The hunger
¶ 1
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One hundred thousand,
at least, for a friendly.
The Russians were
still our friends, weren’t they?
November 1945.
So many servicemen
back from the war
¶ 2
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hungry to watch football again.
A photo shows them
on the roof of the old
East Stand, crowding
around the goalmouth.
Moscow Dynamo presented
each Chelsea player
¶ 3
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with a bunch of flowers.
The result, a thrilling 3-3 draw.
And my father among them,
starved of so much since
the fall of Singapore
three years before.
¶ 4
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He always kept his
political and football affiliations
close to his chest. But I reckon
he was an Arsenal man,
when such things mattered
to him, in the Thirties.
¶ 5
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He told us this story.
After the match the crowd
swept him off his feet
and into Walham Green tube,
even though he wasn’t
fond of trains just then.
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