The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 28

26 JJie Guardian Thursday January 4 2001 Sport 'A Cardiff to host three A Cup Paul and Vlvek Chatwhary a winger, because that was where they used to put the kid with glasses and skinny legs. I suffered from a lack of confidence. I played in the under-15s. I was 19 at the time," he said. Around the time that Bowen took up teaching, Morecambe were enjoying a renaissance.

Ray Charnley, later to play for England, was sold to Blackpool; Christie Park was treated to floodlights, a supporters' club plus a new stand, and in 1961-2, an FA Cup third round tie against Weymouth drew a record crowd of 9,234. Their finest hour was in 197 when they beat Dartford at Wembley in the FA Trophy final. The visit of Ipswich, fourth in the Premiership, is an opportunity to scale new heights. Bowen is relying on adrenalin to "get them the extra yard" and "a bottle of Scotch in the dressing room that we won't even charge them At "63 going on 107" More-cambe's honorary president still leads a hectic life. His morning show with Sally Naden on BBC Radio Lancashire, The Happy Daft Farm, dominates ratings.

Its avowed aim is to find the most miserable people in Lancashire and cheer them up. "The BBC" says Bowen, "have finally heightened my awareness that money isn't everything." Next summer, Bowen has been re-engaged on the QE2, where he will play trumpet with Colin Bryant's Hot Rhythm Orchestra But it is for his role on Bulls-eye, the darts quiz show, for which Bowen is remembered with affection. His Sunday afternoon slot peaked at 18.9m viewers and was revered by grannies and students alike. Here was the maths teacher who could not add up, and who once uttered "smashing" 43 times in one half-hour programme. "It was the happiest 14 years of my showbiz life." Thoughts of an FA Cup win drew from Bowen the ultimate accolade.

"Tell you what, if we beat Ipswich, it'll be even better than a speedboat," The gaigs keep coming but old Bullseyehostis dead serious about Ipswich David Hopps Not many non-league clubs have put their presence in the FA Cup third round down to successfully bribing a referee and linesman, but then not many non-league clubs have Jim Bowen as their president. While Morecambe brims with excitement over the impending visit of Ipswich Town, Bowen claims to have already taken care of the brown envelopes again. There has always been a show business feel to this Lancashire seaside town. Eric Bartholomew was a previous president, long after changing his name to Morecambe, and a statue now stands in the town in his memory. For the past five years, Bowen, whose 14 years as a game-show host on Bullseye made him a national institution, has ensured that life in the Conference has never been short of fun.

"When we played Cambridge United in the second round, I joked that we'd left a brown envelope in the referee's room," said Bowen yesterday. "The ref, Mr Parkes, was petrified that he'd be summoned to Soho Square to answer for his career. The last 16 minutes, after we'd gone 2-1 up, were the most harrowing of my life." Mark Quayle's goal had put Morecambe in round three for only the second time in their 80-year history. Looking ahead Jim Harvey, the Morecambe manager as well as' being Sammy Mcllroy's No2 at Northern Ireland, said: "Ipswich hold no fears for me. In the last few months I've had to help prepare for matches against Yugoslavia, Denmark and Hungary.

"If we can hang on until the last 10 minutes on Saturday, it could be very interesting." Bowen takes another view and warns Ipswich that travellers' cheques are already on the way to the referee and that if the result goes the right way, the fourth official can anticipate a weekend in Llandudno. They have always gone about things strangely in Morecambe; the dub existed for almost 30 years without a manager. Bowen's love of football was first formed in Accrington "If you're not sure where it is, it's where the M65 is cobbled" and then as a supporter of Blackburn Rovers. "If you stood on concrete on the terraces in the 50s, you were a capitalist," he said. He remembered Jack Walker, who was later to commit his millions to buying Rovers a Premiership title, enjoying particular favour.

"The rest of us were on mud, but Jack had his own rail and stood leeward of a concrete barrier. By the time that Jack got his pie at half-time, it was still hot." Bowen's first job was as a dustman, until national service intervened. "I defended my country at Shrewsbury," he said. "Our task was to keep the Welsh but. The sheep up here in Lancashire are frightened enough as it is." He was made aphysical-training instructor "To keep me away from the live ammunition" and qualified as a teacher in 1959.

