Soldier's Game
Page 8
The final whistle blew and the game ended at two-all with a penalty shoot-out. Ying looked white-faced and grim.
“I think I might vomit,” he said.
Barry pulled him aside.
“Remember, a penalty shoot-out is no-lose situation for a goalie,” he said. “All the pressure is on the shooters.”
But Ying looked no more reassured.
Bruntsfield won the toss and Ross was first up to shoot. He made it in with an easy chip. After five more shots, the score was three-all. Calum Mitchell lined up for his turn but scooped the ball high over the crossbar. All the Clermiston players mobbed their goalie as though the match was already won.
Ying lined up for the next shot, looking pale but surprisingly determined – waving his arms to distract the Clermiston player. The shooter faked left but was slow in changing direction. Ying read it perfectly and easily deflected the ball.
On the next shot Rory Burn made it five-four to Bruntsfield. The pressure was again on Ying.
The next Clermiston shooter came forward – a large red-haired boy who took so long positioning the ball the referee had to hurry him up. The player then took one step and drilled the shot hard but straight. It hit Ying square in the middle and he looked down in disbelief to find the ball tucked in his arms.
A wild cheer erupted from the sidelines and Ross and the rest of the team rushed forward and hoisted Ying onto their shoulders. Over on the far end the S1 boys punched the air in triumph. Ross caught sight of Muir who gave him a sly thumbs-up, and it was good to see the guy could forget he was a creep, even if just for a moment.
The Bruntsfield P7s would later be knocked out in the semi-finals but that day they were winners. Barry invited all the players and parents back to his house for a barbeque. He set up an old stereo turntable in the garden and played scratchy jazz records. They ate sausages and hamburgers and later, much to the players’ horror, a few of the parents even felt inspired to dance.
In the evening when Pat walked Ross home again she put an arm around his shoulder.
“That was some goal,” she said. “You should listen more to your granny.”
***
Another good thing happened a few days later. A letter awaited Ross one afternoon when he arrived home from school. On the envelope was the official Hearts crest. Ross tore it open and inside were two tickets to the season opener – Hearts v Dundee United. There was also a compliments slip with a mysterious note from Mr Kemp: “Look out for a surprise.”
The Saturday arrived and Ross of course invited Pat to go with him to the match. The seats were possibly the best in the stadium – midfield, halfway up the stand. They sat down and got settled just as the Hearts players ran out onto the pitch for their warm-up.
Ross was studying his programme when he heard Pat exclaim, “Oh my word!”
He looked up to see her staring in astonishment, and followed her gaze across the pitch. Among the huge posters of famous past Hearts players that decorated the far stand – Tommy Walker, John Cumming, Drew Busby, Steven Pressley – was a new one. Twenty feet high, arms folded and beaming with that same confident grin, stood Jack Jordan, towering over the crowd, eighteen years old and forever fresh with promise.
Acknowledgements
Ross, Jack Jordan, his family and some of the characters in this book – including Hugh Wilson and Albert Ripley – are fictional, but the story of the 16th Royal Scots “Hearts Battalion” is a true one. The events are based on real accounts though some particular details have been altered and invented for reasons of plot. But I have attempted to remain true to the story and the period.
This book owes much to the excellent history of the “Hearts Battalion” by Jack Alexander: McCrae’s Battalion: The Story of the 16th Royal Scots (Mainstream Publishing, 2004). It is a fascinating and painstakingly researched though readable book packed with detail and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the 16th Royal Scots and World War I.
I would like to thank David Speed, club historian at the Heart of Midlothian, and Craig Murray of the Imperial War Museum who both made comments on the manuscript, though any deviations from historical fact – intentional or not – are entirely my own. I would also like to thank Jim Wilson for his help with football terminology and Alan “Let’s make some noise” Duffy for his generous introduction to Tynecastle.
Thanks also to my editor at Floris Books, Sally Polson, and my wife Ann – both of whom made many helpful suggestions on the manuscript.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the 2008 Bruntsfield P7 girls football team – players and parents – who gave an untutored American an insight into the game and many hours of excitement and enjoyment.
