This Week: Burnley F.C.

Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to the weekly round-up called This Week on Premier Skills English.

In This Week, we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

If you are listening to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org where you’ll be able to download the podcast.

On the Premier Skills English website, you can read the transcript and join the Premier Skills English community by completing a language task in the comments section. This will really help you remember the new words and phrases from the stories from the Premier League.

Today, I want to talk about the third club that has been promoted to the Premier League this season. The club I’m going to talk about is Burnley F.C.

But before I start talking about Burnley and the vocabulary, I want to give you the answer to last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week, here’s one more chance to guess now.

Last week, the football phrase was to **** *** *********. This means to change the criteria for success of a programme after the programme has already started. So if you ask your boss for a pay rise and they tell you that if you perform really well, say you complete 10 projects, they you will get a pay rise and then, when you have completed 8, your boss tells you that you need to complete 15 and then when you have completed 13, they tell you that you need to complete 20, you can complain that they keep ****** *** ********.

Congratulations to Sisman74 from Turkey, Hayato from Japan, Hasan from Turkey, Satt from Japan, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Denis2000 from Belarus, Ken from Japan, Shiho from Egypt, Bicooz from Egypt, Takateeto from Japan, Eduardo Caicedo from Ecuador and Schewa Dovski from Germany. Welcome to Premier Skills English Schewa.

You all worked out that the phrase I was looking for was to move the goalposts. I think it was a tough one. Takateeto said it took him 6 days to think of the answer and Vincius77 from Brazil confessed that he didn’t have any idea. Hopefully you’ll have better luck this week. Keep listening till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

Now it’s time for this week’s story.

Burnley F.C. is back

Burnley is a town in Lancashire with the population of 73,021, according to the 2001 census, making it the smallest town with a Premier League team. Burnley’s ground is called Turf Moor which has a capacity of 21,994 which means that over a quarter of the town can support the team when they are playing at home.

Burnley is 20 miles north of Manchester and lies in a three forked valley at the confluence of the River Calder and the River Brun. Burnley gets its name from the River Brun and in maps and mediaeval documents the town was called Bron lea which means the meadow by the Bron.

The town has a long history and has held a market for more than 700 years. Burnley became important in the Industrial Revolution as it was one of the world's largest producers of cotton cloth and a major centre of Engineering.

The town is surrounded by moorland. Moorland or moors are areas of land that are not cultivated or farmed that have shrubs and bushes, but not trees. Uncultivated areas that have lots of trees are forests. Moors are typically covered in heather which is a tough shrub. Burnley’s Stadium is called Turf Moor because it stands on land that was once moorland that was common land. Common land didn’t belong to anyone so anyone could graze animals there.

Vocabulary

Burnley lies in a three forked valley. A valley is an area of land between hills. The land in a valley is lower than the hills around it. It’s often the result of a river washing away soil so that the route of the river runs at the bottom of the valley. There are also massive valleys that were carved out of the land by ice flows during the ice age. If you look at Burnley in globe view in google maps, you can see the hills and valleys around Burnley, though it’s harder to see the three forked valley.

I don’t want to focus on this word because it’s rea\lly not common, but the reason Burnley is in a three forked valley is the town grew at the confluence of two rivers. The place where two rivers meet is the confluence. As I said, this is not very useful vocabulary, but I like the way the word confluence sounds.

I said that moorland is not cultivated. The verb form, to cultivate, means to dig and prepare land to grow crops. As well as land, we talk about cultivating talents and skills. So while you are listening to this podcast, you are cultivating your English language skills. The adjective form is probably used more frequently in negative statements. Land that is not cultivated is wild or natural. There’s not a lot of land in the UK that has not been cultivated in some way.

Turf Moor

Burnley F.C. was founded in 1882 and they moved into Turf Moor the following year. Turf Moor has been used for sport since 1843 when Burnley Cricket Club started playing there. The cricket club invited the football team to play in a field next to the cricket club and both clubs play there to this day.

The Club Badge

The club badge features the town crest. The club were given permission to wear the town crest in 1960 when the team won the First Division. The crest has a large bird, a stork, at the top that represents an influential family. There are also two bees which represent hard work and a hand that represents the town motto: Hold to the truth. Although it’s not really clear on the club badge, the stork is standing on a hill with cotton plants which represents the town’s cotton heritage.

The connections between the cotton industry, the slave trade and slavery in North America and the British Empire are part of our history, and need to be acknowledged.

At the bottom of the club badge, there’s a lion that represents royalty. In 1886, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, made the first royal visit to a football match when he went to Turf Moor to watch Burnley play Bolton. The royal connection continues to this day because King Charles supports the team and has visited Turf Moor and was even given a VIP season ticket.

