{"id":553,"date":"2020-03-01T09:37:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T09:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2020-03-01T09:37:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-01T09:37:20","slug":"tottenham-hotspur-1908","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham Hotspur, 1908"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was Knowledge who noticed it. I could see him through the thick fog as he was standing just in front of me. Behind his horn-rimmed spectacles I could make out a look of urgent wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPut your fakes out, yow lot!\u201d he shouted quickly, turning back across the Tottenham marshes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGet lost, Knowledge,\u201d was the mildest comment I heard. I struck a Swan Vestas and lit the Navy Cut Wes Gibbs had given me before he\u2019d disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerton\u2019s gone,\u201d called a voice some yards to my right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTommy Knight\u2019s gone,\u201d called another, to my left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPut your cigarettes out!\u201d said Knowledge, more urgently this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTanner\u2019s gone,\u201d called a voice behind me. Then another, near to it, announced that Elijah Phelps was missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowledge would have been jumping up and down if he could. None of us could. \u201cListen to me, you wazzocks! This\u2026 thing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe monster,\u201d said Wes Gibbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Marsh Thing,\u201d said Nobby Clarke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSteve!\u201d said Jack Dudley, lighting a Senior Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever you want to call it\u2026,\u201d said Knowledge. He hadn\u2019t taken to any of the names the boys had come up with for the cloudy entity that was impeding our progress across the Marshes towards what we hoped was the football ground. It was to be Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s debut league fixture, a new footballing frontier. Knowledge had used the novel and very grand public library in Snow Hill to research the whereabouts of the club, but his planned route, down the Lea River by barge, had brought us to this strange impasse. Though our arms could move to light cigarettes, check pocketwatches and reset flat caps upon our heads, our legs were immobile, as stiff and heavy as tree trunks on the soggy ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKnocker Bradley\u2019s gone,\u201d called a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease, you lot,\u201d said Knowledge, \u201cThe smoke from your fakes is feeding it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFeeding what? The Cloudmama?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could be you next!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever you want to call it. Stop smoking, please. It could be you next!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust let me finish this one,\u201d said Henry Hickinbottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGordon Knowles has gone,\u201d said a voice behind me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat about the Marshmist?\u201d asked another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hardly mist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat about \u2018Bogfog\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dropped the nub of my Navy Cut onto the groud; it hit moisture and released a list wisp of smoke which disappeared immediately. Yes, disappeared, rather than disippating, as though something had sucked it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cListen to Knowledge,\u201d I called out, \u201cHe might be on to something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I checked my watch: half past two. A dog barked somewhere \u2013 south I figured. Through the silence that followed came a happier, bubblier, more summery sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowledge wiped his spectacles with his handkerchief and replaced them on his nose. \u201cThat\u2019s a skylark,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd that\u2019s another one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the air was filled with birdsong, and then birds themselves appeared through the mist, circling broadly around us, lifting and dipping merrily, more each time as their numbers increased and the mist dispersed. Whether the dispersal of \u2018Bogfog\u2019 alias \u2018Cloudmama\u2019 alias \u2018Marsh Thing\u2019 alias \u2018Steve\u2019 was down to the birds, or to our stopping smoking, was a matter of dispute in the White Hart, with Knowledge being very much in the minority. Then he switched topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, I suppose you could say it\u2019s ironic,\u201d he said, taking a long quaff of Charrington\u2019s Pale Ale, \u201cThe White Hart was the symbol of Richard II, whom Harry Hotspur actually betrayed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could always learn something from Knowledge, but the attention of most of the chaps didn\u2019t usually extend to the end of his stories, and a detailed description of the Battle of Shrewsbury was interrupted by rumours about the line-ups and a dash pitchside. It was a memorable league debut for the Spurs, a forgettable afternoon for the Wolves, and a mysterious afternoon on the Tottenham Marshes. Knocker Bradley, Tommy Knight and the rest reappeared at the ground, with no recollection of the fog at all and having chosen the George and Vulture for their pre-match drinks instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody knows what it is. Nobody knows what it’s doing to our friends. Nobody knows what to call it. Jack Dudley calls it “Steve”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}