‘Black Premonition’ Wins Inaugural ‘Rooker Prize’

Southampton-based Lewes FC owner Duncan Brown has won the club’s inaugural writing competition with a 250-word novel opener called ‘Black Premonition’.

Lewes FC – a football club owned by some 2,300 worldwide community shareholders and rising – recently announced a writing competition for its owners, challenging them to compose a 250-word opening to a novel of any specified literary genre. 

The idea was cooked up at the club’s Xmas do, and a pen-nib award especially made by local carver and engraver Neil Turner. Turner, enamoured by the humorous reference to the more famous ‘Booker Prize’, fashioned the trophy out of oak and yew, giving the pen both ink and the football club’s badge in brass. 

Famously nicknamed ‘The Rooks’ – after both the town’s castle and the birds which nest around home ground ‘The Dripping Pan’ – Lewes FC is 100% socially owned, and holds regular virtual ‘town halls’ for its community of owners as well as connecting to them via a Mobile App. 

Head Judge, elected Lewes director Karen Dobres, who came up with the name inspired by The Booker Prize, explained: “Our club often makes the link between football and the wider world through culture, and The Rooker Prize is another manifestation of the way football reflects and impacts society, and has the power to bring communities of interest together.”

Fellow judge and Lewes FC owner, author Mark Crick, remarked: “It was thrilling to see how many nascent novelists are lurking amongst the ownership of Lewes Football Club”, adding, “Judging the short pieces critically has taught me a lot about my own writing style.”

Lewes FC owner and Guardian journalist Suzy Wrack, who also joined the panel, said: ‘It was an honour to judge the 17 entries for the inaugural Rooker Prize, and we had a lot of fun doing so. Not one entry did we consider bad or unworthy of a prize – every writer had potential.”

The judges announced the winner on the evening of 27th April because, as they explained: “We discovered that this is in fact ‘International Crow and Raven Appreciation Day’, and therefore a very appropriate day to name the Rooker Prize winner’.”

Winner Brown said: “Given that it was Crow and Raven Appreciation Day, I am properly chough-ed to have won the inaugural Rooker Prize! I chose the historical novel genre because the Dripping Pan name reminds me of the pottery dripping pans used from the 13th to 16th centuries to catch the fat that dripped from meats roasting on spits in front of hearths and open fires.

“As for the trophy, I think it would look great behind the bar at the Rook Inn, where it might inspire more people to enter the Rooker but it also is a splendid symbol of what the club is all about.”

Shortlisted entries were, Biram Desai’s ‘Untitled science fiction’, and ‘Court of Crows’, Charlie Stubbs’ historical thriller. These entries can be read on Lewes FC’s website here.

‘Black Premonition’ was favoured by the judges for its descriptive power and imagery, and the fact that they were left eager to know what would happen next.

“Brown’s piece seemed to answer all our criteria perfectly. We were looking at (i) the quality of writing, (ii) whether it made us feel more alive in some way, and (iii) asking ourselves how much we wanted to read the rest of the novel. Congratulations to Duncan, and thank you to all the Lewes owners who entered the first ever Rooker Prize!”

Brown wins the trophy and £250 to donate to a charity of his choice. He has chosen to donate to Kangaroos – a charity which provides activities and sports opportunities to children with learning disabilities – saying: “I looked for something sports-related and found Kangaroos, based in my hometown of Haywards Heath. They also originated at a school in Cuckfield, which is where my brother was born and my parents ashes are buried. Also, my twin sister lives in Australia, so their name is a nod to her. You can find out more on their website: www.kangaroos.org.uk.”