"We had a field at the back our house in Bolton"

    

"At the back of our house was a football field. It belonged to Canon Slade School. It was a full size pitch, with proper goal posts . This didn't interest us, we could make our own goal posts, what mattered is that it was great for a game of football . We were all junior school age,different ages,different sizes,different abilities,all boys and all there to play football. Teams were picked by the captains, we knew who they were ,they were the best players . Nobody was jealous, they were the best and that was the way it was .You wanted good guys on your team , it was a team game , we all understood that. The two captains took it in turn to pick. Obviously they went for the best players first, I was never picked first ,or last, but it didn't matter we all understood.Whether you were picked first or last ,whether you were good mediocre or bad you still had a chance of winning, sharing in the glory.The team respected everyone, if a side was on top the poorer players were set up for a goal. If the teams were one sided a swap round would take place.No adults, no referee,no off sides ,we all got it and played for hours . I say no off sides but to be called a titty liner was the ultimate insult . Nobody liked a titty liner . Late tackles were laughed off, shoulder charges were fine ,shirt pulling was allowed,and dead legs or one in the balls got a crowd round as the recipient basked in a masochistic glory. We had half time ,drink breaks and a few injuries, but everyone was back the day after.  Obviously there was no spitting biting or pulling hair, there wasn't even much bad language . I really did believe my Mum would wash my mouth out with soap and water."