Give us back our game




"The
‘giveusbackourgame’ campaign takes all the positive elements of street football
that gave generations of children so much fun amd produced so many great ball
players."
Paul Cooper – dutchUK football school

"Returning the game to the children is a terrific idea – particularly the
notion of children refereeing themselves. It teaches them about the spirit of
the game and the importance of communication.
I remember our mass playground games, with a tennis ball, (now outlawed by health
& safety of course) being governed in such a way. On one occassion, I was
found guilty of poaching  another player’s goal and rather than the goal
being allowed, the boy who had the original shot was given a penalty. It was a
non-sensical reaction, but it showed that we realised stealing someone else’s
goal wasn’t an appropriate way to behave and I didn’t do it again."
Rob Linsdell – Give Us Back Our Game supporter

Street football was
very much the children’s game and important elements from it have inspired the
‘giveusbackourgame’ campaign,

Touches
Whether you were on your own kicking a ball against a wall or playing a game
with some of your mates in the park, the numerous football experiences allowed
children to have many touches of the ball. There was no running around the park
three times beforehand, you just got the ball out and played.
These many touches gave street players a great first touch.

Insight
There was no coaching, children had to problem solve the various situations
they encountered and learnt by playing. Often you would play against older boys
so you could not rely on physical strength alone. You had to compete by 
superior technique and using your brain to out think opponents (insight)

Everybody played
Unlike youth football today, where adults decide who plays and who will not, in
street football everbody played. If you were one of the younger ones or were
not very good, you might be the last picked, but at least you got a game and
had the opportunity to improve. In modern youth football often the same kids
are either on the bench or left out every week, making it impossible to catch
up.

Fair games
If one team was dominating a game the children would swop players to make it
more even and start again at 0-0. They did this because more even teams made
for a more exciting and fun game. In modern youth football scores of 20-0 are
not that uncommon. That is no good to anyone.

Creative, attacking play
Different groups of children would make up different rules to reward creative,
attacking play. Two that my group of friends made were, double score for a
volley and after a team had won three corners in a row they were awarded a
penalty.

 
SOUNDS FROM THE STREETS (Probably will only make sense to sad, bald men of 50+)
(A nostalgic look back at street football)

BALLS

The Leather Football
The old leather football had a bladder inside an outer leather casing. Part of
the ball was laced to gain acess to the bladder.
When brand spanking new the ball was fine, if a little heavy. However no
material known to man changes as much under the influence of water, than the
old leather football. When carelessley left out in the garden at night, in the
rain. it turned into a killing machine.
The same effect could also be produced by leaving it out in a heavy frost. The
heaviness of the ball went from FA regulation weight to twice the weight of a
baby elephant.
The other hazard was the lacing, which if headed in a particular  place
could open the forehead up deeper than a Hussar’s sabre.

The Light Plastic Ball
Cheap ball that came in a cheap plastic net. Usually red, yellow or blue with
black hexagons.
The ball was so light that even the slighest breeze could waft it to Venezuela and
beyond.
Frowned on by all street footballers and usually only purchased by well meaning
grandparents existing on a small state pension.

The Wembley Trophy Ball
The Holy Grail of street football.
The ball was quiet expensive, so was only given as Christmas or birthday
presents. Orange
with black lines it came in a presentation box with panels cut out to show off
the sexy curves of the ball.
Street football was great in the couple of months post Christmas as there was
an abundance of Wembley Trophies, but by the following December most had been
punctured, lost or stolen.
Having one of these punctured was like seeing your favourite family pet being
put to sleep at the vets.
Beware the cheap imitation ball sold at Woolworths under their own brand
Winfield label.
Any street footballer who had a Wembley Trophy down on his Christmas list but
received one of the Winfields instead would cry until Easter.
He would rather play with his sisters Sindy dolls than that fake pretender.

