Charities, Top Trumps, and Big Joe

Anybody who knows me in real life will agree that I’m not the tallest person around. But let me take you back to a time when I was almost literally knee-high to a grasshopper. It was in my primary school days - a few decades ago now - and the game I used to love playing was Top Trumps. It’s simple: each card has some numerical data, and you can win your opponents’ cards if the value you have chosen from your card trumps the one on theirs. Simple, right? Anyway, my big brother and I had an English football stars Top Trumps set, and pretty soon went about learning which cards were the strongest in the various categories. It was the ideal game for a couple of stats- and football-obsessed boys. We spent countless hours poring over them. I think maybe we were quite boring. And so, nearly 40 years later, I still remember the Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Corrigan. He was the tallest in the pack, not-so-Average-Joe. I still remember his exact height - 6 foot 4 and a half inches - or 194cm in today’s money. To this little lad, that sounded ridiculous. Actually, that’s also pretty tall compared to this fully grown adult. Now Joe was a useful card to have in your hand, because he was unbeatable on height, but as a goalkeeper, he was pretty vulnerable on Goals Scored. Goalies don’t score many, of course (although I seem to remember that Pat Jennings had scored one from his own box, but that’s another story). Congratulations, dear reader, on getting this