Not Sherwood FOREST Nor Lincoln GREEN, But FOREST GREEN; Not Robin Hood and Little John, But Dale Vince and David Drew; Not outlaws and poachers, But left-wingers and goal poachers; Not the pollution of ‘The Gas’, But the clean power of the wind; Not the lawlessness of ‘The Pirates’, But the traditions of the handloom […]

My seat was down the front, right by the pitch, With a view right out to open fields, new leaf trees, Scudding clouds, a grand sky horizon, and two billboards That tried to send their message down to the New Lawn: ‘Neil Carmichael, A Better and More Secure Future’, But David Drew was oblivious to […]

Forest Green was, as historian Tim Barnard comments: ‘A staunchly Non Conformist village, made up of Baptists and Congregationalists’ – Although the club was based at a pub, ‘The Jovial Forester … Lower Forest Green … in those early years’; Tim also comments that: ‘Some might argue that FGR are carrying on with that tradition […]

Immaculate in spotless cricket whites, Keeping wicket on the village green, Up past Slad’s crossroad war memorial, Betwixt Purgatory and Paradise, To where 7323 Private Edward Hogg’s name (7th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment), Returned, after dying with 300 comrades, In their own version of hell in Belgium. One hundred years later, great-great nephew, Jack Russell: of […]

It’s a bit Herbert Marcuse, A bit One Dimensional Man: A unification of opposites, A harmonisation of contradictions, Where liberal-democratic capitalism Gives that tantalising illusion of freedom, Whilst simultaneously appropriating opposition. It’s Gramsci’s cultural hegemony, It’s Sainsbury’s Christmas advertisement: A celebration of an unofficial truce, With unauthorised fraternisation, And near mutiny, Held up as a […]