"My role is to speak at a few sportsmen's dinners and raise a bit of money, but I understand the game reasonably well, and even took a brief coaching course at Lilleshall. I used to be 'I suffered from a lack of confidence. I played in the under-15s. I was 19 at the 7 January, Andre Agassi reveals how Morecambe presidents past and present, Eric Morecambe and Jim Bowen, ahead of Saturday's FA Cup clash Don McPhee Atkins future up in the air as Brown buys Carlisle the property developer Stephen Brown and including a Gibraltarian investment company, Mamcarr Divestments, completed its buy-out of Michael Knighton's 93 stake in the club yesterday and will meet with Atkins next week. "If we beat Arsenal and The FA Cup filial is to be heW outside England for the first time in its 129-year history of the agreemenrto stage it at Cardiff's Mfflefljium stadium.

Tbday the Football Association will announce tfifet it has concluded a deal to stage three FA Cup finals, starting with this year's, at the all-seat, arena in the Welsh capital while redevelopment wprk takes place at Wembley, The Football League has also reached agreement for the next four League Cup finals to be played at tbe Millennium stadium. The play-off finals and the Charity Shield will also take place there. The deal between the FA and the Welsh Rugby Union, the venue's controller, was finalised, after six months of negotiations which centred on the FA's demand for a "clean stadium" that it, rather than the WRU, makes the money from internal advertising and catering while the FootballXeague was worried about the pitch. Talks were stalling until the intervention of Cardiff county council, which has a stake in the stadium and was anxious lest the city's traders miss out on an anticipated bonanza. The sponsorship, catering and advertising contracts signed by the WRIT will now be taken on by the football authorities but negotiations continue about the hospitality boxes.

The "palletised" pitch which caused problems in the early days is in the process of being enhanced with a state-of-the-art "roll-on" pitch, and the surface will not be used two weeks before a match is staged. Only five rugby matches are scheduled between now and May. The Millennium stadium has a retractable roof, moreover, but while there are no plans to play the FA Cup final with it closed, the Football League will decide what to do about the League Cup final after consultation with the teams. The WRU. will earn between 100,000 and 250,000 a match, in effect around lm a year, far less in percentage terms than it paid for Wembley in 1997-99 when the Millennium stadium was being built Spurs asked if I wanted to stay at the club and I made it clear to them through my agent that I did.

"I will wait and see what offer they come up with, and I imagine they will do that soon now that we have finished with the Christmas and new year fixture programme. If a European club came in for me tomorrow I would wait to see what Spurs had to offer roe first before I made any decision." Campbell said that his future would be determined by the intentions of the club's new owners, Enic. "I have put my cards on the table and it aU depends on what the new owners want when they come in," he said. "They know where I am." Portsmouth have cancelled the contract of their manager Tony Pulis for an alleged act of misconduct. Pulis was put on four months' leave and replaced by Steve Claridge in October to allow him to concentrate on fighting a high court case against his former club Gillingham and their chairman Paul Scally.

The club refused to reveal what the alleged act of misconduct was, while Pulis himself was unavailable for comment. West Bromwich Albion have completed the signing of the goalkeeper Russell Hoult from Portsmouth for 450,000. Johnson Dominic Flfield The Carlisle United manager Ian Atkins may find himself the first victim of the club's new era even if his side, six points adrift at the foot of the Third Division, beat Arsenal in the FA Cup third round on Saturday. A consortium fronted by Bmsy Ktobson 'Sod ths cleans' as Spiioirs srewnew Free with the Observer on Sunday he stays on top of his game. We turn rugby players into models, and find out why female boxers pack a bigger punch than their male colleagues.

Jon Brodkln Bobby Robson is unlikely to face disciplinary action from the Football Association for his criticism of the referee Steve Bennett during and after Newcastle's 4-2 defeat at Tottenham on Tuesday night. The Newcastle manager was involved in an exchange with Bennett at half-time and also remonstrated with the fourth official, Andy d'Urso. Afterwards he criticised Bennett's performance, angry that the official had ignored United's claims for a penalty but had awarded Spurs two spot-kicks and sent off Nolberto Solano for handball. Robson also expressed amazement that Kieron Dyer was not awarded a free-kick in the incident which precipitated his dismissal for foul and abusive language to an assistant referee. "I am as angry as I have been since I came back to manage in England," Robson said.

