A sporting spook lands double.
There was no way Liverpool could see themselves losing yesterday’s Cup Final. Victory was predicted by a Soccer-crazy ghost. Weeks ago the sporting spook which haunts a council house in Andover, Hants, tipped Leeds United for the First Division championship. And after a nail-biting finish Leeds took the title. The spirit uses a tapping system to get its messages to the Adams family who live in the council house in Collingwood Walk.
One tap in answer to a question means “yes” and two taps “no”. The mystified head of the household, Mr Patrick Adams, 45, was finally convinced when the ghost successfully tapped out the ages of his six children. There was one nasty moment when Mr Adams asked the ghost how many draws there were on the pools one week. The spook was one out.
“But I think that was the week one of the matches was abandoned,” said Mr Adams. Confidence was restored when, in the presence of sceptical council officials, the spirit accurately counted the buttons on one of the children’s jackets.
Spiritualists have told Mr and Mrs Adams that their 12-year-old daughter Theresa is the contact. The tapping usually starts when Theresa goes to bed. If the family ignore it, the knocking gets louder until the room shakes.
At first council officials feared that the family were using the ghost as an excuse to get re-housed. But Mr Adams, who works in a nearby paper mill, said: “We’ve been told the spirit will probably move with us, anyway.” He added: “I don’t wish it any harm, but it’s driving us mad and I wish it would go away.”
The People, 5th May 1974.