Malvern: The light of life — Terrace Edition

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Tom Reed

Shot on film and digital where stated.

Football can be a cruel sport, not just overtly, as with a terrible injury to a much-loved player but with a creeping realisation that the better team is not going to win.

The cruelty is in the wait for the inevitable nil-one defeat against the run of play, when a five-nil victory could and have should have happened, as at Malvern Town FC in the FA Cup on Saturday.

But cruelty needs joy as a counterpart, as long-time Malvern resident Edward Elgar found with his classical music compositions, such as “The Light Of Life” based on the story of Jesus's miracle in giving sight to the blind man.

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to get blind drunk or not far off it, in the Unicorn pub in Great Malvern and it’s said that Lewis had inspiration for “The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe” from stumbling upon a gas lamp outside in the snow.

No wonder the Morgan motorcar was built in Malvern (and still is) because you need some petrol powered transport in the town that is all up and down and hugged by the hills behind.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. CS Lewis plaque. The Unicorn. Great Malvern. On film.

Malvern boomed as a spa centre due to its natural spring and “water cure” fad which had the likes of Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale and a young Franklin D. Roosevelt arrive to receive the miracle liquid from St Anne’s Well.

Analysis into the water in 1757 by Dr John Wall found the Malvern spring water contained little of anything remarkable and maybe it was the realisation that there was nothing in reality to protect humans from the torment of nature that made Lewis and Tolkien delve deeper into their beer induced fantasy lands, after a night at the Unicorn.

The Malvern hills loom over everything here, both reassuring and threatening and they provide one of the most scenic backdrops to a sports ground in England at Malvern Town FC.

The football ground is walkable from Great Malvern but then you have the inclines on the way back which make your calves tense before you’ve even started. Thankfully, you’re met on the gate by the charming Ron, one of those part-of-the-furniture characters that he may as well be built of oak, that make non-League football what it is.

He proudly wears a badge on his cap, given by the Football Association for a 50 year service to football. He’s been the Malvern Town groundsman and survived leukaemia but talks most animatedly about his time as a referee in local football.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Ron. Malvern Town FC. On film.

“I booked this chap and asked him for his his name.”

“Donald Duck he replied”.

“What’s your real name, I asked?”.

“Donald Duck, he said”.

“Right Donald, you’re going in the book as you’re driving me quackers”.

“The next week I booked a man said his name was Elvis Presley and it turned out he actually had changed his name to Elvis Presley”.

The experience doesn’t seem to have left Ron all shook up, not even when he recalls a player rubbing his bald head before the match, with what turned out to be Deep Heat, making for an uncomfortable ninety minutes officiating.

Friendliness abounds at Malvern, from the guy selling the programmes, to the young couple Neil and Ellie in their beautiful Malvern jerseys with the River Plate cross band, designed by Hope and Glory.

They support Aston Villa and Wolves respectively too, as is common with the proximity to the Midlands, and any Villa fan will be pleased to know that Malvern’s grandstand is replete with light blue seats salvaged from Villa Park’s North Stand.

Then there’s Anne Clack, 86 years-old and still going home and away with Malvern Town. An elegant lady, with a winning smile, she chuckles at the suggestion of being born in a maternity home.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Anne Clack. Malvern Town FC. On film.

“We were just born in houses on the Wyche Cutting” she says, as she describes all the jobs she does at the club, including buying the sweets for the sweet box for the players.

“I’d live here if I could”, she says, summing up the feeling of all us football fanatics who can’t wait for the Summer’s end to leather on willow and the return of that reassuring sound of skewed football clattering off fences.

Malvern’s a grafter’s club with the Malvern Town Independent Supporters Association selling their nifty bucket hats on the well-stocked merch stall. Meanwhile, Chairman Chris Pinder, who defines a “hands on” attitude, is seen on the roof of the stand and helping fix the PA pre-match.

The Hillsiders are a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, so Pinder’s clearly not in it for the money, not that there is much in non-League and so it makes sense to have another pint of Cruzcampo in the well laid-out supporters bar before the FA Cup 1st Round Qualifying tie against Cleethorpes Town.

The work ethic seems to extend to the Malvern Town players, one of whom is a teacher in London for a day-job, coming up to Malvern to play his football, which speaks of the affinity for the place.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Malvern Town FC. On film.

The game goes by as a succession of one-on-ones for Malvern, which they somehow manage to miss. The hills darken, and even with a red card for Cleethorpes there’s a feeling of something avoidably unavoidable.

In the 89th minute, Will Annan broke the Malvern offside trap, turned and smacked a belter into the top corner from 20 yards for the visitors.

“Are we not really an increasingly cruel age?” wrote C.S. Lewis but the Malvern Town supporters congratulated the travelling Cleethorpes fans, the players crunched on Anne’s sweets and the regulars in the bar found time to laugh over pints of Cruzcampo.

Ron’s on his scooter, he’s going to do someone’s garden.

Even in harsh defeat, maybe football can counteract the cruelty of life and clubs like Malvern Town FC be the fantasy that we all drift off to?