The Sooth Stand Shaw
Dec 23, 2019 8:42:46 GMT
Post by CC on Dec 23, 2019 8:42:46 GMT
Fitba may have begun as a game for the upper middle class, been adopted by the working class and largely made the journey back in the opposite direction again but during its days as the sport of the proletariat it has contributed to the arts as befits the nation's number 1 leisure activity for boys and men. Ted Hughes has made an appearance on another thread with his football poem so it's only fair & richt to show the world that Scots can write about fitba just as well as a melancholic, moody misanthrope from Mytholmroyd or Mexborough. And how no indeed?
The anonymous screever who wrote this had had just aboot enough of the game. Is it just me or is there a muckle cheeky undertone to these lines?
The Fitba' Family
Ma faimly this while back are a' clean demented,
The hale o' the laddies - and lassies an' a'
At kirk or at merkit, nae odds whaur ye meet them,
The subject they're on, is aboot the fitba'.
'Bout half backs and hale backs and forwards and centres
This week or twa back, ah hae had ma fair share,
And then 'bout their wings they are never done talkin
As if they intended to flee through the air,
Ah gaed ower last Sunday, the length o' Peg Allen's
Tae hae a drap tea - and a friendly bit chat,
And when ah came back, ye wid scarcely believe it
They were peggin awa wi' their Faither's lum hat:
Wee Jock's shoutin oot "That's a foul aff 'a Davy"
And Willie, he's shoutin "aff sides" intae Jean,
When Tam shoots for goal in the midst of the scuffle,
And knocks the lum hat, wi' a bang in ma een.
And then you should jist hear the screeches o' Mary,
She ne'r scared ma wits oot, she gaed sic a roar,
Cryin', "gie's yer han', Tammy, it's you that can dae it
Ah kent a' the time ye were able tae score!"
Scottish football makes an appearance in several Irvine Welsh stories. Mr Welsh is a Hibernian fan so not surprisingly the characters in Trainspotting went to a festive derby against Hearts, and saw their favourites lose 4-1. In The Kingdom of Fife a motor bike enthusiast is such a loyal fan of Cowdenbeath that when he crashes and is killed his friends secretly bury his severed head behind one of the goals at Central Park.
South of the border, a humdrum game between Notts County and Bristol City is a metaphor for Lennox's miserable life and unhappy marriage in Alan Sillitoe's The Match. 3 or 4 decades previously JB Priestley's Jess Oakroyd had been similarly underwhelmed at a Bruddersford United match and had subsequently left to go on t' road in The Good Companions.
Two paintings by LS Lowry, The Football Match and Football Ground, later renamed Going to the Match are considered priceless today. The second of these uses Burnden Park as a background, and the Railway End at that lost old stadium also appears as a backdrop in John Schlesinger's debut film as a director, A Kind of Loving. Another ex-stadium, Highbury, is visited by Liam Neeson and Hugh O Conor in Lamb while in Charlie Bubbles Albert Finney's alienation from his background is symbolised when he and his son watch a game at Old Trafford from an executive box.
When Sheffield United won promotion this year, veteran artist Joe Scarborough celebrated the event by taking out his paint box:
The anonymous screever who wrote this had had just aboot enough of the game. Is it just me or is there a muckle cheeky undertone to these lines?
The Fitba' Family
Ma faimly this while back are a' clean demented,
The hale o' the laddies - and lassies an' a'
At kirk or at merkit, nae odds whaur ye meet them,
The subject they're on, is aboot the fitba'.
'Bout half backs and hale backs and forwards and centres
This week or twa back, ah hae had ma fair share,
And then 'bout their wings they are never done talkin
As if they intended to flee through the air,
Ah gaed ower last Sunday, the length o' Peg Allen's
Tae hae a drap tea - and a friendly bit chat,
And when ah came back, ye wid scarcely believe it
They were peggin awa wi' their Faither's lum hat:
Wee Jock's shoutin oot "That's a foul aff 'a Davy"
And Willie, he's shoutin "aff sides" intae Jean,
When Tam shoots for goal in the midst of the scuffle,
And knocks the lum hat, wi' a bang in ma een.
And then you should jist hear the screeches o' Mary,
She ne'r scared ma wits oot, she gaed sic a roar,
Cryin', "gie's yer han', Tammy, it's you that can dae it
Ah kent a' the time ye were able tae score!"
Scottish football makes an appearance in several Irvine Welsh stories. Mr Welsh is a Hibernian fan so not surprisingly the characters in Trainspotting went to a festive derby against Hearts, and saw their favourites lose 4-1. In The Kingdom of Fife a motor bike enthusiast is such a loyal fan of Cowdenbeath that when he crashes and is killed his friends secretly bury his severed head behind one of the goals at Central Park.
South of the border, a humdrum game between Notts County and Bristol City is a metaphor for Lennox's miserable life and unhappy marriage in Alan Sillitoe's The Match. 3 or 4 decades previously JB Priestley's Jess Oakroyd had been similarly underwhelmed at a Bruddersford United match and had subsequently left to go on t' road in The Good Companions.
Two paintings by LS Lowry, The Football Match and Football Ground, later renamed Going to the Match are considered priceless today. The second of these uses Burnden Park as a background, and the Railway End at that lost old stadium also appears as a backdrop in John Schlesinger's debut film as a director, A Kind of Loving. Another ex-stadium, Highbury, is visited by Liam Neeson and Hugh O Conor in Lamb while in Charlie Bubbles Albert Finney's alienation from his background is symbolised when he and his son watch a game at Old Trafford from an executive box.
When Sheffield United won promotion this year, veteran artist Joe Scarborough celebrated the event by taking out his paint box:
