The Best Game Ever with the Best Players Ever
Joint goalies could be Lieutenant Stewart,
Of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders,
And his anonymous German pal,
“He toured Britain last year with the Leipzig team and beat Glasgow Celtic 1-0…
We arranged Boxing Day from 2-4pm for a football match.
This, however, was prevented by our superiors at HQ.”
At number 2 will be Private William Tapp:
“We are trying to arrange a football match with teams for tomorrow, Boxing Day.”
(Poor William would be killed a few months later,
He “died of wounds”, his diary suddenly stopping short:
” no time to get out of the way of these shells, they are no sooner fired
than they are at their destination, they are still sending the rifle grenades over
but we can get out of the way of them as the shot goes)
And there it suddenly ends.
Left back could be Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher Rowe, Grenadier Guards,
Who reported how the Germans wanted to play the Scots Guards
at football but were prevented by the absence of a ball;
He would die of wounds a few months later in March 1915.
Right half could be an Infantry Battalion’s Commanding Officer:
“I said if they would have an Armistice on New Year’s Day we would play
them at football between our lines….They were very full of the football idea of mine
on New Year’s Day. I said if they would like another armistice then
I would turn out a team and play them among the shell holes.”
Centre half might be Lieutenant Charles Brewer of the Bedfordshire Regiment:
He tells us how rich the German soldiers seemed to be, with their cigar cases,
And how, on hearing O Tannenbaum, his men returned the song with
“We are Fred Karno’s Army”, and how. “Higher up the line –
you would scarcely believe it – they are playing a football match.”
Left half is Gunner Burrows, 104 battery, 22nd Brigade,:
“Our infantry played a football match with them
and exchanged cigarettes etc in No Mans’ Land.”
German Hugo Clemm will make a good outside right:
“ Everywhere you looked, the occupants from the trenches
stood talking to each other and even playing football.”
“An English soldier gave me a cap badge belonging to a dead friend.”
His colleague, Lieutenant Johannes Niemann will be at inside forward:
He remembers the British soldiers replying to the German carolling
With “It’s A Long Way To Tipperary” and “Home Sweet Home” and how
“Suddenly a Tommy came with a football, kicking already and making fun,
and then began a football match. We marked the goals with our caps.
Teams were quickly established for a match on the frozen mud,
and the Fritzes beat the Tommies 3-2.”
An anonymous RAMC Major will be at centre forward, writing that his
“Regiment actually had a football match with the Saxons, who beat them 3-2!!!”
Inside left will be a representative from “A” Company, Lancashire Fusiliers,
For they “played a football match against the enemy with an old tin
for a ball: They won 3-2!”
Lance Corporal George Ashurst from the same regiment is at 11,
“Coming from across the German trenches was a solitary German
carrying a white flag high across his head.”
“Some of our boys tied up a sandbag and used it as a football,
While a party of Germans enjoyed themselves
sliding on a little frozen pond just in rear of their trench.”
Substitutes will include G. Gilbert of the Kensingtons,
“Soon there were dozens of us fraternising even to the extent
of kicking a made-up football about in No Man’s Land.”
The next reserve is Lance Corporal Jack Quayle:
”As the fog lifted they reported that the Germans were playing footer.
We then climbed out at the back area armed with an entrenching tool haft
and a jam tin and played rounders.”
Also in the squad is Ernie Williams of the Cheshires:
”The ball appeared from somewhere, I don’t know where,
but it came from their side…They made up some goals
and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kickabout.
I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part.”
His partner is Sergeant-Major Naden of the Cheshires,
“We had a rare old jollification, which included football,
in which the Germans took part.” “They greatly admired our equipment
and especially wanted us to give them our jack-knives.”
Our sports correspondent will be Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Who wrote of the truce some two years later,
That it was “One human episode among the atrocities.”
But unfortunately, we cannot go on playing:
”That evening I received a signal from Battalion Headquarters,
telling me to make a football pitch in No Man’s Land,
by filling up the shell holes etc., and to challenge the enemy
to a Football Match on the 1st January.
I was furious and took no action at all. I wish I had kept that signal.
Stupidly, I destroyed it – I was so angry.
It would now have been a good souvenir.
The proposed match did not take place.”
All this is taken from a few pages of the definitive history “Christmas Truce” by Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton, Papermac, 1994. ISBN 0-333-62078-x. The fact that the football matches take up only some 5 pages out of some 250 shows the depth of the authors’ research and the complex extensity of the truces on the Western Front. Buy the book!
About This Site
Welcome to Football Poets -- a club for all football poets, lovers of football and lovers of (alternative) poetry. Discover poets in every league from respected internationals at the top of their game to young hopefuls in the school playground.
Publish your football poems here and then discuss them with your team mates and fans. We're archived by The British Library, so your masterpieces are in the safe hands of a world-class keeper. What a result!
My Account
Latest Poems
joe morris
17th April 2024
Clik The Mouse
15th April 2024
Mike Bartram
15th April 2024
joe morris
14th April 2024
Mike Bartram
11th April 2024
joe morris
11th April 2024
Alex Saynor
9th April 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
8th April 2024
joe morris
8th April 2024
Mike Bartram
3rd April 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
19th March 2024 at 8:00 am
Hi Crispin. Chris Sutton on the radio has gone for a Chelsea v Coventry final. As we know anything can happen in the Cup, and I reckon we can go to the final.
We’re still in with a chance of the play offs too, so lots to go for.
See in context
19th March 2024 at 7:41 am
Hey Kev
Let the masses drool over their odds on City v Unted Final, but who knows how pressure can hit.
Cov and Chels will be rightly labelled as having no chance..but hey …stranger things have happened..
so Chelsea v Coventry…that’s the Final for us!
Best
C
See in context
29th January 2024 at 10:03 pm
Hi Crispin,
How are you doing mate? Yes, you’re probably right but hey football is all about emotion and passion and I just love writing about the game. I try to keep my poetry to a reasonable length but there’s so much to write about the game and its literature just lends itself naturally to poetry. Sometimes I just get completely carried and I do apologise for the length of my poetry but it’s a great thrill to be associated with Football Poets.
Cheers mate
Joe
See in context
10th January 2024 at 7:52 pm
You’re right of course Joe but…..it’s actually more of a big welcome break for everyone who is not into Premier League ..I’m talking fans of EFL National League and below…..
Btw …is this actually your longest poem ever !?
Best
Crispin
See in context
8th January 2024 at 4:45 pm
Thanks!
See in context
8th January 2024 at 10:42 am
There’s something so evocative and nostalgic for football fans the world over, in ‘revisiting’ old lost grounds.
Occasionally some remnants remain, with perhaps part of a wall or part or a stand or thre shape of a terrace, but often they are only still there in faded images and in our heads..
Great stuff Graham
See in context
4th January 2024 at 10:13 am
A great idea and well executed. Thanks Graham.
See in context
19th November 2023 at 1:45 pm
Thanks Gacina, glad you liked it, and I have just posted a new one about our points deduction…
See in context
7th November 2023 at 6:34 pm
Today B.B.C post on F.B was titled:Premier League reduced to 18 clubs? I really think it may be interesting to see if this would be Everton’s nightmare and this poem is well suited for this concern.If there would be more difficult battle to stay if there were 18 teams.Great poem and somehow true.
See in context
6th November 2023 at 4:43 pm
Ashington FC have launched a £50,000 Crowdfunder appeal to meet the increased costs of winning promotion last season, to pay for urgent stadium improvements, travel costs and equipment
See in context