Somedays I really hate football .....

Welcome to the first post of the new year.....

 

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Sunday 22nd January 2006

Crowle Colts 3 – Park Tigers 2

“All the words below are only a simple Parents' opinion of what he sees, and how he sees it. “

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Man of the Match – Naz

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I’m such a lazy devil – in all honesty.

As this season has gone on, the whole thing gets worse for the Tigers, and, to some extent the less willingness I have to actually crash digits against the keyboard.

This is indicative of my malaise at the moment. The whole of the “Chez Smudger” household is “shattered” – whether that is due to infections, Colds, injurious elbows of whatever. Not only should I spend a little more time blogging (subject to guarding my “poorly” elbow), but there are photo’s to sort and the website to bring up-to date (again)

But, back to football.  

However hard the Tigers have tried in the last few weeks (and last week they were certainly the better team, play wise – but they just don’t seem to be able to score any of the required goals), that little bit of luck, that bit of an edge that you sometimes need, seems to be missing. Some of the lads, I feel, need a little bit more aggression. Nothing nasty or vicious – but they need to be a little more competitive – but I’m sure that will come.

Well, today, we are at one of this particular parents “favourite” ( I should Co-co) grounds.

To be fair to the Crowle people, they have spent a lot of time and effort doing up this ground as a community facility. The new building (they are well rid of their old PortaKabin) is pretty good, with new changing rooms, toilets and even showers – its a lovely job.

But ,Sadly, you can’t change to location. The pitches are (and have always been for the last few years) open to the elements, in a way that many ain't. With the village to one side of the filed, the main sweep of the pitch are open to the bleak expanses that become the Thorne Moors. From the bushes at the edge of the playing surface, there are few tress for the next five to ten miles.

And in Winter is is seriously bleak.

Even today, with the Sun appearing (occasionally), the fog and the ice left the whole place cold and dank. The Power Pylons in the background could be heard “humming” in the damp air.

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Comment 1

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Unlike the norm (if that the right way to put it?) I will be trying a  slightly different format of commenting on my Lads Football matches (see later) to that I have used in the last few months.

I’m not sure that I will keep it this way, but we shall have to wait and see.

 

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The Game

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It was a frustrating match for a sideline parent. As you can see for the header scoreline – we lost, they lost.

 

But,as seems to be common “practice” at the moment, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

 

All in all it was quite an entertaining match, with the play going back and forth on a regular basis.

It was a close thing as to whether our Liam ( )would be playing at all. He is still taking the anti-biotics to cure the ills of the mid week infection – but he wasn’t the only one. The coughs and splutter coming from both camps was testament to the time of year, and the state that most people were in.

 

The game was completely Crowle’s in the first half.

 

Liam got chipped for the 2nd Crowle goal – and he was foul – the Hat flew and the boots stamped the floor – he blamed himself for NOT catching the ball (even though it was quite obvious that not even the best Premiership Keeper would have stopped a ball like that)

. He normally gets upset when someone scores, even though he is the last line of defence, and, as he is often told -

“there are 10 other Tigers to get through before an attacker gets to you !!!”

But Liam, like myself I suppose, will blame himself even when he has tried his best, and there is no other option. We both have the problem of maybe setting our sights to high.

 

To top this off, the third Crowle goal was another chip shot that went on a similar path – and with the same result from “Mr Tall and Lanky”  (the hat flew and the boots stomped for a second time). This makes Liam “anger” more of a shame. Not only did he do his best to stop both balls, but, as usual, he made several really good saves, many times under the incoming missiles they call boot studs.

 

Just to show how Lady Luck had gone to another venue, little Danny M missed a penalty (although Liam, from his view point at the other end of the pitch, reckons that his run up was to steep of angle, so he only gave himself a narrow angle to shoot at??). Jackie, Naz and Callum played particularly well, with Cameron and Johnny not far behind.

 

But it just wouldn’t go our way, the ball just seemed to have a mind of it’s own.

 

                                   

 

 

 

God Bless

 

The Smudger -

 

I'M NOT WORTHY

 

Hi Guys, just a general chat

Hi Guys

as it says in the title, I have nothing major to talk about this week.

The week at work has been long and hard. The weather has been pretty bad, but that should be no real surprise – it is winter after all.

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The real text of the blog today is really going to sound like a moan, and to some extent it is. But it’s really been the main theme of the week.

