FOR THE HARD OF HEARING TODAY’S BLOG IN CAPITALS

With apologies to those with hearing difficulties but sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking of chasing a hearing aid manufacturer for our next team sponsorship

A very pleasant warm start to proceedings at Ruskin Drive heralded 20 plus to take to the pitch for ‘not a warm up, or stretch but gentle cardio vascular workout‘ prior to Moneyball and our games

Coach Davies allowed the selection process to have an air of democratic freedom with captains making their choices from the 19 declared starters Two teams of 6 with a third team of 7 to ensure all could maximise the chance to play As usual whenever the 7 were playing the loan system would be utilised So far so good

The first game was a bright affair with Blues winning by goals from Tony, a sweetly taken effort, and Jeff to a solitary reply from Chris

Blues - Mike A, Dave Seagull, Geoff, Jeff, Tony, Steve and Bryan

Reds - Chopper, Cockney Rebel, Grazer, Chris, John Bone, Wayne plus guest Alex

In game two Blues faced Black/Yellows

B/Y - Andy, Alex, Les, Mark, Phil and Nigel plus Chris

7-7 seems reasonably equitable? How wrong could I be?

Phil scored a smart goal to hand the lead to the B/Ys but at this point a small but vocal pocket of complaint kicked in Without discussion Chris was removed in a declaration of unilateral independence to join the Blues When he quickly struck with powerful accuracy the B/Ys complained that they were in fact playing against 8 players With Coach, Chairman and Secretary counting numbers Blues next refused to give up a player to even out the discrepancy Chris added another goal to add insult to injury

The Magnificent Eight held on to their extra players and narrow 2-1 lead against the aggrieved Six B/Ys

As a point to nip this notion in the bud for the future any games featuring the use of a Guest player will do so on the understanding that the Guest must play as a keeper

We have players of all abilities within our ranks Inevitably the only way the less mobile and/or talented will ever improve is to be fully integrated into sessions and mixed with all other players

Enough said

In the two remaining fixtures Black/Yellows drew with Reds in the mornings best match Andy on target for B/Ys with Chris almost inevitably levelling for the Reds

In the final match up Phil scored the last goal of the session to give the B/Ys a narrow win against Blues

As the temperature picked up as we approached high noon the wisdom of short 10 minute segments made perfect sense

Well played to everyone involved this morning

At the end the Chairman confirmed some insights from Herr Pitt will be passed on Monday 9th August Our thanks to Steve who will help all players to greater understand the vagaries of this great game Explaining this without those hearing aids could prove challenging but let’s see

The Club’s long delayed AGM will be held on Friday 27th August at 19:00 at the Turks Head Cooper Street St Helens WA10 2DQ Players are urged to attend The Agenda will be distributed as soon as possible with a new Club Constitution The COVID pandemic led to some operational amendments to the current Constitution We mean to formally adopt the new Constitution to meet our obligations for the present and immediate future

Any member who would like to offer their services to be involved as an Officer of the Club, must submit their name seconded by another member no later than 21 days before the AGM At this stage all current officers offer their names to continue in Office