‘Playing with the Boys’ by Niamh McKevitt – Published by Vision Sports Publishing 2015

This easy to read and sometimes funny book is a journal of teenager Niamh McKevitts dogged determination to play football at the best level possible. She finds that playing with boys teams gives her more opportunity to hone her skills but more importantly to compete with players who are at her age level or above.

Her story is of how she searches for the best teams to play for and stands up for girls/women to be able to play against boys/men of an equal age on an equal footing.

To do this she has struggles against her school, coaches,  general prejudice, team mates, opponents and the F.A. However with changes at the F.A, who believed that girls will become better footballers if separated from boys, she is able to help effect the change that now allows girls to play alongside boys in competitive matches right up to 18.

On a holiday trip to the West of Scotland we ended up in Campbeltown Heritage Centre in need of a cup of tea.

Cambeltown was once called the ‘Whisky Capital of the World’ with its 30 distilleries and had the highest per capita income of any town in Scotland. Those days are gone as it struggles with a decreasing ageing population. Gone are the heady days of being a major port for freight, steamers, ferries, the navy and shipbuilding, gone is the herring fishing, gone is the coal mining and only 3 distilleries are left

This most westerly town in Mainland Scotland clings on with long standing agriculture leading the way.

The scale of its former wealth is highlighted by its architecture.  Look up and you will see many different  beautiful buildings designed by the major architects of the day.

Some regeneration has been started and the Heritage Centre proudly displays it’s amazing past.

In one cabinet is a display of seven football cups that were donated in the past. But there is nothing commemorating this year’s 100th Anniversary of Campbeltown Pupils AFC. Since 1977 they have played in the Scottish Amateur Football League. They were in fact the first club from Argyll to be crowned Amateur Premier League champions in 2000.

There is s photo on display of Campbeltown United from 1912 who appear to be no longer in existence.

The Cups:

Charity Cup 1887     Presented by the Town Council to the first Campbeltown District Association to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

The McCallum Cup 1947     Presented by the local MP for Argyll to help kick start football after the second world war.

The Orr-Ewing Cup 1900    donated by the local MP.

The Sutherland Cup 1925    Donated by the local MP at a time of great hardship in the area when football was a good distraction and entertainment.

The Amateur Cup 1921/22  

The Amateur Cup – Civic Cup 1950    Presented to Kintyre Amateur Football League.

Dalriada Cup – Amateur Cup 1968/69     This replaced a previous Cup

Thank you to the lady who served us with the wonderful Lemon Drizzle cake and tea as well as the amazing trophies. Good luck to Campbeltown AFC for the 2019/20 season and your anniversary year. Good Luck to Campbeltown in your re-positioning and regeneration.

The wait for the new season drags but the excitement bubbles away with new ferocity with the publishing of Non-League and FA Cup/Trophy and Vase fixtures. Plans can be made, lists reviewed and dreams could be fulfilled.

In the meantime I visited Wigtown, it is billed as ‘Scotland’s National Book Town’ but a search of the many second hand bookshops was fruitless in finding a good football book. My final stop was the Community Shop and there on a table as I walked in was a book of poetry about Scottish football for £3. The book was ‘Mind The Time’ – An Anthology of Poetry to Support Football Memories Scotland. It was produced with Nutmeg -The Scottish Football Periodical in 2017.The first Football Memories group met in Stenhousemuir in 2004 to engage with those suffering memory loss through discussing their memories regarding football. The projects success has not only been huge in Scotland but has raced over the southern border and become established in England too.

The poetry looks good for a future read but I thought I would share one poem now on the close season.

‘nutmeg’ also looks a real interesting source of football info for the future.

I recently was lucky to find a copy of ‘Billy The Kid’  by Michael Morpurgo on a bookstall in Derby Market that was signed by Michael Foreman the illustrator. This added to my recent reading of ‘The Fox and the Ghost King’ also by the same author and illustrator.

‘Billy the Kid’ first published by Pavilion Books Ltd 2000 is set in West London and is about a boy whose love for football and Chelsea takes him all the way to achieve his goal and play for them. Tragically the war interrupts his career and devastates his family and his heroics mean that an injury means he cannot attain the levels on the field he once achieved. His fall into despair and loneliness is finally countered by his love for Chelsea and he returns to the area where he was born. Luck turns his way and he is able to join the Chelsea Pensioners and again receive the adulation of the team and fans of his favourite club. A really good human story that gives you a warm feeling inside.

The 2016 book ‘The Fox and the Ghost King’ published by Harper Collins Children’s Books tells of how a family of Foxes living in Leicester hear strange voices coming from the ground of a central car park. Their digging exploits lead people to uncover Richard the Third’s grave and release his ghost who grants  the Foxes a wish. as all foxes in Leicester are Leicester City supporters they ask if they can win the premiership. He keeps his word and the rest is history. A really good feeling book even for every fan from other clubs.

