Cherries celebrating their win against Wolves in the FA Cup. Picture: PA
I AM no sports fan, but I keep my eye on the [Cherries](http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/cherries/clubnews/) for old times sake.
Last week's FA Cup match with Wolverhampton sent me back to memories when I last watched them live, over 75 years ago.
We used to go as a family to watch our local football team which we called Boscombe, now known as AFC Bournemouth – then and now “The Cherries”.
These regular visits provide me with a sort-of confused memory: of the popular record of “Twelfth Street Rag” being played every week and the crowd stamping in time to it, making the stand rock in a terrifying way; of the Boscombe Silver Band playing on the pitch in the half-time interval, marching up and down with a funny little drum major leading it; of Ken Bird, the goalie, booting the heavy leather ball more than half way down the pitch, an astonishing feat to a four-year-old; of the crowds streaming back across King’s Park to get our buses home at the end and my father swinging me up to sit on his shoulders where I sat rubbing my fingers in his Brylcreem-ed hair.
And, in the midst of this whirl, there is a specific memory of one match, when 3rd Division South Boscombe faced First Division Wolverhampton Wanderers in an early round of the FA Cup.
The Wolves, with their new captain Billy Wright, totally outclassed the Cherries, but at the time the complaint was that they played dirty.
I looked it up recently and found this was on the 10th January 1948, just before my fourth birthday. The winner that day won the FA Cup the following season.
Perhaps that could be an omen for the Cherries.
Jeffrey Butcher