Football auf Wiedersehen
QUESTION Are any of the German side that lost the 1966 football World Cup Final still alive?
With the passing of Roger hunt, England has just three World Cup winning players left: George Cohen, Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Geoff hurst.
Eight of the West German team are alive. the entire back line is still with us: horst-Dieter hottges, 78, who made 420 appearances for Werder Bremen; Willi Schulz, 83, who played for Schalke and hamburg; Wolfgang Weber, 77, the Cologne centre-back who scored West Germany’s last-minute equaliser to take the final into extra time; and Karl-heinz Schnellinger, 82, known as Volkswagen because he was so reliable, who spent much of his career playing for AC Milan.
in midfield was Bayern Munich legend Franz Beckenbauer, 76, aka Der Kaiser (the Emperor), who played in three World Cups, captaining his side to victory over a brilliant Dutch team in 1974; Wolfgang Overath, 78, an attacking midfielder for Cologne known for his left-foot thunderbolts, he also played in the 1974 World Cup Final; Sigfried ‘Siggi’ held, 79, was an attacking midfielder who later managed iceland, Malta and thailand; and captain Uwe Seeler, 84, netted 404 goals in 476 games for hamburg.
the three who are no longer with us are goalkeeper hans tilkowski, who always insisted Sir Geoff hurst’s infamous third goal had not crossed the line; defensive midfielder helmut haller, who won the italian Serie A three times (Bologna in 1964 and Juventus in 1972 and 1973), earning him the chant ‘haller-haller-hallerluja’; and striker Lothar ‘Emma’ Emmerich, who scored 115 goals in 183 games for Borussia Dortmund.
Ewan Patrick, Bristol.
QUESTION Did Italian painter Caravaggio kill a man in a brawl?
MICHELANGELO MERISI was nicknamed after his home town of Caravaggio, in Lombardy, where he was born in 1571. he was an artist of towering genius, but with a volatile temperament.
When he came to Rome in 1592 after various misadventures, he was penniless, homeless and nearly naked, but his talent soon found him patrons.
his challenging arrogance often got him into trouble. Much of what we know of Caravaggio’s life comes from court records: hurling hot artichokes at a waiter, gambling and brawling.
he’d alternate bursts of feverish work with months of idleness and carousing, living by the brazen motto nec spe, nec metu: ‘Without hope, without fear.’
On late May, 1606, a fight broke out, weapons were drawn and Caravaggio’s sword sliced through the thigh of young pimp Ranuccio tomassoni, severing the artery. Caravaggio ran off with a grievous head wound; tomassoni bled to death.
the circumstances of the fight remain murky. An early report stated it was over a real tennis match: ‘the fight was over a fault call while they were playing tennis by the grand duke’s ambassadors palace.’ A subsequent report suggested the dispute was over a bet.
Caravaggio fled Rome and by July 1607 was living in Valletta on the island fortress of Malta. he sought the protection of the Knights of the Brotherhood of St John, hoping that if he joined the order he could obtain a papal pardon.
his largest work, the Beheading Of St John the Baptist, for St John’s CoCathedral in Valletta, might well have been a passaggio, the admission fee paid to the Knights by applicants to the order. the artist’s signature is written in the blood leaking from the Baptist’s head.
it was in front of this painting that the Knights gathered less than five months later to expel him from the order like a ‘putrid and fetid limb’. this followed his audacious escape from Fort Saint Angelo, where he had been thrown into a dungeon for assaulting a fellow Knight.
By 1609, he’d returned to naples, where he was involved in a violent clash, his face was disfigured and rumours of his death circulated. he died a year later and reports stated this was due to a fever, but there were suggestions that he was murdered or died of lead poisoning.
Rachel Berryman, St Andrews, Fife.
QUESTION Given the speed with which the coronavirus vaccine was developed, why is one for bovine TB taking so long?
A BOVINE TB vaccine, BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guerin) was developed by French scientists Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin in the early 1900s as a human vaccine.
When used in cattle, it’s referred to as Cattle BCG and has been shown to stimulate a protective immune response.
the problem is that BCG vaccination sensitises cattle to the tuberculin tests that are the cornerstone of the eradication programme and used for international trade in live cattle.
it causes a substantial number to become false-positive animals. it is difficult to distinguish between a BCG-vaccinated and Tb-infected cow. For this reason it is illegal under UK and EU law to vaccinate cattle with the BCG jab.
Work is under way to devise a test that can differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals. Sam Healy, Cirencester, Glos.