Elsewhere in the tournament
The Germans went through
4-0 they won their game
But quite a to do.
Uruguay finished with only nine men
Two down the tunnel
So all over then.
There’s mounting excitement
Round Wickrath by then
But the rivalry’s unspoken.
You must understand
As we build to that match
That we lived side by side
But wouldn’t mix much.
Before we go further
I ought to explain
That we travelled a lot
Each place felt the same.
Every place a cLike our Aldershot home
Rheindahlen,
where we went to school was big as it got,
Joint Headquarters for Allied Troops.
We’d bus there from Wickrath
Most every day
But only meet one German
As we went on our way.
We’d wait till everyone
Was on the bus
Then someone we’d say,
‘Alles Farah’
And he’d drive us away.
So we hardly saw Germans
And spoke to them less.
There’s a story about this
That still makes me cross
Of how at school
When they gave us a ‘choice’
They made me learn Latin
No German at all.
So what German I learned
I picked up here and there
Or got out of comics
And stories of war.
So think back to our leisure
When we’re kicking a ball
It’d just all us English
No Germans at all.
Andrew Green's Poems 