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The Greatest of them All

Ianthe Exall

Monday, September 22nd, 2014

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 In the town of Dudley, six miles from the Wolves
I was born many years ago.
Football was the passion there,
A love I was soon to know.
Ten years before I faced the world
A little boy was born.
He too was a Dudley babe
As he came from Dudley town.
Between Morris Dancing and Football
He had to make a choice.
He chose the football
He made his name
And Duncan Edwards rose to fame.
Apprenticed as a carpenter he signed for Man United,
Stan Cullis (Wolves) was not too pleased,
But Matt Busby was delighted.
This Busby Babe became a legend
A star on the football stage,
The greatest Busby Babe of all
And he achieved it all at such a young age.
A big, strong guy with flair and power,
Brave and skilful he had it all-
The finest player of his time,
A master of the leather ball.
177 games for Man United,
And eighteen England caps
All by the age of twenty-one.
How much more would he have achieved,
If his life had carried on.
It was not to be…
That dark, dark day in ‘58
When that plane took off and crashed,
So many killed, so many hurt,
So many dreams were smashed.
The ‘Munich Air Disaster’ as it was called thereafter
Was a tragedy beyond belief-
The country, the clubs, the players,
Were all united in their grief.
Duncan Edwards was badly hurt
His body torn and broken,
For fifteen days he was braver than brave
Clinging to a life all were trying to save…
Sadly, so sadly it was not to be
And fifteen days from that fateful day
He quietly slipped away.
Just twenty-one and then he was gone.
So young, so strong, so good.
Will we ever see his likes again…
We would be grateful if we could.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Duncan Edwards 1/10/36- 21/2/58
Rest in Peace, never to be forgotten

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Ianthe Exall
September 2014

Notes

Editor Note:
Such a moving poem

I was 10 and already a huge Chelsea ,living very close to the ground but can recall those awful days like yesterday. Me and my Chelsea schoolmates all suddenly followed two clubs for a year or so as Untied rose from the ashes . He’d be 77 about to turn 78 now if he had made it through. Such a great talent and loss.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-greatest-of-them-all-2/