Mild weather in the east of Scotland allowed jumping to be staged for the first time since the same track hosted a fixture on 27 December. Dobbin, one of the best jockeys in the North, has plenty to look forward later in the season with the prospect of partnering The Grey Monk in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. He did his confidence no harm when netting a 50-1 double with wins aboard Triennium and Highland Park and was seen to especially good effect on the latter in a tight finish to the handicap hurdle. Six horses were still in with a chance jumping the final flight, but Dobbin kept his mount going in fine style to fend off Snow Board by a neck. At Southwell, Undawaterscubadiva broke his duck at the 15th attempt and halted a 160-day winnerless sequence for his trainer, Martin Bielby, when winning the Buttercup Amateurs Handicap (division two).
Partnered for the first time by Carol Williams, wife of the jockey Tyrone, he hit the front entering the straight and shook off the 6-4 favourite, Raindeer Quest, to score by four lengths.. Julian Dicks? He's that horrible one. Why are you interviewing him?" Reputations, once gained, are hard to shake off and my girlfriend's reaction is fairly typical where the West Ham defender is concerned. Skinhead, scourge of referees and fancy wingers, keeper of rottweilers and shotguns, lover of heavy metal, fast cars, Harley Davidsons and Arnie Swarzenegger. The Hammers full-back, it would appear, is a walking cliche. It is an image which is dispelled as soon as you get within stud range. Dicks is amiable and soft-spoken, with a enough of a West Country burr to recall his Bristol roots.
He has done a few things he is not proud of but, at 28, he has matured and mellowed. Still ferocious on the pitch, but more in control."I've been booked four times this season," he says, with a certain pride, when we met at West Ham's snow-covered training ground this week "A few years ago I'd be on my second suspension by now The penny's dropped, hopefully. But I know the reputation will always be there."I used to come off the pitch and argue with the manager It never got me anywhere, just put me in his bad books. Now I wait to Monday and if I've still got something to say I do it privately."A few more contradictions. Dicks, a devoted family man to his eight-year- old twin daughters, is also a regular at local children's hospitals. He is a keen student of native American Indian history, is a regular golfer and, with his wife Kay, grooms his dogs for show (though the rottweiler did have a run-in with the press when his daughters were being harassed in the wake of one on-field indiscretion). He is also capable of playing cultured football, especially with his left foot.Dicks is now promoting one of the best football biographies of recent years.
Unusually for an authorised biography, it is a warts-and-all portrayal He emerges as a flawed but fundamentally decent human being. Just like most people, perhaps?It is obvious that he is his own man. While more and more players go in for long stretches and light pasta meals before playing, Dicks' warm- up consists of two cans of Coke. Asked if he would agree to the Ruud Gullit regime if he was at Chelsea, he answers a straight "no".More contentiously, he would give Glenn Hoddle the same answer. With Dicks' form rather better than West Ham's, Andy Hinchcliffe and Phil Neville injured, Stuart Pearce immersed in managing Nottingham Forest and Graeme Le Saux recently returned from a year's injury, he is in contention for a first England call-up.Dicks is quite firm on this subject "I don't want to play for England It doesn't interest me anymore. If they rang me up, I wouldn't play."Dicks' determination to speak his mind has not always been welcomed.
His disagreements with Billy Bonds hastened his move from West Ham to Liverpool and a falling-out with Roy Evans led to his return.Dicks is back at Anfield today. Liverpool are top, West Ham fighting relegation, but he says: "I don't regret leaving, though if Graeme Souness was still there I would be I don't regret moving there either. I enjoyed my time there."I had got on all right with Roy when he was assistant [to Souness] I played the last 16 games the season he took over. Then we got beat 4- 1 by Bolton pre-season and me and Mark Wright were blamed He had a go at Wrighty in the dressing- room but not me. Yet the next day the papers were saying I was unfit and overweight.