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4

The Cripple Brigade.

[By "Snag."]
Tune: "Pat Malone Forgot That He Was Dead."

1.
Times were bad for football clubs,
Men were scared of getting rubs
And the College was hard pushed for willing men;
For the two fifteens were hung,
Just the chance of going bung,
And the hearts of all were sinking there and then,
But someone said, "There's Ostler,"
Old, bald, but still a jostler,
Just let him sniff the battle from afar;
He's game as any nipper,
There's not a belter skipper,
He loves the hottest fight and hardest jar.

Chorus:
Then Ostler he forgot that he was bald,
He dived into his jersey and he called:
"If this game goes on a minute,
Bald-headed I'll be in it,
I'll overlook the fact that I am bald."

3.
Then for forwards stoat and true
Things were looking rather blue,
And rats were leaving fast the sinking ship,
But old Johnstone spoke his mind:
"Though I'm very nearly blind,
I'll play before I'll see this football slip."
At this patriotic sound,
All the stragglers gathered round,
Our colours to the mast we soon had nailed;
And it added to our joys,
Whew some firm and true "Old Boys"
From probable disaster never quailed.

Chorus:
Then Johnstone he forgot that he was blind,
As good a bit of stuff as you will find,
Where the game is at the minute,
There you'll find the "old horse" in it,
And Johnstone he forgets that he was blind.

3.
Though the forwards kept about,
Yet the backs were dropping out,
We thought we might be falling with a thud;
He'd had appendicitis,
(And Froggy synovitis)
And at a pinch we had to look on "Tud";
And he came out like a man,
Kicked and collared and he ran,
Of forward rushes oft he stopped the dash;
And the College thanks its stars.
Cripples can take misty jars,
Of fortune's whip they never shun the lash.

Chorus:
For Tudhope he forgot that be was lame,
He skipped into his jersey and he came,
"For," he said, "though we are cripples,
We'll take our football tipples,
And we'll bob up quite serenely all the same."