With
Olympic fever sweeping through the world it reminded me of August Bank Holiday Mondays
when I was little. It was the day of my family’s annual outing to Much Wenlock
Sports Day. Much Wenlock was six miles (9.6km in new money) from my home which
nestled in the shadow of the notorious Shropshire beauty spot of Wenlock Edge. Here
are my recollections of a boring day!
On
Linden Fields
August Bank Holiday! Much Wenlock
Sports Day!
We donned our ‘best’, dad, mother and
me.
Boulton’s bus whined over the rise,
Through the village, up Longville Hill,
Along Wenlock Edge, ‘There’s Ippikin’s
cave and Major’s Leap!’
Between hedges dredged with lime, and down
into the town!
Carnival jostled along, queen and
princesses, prim,
Important for a day; then onto Linden
Fields.
I stood, holding onto the rope which
divided athletes from bums on seats.
Bare legs whirred and muscles strained,
furrowed brows sweated and pained,
Spiked shoes pounded the parched,
cracked earth.
‘Hooray! Hooray!’ The winner exalted!
Smacked on the back, ‘Couldn’t be
faulted!
Well done, my son!’
There we stood, dad, mother and
me.
I sweltered in my hand-me-down, ‘three
bear’s syndrome’, gingham,
Too loose last year, just right this
year, too tight next year,
That’s just how mother was.
More feet thundered by like rumbling
buffalo on the plains,
Puffed out chests gasping, heaving
towards medals, gold, silver, bronze!
Aspirations! Congratulations!
Commiserations!
Dr William Penny Brookes looked down!
Had his idea, in 1850, to promote
Moral,
physical and intellectual improvement
Of
the local inhabitants’of Much Wenlock and
around been in vain?
I peered at dad, hand raised against
the solar glare,
His bronzed biceps bulging, cap
jauntily over one eye,
A lifetime of working the fields in the
sun, wind and rain,
Lungs full of Shropshire country air, (and
ten Players Navy Cut)!
He needed no Olympics!
And neither did I.
‘Now please can we go home?’
Thanks for your time.
The Leebotwood Poet xx
http://annlivesey.blogspot.com
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