Gary Strachan – "Write" Said Fred

Off The Wall Essays From Deep Within A Capricious Mind

Tag Archive for ‘football’

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Archie Gemmill’s Toffee Crisp

Six weeks ago I disclosed, via at least one literary pastiche, that I’d joined a local community choir. A move I’d taken after witnessing the collective joy on singers faces mid-refrain, as they tunefully accompanied my Marie Curie collection on Garforth Main Street. The groups attendance part of organised entertainment arranged for the massed crowds eagerly awaiting the arrival of Tour De Yorkshire cyclists. The audience predominantly exhibiting as much pleasure […]

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Till Death Us Do Part

The journey started on Wednesday 29th April 1970 when I was seven summers old. On jumping out of bed that particular morning my mood reflected the bright sunshine fulgently radiating through open drapes into my easterly facing bedroom. On leaving my bed chamber, I undertook my habitual sideways run down the stairs of my home in Low Fell, Gateshead. A sojourn that continued through the hall and living room, eventually […]

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“To The Man Cave!!”

Yours truly is sitting on the bed in casa Strachan’s spare room as I commence this monologue. My current domain, the smallest of the three upstairs chambers gracing my humble abode, which doubles as a man cave and occasional panic room. Its use as a panic room ordinarily manifests from a need to hide after forgetting to record cable TV shows for my wife. Either that or from incurring her wrath […]

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Best Get Warmed Up, Mick!!

I learned many useful life lessons as a child growing up in Low Fell, Gateshead. Amongst them was when it came to playing table football games my brother Ian was a flaming cheat. Our kid will have his own version of these events, but will never convince me he flicked the small plastic player to ‘kick’ the giant football, which was clearly stipulated within the rules of the game. Instead […]

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The Saving Mr Banks

It’s Tuesday morning and GJ Strachan is suffering from a severe case of writers block. Annoyingly, the ordinarily creative segment of my brain currently bereft of an inspirational epiphany or notion. Even the memories of my Gateshead childhood, which have proved so fertile in the past week, thus far unable to produce a narrative topic That being said, I won’t panic at the current paucity of ideas for populating the […]

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On Allerdene Field

It’s a rare occasion these days that I drive past the field bisecting the Leech and Allerdene estates in the southern Gateshead area of Low Fell. However, when I am back in the area I was raised, driving beside this triangular shaped field manifests a strange amalgam of warmth and sadness within yours truly. Warmth at numerous happy childhood memories playing football on this undulating sloped field, mixed with rueful […]

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Top Man

Yesterday saw the 7th anniversary of ex-Leeds United footballer Gary Speed’s passing. A tragic day when the player, who also served Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton and Sheffield United with distinction, was found hanged to death at his Cheshire home. On Saturday 7th April 1990, during a 2nd Division game against West Yorkshire rivals Bradford City, I was privileged to witness Speed’s first ever goal for Leeds United, at Elland Road. […]

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