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Poems tagged ‘The Pink 'Un’

In the Pink

Greg Freeman

Thursday, October 7th, 2021

Impatient men and boys waited
outside newsagents at six o’clock,
for vans to deliver their bundles.
News or Standard? Rival
papers competed to produce
Saturday night sports papers,
all the football scores for
pools punters seeking that jackpot.

Out in the provinces the same
results were printed on
green or pink paper. When
older I played my part,
breathlessly phoning over
minor league matches,
later processing them
as a down-table sub in the big city.

Never trusted with the top games.
Scorers set in caps. The inside story?
Subs unschooled in sport, back
from the pub, juggling
several stories, might unwittingly
merge the odd football
and rugby match. It happened.
Only the score made them suspect

something wasn’t quite right. Another
editing change caught in time:
Sheffield Wednesday became
Sheffield yesterday, although
their supporters might well agree.
Tyranny of deadlines halted
most games in their prime; you only
knew what happened up to half-time.

One fan saved every edition from the 60s,
that was his kink. Passed them
to me when he left for Australia.
Victories and defeats, in black and pink.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/news/poem-tags/the-pink-un/