Allan Bateman finished his autobiography with a flourish, signing off by declaring his intention to continue playing and asking the pertinent question about why he should be judged by his age rather than his performance.
The master midfield craftsman was 36, then, and still playing for Wales.
“The Quinnell brothers and Barry Williams never stopped ribbing me in our Richmond days about my age — but that other Batman is still playing on television some 36 years after the first series came out, and the Caped Crusader does not look any older now than he did then,” wrote Bateman in his book There and Back Again, published in 2001.
