The French George Best
QUESTION What became of Dominique Rocheteau, known as ‘the French George Best’?
DuRiNg the sixties and seventies st Etienne ( Les Verts) were the most successful team i n French f ootball, league champions seven times between 1966 and 1976.
it was a time of renewed interest in French football and it needed a poster boy. Enter Dominique Rocheteau, a handsome 20-year-old forward with flowing ringlets who had the virtuosity to be compared with george Best.
Rocheteau was a graceful player who combined pace, dribbling skills, hard work and poise. his nickname was as elegant as his style, L’Ange Vert, the green Angel, and he was popular across France. he was even the subject of a pop song, Le Petit Rocheteau, by Monty.
Rocheteau became internationally famous in st Etienne’s famous European Cup run of 1976. he took Dynamo Kiev apart as Les Verts came back from a 0-2 away defeat to beat the soviets 3-0 in the quarter finals of the competition.
After overcoming PsV Eindhoven in the semis, st Etienne met Bayern Munich in the final at hampden Park, glasgow. They outplayed the germans for much of the game, spurning several good chances, but Bayern held out and won 1-0.
in 1980 Rocheteau left st Etienne and joined Psg, with whom he won the league title in 1986 before retiring.
With t he French National Team Rocheteau won 49 caps from 1975 to 1986 and scored 15 goals. he played in the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and was part of t he t eam t hat won t he European Championship in 1984 (though he missed the final due to injury).
Despite his laid-back persona, he was active in Left-wing politics and made headlines i n 1978 when he publicly questioned whether France should play Bulgaria, at t hat t i me under a dictatorship.
After his retirement, he tried his hand at acting, appearing in the gerard Depardieu film Le garcu (1996) and various TV shows and commercials. he then worked as a football agent for David ginola and Reynald Pedros.
in 2002, he became head of the National Ethics Committee of the French Football Federation. he i s currently sporting director at st Etienne.
J. B. Coyne, Cardiff.
QUESTION Do marine mammals sneeze? iN huMANs breathing i s usually involuntary and we breathe while the conscious mind is asleep. sneezing is an unconscious and reflexive response to an irritant inhaled into the mouth or nose.
Marine mammals can’t breathe underwater and are therefore conscious breathers. Cetaceans ( whales and dolphins) don’t have an i nvoluntary sneezing reflex as taking a lungful of water underwater could prove lethal.
Cetaceans’ ‘noses’, or blowholes, are on the top of their heads, so they can breathe without rising too far out of the water.
When inhaling, they flex a muscle to open the blowhole and take air. Then, they relax the muscle to close the blowhole, leaving them free to dive down beneath the surface of the water once more. since the trachea (nose to lungs) and alimentary canal/ esophagus ( mouth to stomach) in cetaceans is not connected at any point as it is in humans, whales do not exhale through the mouth.
however, to remove debris and bacteria, cetaceans have been observed rising to the surface and forcefully exhaling oxygen through their blowholes, essentially a deliberate cough.
The situation for pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses) appears to be similar. These animals often dive to 300ft, and their nasal passages close during the dive — and an involuntary sneeze would prove lethal.
seals are vigorous sneezers once out of the water, and they snort and sneeze to cl ear t heir airways of debris and accumulated mucus.
sirenians (manatees and dugongs) are somewhat different. They reside in shallow coastal waters and have been observed sneezing underwater before rising to the surface to inhale another breath.
Carrie taylor, Bangor, Gwynedd.
QUESTION The theme music for TV’s Morse famously incorporates Morse code. Does it feature in any other TV programme?
FuRThER to Ronnie hazelhurst’s use of Morse Code in the titles to some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, he also looked for patterns in the words themselves to provide inspiration, resulting in the tunes for Blankety Blank, Last Of The summer Wine and others.
This device has also been used by others, notably David Croft and Roy Moore in the titles for ’Allo, ’Allo — sing them all for yourself and you will see!
My favourite example is Ronnie’s music for The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, where the tune is additionally linked with the meaning of the words to ‘fall’ and ‘rise’ at the appropriate place. he was a remarkable composer who had the uncanny knack of being able to encapsulate the whole idea of a comedy show within a few bars of music. Amazing!
Stewart Green, Lowestoft, Suffolk.
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