What the heck is a lek?
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
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This strange handmade postcard was pushed through the door of Longfleet St Mary footballer Alf Weeks in the afternoon of a heavy defeat. The intent was obvious to rub salt in the wound but who was the person behind it…?
Footballers often come in for stick after a defeat, whether from fans at the stadium, in the press or faceless hordes on Twitter. We often think of this as a modern issue driven by pumped-up coverage of the game and toxic discourse on social media. Yet even in the supposedly genteel and sporting world of Edwardian football, the players were far from immune, even in their own homes. One of the more unusual objects in the Poole Museum collection, this strange and anonymous handmade postcard dropped through the letterbox of Alf Weeks’s handsome redbrick villa on Kingston Road, Poole in November 1904.
Weeks’s crime? He was an established player in a Longfleet St Mary side that had just suffered a crushing 8-0 defeat to Swindon Town in an FA Cup qualifying tie. A note made when the postcard was later donated to the museum by Weeks’s family confirms that it was delivered directly to his house, but they don’t mention if there was any suspicion of who might have been behind it. Perhaps the postcard came from a fan of another local club? There was certainly no shortage of other sides in the local area and many local employers ran teams as well. This wasn’t just limited to men either, there was a healthy growth in the women’s game in the early 1900s. Carter’s Tiles and the Royal Naval Cordite factory at Holton Heath works teams were among the many flourishing women’s sides across England before the FA banned women from using any FA affiliated facilities or pitches in 1921.
![Carter’s Women Team – Poole Museum] – Carter’s Tiles Women’s football team pose in 1921, just before the FA ban](https://www.wessexmuseums.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/postcard-2-1-1-1024x745.jpg)
Sadly, the original context of the FA’s bonneted caricature that the anonymous creator included declaring ‘Mr Weeks, enough to make you ill…’ has been lost to history, as has the rather unflattering image of a grumpy old man chosen to represent Weeks on his return from Wiltshire. In any case it was extremely harsh to criticise anyone from the side in the aftermath of the defeat. Longfleet St. Mary’s were an amateur side who had done well to get so far while Swindon were professionals and founder members of the Southern League.
A few years later in the handbook for the 1908-09 season Weeks is profiled as taking ‘pride of place regarding loyal connection with the Saints’ and having ‘as a Left Half done yeoman service for his club and is ever ready when the occasion demands.’ A much more pleasant way to be remembered than his rather unflattering portrayal in this unusual piece of footballing ephemera!
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.
The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!