On the Scrapheap

In the days before vehicles with names like Warrior and Exterminator were given special dispensation to park on double yellow lines outside the Co-op, football was a man’s game, or so the cliché goes.

It is true that the game has changed and that attacking players - at the top level, at least - are given much more protection than previously. In a recent conversation with a former professional footballer, who had played in a game at Goodison Park, in 1968 – which, he actually reminded me - was the setting for the most horrific tackle I can ever remember witnessing. It was made by Dave Mackay of Derby on Everton’s Jimmy Husband.

Much is spoken about the destruction of our railway system that was occurring around about the same time that Dave was trying to cut Jimmy in half with a swing of his meaty [left?] leg. A few weeks before that match, we had trudged off to Lime Street station to say a final goodbye to our beloved steam engines.

Throughout our train spotting days, preceding that eventful year, we had watched as the system itself was decimated by Beeching-inspired, branch line closures. We had toured the sheds and works and visited Barry docks, bulging with condemned, rusting hulks waiting for the torch.

One of the things I have learnt in the interim and in all things, is to try to stay optimistic in times of adversity. For example, I used to tell myself after a bad day in the classroom, that the next one would inevitably be better, and it [almost] always was.

The railway heritage scene of today was unimaginable in 1968. Just look at the proliferation of revived railways available now, the range of new build steam locomotives under way to supplement those rescued from oblivion and the army of devoted volunteers who have helped to make it possible.

Jimmy could have been on the scrap heap, too, but he recovered and was back playing again 5 weeks later, scoring 20 goals over the season as a whole. Artistic, rather than destructive, forces now have the edge in football. It may be a bit less full-blooded, but inventive forward play is more attractive and entertaining than ever, because it is allowed to flow more freely and is less interrupted by hatchet-men who did not even get sent off.

In the village, more and more executive houses are going up, Main Street stays the same width, car parking remains inadequate and there will always be some who are too self-important to admit that sensible rules made for the benefit of all also apply to them. However, bull bars have been banned, Jimmy Husband played football successfully for a further 15 years and West Country Light Pacific No. 34070 Manston is alive and well on the Swanage Railway.

   Manston at Barry, 31/12/67.

Manston at Highley on the Severn Valley Railway, 25/9/10.