The Watford Observer has again teamed up with its friends at The Watford Treasury to share stories from previous issues.
Although seven different goalkeepers appeared for Watford during the 1970s, the position was dominated by one man. Andy Rankin was Watford’s player of the decade, writes Geoff Wicken. To be a Watford supporter in the early and mid-1970s was, mostly, a dispiriting experience. The six seasons starting from 1971/72 saw almost continuous decline. There were two relegations, in 1971/72 and 1974/75, followed by two years of stasis in Division Four. Then everything changed. The turnaround inspired by Graham Taylor’s arrival brought the two consecutive promotions of 1977/78 and 1978/79. Those six years of gloom were followed by two of dramatic upturn, and by autumn 1979 Watford were back in Division Two, where they had been eight years earlier.
Former Everton goalkeeper who was Watford s player of the 1970s watfordobserver.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from watfordobserver.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Inherent Dangers of Backcountry Skiing in Colorado’s Mountains
What can a fatal backcountry skiing accident on Jones Pass, on the west side of the Continental Divide, teach us about Colorado’s snowcat outfitters? And can these quintessential Centennial State adventures ever truly be safe?Tracy Ross •
The avalanche that killed my friend, Hans Berg, on Jones Pass on the afternoon of March 7, 2019, was about 2,000 feet wide and ran from its start, beneath a cornice that collapsed, approximately 1,000 feet to its stopping point, across a snowcat road. The avalanche, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), spread both to the north and south of the spot where the school-bus-size chunk of cornice fell and triggered more breaks on a sheet of snow that sat on what avalanche professionals call a persistent weak layer (PWL). PWLs resist bonding to other layers of snow over time, and when disturbed they can fail, sometimes creating massive avalanches