Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Frank Lampard: "The most accomplished Latinist to play for England since C.B. Fry"

I'm an admirer of Frank Lampard, as both a Chelsea player and a Chelsea manager, so I liked this observation by Dan Jackson in a piece on the backgrounds of England's Euro 2020 squad:

Although the class profile of football supporters has changed a lot since the 1960s, the team itself seems as resolutely working-class as it ever was - there was no space in the squad for the genuinely posh Patrick Bamford of Leeds United (of the JCB digger dynasty), a public school footballer in the mould of Frank Lampard - whose A* in Latin GCSE probably made him the most accomplished Latinist to play for England since C.B. Fry.

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2 comments:

  1. Matt Pennell14 June, 2022 15:03

    Patrick Bamford has repeatedly denied being a member of the Bamfords that own JCB, though having been to Nottingham High School he is fluent in conversational French.

    Michael Dawson, product of the same Nottingham Forest academy, has a GCSE in Pottery, which earned him the nickname 'Professor' amongst his centre back colleagues.

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  2. Jonathan Calder14 June, 2022 18:59

    Thanks for that! In my day they would have called him "Bamber".

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