These men make their slow journey on the path into the thickets in their own manner, guided by a map that no other can read. We can but glimpse the loneliness, the terror, the resignation the cruel, creeping fog, blanketing the past, dulling recollection Thoughts that should comfort and warm as slippers replace boots lively […]

Recently ‘twas asked why the England shirt weighs so heavy? Perhaps there are other questions behind this continuing levy? Were we too imperious in showing the world the Britannia way only for others to have the impertinence to teach us how to play? Could we not foresee that our one golden summer afternoon would become […]

Could those of us who coldly judged match the example of his effort Sunk in half a foot of sand and mud flying unseeing at boots, into fists, the foreheads of gap-toothed tigers Unprotected but for boldness, bravery abandoned athleticism, acute action to meet the breach of the defenders, bracing, coiling, arching, twisting, straining to […]

Love, come inside and leave those wet shoes in the alcove, dinner’s in the fry pan but you’ll have to re-heat the stove. I’m afraid we couldn’t wait and it’s a little past its prime, Silly me, I should’ve known that cup games go to extra time… It didn’t – we were bad enough to […]

Perhaps the footballing lion heart, the athleticism, the Corinthian spirit blinded us to the other dimensions; his being, his experience, his reality For was he first not a player but a man entitled to be flawed, to look inside, acknowledge the uncertainty, feel the burden and weep Did our admiration for those gifts manifest as […]