The FA is awaiting Bennett's report but is thought unlikely to take the matter further. Tottenham have asked Bennett to review his decision to send off Neil Sullivan, the Spurs goalkeeper, in the same match. Television replays indicated that the Scottish international made contact with the ball when he challenged made his first permanent signings since coming to the club when he bought Chesterfield's Michael Galloway and Dundee's Lee Maddison, said: "I've put a lot of hard work into this club. If I hadn't, we wouldn't be in with the fighting chance we have of avoiding relegation." summer and he, along with the club captain Sol Campbell, are now free to speak to foreign clubs. But Anderton, 28, said he had opened contract talks and was hopeful of a positive outcome.

"I'm not just saying I want to stay, I really do want to. I feel I am part of the family here. I know that because my contract is up in the summer I could talk to foreign clubs now, but I would rather stay at Spurs. "My agent had a meeting with David Pleat, the club's director of football, just before Christmas. Although no offer was made at the meeting, Flashpoint: Robson confronts the fourth official D'Urso has conceded 32 goals in 22 matches, the second worst record in the French league.

The defender has a contract with Chelsea until 2002 but Monaco believe the London club may be prepared to let him go if they receive the right offer as he will turn 32 later this month. Monaco are currently 15th in the 18-team French league, only four points above the relegation zone. They are also reportedly interested in signing the Italian defender Christian Panucci, who is currently on loan to Chelsea from Internazlonale. Lazlo are set to sign the get Manchester United in the next round, his position might be assured," said Brown. This is a new chapter for Carlisle United.

We have a good chance of avoiding relegation and, with the acquisition of a few players, Fm confident we'll start climbing the table." Atkins, who recently Dyer in the penalty box early in the second half and Tottenham hope that he will escape a ban when the referee looks at the video of the match. Tottenham's manager George Graham was in understanding mood afterwards but was convinced that his man should have avoided punishment. "The referee sees what he sees and he has to make a decision on that," said Graham. "I have seen a rerun of the incident and the goalkeeper actually touched the ball. It probably looked like a sending-off but he doesn't have a video to help him out" Should Bennett stick to his guns, Graham will be encouraged that Ian Walker, who came on as a substitute after Sullivan's dismissal, has said he will now stay and try to force his way back into the first team rather than continue to seek a loan move.

"I will wait and see how the appeal goes but if I get a game or two, then I won't be asking to go anywhere at the moment," Walker said. "The' plan was to go in and see the manager today but now I will wait and see what happens before doing that" Darren Anderton has also said that he wants to stay at White Hart Lane. The midfielder's contract ends in the Burleys 700,000 signing of Alun Armstrong from Middlesbrough last month has pushed Johnson further down the pecking order and Forest will be able to offer him first-team football again, albeit in the First Division. If everything goes according to plan, Piatt hopes to conclude a deal in time for Johnson to make his debut against Wolves in the FA Cup on Sunday. The struggling French champions Monaco are reportedly interested in signing the France defender Frank Leboeuf from Chelsea.

Leboeuf is seen by Monaco as the man to plug adefence that Forest move for Ipswich's 2.5m Czech winger Karel Poborsky from Portugal's Benfica for 4 around 3.5m, according to reports in Italian newspapers. The injury-hit Roman club have suffered a series of disappointing results since their manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was named as England's coach. The Sunderland winger Nicky Summerbee has signed for the First Division promotion contenders Bolton in a 500,000 deal. The 29-year-old has not made a first-team appearance this season after negotiations over a new sar stadium Daniel Taylor Ipswich Town's swift and impressive acclimatisation to life back in the Premiership is likely to precipitate the 2.5m departure of David Johnson to Nottingham Forest. The Forest manager David Piatt yesterday tabled an official bid for the 24-year-old striker, who played a key role in Ipswich's promotion to the top flight but has been only a peripheral figure this season.

"We've made a firm inquiry with Ipswich and I'm hoping to speak to George Burley again in the next 24 hours," said Piatt The Original Sunday.