Football Poets

Lily Parr & The Dick Kerr Ladies Revisited

if Lily Parr could be here now
you wonder what she’d say
as Chelsea took on Arsenal
on Wembley’s pitch today
and did our Lily realise
the breakthrough women made
their influence upon the game
with ev’ry match they played?
but looking back a hundred years
what did they feel that day
the FA banned the women’s game
and took their world away ?

but at that time young Lily Parr
was known across the land
and as the War raged on and on
the fans still crammed the stand
and crowds of fifty thousand
were more than common-place
they came in curiosity
but not to see her face
they flocked in awe to wonder at
young women in the war
and cries of “get ’em off love”
rang loud when they did score

for back in nineteen seventeen
they’d come from near and far
to see the Dick Kerr Ladies team
led by young Lily Parr
no softy touch or ‘bit of stuff’
a Woodbine on her lips
exceptional left footed skill
deceptive swerving hips
nine hundred goals in all she scored
for England and the girls
St Helen’s born she learned her trade
and stunned the football world

those Sundays when the pubs turned out
on streets and fields of stone
against those sturdy drunken lads
our Lily held her own
and in munitions factories
with pride they’d speak her name
an England captain well deserved
and icon for the game
and fans recall a moment when
they waited patiently
a cow-pat by the corner flag
caused much hilarity
but Lily took it in her stride
and in her face that day
of all who filled that Dick Kerr side
young Lily led the way

they flocked in awe to wonder then
so many years ago
to keep alive the game they loved
whilst war was raging so
for back in nineteen seventeen
they’d come from near and far
to see the Dick Kerr Ladies team
led by young Lily Parr

and if young Parr could be here now
you wonder what she’d say
as Chelsea took on Arsenal
on Wembley’s pitch today
and did she ever realise
The breakthrough women made
their influence upon the game
with ev’ry match they played?
but looking back a hundred years
what did they feel that day
the FA banned the women’s game
and took their world away ?

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