New book captures the passion and meaning of Carlisle United

Other images show Pete alone with his thoughts in an empty ground. Deserted, a football stadium is all concrete and plastic and echoes and memories, a cloud waiting for the next time it can burst.

When it’s matchday, this deceptively mundane place is overrun with life and feeling. Every person that walks through the turnstiles on such a day has his or her own reasons for doing so. Simply to watch the football and cheer for the Blues is only a small part of it.

Acknowledging this, and embracing all the other parts, is what makes  ‘The Place I Belong’ one of the more layered books on Carlisle United that’s been written. It is an account of Pete’s own obsession, and also features numerous contributions from fellow Blues.

A rich and varied account duly emerges of why this club, this place, means so much to so many. There are stories of childhood and adulthood, generations and reflections, youthful daftness and terrace aggro, heroes and villains, sickness and health, and extremely personal perspectives, all with the United thread running right through.

Like going to the game, the book is a communal endeavour. “Although it’s semi-autobiographical, I never wanted it to come across as being self-indulgent,” Pete says. “I wanted to give as many different perspectives as possible.”

Pete, a school teacher and author, approached numerous people with connections to the Blues, and also appealed on social media for contributions. He was inundated with replies. “So many people sent stuff that was hilarious, and quite poignant,” he says.

Pete Scholes' new book on Carlisle United (Image: Pete Scholes)

As such, alongside Pete’s own story we read those of, for instance, Andy Hall, United’s former media officer, who charts his history of supporting the Blues and working for them, both during and after service in the Army, until his departure from the club last season. We read the ebullient reflections of Stephen Dunn, a supporter since 1974/75 and a Carlisle character like no other.

We get Colin Carter’s take on life as a United devotee, the man who bellowed from the public address box on Jimmy Glass day. We get the differing accounts of how Carlisle is embedded in the lives of other die-hard Blues, such as Tommy Coleman, Vicci Thornley, Keith Elliott, Howard Falshaw, Gary Evans, Chris Gibson, Richard Wills, Mike Brown, Luke Wordsworth, Simon Entwistle, Kayleigh Bye, Sonny Kirkwood and more.

We discover more about the incredibly meaningful bond between United and Linda Hebson, whose Blues-mad son, Jack, fought cancer. We read an interview with 1980s goalscorer Mally Poskett, and learn about the remarkably devoted supporter Geoff Thomlinson.

All are people who give United its soul. Pete’s own memories and motivations also shape the book. “Many years ago I read Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, which I enjoyed, but one thing that bugged me about it was that when he went to university at Cambridge, he started supporting Cambridge.

“That stuck in my mind all these years. You don’t swap clubs, and I could never do it with Carlisle.”

Pete, 50, describes in the book how he grew up near the Simpson family in Belle Vue. “My dad played cricket for Raffles, and the Raffles cricket team consisted of basically the Simpson family,” he says. “Paul played occasionally, and his brother Peter, but it was mainly Paul's dad, uncles and cousins that made up the team.”

The families were friends, and Pete says the Simpsons would often travel in his dad’s company car to watch the teenage Paul playing for Manchester City. Pete also writes about the time when, whilst at school, he got into trouble when lying about arranging a visit from Paul to be special guest at a sports day. “That tale didn’t half grow legs,” he laughs. “I thought I’d better get it off my chest in the book.”

Pete describes the terrace racism and fighting he saw as a younger fan in the 1980s and 1990s, and recalls one or two rough encounters with the Border City Firm and a certain Paul Dodd, who was dubbed England’s most notorious football hooligan.

Pete writes about some rough encounters with notorious Carlisle hooligan Paul Dodd (Image: News & Star)

Dodd, Pete writes, once mistook him for a Colchester fan in 1994, would not hear otherwise and “slammed my head on the table” several times in the King’s Head. “My friends seemed to evaporate,” Pete says. “I thought, ‘I'm going to have to see this one out…let him go for it and I'll wear out his arm after a while.’”

Amid the anecdotes, there are stories of deep family connections, from walking onto the Paddock, aged six, holding his dad’s hand, then gravitating to the C Stand and then the ‘Scratcher’ before that terrace was lost in 1995. The book includes life and loss. “Some people were going through some quite tricky periods in their life. One supporter talks about losing her dad, and the anniversary is the start of the season. For that story to be told is quite powerful, Pete says.

“Then we have Linda Hebson, who was chuffed to bits to be able to contribute about Jack. It really meant something to her. So it's also a celebration of the club, because there were so many people who helped that family through all the troubles they've been going through. Linda spoke so highly of the likes of Paul Huntington and other players.

“Just by being there and going that extra mile for somebody has made all the difference to their lives. It's been quite touching.”

Some contributors write about mental health, and Pete is also candid about how United has been his own crutch. In one chapters he describes how in childhood he could be “overwhelmed by worry and anxiety”, and in later life there was a lonely period when his “self-esteem hit rock bottom”.

Friendship helped him, he says. So did writing – and so did Carlisle United.

Was it difficult, or cathartic, to commit these things to print? “A bit of both,” Pete says. “It was something I didn’t plan to include, but I felt if I was going to be honest with myself, I should put that chapter in.”

Pete contacted United’s community sports trust, and Andy’s Man Club, to advertise the ways they can help. He also spoke at length to the family of David Wilkes, the former Carlisle youth coach to whom the book is dedicated, and whose mother Margaret writes movingly about her son. “I felt like I had to do him a service in the book – but I had to be honest with myself as well," Pete adds.

Pete sits in the dugout at Brunton Park (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Andrew Jenkins is also mentioned early on. As a fan, Pete exchanged letters with the long-serving chairman and owner. “Really, Andrew didn’t know me from Adam, but he always stopped to chat. He was always keen to wrap his arm around you if you were a member of the Carlisle United family.”

These links and passions, Pete says, do not weaken with age. “Next month, my dad's 80. He's as crazy about Carlisle United now as he was when he was ten. His enthusiasm hasn't waned in the slightest and I don't mine will either.”

There is, appropriately, a celebration of young supporters in the book. Pete talks to Sonny Kirkwood, one of the teenagers who has helped revitalise the Warwick Road End. “He was bubbling with enthusiasm. I love what they've done with the painting of the barriers and the creation of the flags.

“This is the new generation. My daughter sits beside me now. There's a gang of about six fellas sitting behind us and we call them the old gadgies. They're all in their 70s and 80s and they constantly swear throughout the game. She just nudges me and smiles.

“You can't stop them. It's part of the fun, even. They think the sun shines out of her backside. They're always patting her on the head and putting their arm round her.

“She was talking the other day about friends at school. She said she had six or seven best friends. I said, ‘Well, how many people do you know at the football?’ She started with Bill, the steward at the gate who we talk to, and went through everyone else, and realised there’s about 20 who know her and always speak to her.

“I think she's getting an insight now as to what kind of community can be built from following your team.”

One of the book’s closing lines asserts that Brunton Park is “my distraction from real life, a place I can celebrate, laugh, share, mourn, moan...it is the place I belong.”

It sounds almost religious. “Absolutely – totally,” Pete says.

“It isn’t just about games and goals and performances, because that’s only one aspect.

“It's the smell of pies, it's walking up the steps, it's the floodlights, the people. It’s feeling like it’s the most important thing on that particular day. It’s the whole life experience. It’s absolutely everything.”

The Place I Belong by Peter Scholes will soon be available in the Blues Store, and can also be purchased on Amazon. Hardback £15.99, paperback £12 and Kindle version £4.99.