From Farnworth to Wembley

The Rose and Crown May 2002

From Farnworth Grammar School to Wembley

Cometh the hour, cometh the men from Farnworth

England versus Germany, 30 July 1966. On the day that England won the World Cup two Farnworth Grammar School boys had major parts

Alan Ball, (see extract 1, from Farnworth to Wembley), was the midfield dynamo, the engine of the England team. Alan Ball’s father, also called Alan, was born in Farnworth in 1925. He was a joiner by trade but also a professional footballer, manager and coach. At one stage he also managed the Rose and Crown public house on Market Street, now the RAC club. Alan Ball remembers that it had a massive back yard, ‘ideal for practising his football skills’. He had a distinguished sporting career at Farnworth Grammar School but ‘homework consisted of kicking a ball against a wall’. - It’s All About a Ball  by Alan Ball, WH Allen, 1978.

*****

The other ex Farnworth Grammar School boy to play a major part in that game was not on the pitch, but in the commentary box. That was the late Kenneth Wolstenholme, who coined the immortal lines

Some people are on the pitch.
They think it's all over.
It is now.

Wolstenholme's phrase became part of the English lexicon. "I never realised my 1966 words would have such an impact,"

What Ken could not know at the time was that he had created a haiku, a Japanese poem that must conform to a highly concentrated and rigid structure, three lines long, with a total of precisely 17 syllables.

Wolstenholme's words fit this miniature poetic template exactly and provide the perfect snapshot of that dramatic game at Wembley. "I'm a Japanese poet, am I?" he responded in deadpan fashion, when informed of the news. Kenneth was the BBC’s commentator for 23 FA cup finals and 5 World Cups.

*****

Kenneth

Wolstenholme

Francis Lee (left)

From Westhoughton to the World Cup

Francis Lee