“I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then.” ― Lewis Carroll

I can’t tell if this is a game of football or croquet! Remember the playing cards being the wickets in Alice in Wonderland? Either way, my career as a goalie never took off as I couldn’t keep my eye on the ball!

This is the Barley Field between The Ginnel and The Bridge Inn. I don’t know who the playing card wickets are but that’s Leslie Ebbrell about to miss a penalty (also for not having his eye on the ball!) Leslie lived with his sister Ann (no E!) in Riverside and was my partner in crime up until about the age of eleven or so.

Amongst the many crimes we committed in the village, I will always remember sneaking into the kitchen of the Bridge Inn and stealing food (mainly bread rolls) and running off to The Dell to indulge in our rewards! We weren’t poor children needing to nick food, just naughty kids! And what better after a bread roll lunch than to run riot through all the daffodils in The Dell to shouts of “I know your Dad you know”! Happy days. Apologies to all the hard working gardeners who make Port Sunlight such a lovely place!

Years later, I bumped into my ‘mates for life’ childhood friend in The Bridge Inn when we would have been in our early twenties, we were virtually strangers in a pub with not much to say! Such is life, but happy memories of me and my sprightly accomplice dancing with all those daffodils on full stomachs!

Dave and Leslie, partners in crime!