A premier poet

Jonny Hurst, football's first Chant Laureate, accepts that the heavily rhyming, singalong ditties he produced to land his new £10,000 job may never make it on to the terraces.

'That's not my brief,' said Hurst, repelling criticism that his chants may be worthy and witty but are neither short enough nor simple enough to be adopted by the average football crowd.

'My job is to chronicle and observe changes throughout the season,' added Hurst, who was picked after a sixmonth search ahead of 1,500 entries. 'It will be a bonus if any fans start singing the chants.'

To that end, the 37-year-old solicitor and London-based Birmingham City supporter will spend the year touring Premiership stadiums and composing chants on the 2004/5 season.

Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, an Arsenal supporter, chaired the panel of judges who were impressed by Hurst's ingenuity and willingness to write about teams other than his own. Though a staunch Blues fan, he managed to wax lyrical about Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel in a reworking of Barry Manilow's Copacabana.'His name is Angel, And he's a show boy' etc.

Hurst has been writing for 15 years and claims among his credits the song High Ho Desmond Lynam, as performed on Auntie's Sporting Bloomers. He believes a football chant must have three elements - 'a recognisable tune, something to rouse the home support and a little bit of humour.'

In reality, they tend to be more basic and repetitive. ' Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerland. Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerla- and. Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerla- and, Ingerland', certain to remain the preferred chant of England supporters at Euro 2004 this summer, is a good example of the genre.

And ' Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry' works because of the genius of the player and the simplicity of both the tune and lyric.

Hurst seems to have drawn from both these examples of the art with his Southampton chant, which, to the tune of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, starts: 'Jimmy Beattie Jimmy-Jimmy Beattie, Jimmy Beattie Jimmy-Jimmy Beattie, Jimmy Beattie Jimmy- Jimmy Beattie, Oh you Jimmy-Jimmy Beattie...'

'Southampton, like my own club Birmingham City, are mid-table aspirants,' Hurst explained. ' I wanted to show in that chant how fans of that sort of club are desperate to hold on to their star players.'

Although his favourite will always be City's 'Keep right on to the end of the road' - he calls it a hymn rather than a chant - he particularly admires the way Liverpool supporters conjured up 'Stevie Gee' to the tune of Let It Be by the Beatles.

There are plenty of rhymes but no swear words in the chants of the laureate. A case of art not imitating life.