This column was previously printed in The Wokingham Paper on Friday 26 June 2015.
In this week’s column I talk about football and fishing nets!
The past week has gone by in a flash and it’s only a few more days until July which means Sports Day, school reports, fond farewells and the summer holidays. I can remember sports day as a child with the musty old hessian sacks, dressing up race, egg and spoon and three-legged race and the material sashes that indicated what team we were in. I sometimes think if random and useless fact retention was somehow a qualification I would do very well! Sadly it’s not. One thing I don’t remember is taking in a present for the teachers at the end of term but it’s a real thing these days. Having gone through 13 year ends I don’t profess to be an expert but I do know that it’s really hard to buy a gift for someone that you don’t know really well yet they spend hours with your child each day. You can almost certainly guarantee that I will cry at the end of the school year, not because I am sad though, oh no it will be the dreaded hay fever again! I had a nasty attack of the ‘let’s blame the pollen’ on Sunday when our youngest was presented with the most improved player award at the Wokingham & Emmbrook FC Girls U10 presentation. I couldn’t help myself and it was perhaps the relief that all those cold and early Saturday mornings were paying off, yes that’ll be the reason. Blame it on the weather!
Talking of the weather we enjoyed a traditional British BBQ last Saturday with the Wokingham & Emmbrook FC Girls U10 team and their families. We also had 2 special guests, Gemma Sims the Reading FC Women’s defender who enjoyed 101 questions about her career and Mark Ashwell President of W&E FC. It was mostly spent under the gazebo which was going well until the light drizzle turned to a very heavy downpour and the spritz was actually a cold and damp reminder that you can never be too sure of what the weather will do and a fishing net is always a great prop to have in your land locked garden with no pond. Let me explain - we have a fishing net in the garden (for some reason, as we’re not what you would call Shrimpers) which was used to push the ground sheet up onto the top of the gazebo and then came into its own when the gazebo held the water which in turn was threatening to drench anyone standing under it! The fishing net was therefore used to push the bulges and tip the water out. I’m not suggesting you dash out and buy a net but it worked well for us!
Thankfully the rain held off on Sunday as the team and their family squad all met up again at the Wargrave tournament where the girls made it to the finals and then picked up the cup, making it 7 cups this season. No wonder they were “Team of the Season” - guess who had another ‘blame the pollen moment’. I’ve never really taken much notice of football but now that we’ve got more football boots than flip flops in the house it’s hard not to. My granny used to have a photo of George Best in her kitchen, I never had her down as a football supporter and I don’t remember her watching any sport apart from tennis or cricket but we always had a chuckle about it and she did get all misty eyed, maybe she had hay fever too! However I have really enjoyed watching my girls and their teams play, improve and progress through the season and yes I will be staying up to watch the England game at the weekend!
Anyway enough about football and let’s talk about the garden. As I mentioned we have been clearing hedges and tidying up the garden and now we have a football pitch on our lawn. It’s certainly not FA standard and there is a corner missing where the path cuts in but Big Welsh (Mr W) got some grass paint to create a sort of pitch for our U10s BBQ which went down well. I think with a few more mowings he will be painting the lines for a tennis court and we’ll be having grass court action in the garden! Look at me, all sporty!
Sporty I am not, but I have been enjoying some lovely long walks recently, there’s nothing better than getting out and about first thing in the morning, before the chaos of the day begins and school run looms ever closer. But soon it will be the holidays, with no school run, hopefully no rain, plenty of ball games and who knows maybe the fishing net may will be used as intended!
The Wokingham Paper is printed each Friday, costs 50p and is available from a number of outlets throughout the week. As each new copy goes to print I publish the previous week's column on the blog, so you need never miss my column!