When I was a kid of about 12 or 13, me and my mates found out that the then Liverpool footballer Tommy Smith lived nearby. Being horrible little mischievous brats, this was too good an opportunity to miss for a few of us who were Everton fans and we used to go and stand behind the fence of a field over the road from his house and sing Everton songs, hoping this would wind him up, Everton being his team's close rivals. Sure enough, it did wind him up and he used to come out of his house and chase us down the road. Even our mates who followed Liverpool saw how much fun we were having and couldn't resist joining in. One night after a narrow escape, he and his mate came looking for us in a car and caught some of us. He was very angry and we were very scared, and then he said if he caught us again he would take us down to the police station, which was quite a relief really as we expected his reaction to be somewhat more violent. Then one of our mates started giggling which set us all off, and Tommy just looked bewildered and said, "Just leave me alone will you, lads", then drove off with his mate. We never bothered him again, I think we actually realised how upset he was, and expecting a (deserved) clout but not getting one made us think he was okay.
