HARTY: On the Albion and Harry Carpenter

Near promotion form, specifically on the road, from Poyet's team, has seen a climb to mid-table mediocrity and has a large number of fans almost wishing this August, and a new campaign, would come sooner than the four months away it actually is.

So what's the secret of the turnaround?

For me, Poyet's appointment was the key factor. The ambition showed by the board back in November has, after an initial bedding down period, been rewarded.

And, ultimately, the origin of that kind of ambition must go back to the arrival of Tony Bloom as chairman.

While I feel I have, in the past, offered constrcutive criticism in this column, I never slated former chairman Dick Knight for the sake of it. But, at the end of his tenure in the chair, he was a busted flush.

The whole funding of the Falmer project and the club's long-term future was in serious doubt. Tony Bloom, a lifelong Albion fan, has bankrolled the club he loves and, hopefully, the day Premiership football arrives in Sussex, he will be there to receive the plaudits.

Returning to Gus and his team, I know one swallow does not a summer make, but it's the summer that will be the key to the march to Falmer.

Poyet inherited a squad. Now backed by the board, he will get the chance to shape his own squad with his own signings and his own pre-season preparation.

Looking at the dross at the bottom of League One, the Albion, playing the Poyet way, clearly have no place there. Hopefully, as the squad evolves, the Poyet way will be more at home in the top six this time next year.

And, who's to say, the other five might include the likes of Leeds United, Crystal Palace, Southampton and Charlton.

The final season at the Withdean could yet be the most exciting.

The sad passing of legendary boxing commentator Harry Carpenter marks the closing of another chapter for most of us.

Fight fans of a certain age grew up with Carpenter covering almost every boxing match of any note. At a time when all the big fights were on free-to-air channels, more often than not the good old BBC, the words "Sky Box Office" hadn't been invented.

He was, in his field, an icon, and had viewers almost on his every word, so much so that at the age of 10, he did plant a misconception in me that took years to change my view on.

When commentating on the Rumble in the Jungle in October, 1974, on Ali knocking Foreman out in the eighth round, Carpenter delivered the never to be forgotten sound bite "Oh my god, he's won the title back at 32", which immediately planted the seed in my head that 32 was old.

Being now, under a few years away from 50, it took me a few years to realise that, even then, Ali was merely a spring chicken.

Congratulations to local young golfer George Tillman who, only in his second year playing competitive golf, has got his handicap down to 10 and has also been selected for the Sussex Under 14 squad.

George, a junior member at Hill Barn, plays for the county this Sunday in a match against the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club.

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