66 Autumn

After losing at Walderslade in the opening game of the season, Upbury Under 12s next match was against Rainham. In a game played at Langton playing fields on a Saturday morning our morale took a bruising before kick off when, just as at Walderslade, the opposition turned out in their smart kit…

And this is how we looked in our ancient shirts and woolly over-socks…

Paul, Clive and I were encouraged and delighted to see Billy Hollands, our old Twydall classmate in the Rainham side. Our old friend had no football pedigree and seeing him line up at left back, in baseball boots, on a muddy pitch, suggested this could be our day.

Final Score: Rainham 8 Upbury Manor 1

‘Three cheers for Rainham. Hip hip…’

Rainham didn’t just beat us; they wiped the floor with us, with Baseball Boots Billy playing his part. Following this thrashing I was dropped from the football team and never picked again.

In the news...

Harry Roberts the infamous police killer was caught after three months on the run. 

Dark nights put a stop to playing football on the evenings. After doing my homework I sometimes watched the telly, but my interest waned as the evening wore on and both channels got more serious. We had Southern TV too, but that didn’t really count, as it was practically the same as ITV. Telly just wasn’t as good as it used to be. I wished we had BBC 2 like Clive Ward. He was the only kid I knew who had a telly that got BBC 2 and I envied him every time he told us about the latest episode of The High Chaparral.

Once the little ones were in bed and Dad disappeared for his nightly pint, I found my own amusements. The green mat in front of the coal fire was a mat no more once I’d emptied a tin of marbles onto it. The mat became my football pitch and the marbles were my players. Forget Subbuteo – I’d played it at Kevin’s house and didn’t think much of it – this game was better and night after night I’d disappear into my own world. With fouls committed by missing the ball and striking an opposition player, sending offs were common. As were pitch invasions and coiled strips of paper being tossed onto the pitch like toilet rolls. I got so immersed in it that until I heard my Mam laughing, I wasn’t aware I’d been making crowd noises. But even then, I couldn’t stop myself.