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Poems tagged ‘Lily Parr’

Winter Dreams in Sydney ~ WWC ’23

Crispin Thomas

Friday, July 21st, 2023

so this is it – morning in July here
Winter in Sydney now… nine hours ahead
a celebration of the Women’s Game
a record crowd all wrapped in scarves
a waiting stadium excited for the night
what’s not to love?

I remember as a child in London in mid-Summer
just like today I’d be out in the garden with a trowel
five or six years old maybe
convinced by my grandmother sat on the wooden bench
that I could a dig a hole to Australia..
and I tried and tried until a friend told me it was impossible
early dreams dashed

I wonder what those brave women thought
playing football together in breaks at munitions factories
during and just after World War One
dreaming of a future in the game
Lily Parr was one of them – feisty and fiery – a fag on her lip
turning out in front of massive curious crowds
for Dick Kerr’s Ladies while the blokes were at the front

their hopes and dreams just like mine
suddenly wiped out
the women’s game banned for fifty years in’21
by a sexist dumb FA who ‘claimed it’ un-safe
and a ‘potential’ danger to childbirth
the mind boggles

but here we are a century on
as the Matildas take on Ireland
different dreams for us and them
who will emerge victorious?
how far have we come?
it’s been a battle a long long journey
and still so much to do

but this is it – morning in July here
Winter in Sydney now… nine hours ahead
a celebration of the Women’s Game
a record crowd all wrapped in scarves
a waiting stadium excited for the night
what’s not to love?

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Lily Parr & The Dick Kerr Ladies Revisited

Crispin Thomas

Sunday, December 5th, 2021

if Lily Parr could be here now
you wonder what she’d say
as Chelsea took on Arsenal
on Wembley’s pitch today
and did our Lily realise
the breakthrough women made
their influence upon the game
with ev’ry match they played?
but looking back a hundred years
what did they feel that day
the FA banned the women’s game
and took their world away ?

but at that time young Lily Parr
was known across the land
and as the War raged on and on
the fans still crammed the stand
and crowds of fifty thousand
were more than common-place
they came in curiosity
but not to see her face
they flocked in awe to wonder at
young women in the war
and cries of “get ’em off love”
rang loud when they did score

for back in nineteen seventeen
they’d come from near and far
to see the Dick Kerr Ladies team
led by young Lily Parr
no softy touch or ‘bit of stuff’
a Woodbine on her lips
exceptional left footed skill
deceptive swerving hips
nine hundred goals in all she scored
for England and the girls
St Helen’s born she learned her trade
and stunned the football world

those Sundays when the pubs turned out
on streets and fields of stone
against those sturdy drunken lads
our Lily held her own
and in munitions factories
with pride they’d speak her name
an England captain well deserved
and icon for the game
and fans recall a moment when
they waited patiently
a cow-pat by the corner flag
caused much hilarity
but Lily took it in her stride
and in her face that day
of all who filled that Dick Kerr side
young Lily led the way

they flocked in awe to wonder then
so many years ago
to keep alive the game they loved
whilst war was raging so
for back in nineteen seventeen
they’d come from near and far
to see the Dick Kerr Ladies team
led by young Lily Parr

and if young Parr could be here now
you wonder what she’d say
as Chelsea took on Arsenal
on Wembley’s pitch today
and did she ever realise
The breakthrough women made
their influence upon the game
with ev’ry match they played?
but looking back a hundred years
what did they feel that day
the FA banned the women’s game
and took their world away ?

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/news/poem-tags/lily-parr/