Another Memento

With just 15 hours to go before the FA Cup Final kicks off, Stoke City are once again uppermost in my mind.

Another of my treasured possessions is the 1972 League Cup Final shirt. I happened to see it as part of a display in a sporting goods shop at the corner of Dickenson Road and Wilmslow Road, as I walked to lectures at Manchester University.

The Monday after the final, I went into the shop and asked if I could buy the Stoke shirt. It was intended for display purposes only but the owner of the shop an ex-Man City player whose name I forget agreed to sell it.

Since my acquisition all those years ago, these shirts with the Stoke City badge woven into the shirt have been available as replicas. Mine is the genuine article as can be seen to the Umbro badge that makes reference to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.

The Stoke City badge is the same as the City of Stoke-on-Trent's coat of arms. The city was formed in 1910 by the federation of the Six Towns that make up the Potteries: Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall, Longton and Fenton.

The boar's head comes from the Stoke-upon-Trent coat of arms and that of the Copeland Family, while the Staffordshire Knot either side was part of Tunstall's coat of arms.

The Portland vase is part of Burslem's coat of arms; the camel comes from Hanley's coat of arms.

Longton's coat of arms provided the eagle and the scythe was taken from Burslem and Tunstall's coat of arms.

The Fetty Cross is part of Fenton's coat of arms.

The Egyptian potter at his wheel symbolizes the city's once illustrious pottery industry, names such as Wedgwood, Spode, Minton, Davenport, Wood, Aynsley and many others too numerous to mention.

You can always tell someone who comes from the Potteries by the way they will pick up a plate or saucer and turn it over to see who made it.

I am getting a bit tense about tomorrow's game. It has never been easy being a Stoke City fan and suddenly it seems a lot harder as well as nerve-wracking.

The day also took an unfortunate turn of events when I received two speeding tickets from South Carolina. Remember my trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, a couple of weeks ago? Well, I caught by a speed camera on the way there and again by the same camera on the way back.

If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. :-)

Have a good weekend, y'all!