The following article was originally published in the printed programme for the Mousehole v Malvern match on 17th August 2024. To purchase back issues of Mousehole matchday programmes, visit our club shop.
It’s Sunday the 14th July and Jack Calver is stretching his willpower to the limit. Two hours before England kick off in the Euro 2024 final against Spain. But Mousehole have a big game the next day – Exeter City at home and their captain knows where his priorities lie.
I ask him if he might be tempted to sneak out for a beer.
“No chance. One of my mates, Billy from Truro, just rang me saying ‘I’m outside yours. Like, well, just around the corner picking someone up, I’ll get you’. I was like, No, do not come to my house.”
For Jack, football is life. He started playing for Plymouth Argyle when he was seven, nineteen years ago.
“There was I think eight of us from Looe, our nine aside team, eight of the lads were all asked to go up at the same time. So we’re all buzzing, obviously. Then a few of the lads sort of got to the age where you had to make a decision between your local team or Argyle, and a few of the boys knocked it on the head and said too much commitment. But I carried on.”
The hours as an apprentice at Argyle were long. Two training sessions a day, staying behind to clean up after the first team.
“It was something of a drag, but then it all changed when you got that first year pro, you were obviously being able to train and then go when you wanted after training. So that was quite nice. But even that, I don’t know, it was a lot of commitment, obviously, but I suppose you do it if you want to try and make it in the game. So it was all worth it I think.”
After leaving Argyle, Jack had spells with Bideford and Plymouth Parkway. He came to Mousehole in the 21/22 season and was made captain for their second campaign in the Western League, following the departure of Billy Curtis.
“Jake pulled me aside before the Tavistock friendly and said Billy’s going, I’d like you to step up and be captain for the season. And I was buzzing, to be honest. It just, I don’t know, I was very proud, because Mousehole is such a good club, and the fans love it down there. So to be captain of a big club like Mousehole… Yeah, I was very honoured.”
Throughout his footballing journey, Mum and Dad Les and Lynne have been there.
“They’ve drove me a lot in the last few years as a well, since I joined Argyle, they were traveling up to the likes of Oxford, Swindon, Cheltenham, Portsmouth, all them sort of places on their own just to watch 11 o’clock kickoffs in the morning. They were leaving Looe at stupid o’clock just to get out there and make kickoff. Even now at Mousehole they’re there every game, home and away. On the coach with us. So yeah, they are a massive part of my footballing life.”
Dad Les is a constant vocal presence on matchdays.
“Mum went for a stage few years ago when she actually used to stand away from him, because he’s just constant. He doesn’t shut up. He’s relentless, going at the refs. their management. I look over sometimes and he’s just sort of trying to gee me up. And I’m like, shut up. Leave me to it, let me do let me do it. But, yeah, he gets so into it. He loves it.”
Jack went on the lead the team to the Western League title in his first season. His memories of that rainy April day when he lifted the trophy will stick long in his memory.
“That’s the best day of my football and career so far. 100%. It was nine months of graft. A lot of people don’t see how much hard work we put into training, We travel and make an effort for the training Tuesdays and Thursdays, horrible weather, away days, long hours. I think people sort of take that for granted, but the lads, we all worked so hard that season, I think we finally got our awards. So yeah, I was over the moon that we could achieve what the club wanted to and what we deserved.”
Jack describes himself as a winner who hates losing – always miserable after a loss. He’s had one or two bouts of injury over the last two years but is a constant presence at every match. In the changing room or on the sidelines, being vocal and encouraging the team. The low point last season in the late autumn when the team went on an extended losing streak was a real challenge, but he was determined to tough it out and it paid off with Mousehole eventually turning their season around in style.
“Jeez, that was bad. we lost about five or six on the bounce. And you’re like, what? What’s going so wrong. But then I thought, Nah, you can’t just knock it on the head now, because that’s an easy way out. So you’ve got to sort of step up and try and, you know, prove that you are good enough and the team are good enough to get themselves out of this situation. And we did that obviously finishing in the playoffs. So it was a real testament to everyone.”
Jack has signed for his third season as captain and is relishing the challenge of – perhaps – a campaign that will end even better than the excitement of last May. For him though, the real driver is playing for a club he describes as having “such a good feeling”.
“I knew that I was always going to end up at Mousehole. I haven’t looked back, to be honest, this decision I’ve made. I think joining the club because such good family club, a forward-thinking club, it’s amazing. They just want to go up and up and up.
And I want to be part of that.”
