A celebration of football stories

When asked to record some of their personal football stories, residents and staff at Britten Court were keen to oblige; among the many and varied tales were accounts of prized photographs of famous players, the exhilaration of a first match and a brother’s passion for Norwich City.

This week, we returned to Britten Court with the Box of Footballing Stories from Suffolk, and residents were delighted to hear themselves talking; we listened to a few of the stories together, as a group, and the Box will remain at Britten Court for a few weeks, so that many more residents get the chance to enjoy it.

The residents spent the rest of the morning creating beautiful, highly-personalised rosettes, using all manner of paper, jewels and images to decorate them.

The rosettes will be added to the Extra Time Lowestoft football banner, once we complete the programme there next spring.

The afternoon was spent at Northfield St Nicholas Primary Academy with the whole of Year 5, introducing the children to numerous stories about football in Lowestoft, by way of the Archive All-Stars.

They heard about factory teams like the Bally Boys and Co-op Ladies, the astounding success of the Waves and the wholehearted commitment of a certain fan to ringing a bell every time the Trawlermen scored.

Each child then created their own version of an Archive All-Star (with one or two international players thrown in for good measure) and the afternoon concluded with one of noisiest and most enjoyable football games I’ve ever attended.