Steve Bloomer’s legend is rightly celebrated in his Black Country birthplace, especially at the Cradley ‘Then & Now’ heritage group’s ‘Cradley Day’, the town’s festival of industrial and social history held every two years.

RamsTrust’s Bloomer display at Cradley Day 2010 attracted much interest. To acknowledge Cradley’s donation towards Bloomer’s pitch-side tribute at Derby, we presented a poetic tribute to “The Destroying Angel”, now reproduced here.

The ‘Providence - No Strings Attached’ puppet theatre group presented a terrace of Rams fan puppets performing a frenetic “Steve Bloomer’s Watching” to everyone’s delight! We enjoyed a great day amongst lovely people.

“The Destroying Angel”

Derby fans joined up with the Cradley group
when they were of all a holler and all of a whoop
raising a fund for a tribute so grand
for mighty Steve Bloomer, best player in the land

A boy born yonder, close by in Bridge Street
and no striker in England did match his feat
Black Country blood ran through his veins
to this very day, the Bloomer legend remains

70 years and more since he has passed
yet his goal scoring record is never outclassed
Low on the floor or high in the air
Steve Bloomer knew how to put it there

The lash of his boot or a nod of his head
and another goalkeeper was left for dead
no team could halt his goal scoring bounty
the ‘destroying angel’ of Derby County.

Published in The Ram magazine, Oct 30th 2010 vs Watford - npower Championship