Nice job Mrs. Betjeman.RIP all victims especially Frank Swift.
Below is a poem wot I wrote!
They travelled to Europe
The promised land
The match a warm up
They managed to withstand
Snow falling
Engines revving
Runway icing
Hearts pounding
Three times he tried
But then he failed.
Twenty three lives lost
A nation paled
Back home in shock
Grown men wept
Factories closed
No one slept.
Fifty years have passed
Do the memories cast
A pall over the Derby?
Will the silence last?
A match already won
So the pundits declare
But they all forget
There are two teams there.
We love the underdog
A cliché unravelled
On this Sunday afternoon
Aren’t they glad they travelled?
Now City Fans celebrate
Hadn’t risen to the bait
One of their own died
That February in 58.
Written by me in 2008 and found again in 2020!!
We got locked in for the 1-6.It was a lock in but not long, copper behind me making a sarcastic "oh dear" comment when utd scored in the police barrier, and no one bought anything so they were eating a load of free pies. The 6-1 and the 2-1 the year after we were straight out and the win in 2016. Locked in 35 mins in 2017 and the worst ever was this season around 45 mins, but not at all in 2019.
Nice job Mrs. Betjeman.
Byrne, Coleman, Edwards, Tommy Taylor - all gone but would have won the World Cup for England in Sweden in '58, even vs. Brazil with Pele. And with Frank Swift there to write up the story.
(P.S. I was off school for some reason that afternoon and remember people rushing to grab copies of the evening newspapers from a seller stood outside Wiles toy shop on Market St.)
I think you should be judged Eccles and the jury will return a verdict of a kind, caring and compassionate person.Don’t judge me as I was only a teenager at the time… I cried for them all but the one I was most upset about was Duncan Edwards.
England lost someone who could arguably been our greatest player in him.
So true @Blue Mist I've related before how I was at the last match they played before Munich and the first match afterwards. Days of City one week and them the next. Sixteen years old and couldn't afford away matches. In those days even Bolton was a 'marathon' journey I had no pennies for. :-)I think you should be judged Eccles and the jury will return a verdict of a kind, caring and compassionate person.
There was no hatred then. Everyone mourned the loss of all the victims.
Think it was before an England v. Wales match when Jimmy Murphy utd's assistant manager was managing the Welsh team, one of them asked about marking Edwards and Murphy said "just keep out of his way, son."Don’t judge me as I was only a teenager at the time… I cried for them all but the one I was most upset about was Duncan Edwards.
England lost someone who could arguably have been our greatest player in him.
Milking it, is the word. It was a tragedy, only for the families of the dead an injured though. It transformed utd into world wide recognition that they have never looked back on. People know more about this accident than the D-Day landings. Let utd mourn the occasion, why does the rest of football be brought into the scenario ?Sad sad day for Manchester and for football.
Made even more sad by a football club profiteering from it.