I've got a lot of admiration for Roy Hodgson, still battling it out as a premiership manager at the age of 76. I'm surprised he's still got the competitive edge. I think a lot of people lose it after a certain age. Watching him today, sitting it out watching his side get ground down by Liverpool on a miserable December day, makes me think I wouldn't bloody do that if I didn't have to.
A good friend of mine, one Dave Raeburn (b David Rabinovich, d about 2003, I think) was British Boys' (u18) Chess Champion in 1934. He retired to Southend in about 1980 and I started inviting him to play for the club.
I played him probably half-a-dozen times in competitive games, and he never seemed to lose his competitive edge. I think I beat him once, but mostly the games were drawn. I recall on one occasion offering him a draw in a position in which I was very much up against it. He gave me a hard stare as if to say "You're taking the piss, aren't you?" and then graciously offered me his hand. He was that generous.
The last time we played was in the final of the Southend club championship one year, a trophy I'd never won. I had the advantage out of the opening, and this was going to end up with me in a totally dominant position going into the ending. We adjourned, I played a crap move, and lost in the second session of play. I'm afraid I allowed my upset with myself show. Dave said quietly "I think I'm going to give up chess. I hate it when I lose, and I don't enjoy it when I win." That coming from a player who, had it not been for the war (he spent 3 years as a guest of Hirohito, as he said to me "one of 300 to go in one of 25 to come out") might well have developed into an England player. He didn't give up, of course, and when he died, around Christmas in his 87th year, he was Southend League and Southend Club Champion at both long-play and rapidplay chess.
