The Old Boys Pen

[bazza76]

Was wondering if any of our members had any experience of "The Old Boys Pen".
Was reading Football Culture by Dave Kirby, excellent poet by the way the book is well worth buying, just £5 and the money goes to HJC.
Anyway, it just sounds like a great experience for a boy, the fathers leave the sons in the pen at the back of the kop, the kids penned in with a cage around them to protect them, whie the fathers watched the match on the kop, returning with food and drink at half time for their sons.
Would just like to hear about any experiences the likes of say Neil Young have had in the "Old Boys Pen".

[alunevans]

it was just before my time but my brother (6 years older) used to go in.

it sounded like some sort of bear pit to me. hardly the jolly japes you describe.

i remember he owned one of them parka coats with a furry head.

some lad set it on fire with a match while he was watching the game.

anytime anybody has ever spoken about the boys pen to me, it strikes me as a bit like lord of the flies happening at the side of a football pitch.

[bazza76]

it was just before my time but my brother (6 years older) used to go in.

it sounded like some sort of bear pit to me. hardly the jolly japes you describe.

i remember he owned one of them parka coats with a furry head.

some lad set it on fire with a match while he was watching the game.

anytime anybody has ever spoken about the boys pen to me, it strikes me as a bit like lord of the flies happening at the side of a football pitch.

wow, that sounds extreme, setting someone hood on fire lol. Not that it would be funny.
Kirbys poem makes it sounds like a good experience, here it is anyway.

Its fifteen minutes to kick off time
I'm in my seat, Block 109
I look around, I hear the noise
see lots of fathers with their boys.

The kids look happy, a marvelous sight
Hotdogs and burgers they all bite
they're all excited thats for sure
and with their dads they feel secure.

Although the surroundings have now all changed
the children's feelings are just the same
the middle classes have now arrived
but things were different for a sixties child.

I then look out across the Kop
to the right hand corner at the top
where up until the age of ten
I served my time in the old 'boys pen'.

For those of you who do not know
it was a place for kids to go
metal bars like a kind of cage
where little kopites came of age.

I remember the first time I went inside
Liverpool v Chelsea '65
a star struck boy who stood amazed
football was all we had those days.

You'd always see some kids from school
they came from all over Liverpool
little scousers every week
from Kirkby town right up to Speke.

The Kop was packed out in those days
but at half time, dad found a way
to fight his way through all the crowd
and feed his boy, he did me proud.

An 'Eccles cake' a sausage roll
a drink of Coke, god bless his soul
between the bars he'd pass it through
like feeding monkeys at the zoo.

And through those bars we used to stare
at all the kopites standing there
oh how we'd long to stand with them
and make that step from boys to men.

Some kids escaped now and again
it was a pretty dangerous game
it filled the kopites full of laughter
to see kids dangling from the rafters.

It had its own 'soprano' choir
you couldn't sing 'walk on' much higher
inside those bars kids sang with pride
but it sounded so funny from the other side.

When the match was over at 4.45
your dad would pick you up outside
dozens of kids , some big some small
stood opposite the pen by the old brick wall.

But that was how it was those days
no greedy players, no corporate ways
they recognized us 'opite cubs'
we were the future of the club.

Then at last it came my time
to leave this little world behind
I was at an age when every lad
didnt want to go the match with dad.

And so I passed out to the kop
that love affair has never stopped
I take my son to the occasional game
but this 'dad and lad' thing's not the same.

You never see young lads no more
who go the match in three's and fours
this city's children rue the day
when they took the old boys pen away.

The money men arrived in town
and in their wisdom pulled it down
they called it 'progress' but we read their thoughts
who needs children when adults pay more.

I now drift back to present day
I take my seat, watch the redmen play
a diehard red , Im the real McCoy
because I was groomed from a little boy.

That golden era has now passed by
but we all have memories you cannot buy
from apprentice kopites, now middle aged men
who served their time in the old boys pen.

[alunevans]

yeah its a great poem and i never experienced it myself, but it always sounded a bit crackers when people recount their boys pen stories to me.

