29 OCTOBER 1994, Page 46

UNORTHODOX (but disciplined and loyal) young man, 25, graduate, well-

travelled, linguist (Malay, Spanish), articulate, reliable, numerate, seeks chal- lenging work in UK or abroad. Anything considered. Box No: JB 352

BUSINESS TRIPLET FATHER, AGED 52 with sons aged 5, Speccie devotee, MBA, economist, accountant, marketer, MENSA IQ and City Magistrate, experi- ence in City banking, as government industrial adviser and as entrepreneur, urgently seeks part-time remunerative activity, Tel: 071 820 8969; fax: 071 793 8817

ADVENTURE CAPITAL WANTED. Theatre, television, publishing projects. Excellent potential. Roy Cracroft, 37 Kenilworth Road, St. Leonards, East Sussex, ADVENTURE CAPITAL WANTED. Theatre, television, publishing projects. Excellent potential. Roy Cracroft, 37 Kenilworth Road, St. Leonards, East Sussex,

The Spectator registered as a Newspaper at the Post Office, LONDON. Published by The Spectator (1828) Ltd, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. Typesetting by Saffron Graphics, Kings Exchange, 8A Tileyard Road, York Way, London N7 9AH. Primed by BPC (Milton Keynes) Ltd and mailed by BTB Mailflight. THE CLOCKS go back and the relentless winter slog begins in earnest. A quarter of the football League matches have already been played, and, nicely, after last weekend the four divisions were being led by ancient clubs with resonant names — Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Hud- dersfield Town and Bury. There was a compelling, brightly lit, blood-and-bone contest last Sunday in which Manchester United — now third in the premier division, but some way behind Newcastle and Nottingham Forest — beat Blackburn Rovers after a crass and myopic moment of refereeing awarded Manchester a crucial penalty and reduced Blackburn to ten men. As the famous old conversation went: 'Mr Referee, sir, what would you do if I called you a "bastard"?'

`I'd send you off, laddie.' But what would you do if I only thought you were a bastard?'

`There's not a lot I could do, lad.' `Well, in that case, ref, I think you're a bastard.'

Poor refs. They cannot win. It was ever so. Why they do the job beats me. They are paid a pocket-money pittance to regulate 22 young men swimming in dosh. Sheffield

SPECTATOR SPORT

No-win situations

Frank Keating

Wednesday fined their centre-half two weeks' wages the other day for head- butting. That turned out to be £9,000, thank you very much. One almost dreads to contemplate how much their bosses earn, fellows like Kevin Keegan, who has transformed the Magpies at Tyneside's St James's Park, or the for- mer England manager and national butt, Graham Taylor, who has obviously done ditto at Wolverhampton's regilded Molin- eaux. The clubs at both Newcastle and Wolves are bankrolled by two of soccer's new model entrepreneurs, respectively Sir John Hall and Sir Jack Hayward.

Keegan has always known his own value, and quite right too. When he was out of the game for ten years, living and lolling and golfing in Spain, he was still the top-whack man on the celebrity register if you wanted