Football Poets

10 Years-Football Poets Site + World Cup Workshops

10 Years-Football Poets Site + World Cup Workshops
1 10TH ANNIVERSARY Football Poets 2000-2010. Editor Thanks
2 WORLD CUP / FOOTBALL POETRY Workshops+Dates 2010
3 INNER GOAL the poetry of football by Crispin Thomas

1 10TH ANNIVERSARY Football Poets . Editor Thanks .
June 2000 – June 2010 12500+ poems on……

In June 2010 we celebrated 10 years of the Football Poets Website.
Clik in Ireland has written an in-depth piece below, so big thanks to Clik for being there through thick and thin, most especially when my wife was very ill. Much respect also to you all for contributing to support the site with your wonderfully diverse poems. One day we’ll have instant translation here and an up-dated site – given that football is an international language.Keep on.
Crispin Thomas Butterow. Stroud (Editor 2000-2010 )

“Of all the things I’ve achieved in my life, I do take pride in the recognition and success the site has achieved – and all from a simple idea originating in the back room of a pub in Stroud in 2000”.
Stuart Butler Rodborough Stroud 1.6.10 (Editor 2000-2005 )

On behalf of all who have visited and / or contributed to the site in those ten years, I’d like to thank Stuart Butler and our ex-webmaster Dave Cockcroft, the founding fathers. And Crispin Thomas for his drive and enthusiasm since the beginning to keep the site as a living breathing adjunct to the wonderful world of Football, where we all get to daub our own little mascara’d touches to the face of the Beautiful Game.

During these past 10 years we’ve survived with 5 editors; Crispin, Stuart, Parry Maguire, Peter Goulding and myself. For the past 5 years we have been without a webmaster and with no funding but have inherited and sustained a wonderful yet antiquated site which still runs even if wildly un-modernised, like some old but much-loved football ground.

There are on the site, poems about every aspect of Football, and also how Football reaches into people’s lives, in so many different ways.We take pride in the fact that we try to encourage fans of every age, gender, race, creed, colour, physiology and social standing to embrace the world of Football in poetry.

We have aligned with many worthy social initiatives to further encourage those aspirations, such as ‘Kick It Out’, ‘Show Racism the Red Card’, ‘Word Up’, ‘Football Unites, Racism Divides’, ‘Give Us Back Our Game’ , ‘Philosophy Football’, ‘Kick Into Reading’, The British Council and of course The British Library, who archived us for posterity as one of only 1000 recommended sites and for which we are very proud. We know we have a global reach, there are poems on the website from every continent on the planet. Our biggest restriction is that we can only accept poems in English.

We are also a conduit for schools – many of them have sent in the fruits of their wonderful efforts. As editors we pondered about how far to take the ‘thank you’s. We decided we’re going to go for Oscar proportions! (With the obvious rider that if we’ve left anyone out – apologies in advance). There are too many individual contributors to mention – over 1,700 !

The full list can be seen under the ‘Poets’ link, but we decided to try and cram in up to 100 names here. And there are certainly many, more people who read and enjoy the poems on the website, including sections of the media, who make enquiries from time to time.

Of the prolific, Kevin Raymond, Peter Goulding and Parry Maguire top the listings. They have all produced their own poetry collections over time. Parry is in fact P Maguire / Toby Jones / Jules Rimet / Galeano’s Ghost and possibly many more – she is an incredibly talented writer who has graced our site for most of the ten years.
Parry, Kevin and Peter have all made contributions behind the scenes for this site, and for that we are very grateful.

We’re very proud of the fact that we have so many female fans contributing to the site, giving them a voice in Football that can sometimes be overlooked, including (but not limited to)…
Parry, Rosemary Dun, Non Humphries, Sharon B Ingle, Louise Ann Lacey, Hannah Brown, Nessa O’Mahony, Janet Clare, Elinor Romans, Livvy Hanks, etc etc …….

Our thanks to everyone recently contributing on a regular basis, including (but not limited to)…
Emdad Rahman, Khadim Hussain, SB Ingle, Darren O’Keeffe, Andy Lockett, Kevin Halls, Mark Merriman, Jim Dolbear, Tony Lewis-Jones, Mark Thomas, John Cox, Paul H Tubb, Paul T Conneally, Terry Oldham, Andrew Detheridge, Jon Tait, Keith Armstrong, Phil Brennan

And to previous stalwarts, including (but not limited to)…
Eddie Gibbons, Richie Hession, Joe Reid, George Kirby, Dennis Swift, Robbie Kennedy-Bennett, Poet Shot, Number Ten, Simon Parr, Alistair Wilkinson, David Foulkes, Gerry Lawrence, Ian Beesley, Michael Spring, Nick Fleischmann, Paul Collins, Michael Adubato