[Dan]

Great poem

Thanks for posting it Bazza

[JRC]

It could be an absolute bear pit. I once got threatened with a shoeing at a game against Arsenal for 'being a cockney', which they could tell from my voice - I'm from Runcorn, with an accent to match. I managed to convince them only because some other kids recognised me as a regular.The reason I didn't have a scarf was beause I'd leant it to my (younger) mate who was crying because he'd had his robbed through the fence when he showed it to another kid.

Kids used to climb up and over and into the Kop like chimpanzees, through the scaffolding and rafters, fellers on the Kop cheering them on 20-30 feet above their heads. All good fun and character-forming though.

[Tinkerbitch]

Would just like to hear about any experiences the likes of say Neil Young have had in the "Old Boys Pen".[/QUOTE]

From my recall it was just called the boys pen, maybe you put the "old" in there especially for Neil Young.

It had a fiercesome reputation for boys and I don't know if any girls ever went near it, I certainly wouldn't have dared. Knocked around with a lot of kids who did though.The dad's used to take a perverse pride in seeing their sons get battered by older kids, one lad I knew got stripped of all his clothes- I don't know whether it was a joke, because his clothes weren't "right" or if he was just robbed.
It was looked on as a feeder pen for the Kop and you graduated to the Kop when you proved you were big enough and tough enough to look after yourself.
I can remember seeing kids climbing over the fencing which was very high and looked like it was made of chicken mesh. Happy days!

[scully]

I was having a hard enough time as a scouse lad at a Wigan school and used to nearly **** myself whenever my dad said I should go into that pen. Since when did "character-forming" become another word for "traumatising"?

[kev776]

The pen was a nightmare but great fun, I used to dread going in there but once "locked up" we had great fun, it was the same kids each week but that was the only time we saw each other, there was me from "Kenny" , 2 lads from Dingle and a ginger eaded ******* from Speke (my dad works at halewood) who always climbed the railings.

From what I remember of the "wall", no kids went near it because thats where all the dads relieved themeslves during the match, most had had a few sherberts and didnt want to trudge down to the toilets so the wall always had a rainbow of urine over it.

The kop in those days really was a dirty smelly place and the toilets were a health and safety nightmare.

Great days.

[Howard_lfc]

Was wondering if any of our members had any experience of "The Old Boys Pen".

I used to go in the Boys Pen. It was right up in the top corner between the Kop and the Main Stand. I always remember watching keegan in there and having some girls scream each time he got the ball !!

In the bottom right hand corner of the BP - one of the bars/railings had been bent and you could squeeze through into the Kop - but there was usually a steward by the railing preventing this. Anyway - one day me and my younger bro' managed to sneak through into the Kop. I thought it was great - in with all the big lads - but my bro started to cry so we had to ask the steward to let us back into the BP !!

it was just before my time but my brother (6 years older) used to go in.

it sounded like some sort of bear pit to me. hardly the jolly japes you describe.

i remember he owned one of them parka coats with a furry head.

some lad set it on fire with a match while he was watching the game.

anytime anybody has ever spoken about the boys pen to me, it strikes me as a bit like lord of the flies happening at the side of a football pitch.

I was with your John when his hood was set on fire. IIRC it was the 7-0 game against Spurs - although it was so long ago I may be mistaken.

[kewellnthegang]

used to go in there regularly

as with the kop at the time even with "us" young uns in there there were some right scallies about
i remember i wore a scarf tot he games then - round me neck - and after we scored and rushed forward some scallie robbed it then disappeared in the crowd the ****

of course the other thing about there was ya paid next to feck all to get in then spent the rest of ya time trying to scale the wall into the "big boys" kop


ahh happy days

[Rocket]

took me fair share of beatings in the pen. those days were tough

[kewellnthegang]

took me fair share of beatings in the pen. those days were tough

be nice to see them again in that case

[Shanks65]

took me fair share of beatings in the pen.

Good to hear

[RedJedi]

I filmed Dave a few years ago at Anfield.

Boss lad, his plays are well funny as well.


The old boys pen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raxRamAsk4Q

Football Culture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43JywUmeldE

A year last May

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUMP8oyzAek