The Liverpool ECHO always like to hear from our readers about what they read on our sports pages, but ahead of today’s historic Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool (2pm kick-off), which is the first to be played at Hill Dickinson Stadium, one got in touch to share some of his own work.
Gareth Owen is a lifelong Evertonian, who watched his first game in the 1940s, against Burnley, and who recently turned 90.
A writer by trade, he has had six poetry collections published, plus novels and plays, and for a number of years presented the BBC’s ‘Poetry Please!’ programme on Radio 4.
And before what could a pivotal match in the battle for European qualification between Everton, who are 10th, and Liverpool who are five points further up the table in fifth, Gareth has shared some of his work with the ECHO.
He said: “I was brought up in Ainsdale so aged 12 it was a bit of an adventure to go to Everton. Half a crown pocket money didn’t help. I think I went twice with my dad.
“Train to Bank Hall then the long walk along terraces with housewives on their knees scribbling their door steps. Great excitement as the stadium soaring above the houses came into view. Gwladys Street and the Boys’ Pen.”
Gareth, who now lives in Ludlow, names his favourite Everton players as: “Roy Vernon for his goalscoring and trickery in the box. The great Tommy Jones. Ted Sagar. Later Alex Young – such an elegant player. But the one I admired most and tried to base my own game on was Wally ‘Nobby’ Fielding. For his perceptive passing ability.”
But some of the poems Gareth has kindly shared with the ECHO, from his 2006 poetry book, Can We Have Our Ball Back, Please?, regard the club’s greatest-ever player, Dixie Dean, who remains Everton’s leading goalscorer in Merseyside derbies, and who sadly passed away, at the age of 73, after attending a match against Liverpool at Goodison Park in March 1980.
Read the poems HERE.
