'Into Extra Time' - Ian McMillan

Ian McMillan
Adrian Mealing

We are honoured and delighted to share a specially commissioned poem by our ambassador, the Barnsley Bard himself, Ian McMillan.

The writer and broadcaster kindly donated this work to help us celebrate National Sporting Heritage Day 2018, capturing the evocative memories our sporting collections hold within. We hope you enjoy!

Into Extra Time

These memories sit on the subs’ bench
Until you need them. Then they arrive
Straight down the tunnel, onto the pitch:
When they scored four and we scored five.
I’ve got the programme here, look:
I’ve got the folded back page story
Got the match ball chucked to the crowd
On that day we strode to glory

And this is heritage, loud and clear,
Like Stonehenge or a village church
These are stories that need to be told:
You knocked the big boys off their perch
The crowd spilled onto the singing streets
You saw your hero, they signed your shirt,
Here is history in your grandad’s bat
Here’s Auntie Susan and Uncle Bert

Getting married at the season’s end
The cake in the shape of a rugby ball;
All these objects, so sublime
All these stories: tell them all
Pin them up or make them rhyme
They take us into extra time!

 

©️Ian McMillan. @IMcMillan

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