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Sir Stanley

Steve Linstead

Friday, December 10th, 2004

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Sir Stanley was a businessman
Though he was no fat cat;
His body was his business tool,
So he took care of that.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 He watched his diet, honed his skills
Saved shillings pounds and pence
Eschewed the flash, expensive thrills
And lived by common sense.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Never sent off, never booked
He never saw a card,
Although he played the game when full backs
Knew how to be hard.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Boots of leather, hardened caps
Studs of nail and cork
Ripped the shin pads off his legs
Till he could hardly walk.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Yet still he strode the field with grace
From the Tamar to the Tees
And he never had a tantrum
Nor pushed the referees.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 And when he reached his awesome peak –
The game that made him great –
He mesmerized the Wembley crowd
At the age of thirty-eight.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 He never faded, never lost
The power to amaze
Nor had to sink to lower leagues
To play his final days.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 I sometimes wonder if he’d been
A millionaire at twenty
Would he have trained and played so long
If he knew he had plenty?

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 Would he have played for thirty years
A career as long as marriage
If he’d had fifty thou a week,
Ferraris in the garage?

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 He would; he loved the game he played,
Its beauty, not its fashion.
And all his playing days he stayed
A gentleman with passion.

Notes

Written on the death of Sir Stanley Matthews, whose approach to the game seems to have been so different to that of many of the current stars.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/sir-stanley/