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About That Local Rivalry.

kevin raymond

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 There are days kids remember, like that Guy’s in November
Who made plans for a hell of a bang
On said day in this instance, Cathedral team played St Vincent’s
So what follows are memories from then.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 T’would have been sixty three when the St Vincent’s team
Went to play in The Seven-a-Side Cup
With feint hopes as outsiders, like Dave’s v Goliath?
Yes, an upset they caused and that’s fact.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Upon getting changed and running out to play games
Teams confidence seemed to be high
As the sight of green pitches with manicured cream strips
Sparkled beneath summer sky.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 The first game was won as young Turks having fun
Progressed to face rivals… Cathedral
Where Mr Holdsworth and co, as far as we’re told
Thought those convent school kids way beneath them.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 As their grudge match kicked off, St Vincent’s feared loss
To the well turned out side of Cathedral
But seven vs. seven isn’t eleven vs. eleven
So Mr Holdsworth’s team, might yet be beaten.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Denis Crowley poached one, when he went on this run
Past Trevor Smith, stood alone somewhat stranded
Cathedral slim hopes did fade, when he scored once again
The net bulged, and nuns gambles were landed.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 There was mayhem at close, as Mr Holdsworth morose
Stormed off the pitch with his team
Did they shake hands? No way, and it wasn’t fair play
Though victory wiped out, all trace of bad feeling.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 It’s here the real story starts, like a myth from the past
Cathedral boys still deny those two goals
”You didn’t score. Denis did. We slaughtered you. Yeah right as if”’
Date of argument? Forty-six years we’re told.

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 At weddings and christenings when slurred souls have a few drinks
They’ve vivid memories of what never happened
Sure as April leads May, St Vincent’s won through that day
Which if honest, in a game is what matters.

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 That poet thinks he’s the business, why should we believe this?
It’s a tall tale to swallow, that story.
Sounds a tall tale I know, but stood there guarding the posts
It was I… stopped Cathedral from scoring!

© Kev 009

Notes

I was invited to do my first live gig and read for my peers, yesterday at the world famous South West Festival, in Pimlico South West London.

I read the above poem, a true story regarding a seven a side knock out match some years ago that we won against the odds and Westminster Cathedral’s football team, whose snooty head-master had the habit of looking down his nose at us, because we were convent school kids and this was only the second year our cash strapped school had managed to put out a football team.

The nuns who ran our school, bless them, had by hook or by crook laid their hands on ten blus shirts of different styles and various sizes so we could at least turn out looking the same… from the waist up! We still laugh about the rest of the gear we wore that day.

Winning that game, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Strawberry Hill College in Twickenham, gave my mates and me such an unforgettable natural high that’s quite hard to describe.

The other team, some of whom we still meet and see, have always denied the result of the game. They won everything, league, cup, this very tournament the following year, except this game and a league match we beat them in the previous year, our very first as a team.

So those two occasions in the mind of a shy ten year old often remind me that nothing and no-one is unbeatable….if you believe.

Which that day we certainly did!

Denis Crowley, a close mate and our goalscorer that day was in the audience yesterday, as I read out the poem, so I gave him my copy afterwards and he was knocked out.

Peace

Kev.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/about-that-local-rivalry/