As many of you will already know, I have quite an issue with my elbow.

As a quick reprise – the nerves and muscles constrict down to a small-ish area as they pass through the elbow and onto the lower arm and hand. In the case of most people, this is not a major issue. Some people have, however, various levels of what is known as either Tennis, or Golfers, elbow (the difference between the two is the pain is centred on different “sides” of the elbow). Some people suffer minor aches and pains, and then some are lucky like me.

To cut the story to the quick. My problem started as a lack of feeling in the centre fingers or my right hand.

Now, I’m waiting for an operation, and the consequence of this is the my elbow is now painful,, pretty much all of the day.

At it’s best, the best description I can give, is it’s like a dull “toothache”, at it’s worse, as it has been in the last couple of days, it is out and out painful.

But the worst of all is the lack of feeling. It is very difficult to describe the sensation to others, particularly as a text. It’s an odd sensation at best. When you touch with my right hand, my Thumb and small finger will “sense” what it touches – but, when the discomfort is at it’s worse, not only does my elbow “let me know” that it hurts, but the more disconcerting feeling is my “missing” fingers. It really is a very very odd feeling.

It is fairly uncomfortable now, as I type this – and most of this is being typed with one hand, my good hand.

The worse part, in some ways is the waiting – waiting for the letter with appointment to come.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Star Trek is 'most missed' series

This just one of those "hum" entries
*sits at the computer with a ponderous look on my face *

The BBC has commissioned a survey to see which TV porgram poeple would like to see back on thier TV screens , and, at least here in theUK, the answer would seem to be Star Trek (please click on the link for more information) - which i must admit I have watched, in ti's various incarnations, since I was a child.

BBC NEWS Entertainment Star Trek is 'most missed' series

However, what did make me laugh was the entry at number 8
At number 8, the most missed program on TV is "Stargate"

Yes - Stargate

Although it's not one of my personal fav's (and I have watched a few of them), as far as I'm aware, this is still being made.

So, why are people "missing" it?

Happy New Year - one and all

  Happy New Year to Everyone 

Well , here we are, another year gone by, and we are already half way through the first decade of the 21st century.

It has been a bit of an “odd” week for me, as I have been at work up to Friday. And this “missing” week between Christmas and New Year always feel a little strange, a little weird. Its as though some thing has passed and we are are still waiting for something else to come.

If you in the UK, you will know how the weather has been, although, as I look out our living room window to my side, you could almost believe that there hadn’t been any snow at all. I am in that lucky time in our house at the moment – I am the only one awake (As I type it is 07:30 a.m.)

As I have commented on before, once the kids are up, I have to find something else to do (You know – washing up, hoovering , dusting –  , the stuff that the Kids try not to do –    )

I should stop being so cynical, but it can be a struggle to get certain people in the house to do some chores to help everyone else out – that’s Teenagers for you !!!

As I have made mentioned of before – I already know one (or two) of the things that will happen this year already, and one of them becomes active, I believe, today.

My division within BT plc becomes a self sufficient company in its own right – OpenReach. Some people are already slating this as political manoeuvring, some parts of our Business environment are keeping eerily quiet – I have No Choice but to go along with it – I have to much of my life invested in BT (Post Office telephones as it was when I joined) to leave without something extreme happening.

We shall have to wait and see.

I’m still waiting for the letter (or call), to go into the hospital for surgery on my elbow – see if we can get that squared up and sorted – it will be nice to be able to feel my fingers all the time.

Our Liam begins the year with his very first GCSE exam – the one for ICT. I don’t really think he is to happy about that – but he will have to deal with it and then get on with the rest of the school year.

Laura is also moving towards a new phase in her school life. She is now into her last few months before moving onto Secondary School. Come May, she will be subject to the barrage of SAT tests they throw at kids of this age in the UK, to see where they sit in the structure of their new school. The only concern i have at the moment is that we are not 100% sure of which school she will be going to.

We actually fall into the catchment area for a School that is over 3Km’s away (across at least 4 nasty roads), but we would like her to go to the same school as Liam (we had the same process to go through to get him into the School of our choice) The School of choice has always had a policy of trying the “envelope” the Junior Schools around it’s boarders – but we are still waiting to be told.

Anyway – Have a Happy, and Merry, New Year, full of joy, good health and wealth, and I will see you all again, sometime in 2006