MANY years ago Stanley Matthews played in a football match at the old Springfield – the one which existed before some bright spark decided to shift the way the grandstand faced so that those in the front ten rows now get soaked when it rains.

I have a feeling that the almost as famous Charlton Athletic goalie Sam Bartram also played in that game. It was a fixture I think between a Saturday Football League side and, unless the memory has failed me, Bournemouth.

It was probably 15 or 20 years later that Manchester United came to Springfield (were their opponents St Ouen FC?) with another star-studded team and so attracted one of the biggest gates the old stadium had ever seen.

I don’t think their manager on that occasion was the current incumbent, because I can’t recall hearing a whine after they switched the aircraft’s engines off. (I digress, but I couldn’t resist it.)

In between and after those events a host of sporting and show business personalities also visited this small rock. I can recall the Showbiz Football team bringing Tommy Steele and remember bumping into – literally – Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts as I was coming out of an antique shop near where Sand Street meets Seaton Place.

Dick Ray and the Swanson family brought many to the Island to appear at venues like the Opera House, Watersplash and Swanson’s Hotel, while others who brought to life those who had hitherto been known to Jersey only through radio, films and television entertained at venues like the Plaza above West’s Cinema, the Rainbow Room above the New Era at Georgetown, Les Arches and the Havre des Pas Sunshine Hotel.

Those names I have mentioned were not in their day simply famous for being famous (without being too disparaging, some of the so-called stars of today are just that) but were genuine household names whose autographs were prized souvenirs of having had even minimal contact with them.

Try as I might – and the preceding few paragraphs do indicate that my memory has not been wiped out entirely – I cannot recall one incident, even in times much more recent than the Wizard of Dribble’s visit, which can even remotely justify the sort of idiotic reason put out last week for not identifying in advance the people who switched on the Fête dé Noué Christmas lights.

To suggest, as officials apparently did, that naming those who have agreed to switch on the lights could ‘spark dangerous hysteria’ on the streets of St Helier is as stupid a statement as I’ve heard in years.

I fear that either those responsible for this nonsense haven’t the first idea of how people in Jersey behave when confronted with the ‘famous’ – one step up from polite indifference is how I’d describe it – or that the Elf and Safety mob or those terrified of them have finally taken over the asylum.

I can remember the Battle of Flowers when it was a real battle at the end and the celebrities were exactly that. Not thousands, but tens of thousands attended in those days, yet about a dozen or so police officers and some uniformed marshals ensured that no one was mobbed or endangered and we all got on the charabanc at the end of the day ‘tired but happy’.

I don’t attend events like switching on Christmas lights, so at the time of writing have no way of knowing whether all passed off peacefully or whether it was hijacked by mischief makers. However, can I suggest that in future, the St Helier authorities or, if they are a separate entity, the organisers of the Fête dé Noué, do not place visiting artistes in the embarrassing position of being described in the online comment section of thisis jersey.com as third-rate nonentities.

It is wholly alien to this place’s historic, well earned and justified reputation for hospitality to those who are its guests.

Crass comments which encourage silly speculation and, as a consequence, insulting comments can destroy in a sentence what has taken generations to create. So next year and in all subsequent years can we avoid the celebrity cult and opt instead for someone local to throw the switch? I don’t much care who, and I suggest that view is shared by many, so let’s stick with Father Christmas, the Constable of St Helier or the winner of a competition to determine who can come up with the best reason for wanting to do the job.

It won’t make tuppence worth of difference to those who matter the most – the children for whom this time of the year remains special and magical, and long may that continue.

And finally … my thanks to Roselle Sutherland of the Women’s Refuge for a delightful letter she sent me following my recent comments on domestic violence.

It was in stark contrast to the online comment that because the new Boss, Michael Birt, is a patron of the forum against domestic violence, that somehow conflicts with his role as a judge.

I would have thought that everyone, including members of the judiciary, condemned domestic violence, just as they condemn rape, murder and child abuse.

Holding a particular view on such matters does not make anyone incapable of exercising their professional function properly, be they judges or jurists.