And the ex-pats reminiscing … e.g. Denys EW Jones from Italy, Hugh Morris/Llew Beaton from Australia, John J O’Connor from NY, Daniel McDonagh from Canada. And for those who probably don’t even have English as a first language .. we’re guessing Gacina Bozidar, tri tran, Héber Bensi, Rohan Bendre, Ismail Bala Garba

And those from within the clubs, giving us their invaluable insights … John Oliver (Newcastle) and Alan McKean (Bolton).
And the many academics and accomplished writers who obviously hold great store in the site – e.g. Willie Maley, Christopher T George, Thom Satterlee, Tomas de Faoite, Ted Smith-Orr, Matthew Paul, Pat Ingoldsby, Patrick B Osada, Ralph Hancock, Attilla the Stockbroker, Ian McMillan, etc, etc

Too many schools and students to mention, from many, many parts of the world, but what a great vibrant contribution they make
& also the community initiatives, e.g. the Learning Centres at … West Ham Utd (ELG), Cambridge Utd, Newcastle Utd. And our thanks to the many, many people having fun with pseudonyms (including many incarnations of the iconic Bard).

And finally, a chance to big up the role we play in commemorating events on an annual basis, remembering the anniversaries of various football tragedies, e.g. Hillsborough, Heysel, Bradford, Munich Air Crash and the Christmas Truce of 1914. And the various footballing events – all the major competitions. We started with Euro 2000, have received great offerings on the FA Cup, African Cup of Nations, World Cups 02, 06 & ’07 (Women’s) and now celebrate ten years with World Cup 2010.

With so many matches and competitions across the World, including the forthcoming 2010 World Cup Finals, we hope there’ll be plenty more inspiration for all our past, present and future contributors! Regards
Clik the mouse Dublin. Ireland (Editor 2001-2010 )

Here are a few of our own earliest poems and a couple from just two of our long-time contributors.

Football Time Stuart Butler Appeared 1st June 2000
Football Stuff Crispin Thomas Appeared 10th June 2000
Desperately Immature, But.. Peter Goulding- Appeared 1st October 2003
The Save of The Century Kevin Raymond – Appeared 1st April 2005
The Ghosts From the Playground P Maguire -Appeared 26th October 2005

2 WORLD CUP & FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS & DATES 2010

Hi – We stilll have gaps for World Cup & Football/Sport Poetry Workshops .Sessions are broadened to cover all sports to be all inclusive for students. We are now taking bookings for workshops from June/July onwards with sessions also still available for National Poetry Day in October . Contact Crispin Thomas- The Football Poets or phone 01453 757376 & 07837 798463

W=Workshops G=Gig

June 2010
15 STONEHOUSE Maidenhill School (W) Day
18 NOTTINGHAM FOREST FC Study Support Centre (W)
19 RODBOROUGH World Cup Fete.Nr Stroud Glos. (G/W) Day Free.
22 TELFORD Primary School (W)
25 GLASTONBURY Festival Fluffy Rock Café. Afternoon. (G)
26 GLASTONBURY Festival Fluffy Rock Café. Afternoon. (G)
July 2010
1 FELTHAM Hill School Year 4 (W)
2 FELTHAM Hill School Year 5 (W)
9 STROUD Marling School Yrs 7 & 8 (W)
October 2010
7 NATIONAL POETRY DAY .(Invitations still welcome)
8 CHELTENHAM Festival Ofg Literature- Voices Off(G)
.November 2010
3 CHELTENHAM Christ’s College (Day-W)

SOME WORKSHOP LINKS

Click on coloured link to view then close page or hit Back button

‘FOOTBALL STUFF’ Crispin Thomas BBC Video Nation Poem / Rap with Casio and ball on the pitch at Forest Green Rovers FC.

EVERTON FC ‘ Making A Difference’ Workshop Review Crispin Thomas Session at Everton FC Extra Time Study Support Centre

3.
INNER GOAL on Amazon Crispin Thomas the poetry of football..a journey in rhyme (Illustrated/Paperback)
Published by Football Poets Books ISBN 9780955 737602 £8.09

“Poems in the street, the ground and the heart, poetry with balls!”
Michael Foreman

“One of the pioneers of football poetry. Who ate all the pioneers”?”
Attila The Stockbroker

BOOK NOTES
“A rhythmic feast for football lovers everywhere both young and old. From rattles and rosettes to women’s football and the trenches, fantasy salaries and racism to mobile phones for goalposts. Spanning fifty years of watching and ten years of writing , Inner Goal is an affectionate and perceptive nod to the People’s Game in verse. A long-overdue and illustrated hard-copy paperback debut from football’s maverick performance poet featuring 75 poems, 65 haikus and hand-drawn illustrations from the author.

SHOPS:
National Football Museum, Preston Tel 01772 908442
Stroud Bookshop, 23 High Street, Stroud 01453 756646

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