Did you know?
World War I
The Great War – or World War I as it came to be known – began in August 1914 when Germany invaded France and Belgium, drawing Britain into the Europe-wide conflict.
Over 65 million soldiers fought in the war, an estimated 21 million men were injured and 8.5 million died, significantly more than the entire population of Scotland today.
Officers were killed in greater proportions than regular soldiers as they carried revolvers rather than rifles and were easy to spot by the enemy.
The youngest casualty of WW1 is thought to be Private John Condon of the 2nd Royal Irish Regiment who was just fourteen when he was reported missing, presumed dead on 24 May 1915.
Much of the conflict was fought in a bloody stalemate along a twisting 472-mile line known as the Western Front, which stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss frontier.
Among the major battles fought along the Western Front was that of the Somme, which began on 1 July 1916 and lasted until that November.
America entered the war in 1917, which helped to break the stalemate in favour of the Allies. The war came to an end at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
The Great War was also known in later years as the War to End All Wars. Sadly this would not be the case when, just 21 years later, the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler sent German forces into Poland, sparking World War II.
Among new weapons introduced or used widely for the first time in World War I were the machine-gun, the tank, poison gas, U-boats, and aeroplanes and Zeppelins for aerial bombardment.
On 2 April 1916, two German Zeppelins sailed across the North Sea and dropped bombs on Leith and central Edinburgh, causing several deaths, with one bomb hitting the Castle rock.
Hundreds of memorials were commissioned across Britain to commemorate the men who died in The Great War, from simple plaques in churches, to stone monuments such as the Hearts Memorial, to the grand Cenotaph in London.
Fields of red Flanders poppies grew along the Western Front after the war, inspiring the British Legion to sell paper poppies to raise funds for wounded soldiers, as it still does today.
More than a million British women went to work in munitions factories during WWI. Emboldened by this contribution to the war effort, they demanded and won limited voting rights in 1918, with full rights granted in 1928 for all adults over 21.
The Battle of the Somme
On the first day of battle at the Somme the British army suffered its worst one-day combat loss in history with 19,240 soldiers dead, 35,493 wounded and 2,152 missing.
The Somme was also the first time the tank was used in battle.
British “sappers” – many of them miners back home – dug deep tunnels under the German lines to plant huge explosive mines. Sometimes in digging they broke through into enemy tunnels and had to engage German sappers in hand-to-hand combat underground.
By the end of the Somme offensive, British and French troops had penetrated no more than six miles into occupied German territory.
On 7 October 1916, a German soldier from the 6th Bavarian Reserves was wounded at the Somme. His name was Adolf Hitler.
Heart of Midlothian FC
Heart of Midlothian football club was founded in Edinburgh around 1874 an
d first played in East Meadows Park, with players changing in the upstairs room of a local tavern.
The club began wearing its characteristic maroon in 1877 and moved to the present site of Tynecastle stadium in 1886.
Under the leadership of manager John McCartney, Hearts fielded one the best squads in the club’s history in 1914 when war broke out.
Military training took its toil and, though heavily favoured to be League Champions, the club lost out to Celtic by only four points in the 1914–15 season.
Three Hearts players and uncounted fans lost their lives in that first day of fighting at the Somme, including Harry Wattie, Ernie Ellis and Duncan Currie.
In 1922 supporters and friends of Heart of Midlothian erected a memorial to the singular sacrifice of the football club in the First World War. In 2009 the clock tower was temporarily moved from its place at Haymarket junction and put into storage to make way for the Edinburgh tram works.
Copyright
Kelpies is an imprint of Floris Books
Published in 2012 by Floris Books
© 2011 James Killgore
James Killgore has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the prior permission of Floris Books, 15 Harrison Gardens, Edinburgh
www.florisbooks.co.uk
British Library CIP Data available
ISBN 978–086315–935–0