Elgar’s football team

Elgar loved his football, particularly the Wolverhampton team.  His friend Dorebella recalled the first match he attended at Wolverhampton:

It all delighted him. The dense crowd flowing down the road like a river; the roar of welcome as the rival teams came on to the ground; the shouts of men calling to their player friends by their Christian names – usually considerably shortened; the staccato ‘Aw!’ at a mishap (a most remarkable sound from a crowd of 60,000); and the deafening roar that greeted a goal. (1)

In 1898, after a game, he was so impressed with the the wording of a newspaper article that described a successful shot as “he banged on the leather for goal”, that he wrote an impromptu short tune to these words.

It is not known if it was ever performed in his lifetime, but was recently performed in a 2010 at a fundraiser concert at St. Peter’s Collegiate Church in Wolverhampton. (2)

(1) Dorabella Cipher, Memories of a Variation. 
(2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11411360

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