The Football Match
It's of a football match, most delightful to be seen,
Of twenty-two young rippling lads who played on Salisbury plain.
Oh, the ribbons and the favors they was fluttering o'er the plain;
Here's a health unto those rippling lads, and so the game went on.
CHO: You rippling lads, hooray!
You're sure to win the day,
And the prize, you will carry it
All away, all away.
The ball it has been thrown up and the game it did begin;
My God, how they did kick it, more like devils than like men.
They're having such a motion in rushing it all along,
Here's a health unto those rippling lads, and so the game went on.
CHO: You rippling lads, hooray!
You're sure to win the day,
And the prize, you will carry it
All away, all away.
The ball it being booted up, the goal it did draw nigh,
Young Williams stuck a penknife into young Jackson's thigh.
He lashed out at the lively ball, to score was his intent,
Young Williams missed his aim and through the goal he went.
CHO: You rippling lads, hooray!
You now have won the day,
And the prize, you may carry it
All away, all away.
Lloyd believes this song is likely describing one of the very rough games
traditionally played on Shrove Tuesday between lads in rival English
villages. He says "It is no ordinary game when players are lightheart-
edly stabbed with penknives." AJS
"THE FOOTBALL MATCH," sung by AL Lloyd, on Champions and Sporting
Blades.
AJS
oct97
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!