The Crack
Well, we did eventually manage to have a bit of a knock-about in Ieper, but not the full-scale game that we had hoped for. Instead, we found Glyn, Peter and Matthieu playing keepie-uppie in the field next to our campsite. As so often happens when it’s underway, The Ball quickly became a source of fascination and a little puzzlement. Once we’d explained what it was all about, Phil and I donned our KVK Ieper shirts and joined in the kickabout.
The Team
Excess emotional baggage
Check out the BBC’s Excess Baggage site for more details about the programme.
There’s also a great write-up of our project on The Guardian’s website and an article in German on the Focus online website if you’re into reading the coverage we get.
KVK Ieper Stadium
We look for the legacy of the Christmas Truce game with a visit to KVK Ieper and have a chat and a kickabout with the club chairman, Rik Verstraete.
Rik Verstraete, Chairman of KVK Ieper
A Colonel of the Grenadier Guards signs The Ball
Would these people have become great footballers if they hadn’t sadly died in the first world war?
Honouring the fallen of the first world war
This video follows on from this one if you’re wondering about the abrupt start…
Arrivals, as it says
Since we left you hanging over the edge of the White Cliffs of Dover in our last post, this one is meant to reduce your stress levels as the World Cup approaches. I’m sure the media are whipping the populations of their various countries into a footballing frenzies, and, to paraphrase the great Douglas Adams, there are enough stresses in the world without inventing new ones to add to the real ones. So we’re giving you a slight spoiler for the next episode.
We did make it to France (was there ever any doubt?) and the Phantom Fouler’s efforts to impede the progress of The Ball didn’t pay off in the long run — but more of that in the next installment…
The Phantom Fouler
So The Ball has left Battersea Park and is now bouncing its way to Europe. Phil and I have reached the most iconic stretch of English coastline there is: the White Cliffs of Dover. Last time, in 2002, we kicked a long ball straight across the Channel to a beach near Calais… and the idea was to do the same this year. Until the (in)famous Phantom Fouler intervened, that is…
The Phantom Fouler in Xi’an
If you haven’t come across him before, he’s the Terracotta Warrior who ruthlessly hacked Phil down in Xi’an, providing us with the free-kick that took us direct to Tiananmen Square. You can watch the video in this post from 2002, or read the story in this post.
So then, will The Ball make it across the Channel? Will “fair play” win out in the end? Watch the next episode to find out if we make it…
