There’s A Lot Of It About*

January as usual has proved to be a very tricky period for SHWFC Executive Members and players alike The weather is unpredictable and changing by the day Monday morning was damp and misty but did not deter a large number of players lining up to kick off their week in the best possible frame of mind Wednesday is Champions League night or Infantino Money Fest as it is sometimes (never) called Clubs from all over Europe play a whole lot of fixtures to essentially grasp yet more money The proximity of this game to proper football is questionable The final will feature two teams of multi millionaires battling it out on behalf of petro dollared owners Rather like the Warrington Guardian Cup in days gone by Just 3 more months to endure comrades!

Mondays turnouts included two debutants who escaped their initiation songs for a week, Andy Manager not available for once Next week though chaps

The teams selected in absentia were;

Red - Big Tony, Tom Stretch, Enoch, Chopper, GRAV and Ashy

Old Gold - John Hill, Beach Boy, Lord Rainford, Mark NR, Chris K and Kirsty

Green - Phil the Power, New boy Dave Roberts, Steve Harding, Eamon, Mika, Monday Michelle, Cornelius and Donal

Purple - Steve Jones, Les Meldrew, new Boy Rob Culshaw, Les H, Rick, Tomo and Snakehips

Black - PaulF, Haggis, Eileen, Amazon Prime, Cockney Rebel and Barry Wizz

Blue - Sheila, Phil Moss, Roger, Wickie, Mike Bates and Mike Thomo

Ref Jeff Betty Birchall, was in charge of the opening match on Pitch B where Black eased to a 2-0 victory over Red Goals by PaulF and the Cockney Rebel, who seems to be thriving on his ventures in his opponent’s final third Good to see Barry Wizz back in action following his recent accident In the second game Jeff guided a close affair between Black and Blue Cockney Rebel fired home to alert the scouts from Chelsea who offered him a seven year deal Haggis found the net too as Black ended the morning with two wins from their two games Blue consolation goal scored by Wickie 2-1 the final score

The morning’s seven a side match, which was played out over the full course of the session, featured Green and Purple Charlie kept a weathered eye on proceedings, a game that included our morning’s debutants The outcome was a tight high scoring encounter with Green just shading Purple 5 goals to 4

The scorers were Eamon with a hat trick plus Michelle and Donal for Green with Steve Jones, Jill Tomo and Rob on the mark in the Purple reply

The opening match on Pitch A with Old Gold eventually holding off Blue in another goal fest Blue started slowly and fell a goal behind with Beach Boy Brian’s Wilson steering home after a breakaway attack Goals by Mike Thomo and strike partner Phil Moss steered Blue into the ascendancy We enjoyed the sight of a rampaging Rainford crashing home with his trademark Sussex Sweep Chris Kelsall provided further hope of a Gold recovery Wickie and Phil Moss’s second sealed the win for Blue, despite a late goal by Beach Boy for Old Gold 6-4 the final score Closer than the statistics would suggest

The final game of the session saw Red secure a win against Old Gold Two early goals by our own Mr Angry Andy ‘Enoch’ Powell handed a huge advantage to the visitors GRAV then finished a good link up to push Red 3 ahead Chris Kelsall rampaged through the Gold rearguard grabbing a brace and setting up a nervy finish A late goal for Red put the result out of doubt 4-2 the final score

Wednesday night’s action was restricted to a solitary game outside in the wilds of Sutton SoccerDome A melange of various ailments and illnesses playing a devastating role in reducing participating numbers at the eleventh hour We are hugely indebted to Cockney Rebel who added another string to his bow by Refereeing and recording the nights action for Blog purposes

“ Good game last night outside with Yellow 1 v Blue 5 the outcome

The game was very even to start with both teams playing fine attacking & defending elements In the circumstances we played on the middle pitch which was very wide, yellow line to yellow line, as a result very hard to see at times.

One player, who I thought was running to retrieve the ball from off the playing area, simply played it back and everyone carried on!

Although the score would suggest it was a one-sided game that was most assuredly, not the case Yellow lost composure as time elapsed, rushing their play and consequently struggling to hold off the Blue surge A good game played in good spirits all decisions accepted.

Yellow - Eamon

Blue - Steve Carine 2, Ian Harding 2, Mark Dav

The line ups were

Yellow - Haggis, Mike Thomo, Deano, Ian Hilton, Andy Man, Chris 10P, Eamon, Grav and Cornelius

Blue - Jeff Betty, Mark Dav, Ian Harding, Gaz Clark back from Panto, Steve Carine, Midweek Michelle, PJ and Benno

Our thanks to Martin We remain hopeful that the weekend will improve the collective health enough to feature two great sessions next week

There’s A Lot Of It About* - Lazy Flies (Belfast indie band with a bizarre mix of musical styles)