Sometimes what you need is a good rallying cry - or sometimes just an actual one. In the case of Bury FC, one of the oldest football clubs in England, times really are tough. Despite its proud 124 year history the club is in financial dire straits - the last chance saloon of football. Threatened with expulsion by the football league if they don’t put their financial affairs in order, Bury will (if no solution can be found) cease to be a league club today.
Chris Bainbridge, the well known ‘Bard of Bury’ has been a proud supporter of the club for many years and knows just what the death of the football club would do for this proud community. He recently dedicated his poem ‘If Ever’ to those trying to keep the club alive and it’s a beautiful piece of writing. While Chris admits this was not the original intention of the poem (indeed he wrote it over thirty years ago) it’s a fitting tribute to everyone fighting for the club.
It’s a piece which is filled with inherent danger but yet encapsulates the everlasting hope that somehow - we don’t know how, we’ll make it through to the other side.
We can only hope that Bury FC are still about to raise a glass in a few days time.
IF EVER
If ever we get through all this
We'll sit content on the other side,
And laugh, and tell our stirring tales
About the times we nearly died.
We'll raise a glass or two, my friend,
And bask in reminiscent glow,
The laws of logic we defied,
The risks we ran, God only knows.
Beyond the struggle is a land
Of freedom, truth and lasting bliss,
All mysteries we'll understand -
If ever we get through all this.
