSFL player-manager. He said: “We were playing Bar Kochba in a top-of-the-table first division game when one of my players, Ivor Benveniste, suddenly collapsed on the pitch and died. It is a moment that will be remembered by everyone at Childs Hill Park on that day.
“I believe that even if we had the equipment they had a Spurs, I feel only a qualified heart specialist might have saved him.
“How we played the following Sunday I’m not sure how, but we did.”
Players from the JC MSFL will be disappointed to hear that there will be no London Inter-league Cup competition this season. Organisers had planned to hold a one-day tournament but league chairman David Wolff confirmed to me this week that it has now fallen through.
In my 12-and-a-half years covering Jewish sport I’ve heard of most things. But there was a first on Sunday: a streaker. The Maccabi League Premier Division match between FC Team A and North London Raiders B was momentarily halted by referee Andy Myerson when an intruder ran on to the pitch at Meadow Park in Borehamwood. “It was the most surreal experience I have witnessed since playing football,” said Raiders manager Rob Richman. See Danny Caro’s weekend round-up at thejc.com. Email dcaro@thejc.com and/ or follow Danny on Twitter:@djcaro