Business As Usual*

SHWFC as we all appreciate is the most famous Walking Football Club in the World….Probably

Monday this week continued our journey to fame and glory with the arrival of two media specialists from Liverpool County Football Association to film the latest expose of the Club as part of National Walking Football Week which runs (bad choice of words) until 3rd April

Live action plus interviews with our oldest Member Tony Snakehips Byrne, relative new boy Brian Smith and our newest lady Member Trish Curran and then finally El Presidente offered different insights of what the Club has become since our initial sessions in 2015

We look forward to seeing the fruit of their work in the next few days and will send links so that everyone can share this good news story

After last week’s remarkable turnout this week was a more modest assembly

The teams selected were;

Black - Enoch, Margaret, GRAV, Steve Harding, Lord Rainford, Amazon & Mark NR

Green - Les H, Citeh Geoff, Clint, Les Meldrew, Brian P Jeff Betty and Trish

Purple - Phil the Cat, Honeyman, Mike Bates, Julie, Big Tony, Ashy and Haggis

Old Gold - Wickie, Mika, Glen, Andrew Morris (Glen’s son), Steve Jones & Triallist

Red - Phil the Power, Dame Sheila, Little John, Eamon, Cockney Rebel & Andy Man

Blue - John Hill, Ian Connor, Brian Smith, Joe the Ghost, Tom Stretch, McSpeed and Mike Thomo

With filming set up and ready Charlie to control of the Red v Black which was an entertaining spectacle with plenty to admire Cockney Rebel, who seems to keep his BAFTA award winning performances for the cameras, grabbed a couple of goals but later admitted that he should have made it three The golden voice called for a pass but Eamon, either through deafness or glory hunting, took the chance to make it 3 Red easing to a fine win Black reliant on a solitary reply from Mark NR who was still celebrating denying Arsenal a sniff of glory? 3-1 the final score

In their second game Black were sunk by an unfortunate own goal Dave Amazon Prime helpless to prevent a wicked deflection Their opponents Purple doubled the advantage thanks to Phil the Cat and shut out Black to land a 2-0 win

Brian Pendergast struck with a cheeky nutmeg, John Hill the unfortunate victim 3-1 In a see saw manner McSpeed brought Blue back in contention with a great volley 3-2 Green still ahead but not out of sight Some excellent passing led to Brian P stroking home after a sublime square pass by Meldrew 4-2 Tom Stretch claimed a goal back for Blue 4-3 Was there a possible extra touch in the build up? We will never know Trish scored another Goal to make it 5-3 There was an appeal for another Blue goal, tuned down as the ball had hit the side netting Clint took full advantage despite being a player light (Jeff Betty fielding an urgent call from his Agent)

Trish struck again to make the score 7-3 before rounding it all off with another (final) goal) 8-3 the last word Some great football, wonderful goals and all before brew time

Les Lomax former WFA whistler took charge of the games on pitch B Old Gold the ‘home’ team In their opener against Purple goals by Andrew Morris (Turkish import) and Wickie secured a victory 2-0 before they faced Red in the last match This was a much tighter affair with the rampant Cockney Rebel scoring for Red Two goals by Andrew however, sealed the win and bragging rights in the Morris household 2-1 the winning margin

Wednesday’s Sutton SoccerDome, including the last indoor soirée of this term, took place on a very difficult weather day Hail stones had battered the area at times in the prelude to the session It was cold and windy but mercifully dry as the Outward Bounders made their way to the AstroTurf haven (or sand trap) we call home

Those hardy annuals were;

Red - Hooded Claw (Brian Smith), Haggis, Gaz, Wickie, Jason, Mark Dav & Chris 4G

Yellow - Tom Stretch, Roger, Eileen, Chris 10P, Steve Carine, Paul Cott’

The game was evidently fast and not too furious The score 7-6 (though to whom and scorered by) we can offer no clue Paul ‘Roger’ Moore described it “played in a good spirit and well matched teams, Full marks to Prout Senior who was Ref and especially to Steve Harding who was kept busy as unofficial ball boy on a very windy night

Meanwhile in a parallel universe the soft shoe shufflers enjoyed their final afternoon tea session with a polite indeed gentile hour in the white heat of the Sports Hall

Those taking part were;

Orange - Joe the Ghost, Cockney Rebel, Andy Man, Phil the Power and Citeh Geoff

White - Honeyman, GRAV, Chris Sully, Les H and Les Meldrew

It was modestly described as a fantastic game, played in a tremendous spirit with both defences on top The only goal of the night was scored by Joe who in typical fashion ghosted in to fire the decisive goal First class entertainment

In the absence of a number of Club dignitaries the post match media session went ahead with the wizard punditry of (checks notes) John Terry (in full Turks Head SHWFC kit) and Graeme Souness (who bit the head off a Marcus Rashford effigy*) to the dismay of the audience

*No effigies were harmed during this unfortunate incident

Business As Usual* - The Eagles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJRBkEPNAA4