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A Working Class Hero? Is Jim Baxter To Me!

kevin raymond

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 “Go on grand-dad tell us,
Tell of us of the day?
When Scotland with Jim Baxter at his best
Beat the England team away”

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 “Well if memory serves me right
My bonnie wee lad, the story go’s like this
Scotland made the trip to Wemberly in ’67’
To play the champs of ’66′”

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 “Were England unbeatable grand-dad”?
“Unbeatable? Tis hard to say
But Scotland led by Baxter
Sure made them pay that day

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 With Jules Rimet stood watching
Jim Baxter was our conductor in dark blue
Sent pinpoint passes like greased lightning
Almost thirty, forty yards, it’s true

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 “What did England do grand-dad,
Did they try to stop him playing”?
“Aye my bonnie wee lad, they did try that
But Baxter? He out played them

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Grown men were seen to cry the tears
For a nation once more proud
As Baxter and his Scottish peers
Brought cheers that echoed loud

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 Jim Baxter sat upon the ball
In the middle of the park
Then he’d start the England nightmare off again
With a taunt, a feign, a pass

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 They tried hard to get the ball off him
My, how those English boys did try
But Baxter tantalized and sucked them in
Then nonchalantly knocked it wide

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 That game you boys play in the street
Keepie uppie… is it called?
Jim Baxter played that in front of ninety thousand fans,
Right along the Wemberly touchline
The England team were overawed

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 A young man in his prime he was
Possessed with ball at feet
When England saw him gliding o’er the green
Yon blonde cap’n called “retreat”

11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 Baxter walked about the pitch
A God amongst mere men
He’d beat one man, then turn around
Then beat that man again”

12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 “The scoreline! Tell us granddad
How did it end up”?
“Son, the result? It did nae mean a thing
When you drank the heavenly elixir
From Jim Baxter’s dark blue cup

13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 When this game is often talked about
You’ll hear praise as old one’s sing it
What a match! A terrific victory
But how the hell did Scotland win it?
The other twenty one? Are sadly part of history son
T’was Jim Baxter in a dark blue shirt….. finest ninety minutes”!

© kjp raymond 2006

Notes

Sincere apoligies to anyone reading from North of the border with my version of the Scottish word’s. If you have any corrections mail them to the eds, who I’m sure will pass them on to me, so we can insert them into the poem

Jim Baxter is one of football folk lore’s biggest icon’s, he came in to this match at Wemberly having already been a part of the Scottish team who had beat England 2-1in 1963.

But it’s the game in ’67’ after England won the World Cup that true blue fans recall, where Jim Baxter gave such an outstanding one man show of poetic expression on the ball, glistening with that golden touch of pure magic that endear’s him as a real hero of yester year to us the fans.

Two quote that always sticks in my mind say “Jim Baxter played in this game as if his very life depended on it” and “Jim Baxter the footballer all Scottish fans would want to be given the choice ”

The vision of a bloke playing keepie uppie down the touchline in front of ninety thousand fans against the then current World Cup holders on their home turf is just too mind blowing to even contemplate, let alone think about.!!

Then to go and sit on the ball in the middle of the park and just really extract the oracle out of your opponents, well England v Scotland games used to thrive on such gamesmanship and passion, didn’t they?

I’m sure I remember as a ten year old in 1963, The London Evening Standard bringing out an England v The Rest Of The World special edition with a photo of Jim Baxter in it. Cos he played for TROTW team in that game, again at Wemberly.

That I think shows the high esteem that Baxter was held in amongst his peers, that he would be picked to play alongside: Santos and Pele(brazil), Kopa (france), Eusebio (portugal) Gento and Di Stefano (spain)
Yashin (ussr) et al.

Jim Baxter, A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be.

peace

kev.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/a-working-class-hero-is-jim-baxter-to-me/