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from Daily Telegraph,
Thursday November 24, 1998
Soccer ball from the Somme turns up on a rubbish
dump
A BRITISH Army football from the Battle of the Somme in
1916 has been found on a rubbish dump in France.
The leather ball - flat and misshapen by age - was
discovered near Mailly-Maillet, a village just behind the frontline
where troops were billeted.
The ball was taken to M Dominique
Zinardi, who owns Le Tommy cafe
and museum at Pozìeres. M Zinardi, who owns relics from the battle,
has restored the ball to something like its original condition.
The laces are missing but the holes are visible. The ball, which
contains the remnants of a bladder, bears the name Gamage's
Defiance. It has been waxed and now resembles a rugby ball in shape.
M Zinardi, an expert on the Somme battle, is trying to find out
more about the ball and who used it.
There are at least two recorded instances of British troops
kicking footballs over no-man's land as they charged German trenches
- at Loos in 1915 and on July 1 on the Somme. In the second incident
a platoon of the East Surrey Regiment led by Capt Wilfred "Billie"
Nevill kicked footballs in an attack on Montauban. Nevill was killed
and is buried in a nearby military cemetery. Back to News Clips Contents
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