Having read both of the books I still do not know which football club Michael Morpurgo supports but I do know he supports football in general and the human spirit.

To mark the England teams participation at the eighth FIFA Women’s World Cup in France there is a small exhibition at The British Library in the Sir John Riblat: Treasures Gallery called ‘An Unsuitable Game for Ladies: A century of Women’s Football’

Only a small area but it shows that women’s football started in London over 120 years ago but has struggled to survive having been at one time banned despite it being popular. Following the FA’s 1921 ban they took it back under their control in 1993 and are now seriously promoting the game at all levels.

The Exhibition is on until the first of September and is free to enter. Well worth a look if you are visiting the library or have some time when in the Euston/St Pancras/Kings Cross area.

On a football theme outside the Library in the square is a statue that was funded by Vernons-Littlewoods-Zetters Pools. It is called ‘Newton’ and is a statue after William Blakes Painting in the Tate Gallery who refer to the picture online as  :Blake was critical of Newton’s reductive, scientific approach and so shows him merely following the rules of his compass, blind to the colourful rocks behind him.

The statue could be interpreted in a football sense (Ala the pools) depicting the mood of many football managers when success is not coming their way.

The Curzon Sheffield was an appropriate place to watch the film ‘Diego Maradona’ with it being opposite the Cutlers Hotel Sheffield the birthplace of the oldest football team in the world.

‘Diego Maradona’ is a film directed by Asif Kapadia, who also directed Oscar-winner ‘Amy’ and Bafta-winning ‘Senna’.

The film has been possible due to the use of over 500 hours of previously unseen footage about his life but majorly centring  on Maradona’s time at Napoli. This was after a career in Argentina and a time at Barcelona.

My view of Diego Maradona has always been coloured by the Xenophobia surrounding him whipped up by some elements of the press due to ‘The hand of God’ incident’ and the preceding Falklands War: Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange – taken from Wikipedia.

Maradona was a genius, cheat, god, fallen idol, drug addict, driven and committed, a family man and a man who refused to recognise the birth of a son (he finally did meet and endorse him in 2016). There are many more adjectives to describe him but his personal coach who kept him trained (achieving unbelievable athleticism even with a non conforming life style) describes him as being two people, the boyish lovely Diego and the driven Maradona who had to portray a strong outer shell to the world and not let them get to him.

I have changed my view of him as a footballer and believe he was the most talented player ever. How did he put up with and ride such aggressive tackles and then turn, swerve, run and still have the vision to make the telling pass or shot on goal that led to Argentina winning the World Cup and previously unsuccessful Napoli becoming the greatest team in the world.

The films director can be proud of what he has achieved joining endless clips into a seamless technically brilliant film which is not compromised by the sub tittles in any way. Some footage is switched to black and white and the music is both haunting and uplifting. The outstanding feature of the film is how it captures all of the emotions of the time, situation and outcomes.

Postscript:  Taken from the ‘Mirror’ on line  https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/peter-shilton-swerves-new-maradona-16508773

By Tom Bryant Head Of Showbiz 19:07, 12 JUN 2019

‘Footie legend Peter Shilton gave the premiere of a new documentary about Diego Maradona a straight red card. The goalie, who the cheating Argentinian scored his infamous Hand of God goal against at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, boycotted the event along with other former England stars from the campaign

The 69-year-old has previously slammed Maradona for his failure to apologise for his appalling sportsmanship and posted of the premiere: “I declined the invitation along with several England ex-players.” He later told the Mirror: “I’ve got more important things to do… like playing darts “.

Liverpool’s footballing exploits are strong but just off the City Centre is another piece of footballing folk lore at  ‘The Bombed Out Church’, St Luke’s. A memorial to the devastation of the bombings in the Second World War which is now used as a space for gatherings as a venue of all sorts it also now the home of the statue ‘Truce’ by Andy Edwards.

Talking to the security guard at the church, a function was just about to take place, he let us take photos  and explained that a quarter sized version of the statue sits at The FA’s St George’s Park National Football Centre, Burton-upon-Trent and the original life size version is in the Belgian town of Mesen, also known by its French name Messines, the closest to where the Christmas Truce of 1914 is believed to have started. The Security Guard said that there had also been talk of one being made and sited in Germany.

Whether a football game actually took place can not be totally corroborated although diary entries of German soldiers state it did. There may also have been more than one game along the whole length of the front. What is definite is that a truce lasting roughly a week did take place in 1914 and songs, gifts and hand shakes were exchanged. The statue brilliantly portrays the friendship of mankind towards one another and that humanity triumphs in the darkest of times. Unfortunately the guns resumed and continued for nearly 4 years with the loss of so many.

Thank you Andy for a truly inspiring piece of art.