I’ve been amused by the news today that Accrington Stanley are selling 250 tickets for a third round FA Cup tie with Manchester United that never was, as they’d been already knocked out in the second round by Yeovil Town. It led me to think about the tickets I’d like for events that never happened. In reverse chronological order:
1. The State Opening of Parliament for the Liberal-SDP Alliance government in 1983.
Ahh, the heady days of the Alliance and David Steel’s 1981 Liberal Assembly speech – go back to your constituencies and prepare for government. There’s a passage in it about race relations that sadly still seems relevant now when applied to the debate about immigration:
You cannot dehumanise a whole section of society by taking away their rights, dividing their families, subjecting them to police and bureaucratic interference and harassment, and then pretend … that this is all done in the interests of good race relations.
2. The FA Cup Final between Derby County and Southampton in 1976.
Derby (the favourites – sigh) were beaten 2-0 by Manchester United in their semi-final, who then went on to lose to Southampton 1-0 in the final. There’s no question in my mind that the Derby side of 1976 would’ve easily beaten Southampton in the final. I still can’t watch the semi-final “highlights” all the way through …
3. The launch of Apollo 18 in 1973
NASA cancelled the scheduled Apollo 18 mission to the Copernicus crater along with the planned Apollo 19 mission (Apollo 20 had already been cancelled to make way for Skylab) during 1971. The cancellation saved around $42m (small in comparison to the whole cost of the programme), but came about due to the political pressure the Nixon Whitehouse was under in the early 1970s to divert spending towards more ‘useful’ endeavours.
These are my top three events that never happened that I’d like tickets for – what would yours be?