Unlike most sports stories, ‘Up The City!’ is about survival rather than success. Wongerup is a strange place, a small town thrown together when the local slate quarry promised jobs then abandoned when the geological survey proved over-optimistic. The remaining inhabitants therefore are a mixed bunch – an Italian market-gardener, a Croatian shopkeeper, an Irish accountant and a Pommie bus driver for starters – as Doc is often heard to remark, like a meeting of the United-bloody-Nations.

What holds this odd community together is the football club, christened ‘City’ as a joke when it was formed.. Barely able to muster enough players for a team, they have survived, albeit at the bottom of the fourth division, for several years.

Outside of his job, Ted Lewis has two big things in his life, his marriage and his football team and in 1975, both seem to be going to the dogs. An ultimatum on both fronts does nothing for his peace of mind and both seem doomed to failure until two new faces appear on the scene.

Anyone who has played the game at local club level will know that football is really about mateship and teamwork rather than trophies and glory and this is what keeps this strange bunch of misfits running round a converted sheep paddock in the rain only to get beaten on a regular basis.

How many people get the chance to re-live the most important year of their lives? In 2010 Ted gets that chance but whether he can face it or not is another matter.

 About the author

Brian Kirby’s education was in London, culminating in five years at Hornsey College of Art and as a graphic designer he has worked in London, Sydney, Perth and the West Indies. In Barbados he established a branch of a London design group, worked with the National Dance Company, became a member of the Barbados Arts Council and initiated a design course at the University of the West Indies. With an American partner he created a cartoon strip which ran with the Sydney Sun Herald, the Sketch (London) and the Chicago Tribune/New York News Syndicate. In 1984 he was appointed Senior Lecturer at the West Australian School of Art, Design and Media, a post that he maintained until 1999.

            As a painter he has had a number of one-man shows in Barbados and Perth and took part in the Bienallés of  Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Medellin (Columbia). He played first division football in Barbados and in Perth and was Technical Advisor to the Barron Films award-winning television production of ‘Kicking Around.’ He lives and works with his family in Perth, Western Australia.