It's busy on a market day,

Especially Carlton Lanes,

Which passes for a shopping mall

And refuge when it rains.

 

And in the arcade cafe

Talk is hotting up

I keep my gaze cast downwards

And stare into my cup.

 

“I'd put 'em up against a wall

And shoot the bloody lot”

“They need to get some fire in 'em

To stop the bloody rot”.

 

These snippets of the banter

Intrigued me as they ought

But in the end I cottoned on -

This was not war but sport.

 

Was it Yorkshire cricket?

A run-out or dropped catch?

Or last night's snooker on the box

Or Leeds's football match?

 

Though Leeds had won on Sunday

The craic showed no fatigue.

But this is downtown Castleford

So talk's of rugby league.