Vocabulary

The verb represent is normally used in football to say that a person plates for their club or their country. In an international competition, the players that take part, represent their countries, that is, if they win or lose, you can say that their country has won or lost. We also use the verb to say that something shows or somehow describes something. So a statue is said to represent the subject, what it is a statue of. And descriptions in texts, in books and reports can be described as representations. You might not like the way you are represented in an article in the newspaper. Symbols also represent the things they show. Sometimes symbols look like the things they show, but often, they represent things by association, that is because people know that there’s a connection. I said that the stork on the town crest represents a family in Burnley. The stork is the symbol of the family so it is on the town crest to show the family.

The stork represents the Starkie family who were a wealthy and influential family. They owned lots of land in and around Burnley and members of the family served in important roles including as members of parliament. If you are a powerful person, you can influence people or things, that is you can have an effect on people and things by using your money and connections. People who are able to influence people and events around them are influential.

A motto is a short sentence or phrase that has a special meaning. Some organisations have a motto that expresses something that the organisation thinks is important. For example, Arsenal’s motto is Victoria Concordia Crescit which is Latin and means victory through harmony. Lots of mottos are in Latin because Latin was the language of scholarship and law and what the ruling classes used to sound important. I’m not sure mottos are as popular anymore. I tried searching for the Premier League’s motto and I’m not sure there really is one. The Premier League has key values that represent what the organisation believes are important, but there isn’t a motto that expresses this.

The noun heritage is interesting. I always used to think of heritage as history that you are connected to. So history is for everyone, but if you have a personal connection it’s your heritage. However, the definition I found suggests that it’s features that belong to a culture that were created in the past and still have historical importance. So, heritage is cultural rather than personal. Your heritage is the history of your culture, the culture you were born into.

The Clarets

Burnley’s nickname is the clarets because the team home colours are claret and blue. Claret is a type of wine so the colour it describes is a dark red, a wine red. When the club was founded they played in yellow and black, but adopted a claret and blue kit in 1911 in tribute to Aston Villa who were the champions that year.

The East Lancashire Derby

The teams fiercest rivalry is with Blackburn Rovers who they face in the East Lancashire Derby. This meeting is also known as the Cotton Mills Derby as both towns are known as mill towns because of their cotton mills and their importance to the local economies.

Vocabulary

The noun tribute means something that is said or performed or given to show respect and admiration for someone. I looked up the etymology of the word and I think it comes from a word meaning a gift from a tribe. In Roman times, the different tribes that were living in lands that were controlled by Rome would have to give a gift to the Roman empire as a sign of their submission and respect. These payments were tributes. Today, we have the words contribute, meaning to give money or work along with other people to achieve something. A tribute, though, doesn’t mean a payment anymore. It is something done to honour someone else. Often, tributes are paid when a famous person dies. These might be kind words or people might share memories or photographs. When people leave flowers, for example at Buckingham Palace when Queen Elizabeth died, they are known as floral tributes.

I have spoken about the noun rivalry quite recently. People or teams that compete against each other are rivals. The state of competition between rivals is rivalry. In football English, the greatest rivalries are between teams that play in a derby match. So the North London Derby between Arsenal and Spurs is one of the greatest rivalries in English football. Today, I want to focus on the collocation fierce rivalry. Fierce means strong and powerful. It also means violent and frightening. Children first learn the word to describe powerful animals like lions and tigers. However, a fierce rivalry is just a very strong and energetic rivalry, it shouldn’t include violence.

Burnley in the Premier League

Burnley have been promoted to and relegated from the Premier League three times. In 2018, they finished in 7th place and qualified for the Europa League, their first European football for over 50 years. They were relegated in 2022 but stormed their way back, securing promotion with seven matches remaining which is a championship record.

Burnley’s manager, Vincent Kompany didn’t give his team long to celebrate winning the Championship, getting the team back to training after only a two-week break. Fans online have been delighted to see the team’s work ethic and are hopeful that this will give them an advantage when the new season kicks off.

OK. That’s 8 bits of vocabulary today. They are:

• Valley
• Cultivated
• represents
• influential
• motto
• heritage
• tribute
• fiercest rivalry

Listen to the story about Burnley F.C. one more time to hear these words again in context.

Burnley F.C. is back

Burnley is a town in Lancashire with the population of 73,021, according to the 2001 census, making it the smallest town with a Premier League team. Burnley’s ground is called Turf Moor which has a capacity of 21,994 which means that over a quarter of the town can support the team when they are playing at home.

Burnley is 20 miles north of Manchester and lies in a three forked valley at the confluence of the River Calder and the River Brun. Burnley gets its name from the River Brun and in maps and mediaeval documents the town was called Bron lea which means the meadow by the Bron.

The town has a long history and has held a market for more than 700 years. Burnley became important in the Industrial Revolution as it was one of the world's largest producers of cotton cloth and a major centre of Engineering.

