With 'Stradey Park' seeing its final match tonight, there may be others looking for Max Boyce's "WE ALL HAD DOCTORS PAPERS". So, as a public service!

It was on a dark and dismal day in a week that had seen rain
When all roads led to Stradey Park with the All Blacks here again
They poured down from the valleys they came from far and wide
There were 20,000 in the ground and me and Dai outside.

The shops were closed like Sunday and streets were silent still
And those that chose to stay away were either dead or ill
But those that went to Stradey, boys, will remember 'til they die
How New Zealand were defeated and how the pubs ran dry.

Oh aye, the beer flowed at Stradey piped down from Felinfoel
And the hands that held the glasses high were strong from steel and coal
And the air was filled with singing and I saw a grown man cry -
Not because we'd won, but because the pubs ran dry!

Then dawned the morning after on empty factories
For we were still at Stradey - bloodshot absentees
But we all had doctor's papers and they all said just the same,
That we all had scarlet fever and we'd caught it at the game.

Now all the little babies in Llanelli from now on
Will be christened Roy or Carwyn, Derek, Delme, Phil or John
And in a hundred years they'll sing this song for me
Of when the scoreboard read, Llanelli 9, Seland Newydd 3

And when I'm old and my hair turns grey and they put me in a chair
I'll tell my great-grandchildren that their Tad-cu, was there
And they'll ask to hear the story of that damp October day
When I went down to Stradey and I saw the Scarlets play.


As far as I know, there is no tune to this; I've only heard Max do it as a recitation.