Poetry in motion thanks to Tom
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Hamilton man Thomas Clark hopes it’s poetry in motion for Selkirk in the Lowland League this season – and has contributed verse for a new book about the borders club.
With 16 clubs hoping to follow Edinburgh City into League Two, and coveted spots in next season’s League Cup and Challenge Cup, the stakes have never been higher for Lowland League sides.
But Selkirk have gone one better and launched their book ‘Selkirk FC vs The World’ last weekend, which is an anthology of football fiction that features 25 of poet-in-residence Thomas’s stories and verse, which were written during the 2015/16 season.
Over the course of the book’s 200 pages, the action ranges from a Subbuteo league in post-apocalypse Glasgow to the 1930 World Cup final, taking in plenty of the goings-on at Selkirk FC.
There was plenty to write about at Yarrow Park last season, with former Scotland and Hibenian striker Garry O’connor taking over in the dugout and bringing in a slew of signings, including defender Garry Kenneth, who was a Scottish Cup winner with Dundee United.
Selkirk might have found themselves in the bottom half of the league, but former Hamilton Grammar pupil Thomas (36) found plenty to inspire him.
“When you support one of the smaller clubs in Scotland you’ve got to have a good sense of humour,” he said.
“It’s a strange world in the lower leagues, and a lot of what I’ve written is trying to reflect that.
“The kind of daft things that happen down here that you couldn’t dream of happening at the bigger clubs.”
Thomas, who is originally from Fairhill, added: “I was playing in the East of Scotland League as it was then and got round the clubs.
“I was impressed with what they were doing at Selkirk and when my playing days were over I started to go to their games.
“They do a lot for charity off the pitch, like foodbank collections, and they’re a really good community club.
“I have been writing for about 10-15 years, but seriously in the last couple of years when I had a book ‘Intae the Snaw’ published.
“I spotted that Spurs, Bolton and Barnsley had poets-in-residence but there was never anything like that in Scotland.
“I asked the Selkirk committee if there was anything I could do as a tie-in to the club and they suggested thing.
“I don’t think they thought it would honestly take off, but Selkirk have had more publicity for that than they got for signing Garry O’connor!”
Thomas is only too happy to continue in his role for the 2016/17 season, which started last weekend, and relishes the challenge ahead.
He said: “In Scotland the idea of glorious failure comes as standard, but I think that’s true all over the world, if you look at it.
“Definitely the interesting football the poet-inresidence best and most fiction has been
When you support one of the smaller clubs you’ve got to have a good sense of humour
written about failure rather than success.
“I wouldn’t describe what happens here at Selkirk as failure, because it’s amazing that a town of our size is able to compete at this level at all, but it is a struggle.
“For me, that struggle is something that should be written about and celebrated, far more so than any cup final.”
Thomas’s work has been published in The Scotsman, The Sunday Mail and Bella Caledonia, and broadcast on ITV, BBC and Sky Sports.
He works in both English and in Scots language.
Thomas will be at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this month, with copies of the book costing £4.99, but it is also available as an ebook for £1.99.