The town is surrounded by moorland. Moorland or moors are areas of land that are not cultivated or farmed that have shrubs and bushes, but not trees. Uncultivated areas that have lots of trees are forests. Moors are typically covered in heather which is a tough shrub. Burnley’s Stadium is called Turf Moor because it stands on land that was once moorland that was common land. Common land didn’t belong to anyone so anyone could graze animals there.

Turf Moor

Burnley F.C. was founded in 1882 and they moved into Turf Moor the following year. Turf Moor has been used for sport since 1843 when Burnley Cricket Club started playing there. The cricket club invited the football team to play in a field next to the cricket club and both clubs play there to this day.

The Club Badge

The club badge features the town crest. The club were given permission to wear the town crest in 1960 when the team won the First Division. The crest has a large bird, a stork, at the top that represents an influential family. There are also two bees which represent hard work and a hand that represents the town motto: Hold to the truth. Although it’s not really clear on the club badge, the stork is standing on a hill with cotton plants which represents the town’s cotton heritage.

The connections between the cotton industry, the slave trade and slavery in North America and the British Empire are part of our history, and need to be acknowledged.

At the bottom of the club badge, there’s a lion that represents royalty. In 1886, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, made the first royal visit to a football match when he went to Turf Moor to watch Burnley play Bolton. The royal connection continues to this day because King Charles supports the team and has visited Turf Moor and was even given a VIP season ticket.

The Clarets

Burnley’s nickname is the clarets because the team home colours are claret and blue. Claret is a type of wine so the colour it describes is a dark red, a wine red. When the club was founded they played in yellow and black, but adopted a claret and blue kit in 1911 in tribute to Aston Villa who were the champions that year.

The East Lancashire Derby

The teams fiercest rivalry is with Blackburn Rovers who they face in the East Lancashire Derby. This meeting is also known as the Cotton Mills Derby as both towns are known as mill towns because of their cotton mills and their importance to the local economies.

Burnley in the Premier League

Burnley have been promoted to and relegated from the Premier League three times. In 2018, they finished in 7th place and qualified for the Europa League, their first European football for over 50 years. They were relegated in 2022 but stormed their way back, securing promotion with seven matches remaining which is a championship record.

Burnley’s manager, Vincent Kompany didn’t give his team long to celebrate winning the Championship, getting the team back to training after only a two-week break. Fans online have been delighted to see the team’s work ethic and are hopeful that this will give them an advantage when the new season kicks off.

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again. I have spoken about 8 really useful words and collocations today. I have found examples of these words in news stories online and edited them slightly. I have removed today’s vocabulary so I want you to fill in the gaps with the language from the podcast.

Number 1. Dyche loves a grafter, a really hard worker – his __________ is “the minimum requirement is maximum effort”.

Number 2. Intrepid Travel has been named in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most _____________ companies in the world. The escorted touring specialist appears in the ‘Leaders’ section of the list, and is commended for its approach to “responsible globetrotting”.

Number 3. The five-piece band from Essex will perform 'The Paul Simon Story' in a _________ to Paul Simon as one of the best songwriters and performers of his generation.

Number 4. Drive down the hill until you get to the bottom of the ________ then keep going straight ahead and climb up the other side until you finally go through a gate and out onto the main road.

Number 5. How does the Manchester Derby compare to football's _______________?

Number 6. A new "exciting" app to help visitors and residents explore a county's local history and cultural ________ has launched.

Number 7. The owl is a spirit guide that _________ wisdom, deep connection, and intuitive knowledge.

Number 8. The total area of __________ land in China saw a net increase in 2021 as the country has reversed the trend of reduction in farmed land in recent years.

Leave your answers to the language challenge in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week's football phrase.

This week’s football phrase is a ****** ******. You can buy a ****** to watch a match. However, if you really love your team and can afford it and want to watch every match, you can buy a ****** ******. You can also buy ****** ******* for trains. In both cases, it’s cheaper to buy a ****** ****** than to buy separate *******.

If you know the answer, be sure to leave it in a comment on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Before I finish, I am going to go through the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1. A disused railway station has been transformed into a 1960s vintage holiday home you can hire for £202 a night.

Number 2. The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine is one of the biggest industrial disasters in Europe for decades.

Number 3. British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran came close to setting an attendance record at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey this week.

Number 4. Scientists have unearthed a brand new dinosaur, named after Janus, the two-faced Roman god of change, for its skill at surviving in a chaotic and rapidly evolving phase of North America's prehistory.

Number 5. A major civil engineering project to create a new junction off the A1 at Queen Margaret University has been completed and was officially opened today.

Number 6. Fruit flies can be really troublesome, especially during the summer months, but luckily an expert has shared a cheap but effective way of getting rid of the pesky insects

And that’s all I have time for today. Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope all of you stay fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.