b. Oct 1937 d. Oct 2023To BOY BASTIN and ALEX JAMES of THE ARSENALwhom I’ve heard about many many times
from my dadTo ‘ACE’ HASKOW of BARNETwho had a Wing Commander’s moustacheand flew down the wing like a Spitfireand was‘The best footballer in the world’for a very short timeTo ‘BALDY HOGAN’ of BURHILL UNITEDwho never gave upand probably still plays every weekin the pages of the ‘Adventure’ magazineTo FRANK SWIFT of MANCHESTER CITYwho was killed incrediblyin the Munich air crashTo BILLY STEEL of DERBY COUNTYwho still volleys the ballfrom the pages of my‘Stanley Matthews Football album’for 1949To STANLEY MATTHEWS of BLACKPOOLwhom I watched every time he came to Londonbecause I knew he was‘The Best Footballer in the world’To the entire SPURS TEAM of 1951who were my‘LILYWHITE BOYS’and signed my autograph bookat a cricket matchTo LEN SHACKLETON of SUNDERLANDwho was magical playeron his good daysand I once saw him on a good dayTo FERENC PUSKAS and the HUNGARIAN TEAMwho toppled our heroes in 1953and changed everythingTo MANCHESTER UNITEDwho were slaughtered at Munichand I couldn’t believe it’til I got home from junior schooland listened to the radioTo the SPURS TEAM of 1961who were very nearly as goodas the SPURS TEAM of 1951To EUSEBIO da SILVA FERREIRA of PORTUGALwho nearly won the World Cup by himselfTo BOBBY CHARLTON of MANCHESTER UNITEDwhose high-stepping gallopand thunderbolt shootingis one of the great sights of English footballwithrespectincredible envyand lovefrom Jeff Cloves1966NOTEthis poem was first publishedin the football edition of my magazine Poetsdoos in 1967to celebrate England winning the World Cup‘Poetsdoos’ is a Dutch word(pronounced Pootsdos I believe)meaning shoe shine boxand was a nod to The Provosa bunch of environmental anarchists in Amsterdamwho launched the Free White Bicycles campaign.
Jeff Cloves.