Stuart Dade's 40th birthday shenanigans

Stuart Dade is a mighty old friend from when I lived in London doing my MSc and then PhD. I've played football with him for the Effra Academicals; I've been on EPIC stag dos with him, including his own to New York [insert expletive] City; he and I compiled the legendary 'God's Gifts' CDs of music interspersed with goal commentaries, only a select few people in the world have heard, let alone own; and dozens of gigs, the highlight of which, friendship-with-him-wise, was Billy Bragg on Election Night 1997. Earlier that day he and I had been getting out the vote for the Mitcham and Morden marginal in south London, and when that seat's result came in on the venue's giant screen at about 3am, he and I moshed to it in a drunken frenzy of democratic engagement! (Well, everyone was optimistic that night...)

So his 40th was a big deal, and together with another massive mate in London, Luke Fallon, I wanted to get him something brilliant. But what? He has all - and I mean ALL - the Star Wars memorabilia you could think of, and we suspected he probably also had all the obscure vinyl records we could think of, so what?

I came up with a signed Norwich City shirt, and really there was only one man whose name had to be n that shirt: Jeremy Goss. Scorer of two legendary goals when Naaaaaaarrrrccchhhhhh [to give them their correct pronunciation] beat Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup in the 90s (unaccoutably, I can't find the goal I want - the one at home - on YouTube; it's over-rated, this Interweb thing).

So - how to get hold of Jeremy Goss. We figured he must still be associated with the club, but the club were, understandably, less than keen to share his private contact details with us. So I Googled him, and he does after-dinner work and speeches and the like, and has a brochure on the web. With his mobile phone number (OK, techincally this was via the Interweb so the jury's out on whether it'll catch on...)

I called it, and he was an absolute gentleman, more than happy to help. We only had a week to make this happen, so the logistics required us to buy the shirt over the phone from Naaaaaaarrrrccchhhhhh, send it to him (NCFC Club Shop employee: "And where would you like us to post it to?" Me: "Jeremy Goss' house, please"), get him to sign it etc, and send it down to Luke in London, for us to wrap in time for the party...

The quid pro quo, which just made the whole thing even better, frankly, was that Mr Goss is doing a charity bike ride, "Back to Bayern", for a local blind charity and he asked if we would donate. We have done, and if anyone else wants to do so, click on the link above. (A comment linking it to Stuart's shirt will help Mr Goss know your gift is linked to his kindness...)

Come the night of the party, we called Stuart over, and handed over the package. The pictures tell the developing story of his realisation...

As you can see at the end, we got Mr Goss to not only sign it but write out the salient details of John Motson's commentary for his goal in the home leg (Stuart was there and lists it comfortably in his Top 10 Greatest Ever Moments)...

The man is a star, and the look on Stuart's face was everything we wanted. (His brother, Andy, also a Naaaaaaarrrrccchhhhhh fan, got the green-eyed monster a bit, for which apologies...!)

The party was excellent, in a barn at The Plough Pub in Leigh, Kent. The beer flowed and it was great catching up with some more old friends from London, too. The DJ eventually got people on the floor - as an ex-DJ I couldn't help but think he'd shot his "Don't Stop Me Now" bolt ridiculously early! - and we rolled back the years/ made utter fools of ourselves to the Stone Roses, Nirvana, and Dinosaur Jr (all of which the DJ said were new to him, showing OUR age I admit, but surely also his narrow musical horizons! We had no idea who he played in the middle of the night!)

Luke and I stayed at The Barn in Hildenborough, a lovely little B&B - although we got a maximum of 6 hours in it because I had to head back. Outsanding breakfast...