The Tennis Ball
Much loved by all street footballers and the main ball of choice for playground
football.
The ball can be stowed away in a trouser pocket and are cheap and plentiful. It
does not burst but like a middle age man eventually loses all its hair and
metamorpohse into a rubber ball which eventually splits along the seam.
This was the ball used by the great stars of the past, Matthews, Finney and
Charlton and was often kicked against a wall when playing solo.

The Airflow Ball
Hated and despised by street footballers. Indeed the playground footballers
would rather use a stone than this useless piece of plastic.
The airflow ball got its name as it is dotted with holes, held together with
rigid, shiny plastic. A run up of 100 yards and a full blooded kick will propel
the ball forward a mere six inches.
Sold in pet shops with the addition of a bell for the amusement of bored cats.

The Rubber Ball
The same size as a tennis ball but not as good.
Normally orange and occasionally blue. Sold in pet shops for the amusement of
large dogs that salivate a lot.

The Stone
Used in the playground as a last resort and occasionally headed by the class
lunatic looking for everlasting mythical status.

FOOTWEAR

The Football Boot
Rarely worn by street footballers unless you had a proper game down the park
with a team or gang.
The coup de grace was the George Best, maroon, side lace up boots. Cooler than
a Chopper and nearly as expensive. Out of the reach of most kids who had to
settle for ‘school football boots’ own brand from Freeman Hardy & Willis.
About as cool as wearing your grandad’s orthopaedic shoe and about as effective.

The Dap
The cheap man’s plimsole was black, elasticated and excellent for street
football. Gave you excellent close contact with the ball and felt like playing
in slippers, but gave very little protection from heavy challenges.
The dap was the ballet shoe of street football.

Black School Shoes
Worn in the playground as changing into your daps would mean less footie time
but a huge barney with your mum.
The standard lace up variety were only worn by boring kids with glasses who
looked like bank managers, even at the tender age of ten.
Then there was the slip on, which was quite trendy but one of the most
dangerous weapons known to man, ranking somewhere between the Scud missile and
the Atom bomb. Many a keeper has been dragged from his goal, bleeding, to the
school nurse after being hit by an Exorcet Clark’s slip on.
The scenario has been played out on many a playground. A player through on goal
strikes the ball with ferocious venom. He miss times the shot and his slip on
travels faster than the speed of sound, striking the hapless goalie on the
forehead, knocking him backwards and unconcious into his goal while the mis hit
shot trickles innocuously over the line.
Some players got their mums to buy a size too large pair of slip ons so they
could fire them off their feet at will. This gave them a certain street cred in
the playground as to how many keepers they had permanently disfigured.

The Desert Boot
Excellent for chasing Field Marshall Erwin Rommel around North Africa, but if
worn now would be repsonsible for many metartasal injuries (Break it like
Beckham) as the boots crumple on impact. I had a pair of desert boots and was
made to wear them on formal occassions as an alternative to school shoes. As my
brother and father also wore them, on family outings we looked like the cast of
Daktari. We only needed to camouflage the family mini and own a cross eyed lion
to make the deception complete.

VENUES

The Street
The street could be a lane, dual carriage way, path, road, street or ally.
It depended on where you live and how much dosh your dad had. The more dosh the
less football as the posh streets generally frowned on street football and
thought that boys should help old people with their garden, play chess and
build a 1930s detached surburban house from Mecanno.
The other thing posh people hoped their kids would do is invent some new wonder
drug with their 17/6 chemistry sets at the kitchen table.
Sadly like street football, the chemistry set has all but disappeared as
today’s mixed up teenagers from higher income bracket families, far from trying
to save the world with a  new cure, are more likely to make some
hallucinogenic drugs or produce home made bombs to blow up people in white
coats who do nasty things to fluffy white bunny rabbits.
Real street football was played on the estates and rows of terraced houses, all
day by hundreds of kids.
This was the breeding ground for generations of great ball players, strong
centre halves, mad, crazy keepers and intelligent, cultured inside rights.

