Extra Time

With a flourish of mascots, rattles and scarves, Extra Time brings on our intergenerational teams to share their personal experiences of the beautiful game.

From wearing the teams’ colours and singing the songs to always buying a programme or sitting in the same chair during a match, football is full of rituals and traditions; by bringing different generations together, both face-to-face and through linked activities, our aim is to discover, share and celebrate some of these personal stories.

The first step was to take a team of artists into Suffolk Archives in Lowestoft and The Hold in Ipswich, to identify original documents such as press cuttings from the Lowestoft Journal and Waveney Advertiser, often dating back several decades. We also consulted and met with county museums to ‘borrow’ football-related items from their collections.

Inspired by these cuttings, photographs and artefacts, the artists devised a programme of creative sessions, which they have been delivering in primary schools and care homes in Lowestoft, Halesworth and Leiston, creating unique artworks and vibrant interpretations of archive collections together with a broader understanding of Suffolk’s rich footballing heritage.

We have also created three Football Story Boxes, informed by members of Ipswich and Lowestoft sporting memory groups and Ipswich Town Heritage Society, to capture individuals’ stories and images; these Story Boxes will be available for other care homes and community groups across the county to share and enjoy.

A fourth Story Box will be dedicated exclusively to women’s football in the county. From the Lowestoft Waves winning the FA Cup in 1982 to munitions factory workers during the war, by way of individual anecdotes and mementoes, Extra Time will create a brand new – and possibly surprising – addition to the archives.

The project has already delivered numerous one-off sessions in community settings, care homes and other schools in the east of the county and has several more planned, including a return match at First Light in June 2025.

Extra Time is informed by material first produced by local newspapers such as the Lowestoft Journal and the Waveney Advertiser, as well as programmes, works magazines and Club histories and photographs; we are indebted to all who produced the original material and thank you for allowing us to share it with schools and care homes in Suffolk.

Extra Time is made possible through the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Lowestoft Rising and the Association for Suffolk Museums. It is a partner project with Suffolk Archives and runs from June 2023 to October 2025.

With thanks to National Lottery players.

What inspired this project?

It was at a tea party last summer, hosted by Beech House Care Home, that we heard this conversation between a nine-year-old school girl and an 83-year-old resident.

The resident asked the girl if she was looking forward to going up to ‘big’ school.

The girl thought about it for a minute and then said that she was, except for one thing.

“I love playing football,” she explained. “I can do it at the school I’m at now, but when I go up to high school, I won’t be able to play it.”

The resident was outraged.

“When I was a little girl,” she said, “I wanted to play football at school, but girls weren’t allowed to, back then. I would have thought that things had changed by now.”

The girl was surprised, because she hadn’t imagined any of the residents wanting to play football ‘back then’ and the resident was surprised that this young girl would not be able to pursue her keen interest in the sport.

Here was a moment of connection – inspired by football.

It set us thinking about all the other connections there might be; football is a sport that’s steeped in cultural, social and personal traditions; how better to celebrate that than by connecting different generations and having a little Extra Time to talk about them together?

Impact

With a flourish of mascots, rattles and scarves, Extra Time brings on our intergenerational teams to share their personal experiences of the beautiful game.

We have created a Souvenir Programme from the first season of Extra Time. Click links below to find out more about the highlights of each season so far.

Extra Time Souvenir Programme 1 (PDF)

Extra Time Souvenir Programme 1 (Text version)

Extra Time Souvenir Programme 2 (PDF)

Extra Time Souvenir Programme 2 (Text version)

Extra Time Souvenir Programme 3 (PDF)

Extra Time Souvenir Programme 3 (Text version)