Tony Osborne.




Most people will know where they were on 11th September 2001 when the aeroplanes hit the twin towers. Tony however will be able to tell you what he was doing on any date that you care to pick out and just for good measure what was Number 1 in the charts.

For instance his last day off ill at school was Friday 31st January 1975 and the Number 1 was Pilot and January.

In addition he'll probably be able to tell you where I was as we've spent so much time together in our lives at school, race meetings, football and rugby matches as well as in pubs and clubs.

In a recent newspaper article his type of memory was referred to as Hypothymestic Syndrome.

Not everybody likes looking back on their life, but I've always found it fascinating when he says things like "It was 26 years ago today that we went to Kempton horse races and on to Wembley for the greyhound racing".

He recently surprised somebody he knew from school, but hadn't seen for a while by telling them the date he last spoke to them, where it was and what they talked about.

This sort of memory comes in very useful for pub quizzes and he used to make quite a bit of money out of this until most pubs considerably reduced their prizes.

I've known Tony since we were 6 years old and he was born on 18th May 1961 one day before I was born. On his birthday a large group of us usually go round the pubs of Headingley finishing at Woodies and plan the events we'll be going to in the next year.

Tony is a Blackpool supporter and is only 4 short of going to every football ground in the country. This is not as easy as it sounds as it only counts if Blackpool, Hull City or Leeds United play.

He introduced his own rule in golf which we call "Tony's rule". This is where you hit the ball from wherever it lands. None of this taking a drop nonsense. Over the years we've had to play shots from streams, bogs, roads, forests, bowling greens and tennis courts sometimes to the annoyance of those playing behind us. And believe me you don't want to be behind us if we're playing Crazy Golf.

He'll have worked 25 years at the Leeds General Infirmary on 13th July 2006 the same date that his girlfriend Lizzie will celebrate her 30th birthday.

His music taste is very dated and most of it is by artists that "young" Lizzie hasn't even heard of i.e Lena Martell, Lyndsey De Paul, Petula Clark, David Cassidy, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Depeche Mode, ELO, ABC and Morrissey.

Typically he works long hours, working as much overtime as possible and nearly every night you'll find him afterwards in either the Portland or the George pubs just opposite the hospital.

The Portland pub looks like the Central Perk in Friends, but has the customers of the No Angels drama and if I'm ever out on a works night out that finishes early I'll usually call in, as I know Tony will be there.

My eldest son Robert was once robbed in town and knew that by going to the Portland he'd at least find somebody he knew and get some money to get home with.

Because of his busy work and social life Tony has actually only seen Toffee run 5 times and has never even seen Becky. He loves it though if anybody calls in to the pub and asks him how his greyhounds are running.

He's very keen on travelling to events and has been the main driving force in initiating our recent lad trips to Ireland, France and the Czech Republic for racing and our trip to the World Cup in Germany later this year… although it's usually me that sorts out travel and accommodation for everybody.

Tony has numerous quirks, but perhaps the most bizarre are that he likes to exit a place the same way he went in, he likes to walk on the road when there are pedestrian barriers, he never wears a coat between 1st April and 30th September, he can't spend £2 coins and he never ever swears.

In addition to this he knows how many football and rugby games and how many horse and greyhound race meetings he's been to as well as the number of stadiums he's been to.

Just for something to do he also calculated how many of the 92 football grounds my sons and I had been to (55 stadiums for me and 34 between them for my sons, in case you're interested).

Tony is very quick witted and always makes people laugh with his jokes, observations and his clear memory of the past. Quite an achievement considering he doesn't swear.

He wouldn't be someone you'd go to for a long serious conversation, but if you want to remember the past, have a laugh or need cheering up he'd be the person to contact.

If you know anybody who works at the Leeds General Infirmary or drinks in the Portland the chances are they'll know Tony.




It should be pointed out that the picture of the Swan Vesta man displayed above wasn't actually taken whilst he was on the toilet and I'd like to apologise for any distress or ridicule this may have caused Tony or his family.