Plus Ca Change*

As the world inevitably turns, we find another Olympic Games upon our screens 2024 and all eyes on Paris The lavish 3 day opening ceremony presented problems that BBC, showing typical British indefatigably shrugged off How do you drone on for hours on end pretending you know what’s going on? How do you dry the camera lens without being seen to be drying the camera lens? As the title of this week’s Blog suggests the more things change the more things stay the same! Monday morning’s Ruskin session was the first tester of the week How could we cope without the lone British representative in the 5,000 metres Stiff Upper Lip? Lord Hawkins of Rainford’s late and unforeseen inclusion in the dressage meant there’d be no Sussex sweep to report upon until his likely return for Wednesday night Sutton SoccerDome session

Thankfully the wily Cockney Rebel had a splendid diversion Sky Soccer Six was quickly adapted for SHWFC corporate needs A long game in prospect ahead of the return of the Greed is Good Premier League

Members flocked to Ruskin in Biggly numbers to make the most of the unseasonably mild July conditions One returning member Steve Clint Eastwood blew in from Spain on a recruitment drive seeking out potential transfer targets approaching the end of their current contracts The promise of unlimited sangria and Watneys Red Barrel was tempting but was politely rejected The overwhelming evidence of the recent bout of Walking Football enjoyment continued unabated Play continued with regular sensible rehydration breaks with smiles on faces This is one change that we sincerely hope will remain the same

The teams were arranged in one match of seven v seven, with four teams of five (for the pedantic one team had six but played with a rotation of a substitute) Those teams were;

Black (7) - Grazer, Mulla, Les H, Tomo, Mark Dav, Jim and Spiro

Pink (7) - McSpeed, Harry the Hatchet, El Presidente, Margaret, Cockney Rebel, Steve Honeyman and Amazon Prime

The game was a pleasure for all who played, good end to end stuff for long periods until Pink stepped up their game to prevail

Dav fired Black ahead through a sea of defenders unsighting the Hatchet so he had little chance of pulling off a trademark save Pink drew level thanks to a long range Amazon special delivery 1-1 There was a long period of stalemate until Spiro found a great volley from an improbable angle to give Black a 2-1 lead The Euro hitman was enjoying a good spell, causing problems to El Presidente in particular until he and his fellow Pink defenders tightened their grip on the lively Black attack Trailing 2-1 Pink responded with McSpeed and then his strike partner Honeyman showing great poise to turn the game around 3-2 now and little Black keeper Grazer could do to fend off the flow of goals The final result was a resounding 5-2 win for Pink McSpeed claimed 2 goals and 2 assists The Pink defence stood firm to repel the Black forwards El Presidente redeemed his earlier lapse with 2 timely blocks Smiles and handshakes all round

The Round Robin that featured the morning’s other teams was populated as follows;

Yellow - Eamon, Roger, Little John, Chris Willo and Phil the Cat

Sky - Sheila, Chris K, Mica, Les Meldrew and Mark NR

Orange - Phil the Power, Andy Man, Geoff P, Colin the Late and Triallist

Purple - Paul F, Eileen, Haggis, Clint, Brian and Barry Wizz - one player substituted throughout

Referees for the morning were Les Lomax and Jeff Betty Birchall - the Seven a Side game was refereed by common sense and honesty and mostly ourselves!

Sheila netted for Sky in a narrow defeat, scoring a consolation whilst Phil powered a brace for the triumphant Orange 2-1 In their next game Sky were on the wrong end of the same score line Yellow coming out on top thanks to goals by Eamon and Little John Chris K grabbed the Sky consolation - another close ‘run’ affair

In Game 3 Orange and Lemon (or Yellow) were seedless in the Citrus Derby No goals for either side, no one pipped at the post the zest for a close game very appealing

Les claimed, somewhat controversially after, that there was an excellent spirit in all the games, no complaints or queries a pleasure to Ref The Executive has turned down his request for an armchair for all future matches, however, did agree he could fetch his own

Jeff Betty patrolled the games played nearest the far fencing starting with the Purple and Yellow Two goals, one each for Eamon and Steve (very probably Clint) Honours even after the opener There was just a single goal to savour in Match 2 as Steve (still probably Clint- since confirmed) eased Purple to the narrowest of victories over Orange 1-0

In the morning’s finale and with Purple boasting their extra man Sky accommodated their rivals by adding Sheila’s grandson 12year old Evan to the mix for the duration We are reliably informed that he is; a) a keeper for successful Saturday and Sunday league teams and b) a rather good one, a cup winner in fact! He produced a string of fine saves to guide Nanna’s side to a 1-0 win Chris K took the glory with the decisive goal, but there was universal praise for the youngster We are happy to add his name so that he and Sheila can bask in his performance for posterity! Youth policy paying off once again

A great morning played in testing hot conditions but played in the SHWFC way Large pat on the back all round

Plus Ca Change* - OffalClub Birmingham solo artist with a taste for the plainly absurd