ROLLER HOCKEY AS A KID...

Getting My Skates On

Just nine or ten years old I guess

And a need to escape from home restrictions;

Slick rubber wheels aching to roll,

Despite the delay and the stress 

Of attaching leather toe-guards to plimsoll laces

Then tightening straps to increase the ankle constriction…

My oiled cricket bat and a tennis ball

Substituted for a hockey puck and stick;

Gliding across a pavement rink,

Skinned knees fearing a sudden fall,

I evaded imaginary NHL ice-hockey aces

Then shot past an invisible goalminder with a penalty-flick… 

Pete Ray

June 2017

For a short time as a kid, I used a small area of tarmac near the pavement round the corner from my house in Nearmoor Road, Shard End, Birmingham as a kind of roller-hockey rink.

Alone…

I used my cricket bat and a worn tennis ball to handle as I skated about…

I pictured that very same ‘rink’ just a couple of days ago…

Memories…

MY RINK...

SIMILAR SKATES TO MINE WHICH WERE SADLY GIVEN AWAY BY MY DAD...

MY ORIGINAL CRICKET BAT WHICH I STILL HAVE...