I HAVE never found football to be the beautiful or even understandable game.

When you see these photos of people of all ages putting so much in and getting so much out of the game, you have to acknowledge that it has a place in our society.

Among these photos are two featuring the late Bill Robson, the Whitehaven man who played for Workington Reds but was Whitehaven through and through.

His loyalty to club and home extended to the extent that he would not even accept an offer from the great Bill Shankly, the Liverpool coach, to become a professional player.

Even more beautiful is the children who get so much pleasure from playing. I have already admitted that I know nothing about football, so I don’t know if football addict and Newcastle fan Daniel Burn (six) from Cleator Moor, who demonstrated his skills in 2001 is still playing.

He was certainly showing promise back then!

What prompted this look back at football was that a friend recently visited the Football Museum in Manchester and found a section on Workington Reds giving all sorts of stats, which begs the question: Do you know when and why the club was formed?

Do you know when the club’s first match was, its record win or loss or indeed who was the highest scorer, and longest player?

Enjoy the memories.