Footballing Stories from Suffolk

In addition to delivering our programme in schools, care homes and community settings, Extra Time has also spent the last year or so collecting peoples’ stories about football – and putting them in a box.

From recollections of winning goals and international championships to the sense of community and companionship being part of the game creates, the stories have been curated into a ‘memory box’ – and yesterday we shared the collection with members of the Sporting Memories group that meet at the Hold in Ipswich.

Several of the members had contributed stories and were delighted to hear them again – although one gentleman did comment that he didn’t realise that he sounded ‘so Suffolk’.

The stories are presented as a pack of photographs, each with a brief description of the story to which it relates.

By tapping the card (gently) on the wooden panel in the box, it triggers the audio recording that plays through the speaker on the left.

With over 40 photographs in the pack, there’s a lot to choose from – and there is also a companion booklet with a printed version of each story, so that people can read them at a more leisurely pace.

The stories are many and varied, and by way of example we’d like to share this particular one with you; many of you may know him as a poet, but how many of you knew that he’s also a wannabe goalkeeper?