'Tubby' Lard (resident of prefab number seven) has been known to wobble in his loyalties. Two years ago he was an unshakeable supporter of Bristol Rovers - "the aesthetics of their blue and white quartered shirts are so captivating!" Then he switched to Bristol City after they had beaten Rovers in the local derby match -"City's Ashton Gate ground does not have any of the horrible gasworks' smells that you always get at Eastville." Then - in the twinkle of any eye - he was seen walking aound showing off his new Bristol Rovers' scarf after the club's sensational
4 - 0 victory over Manchester United in the FA Cup! ("The way the Rovers' supporters sang 'Irene, Goodnight Irene' was so moving!") When challenged to justify this disgraceful turn-coat conduct 'Tubby' had the gall to quote the retort made by Winston Churchill in 1900. Having deserted the Conservative Party for the Liberal Party Churchill then re-joined the Conservative Party. "To rat is one thing" he said,"but to re-rat is something special."
Tony Taverner (known as 'Skirton' to his friends) is the footballing hero of Twiverton. He started off playing in the Somerset Youth League with Whiteway Canaries. After being spotted by a Hereford United he finally hit the big time with Manchester City and Arsenal. Every football album of any quality has a photograph of the ball slipping through the fingers pf the Arsenal goalkeeper in the 1927 F.A. Cup Final. (Cardiff City won the match by a goal to nil.)
No local player has been signed by Gateshead, a club which plays in the Third Division (North). Perhaps it is because prefabs foster a 'support the underdog' complex which explains why a number of us follow the fortunes of this supremely unfashionable club. It was 'Auntie' Ivy's brother, 'Uncle' Stan (who always gives us a wave when he is cutting the grass at the junior school) who first told us about Gateshead F.C. He married a girl from Jarrow, a town which is just up the road from Gateshead. Whenever we saw her she always looked very pale and thin. She had left her home town when it was hit by the depression in the 1930s. Her two children were quite young when she died, and whenever the Gateshead result comes on the wireless we find ourselves thinking of her.