No Rain*

As relentless as the seriously sunny weather this summer has been, so too has been the torrent of new players joining the ranks of SHWFC members Another two fresh faced inductees joined Monday morning’s Ruskin Sports Village congregation for the week’s opening salvo

Factor 50 lavishly applied to shiny domes has become the absolute minimum preparation The warm up routine that was for so long the starting point has now been surpassed by sun blocker of various descriptions, a general rule of thumb, big numbers work best!

Forty players toed the runway kitted out in their Turks Head tops n the following selections

Purple - Kerrie, Robbo, Mark NR, Andy Man, Peter O’Mara on debut, Little John & Jan

Old Gold - John Carroll, GRAV, Sheila, Big Tony, Enoch, Lefty & Ricky

Green - Snakehips, Tracy, Les H, Colin, Meldrew, Cockney Rebel & Phil the Power

Black - Ashy, Roy, Rita, McSpeed, Donal, Glen & Phil Moss

Blue - Mike Thomo, Trish, Speedo Mick, Wickie, Haggis & Citeh Geoff

Red - Tomo, Mike Sanderson on debut, Aldo, Cornelius, Mika & Ian Connor

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The Red v Blue was morning’s six a side tester with both sides sworn to abide by the Marquis of Queensbury holy rules of fair play, honesty and sportsmanship Charlie struggled to ensure the game was played in that true spirit, with both teams hell bent on running off the ball at times The game had plenty of attacking intent and plenty of feisty stuff too Blue shaded the contest with a narrow 3-2 victory thanks to goals by Mike Thomo and Trish with a brace Red were competitive throughout Aldo grabbing a brace in reply

Purple v Gold played in the shadow (except there was none) Football Supremo used the game to accommodate new boy Peter O’Mara, who we later learned was former Warrington League legendary Referee Tommy O’Mara’s Son Tommy had the dubious distinction of having sent off El Presidente later to plead our hero’s innocent favour at a disciplinary hearing “Found innocent and still banned for a week!” Only in local league football folks

“This was an excellent game, as close as the 3-2 score in favour of Purple suggests Old Gold almost redeemed at the end of the match when Sheila 'scored a goal' that was either just inside or outside the area. Nobody seemed to know until Phil the Cat, who was watching, acted as unofficial referee and disallowed the goal This brought a volley of abuse from GRAV and Big Tony

Jan and Sheila had possibly their best games to date, Kerry blocked everything that Old Gold could throw at Purple It was an impressive debut from Pete O, topped off with the winning goal.

Gold scorers were GRAV and Ian Lefty Bridge whilst Purple scorers were Kerry, Mark NR with a great turn and finish, and Pete O All in all a very enjoyable morning’s football” writes Andy Man

The lack of recent rain has left gardeners frustrated as their tended green lawns turn corn-coloured, whilst shrubs and flowers shrivel El Presidente reward for trying to fight nature was a stiff back and with that an easy decision to referee the final fixture of Monday’s session

Black and Green on paper an even contest, Green started well and worked a couple of openings that Rita did well to intercept Donal was prominent too in the heart of the Black defence but Green took the lead when Black performed a bit of self destructive defending leaving Colin with a tap in Green 1-0 to the good

Black lacked a real presence in the middle of the park, constantly over stretched by the better work rate from Green Cockney Rebel hit the post before Green extended their advantage with Les Hewitt scoring from close in The half time break did little to improve the Black fortunes, Cockney Rebel took his time to make it 3-0 Green exposing the lack of Black effort McSpeed continued his one man crusade but the lack of support meant Green were strolling to a deserved win Les ‘Meldrew’ Brack turned in a keeper’s parry from a Snakehips shot

Black finally were able to find consolation as Green’s keeper saw a clearance picked off by McSpeed who dispatched a well deserved shot into the net 4-1 the final score

Full praise for a well organised Green, Black too frequently gifting the ball to their opponents

A good day for Walking Football, but still no sign of rain

Wednesday night’s Sutton SoccerDome session in no shock to anyone took place in extremely warm and muggy conditions with the much anticipated solar eclipse watching on in mild amusement Football Manager Andy Man Houghton takes up the story

“The teams were:

Lilac (7) - Chris 10P, Simon, Paul Winstanley, Cockney Rebel, Haggis, Paul Cott’ & Neil Stretch

White.(8) Ste Smith, PJ, Newbie Pete O, Phil the Power, Joe the Ghost , returning Robbo, Mike Thomo & Eamon*

Orange (7) - Andy Man, Tom Stretch, Ian Harding, Rita, Meldrew, Les H & Graham Kidd

Sky Blue (7) Citeh Geoff, Jason, Dougie, Helen, Chris 4G, Little John & GRAV

The reason I picked 8 for White was because there was an odd number of players and White had a newbie, Pete O’ plus Robbo making a comeback after months out injured.

That 7v8 game might have been close However Eamon decided to Referee (as we had none) Unfortunately, this made the teams unbalanced, with no time to adjust the line ups

The game finished 11-2 to Lilac

Surely someone should have stopped the game when there was a 4 goal difference? That has been our agreed way to proceed in the past Nobody takes pleasure in winning or losing like that.

Orange v Sky Blue

This was a game where all 14 players were on their A-game.

Great to see Tom ‘Stretch’ Parr back, playing like he'd never been away. Meldrew and Chris 4G had probably their best games in ages. The attacking partnership for Orange featuring Graham and Ian Harding scored 3 goals and created several more chances.

The midfield control of Sky Blue starred Dougie and Grav, with Little John and Helen out wide Collectively they created numerous chances for Jason.

It was a great game, finishing 6-5 to Sky Blue

Those all important goals were scored by;

Orange - Ian Harding 4 and Tom Stretch

Sky Blue - Jason 3, Helen 2 and Dougie

So much good Walking Football, still no rain

No Rain* - Blind Melon

https://youtu.be/3qVPNONdF58?si=NffEkjyj72SCKDnD