I’m not a football fan, but notice that Team England will be playing Team Italy on Sunday. It seems to be a big deal!
English Heritage brings together over 32,000 surnames on the England flag online and flying over some of their properties, including Stokesay Castle, one to which I have a real if very tenuous connection!
To view the flag and search for your ancestral names visit https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/england-united/.
Are there any players on the England team with a surname collection to your ancestry? Here is the squad announced:
Goalkeepers: Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United), Sam Johnstone (West Brom), Jordan Pickford (Everton),
Defenders: Ben White (Brighton), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea), Conor Coady (Wolves), Reece James (Chelsea), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City, Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid), Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Kalvin Phillips (Leeds), Declan Rice (West Ham)
Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Phil Foden (Man City), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Man City)
Obviously Covid is blocking the excitement getting to non-footie fans in Canada. It’s a really BIG thing here. Lockdown isn’t over (that’s a week away) but they are letting 60,000 people into Wembley (and you can bet that more than half of them won’t be wearing masks).
To make it even more a sports day, it’s the mens final at Wimbledon as well.
With memories of listening to the World Cup on radio here in London in 1966.