Too boring - even for a sheep!

Deric Longden covered Matlock's matches at home and away. He explained: 'We'd travel all over the country reporting on the fortunes or not of the Gladiators. I remember one game at Kendal. They had a three-sided pitch and it was surrounded by sheep.
'It was bitterly cold and very boring. Nothing much was happening and I saw these sheep positioned around the pitch and apparently watching the play.
'I kept scribbling away but noticed after about ten minutes or so, play became so bad that even the sheep had turned their backs on the game.'
Deric added laughing: 'In those days, I managed to scrounge a lift back on the team bus. However, when they heard my report about the sheep, they stopped the bus and turned me off!'

Several other highly amusing anecdotes of those days have been recorded in his books and newspaper articles.