Now retired after more than 40 years in full-time journalism, Alan takes a wry look at life in the 21st Century. You can also read Alan's column every Monday in The Bolton News . . .
MY piece last week about the onward march of Twenty20 cricket was cut to fit the available space and ended on a note which suggested I am now a convert.
RECENT figures suggest that up to four British pubs are closing every day as they struggle with the effects of the smoking ban, rising costs and competition from cheaper alcohol offers in supermarkets.
SO, the statue of Fred Dibnah is in place in Oxford Street and there is a genuine expectation that it will help to attract visitors to Bolton town centre.
AFTER enjoying a performance of a classic Bolton play - Bill Naughton's Spring And Port Wine - we shuffled out of the Octagon Theatre feeling proud of the town and its theatrical tradition.
DURING the summer of 2003 I reported in the column I was writing at the time - the one that ran down the right hand side of the page - that I had watched Lancashire lose to Derbyshire in one of the new Twenty20 cricket games and agreed with a fellow spectator that it was "a duck-egg of a game".
