Passion for the Park by Stephen Wade

Author:Stephen Wade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Football, Leeds, Leeds United, Scunthorpe, Yorkshire, memoir, autobiography, Saturday League, sunday league
ISBN: 9781909183025
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

Yet again, the Calypso was not naff at the time. You sang it and you felt good. You wanted to think that Big Jack, Gareth and Billy were indeed your pals. In fact, Ronnie recorded several football anthems, helping that genre to achieve new highs in compelling lyrics and emotional thrust. These included Elland Road Baht ’at (1964), followed by the best and the strong-surviving Glory, Glory Leeds United and We Shall Not Be Moved in 1970. Still happy to work a successful seam, Ronnie had two more recordings, The Lads of Leeds and The Ballad of Billy Bremner. Later we had The Tale of Johnny Giles as well, and it must seemed that the appetite for tribute songs was bottomless.

Ronnie reached the top, with chart singles on his CV from 1954 to 1965; he even appeared on the Morecambe and Wise Show, and fortunately he failed to win a place representing the UK in the first Eurovision Song Contest of 1957. Of course, Revie is Mr Leeds United but if you had to suggest an equivalent form of address for a non-player then it might be Ronnie Hilton as Mr Terraces Sing Song.

He died in 2001 and surely goes down as one of the greatest personalities behind the media clean-up of the Leeds image, when the fans were gathering a reputation (undeserved) of being mindless thugs. Hopefully people will recall Ronnie’s songs more than they will the shameful ripping-out of seats at the infamous match with Derby County.

Still today, when he see his name or his picture, I start singing to myself the words ‘I saw a mouse/ there on the stair, right there/ a little mouse with clogs on......going clip clippetty clop on the stair.’ Ronnie, we love you but you have a lot to answer for.

***

Under Scrutiny

Christmas came, and North Kinley were mid-table. But the new students were shooting up the league. In the literature class we were through our first progress test and the mature students were scaring the younger ones with their marks as well as their enthusiasm. I know that one session involved some acting. I asked Mary, a lady of mature years, to ‘become’ Mistress Quickly and to talk about Falstaff. The character is a ‘bawd’ in the Boar’s Head tavern. Falstaff is a gross and witty customer who entertains everyone. He is in debt but survives with his unlimited charm. Mary did us proud. She switched off her normal self and was Mistress Quickly. She gave answers from her instinct, not her student-brain preparing for an examination.

That was how I wanted North Kinley to play, just slipping into the right role. But what I had come to see was just how many mental elements there are in success on the pitch. Confidence can ebb and flow at will. We had an important Christmas match at Brigg. If we came away with a point, we kept fourth place. Then there had been cup matches and we had been deteriorating, losing form. The confidence was ebbing fast.

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