The Park
The park was neutral ground and a place for everyone to play. These games were
the ‘jumpers for goal posts’ marathons that started when the park keeper opened
the gates at sunrise and finished when the gates were shut at dusk. Well only
until the park keeper went home for his tea, then it was over the fence a few
torches in the trees and the magic truly began in the dancing shadows. 
There were three potential problems in the park. A grumpy park keeper, dog mess
and picnic parties. There is nothing worse for a street footballer than the
site of a whicker basket and a tartan rug. The odd sucking sound of a Wembley
Trophy hitting a large pink blamanche is reminiscent of a vet pulling his arm
out quickly of a constipated cow. 

The Bowls Club
Everytime a street footballer passed a bowls club, one look at that flat,
bright green, billiard table like surface would have him drooling.
Why was such a brilliant potential footie pitch used exclusively by old people
with plastic hips, playing a game where you rolled a shiny bit of wood towards
a small white ball?
The few kids that ever made it onto the bowls green talk of an out of body
experience.  The lush turf, where passing was a joy and the World War One
trenches that one could carve out with a sliding tackle.
 
The School Playground
What a laugh playground football was with all your school mates. The only thing
that made school worthwhile and one of the few reasons why kids would get up in
the mornings.
These days health & safety have stopped most football in the  playgrounds,
but the local drug dealer is filling in by giving the kids a different high at
the school gates.
I attended a small grammar school of some 350 boys. Other than summer months
the only place to go at break times was the school play ground. It was small
with a five foot wall surrounding on all four sides.
There was always a game of footie going on, so unless the likes of 
Appleby and Barrington-Babb wanted to be steam rolled by thirty footballers all
massed together in a big scrum you had to scale the wall pretty sharpish.
Remember the school had 350 children, so with 30 playing football that left
some 320 dangling precariously from the walls.
The boffins at the school who were not street football wise would often turn
their back on the raging inferno below, working out some chess moves or showing
off their collection of Peruvian first day covers.
You would of thought that with their incredible knowledge of physics and a deep
understanding of the Phythagoras theory they would have prepared themselves for
the inevitable.
Once Cliff Parker, the hardest shot in the fourth year, wiped out the entire
school quiz team of Ackford, Eden,
Jennings and
Clements with a right foot volley. The situation was further exacerbated in
that the quiz team were due to appear in the TV final of Top of the Form
against the girls from Stella Maris Convent that very evening.

CLOTHES

Duffle Coats
These were very popular for a time in the 1960s. On a cold day everyone would
turn up in a duffle coat, so to distinguish the two teams, one side would wear
their hoods up, while the other side wore them down.
For the casual observer it looked like some obscure set of Belgian, Trappist
monks who brew their own wheat beer for sale in expensive supermarkets.
When it rained the steam coming from thirty or so called duffle coats was
enough to turn the pitch into the equivalent of Jack the Ripper’s smog filled London. By the end of a
game the temperature inside a duffle coat could reach levels hotter than the
sun. It was not uncommon for a winger, running down the flank at full pace to
self combust.

The Windcheater
The really trendy version had a tartan lining and was called a Harrington.
While researching this piece I was rather disappointed to find out it had been
named after the jacket worn by Ryan O’Neil, the love interest in the American
soap, Peyton Place.
This was a programme for mums only, but still the Harrington was dead cool.
There was also many cheaper copies, one of which I owned. I further lowered my
street football cred by getting my mum to sew cloth badges on one of the
sleeves. I had Portland
Lighthouse, Weymouth,
Clovelly, Bognor Regis, the New Forest, a
Stingray WASP badge  and St Tropez.

The School Jumper
The grey school jumper was often worn as everyone had one. The only time it had
any use was playing Robin Hood, Ivanhoe or Richard the Lion Heart in the school
playground.
When we pulled the jumper up at the back and over our head we thought it looked
like chain mail. If the jumper was on the small side it meant that your sword
and shield arms could hardly be lifted, which was a distinct disadvantage when
facing the Sheriff of Nottingham and his henchmen.