Elvis Presley Live At The Rose Bowl

Date: 28th September 2010

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

In Willy Russell's play Our Day Out a group of Liverpool schoolchildren discover a few things about both themselves and their teachers on a trip to North Wales. Eventually, though, they have to return home, and the audience wonders if anybody has been truly changed by the experience. Yet there remains something wonderfully liberating about travel, and so it was not very remarkable that Firwood Bootle's appearance at the Rose Bowl for the Cockspur Rum Club Twenty20 Finals Day offered us a glimpse of respected Liverpool Competition personalities conducting themselves in unexpected ways.

We discovered, for example, that Kevin Wilson, umpiring's Mighty Atom, is not only pint-sized but also pint-loving, a characteristic he shares with the future Bootle scorer, Alan Majewska, whose scoring arm is regularly strengthened by weight training with large flagons of Guinness. Then there was the curious incident when Eric Hadfield and Ray Lavin were in a car and the windows got steamed up. Rumour has it that Ray's attempt to solve the problem cleared a slit that even the driver of a Chieftain tank would have considered narrow, all of which attracted the attention of the local constabulary. Thus, the men in white had to explain themselves to the boys in blue.

But it was Bootle's day of course. Even the entertaining sight of the Competition Secretary Chris Weston on the verge of spontaneous combustion when Sky's Charles Colville announced that there were no premier leagues in Lancashire could not change that. And at around eleven o'clock in trooped the Wadham Road supporters. The boisterous crowd who spend their weekends following their team in league and cup were not going to miss their day in the national spotlight. It was good to see them, as it was to see the supporters of the other three teams. It reminded one of the link between the Test arena and club cricket and the fact that the former could not function without the latter. But more of that on another occasion.

For over half their semi-final Bootle and South Northumberland seemed evenly matched. The North East Premier League team's total of 107-8 did not seem too formidable and when Neil Williams took six runs off Steve Humble's first over, hopes were raised of floodlit glory. Eventually, though, the hard-nosed professionalism of the South Northumberland attack throttled the run-rate and Bootle finished 20 runs short of their target. Well beaten but not outclassed probably sums it up. David Snellgrove paid tribute to his young team, and many players and supporters stayed on to watch Swardeston's memorable victory over South North in the final, a result which prompted a revived Kevin Wilson to congratulate the winning captain's stepmother. And then congratulate her again. And then resuscitate her. It was a lively evening

And at the end of it all, one found it easy to feel a sense of pride in our league. Many of the people at the Rose Bowl last Thursday had no connection with Bootle other than the fact that the Wadham Road side were representing the Bridging Finance Solutions Liverpool Competition. Yet members of perhaps six other clubs made the journey to Hampshire to lend their support. "Community" is a much over-used word, but it seems reasonable to apply it to the Comp., and it's worth remembering that when our debates become overheated. It takes a lot of good clubs to make a good league.

The sponsors' hospitality was excellent too. "If he has another drink, he'll be on the table doing his Elvis Presley impression," the wife of an august Competition official is alleged to have said. Sadly, it never happened, and all too soon, it was time to go home, although the Bootle coach saw fit to take vengeance on club chairman Ray Leary by leaving him languishing in Hampshire. For others, the journey north was a riot of entertainment and laughter. Those of you who haven't heard Ray Rigby explain the changes to the Road Traffic Act in the period 1965-1985 have really never lived. It made the long miles between Walsall and West Bromwich simply float by. Nor would you pay good money to watch Peter Kay if you could listen to Alan Majewska explain the various methods of public transport one could use to get to Barnoldswick for an F A Cup tie. "Interesting" really isn't the word for it. In the glove compartment Kevin Wilson dozed on and bore more than a passing resemblance to the dormouse in Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps he was dreaming of pint glasses, a captain's stepmother and Elvis Presley performing at the Rose Bowl........