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Top Ten Britons

I’m transfixed
And have been for the last few months
Intensifying in the last few weeks
By a multi-media event
A BBC poll
Of the top ten greatest ever Britons
Accompanied, by an hour long documentary
Focussing on each person under the spotlight
I find myself all fired up in wonder and amazement
Uplifted even, by the subject’s achievements
And after each fascinating program
I want to vote there and then, for that individual

And it’s a bit like watching football
After a scintillating series of matches
The main performer, the central character
Becomes possibly the greatest player ever
Until the next game
The next star
And if I were to try to compile a definitive list
Of greatest British footballers
I’d have trouble –
Weeding it down to ten –
Because you just know,
There’d always be somebody missing,
from the first choice starting eleven!


For the record :-
Winston Churchill won the poll

For a footballing equivalent, surely it would have to be George Best?
But then, should his lifestyle and / or his premature retirement (such a waste of God given talent), count against him?
Surely then, it would have to be Sir Bobby Charlton?
But what about the World Cup Winning captain, Bobby Moore?
Or the hat-trick hero, Sir Geoff Hurst?
Could Gordon bank on enough votes because of the greatest ever save?
And would enough voters remember Duncan Edwards, Tommy Lawton, Sir Stanley Matthews, John Charles, Dixie Dean, Alex James?

And what about local boyhood heroes, e.g. Osgood, Cooke, Nevin (Zola, unfortunately, would have to be excluded, as would Paddy Mulligan, but hey, if Bob Geldof and Bono could Garner votes, you never know). (pun intended!)

Source: http://footballpoets.org/news/2002/11/29/top-ten-britons/