The Glass Canoe (2012)
“If they were lucky they would get in four or five weeks training before the competition started in April.
Some didn’t come straight from the pub, they worked till seven. By half past eight or nine, training was finished and all hurried dirty down to the beer again, which went off at ten.
Training was on a double field on a slope. Kids played there in the daytime and dug holes you could hide a dozen beer cans in.
During the season, on the field, any old-fashioned notions of amateurs ...playing for the sake of the game and helping an opponent to his feet and fair’s fair and who cares who wins as long as we enjoy our football were not merely forgotten: they’d never been learned. You didn’t rip one in because last year or last round or last match that bastard ripped one in to you: you hit him first and on principle, to soften him up. To let him know he had to watch something besides the ball.
There was no philosophic acceptance of defeat.MoreLess
Some didn’t come straight from the pub, they worked till seven. By half past eight or nine, training was finished and all hurried dirty down to the beer again, which went off at ten.
Training was on a double field on a slope. Kids played there in the daytime and dug holes you could hide a dozen beer cans in.
During the season, on the field, any old-fashioned notions of amateurs ...playing for the sake of the game and helping an opponent to his feet and fair’s fair and who cares who wins as long as we enjoy our football were not merely forgotten: they’d never been learned. You didn’t rip one in because last year or last round or last match that bastard ripped one in to you: you hit him first and on principle, to soften him up. To let him know he had to watch something besides the ball.
There was no philosophic acceptance of defeat.MoreLess
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