Summer Football anyone......

So we are at that time again, pull out your football shirts, St George's Cross and novelty football compilation albums, another Football Tournament is upon us.  I do enjoy the feeling of the country coming together in hope and expectation for a couple of weeks every other year (well almost every other year, no one mention 1994 or 2008).  I want to share some memories of that I have tournaments gone by as we count down to another one and a new chapter in this story!!

Italia 1990

Great Memories of this one

The first time I can really remember being properly into a World Cup, as every over 13 year old boy, Gary Lineker was my hero back then but that was soon taken over by Gazza and for the first time the heartache of penalties became a reality. Platt's volley, Lineker's goals, Pearce/Waddle and of course those Tears from Gazza!  I even now have an Italia 90 England shirt, complete with Number 19 (see previous blog for Kit obsession!!)

Euro 96, Football's coming home

Imagine Gary Neville commentating on this moment...

The memories this brings back is a summer of fun, my first tournament that saw me able to watch games in a pub (not that this was the fun element in it but second only to be at the games being is watching England with fellow supporters in a pub). So Three Lions, Grey England shirts and the Germans!  The highlight for me was sitting watching that 15 minutes of football we played against Holland, unbelievable scenes!  Now-a-days would be seen as some Barca-esque football and by the English national team!!

France 98

For tournament for me has one memory.  David Beckham, no not the red card but the game against Colombia.  I remember being in the pub when D.Beck lined up a free-kick and in what seemed to be slow motion curl the ball over the wall and into the back of net, the slow motion did not end there, as we all jumped up I have a vivid memory of several pints of beer hanging in the air and then time catching up with us as stood beer-soaked and finding the nearest person to embrace!  And of course Michael Owen's goal wasn’t too bad either but lets not dwell on that match too long!!

Euro 2000

For me hold the least memories for a tournament, in fact I remember we lost a couple of games and beat Germany but apart from that this is most memorable for the stories that a couple of friends who went to Holland for the tournament told on their return, definitely not for public discussion!

Japan/South Korea 2002

Never in doubt...

Now this was a memorable one, mainly for being in the pub at 7.30 in the morning ready to watch matches! The biggest highlight I take from that is watching the Argentina game, it was a Friday and kicked off at lunchtime, so got to the pub nice and early (only to ensure that I got the best seat possible), D.Beck didn’t let that metatarsal get in the way and came up with the goods and the rest of the day was spent celebrating, even ended up in the local nightclub in my England Shirt a great party atmosphere and one of the best football related days I've ever had! Also remember that reversible England shirt, see it always comes back to the shirts!!  In fact this was the tournament where I developed a superstition of wearing the opposite colour to what England are wearing, something I kept up with until my first trip to the new Wembley to see that game with Croatia in 2007!

Euro 2004

This one seemed to be over before it got started, a new saviour in Wayne Rooney which quickly ended with another metatarsal injury (I think or was that just injury of choice at the time!) but remember those days fondly as these where the one's when Quarter-finals were reached!! Sorry, no shirt memories of this one!!

Germany 2006

Now this was the one, I remember reading in my football magazines of the mid-nineties that this was the big one, our squad was would be at its peak and likes of Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman would be leading us to glory!  I wish I could find that squad now to see how close it was (Match circa 1994)!!  I remember a lot of expectation around this one but that seemed to disappear as quick as the stock in the boutiques of Baden-Baden, (Sorry, cheap WAG-gag), in fact the introduction of the term WAG into the English language was one of the highlights of the summer! Dreams finally destroyed by our noughties version of the Germans, the Portuguese and a sudden dislike to Cristiano Ronaldo developed thanks to a wink!

South Africa 2010

Not sure it would have much difference

Another tournament full of expectation, that disappeared as soon as ITV decided to go to ad-break just as we score against USA, the writing was on the wall really from that point!! I watched most of these games at work, luckily I had a desk that was just in the right spot to view the games, oh how times had changed I went from watching England in World Cups as kid at home, in the pub with friends and now I was sat at my desk catching a glimpse here and there between doing this and that (I say a glimpse but we'll move quickly on..).  This culminated with going to a friends to watch the young German team get spanked and then celebrating with BBQ, well that didn’t work out and after practically losing my voice shouting at the ref through the TV, goal-line technology debate anyone!  So that was that and another tournament was over for England, although this did end up with Spain winning and being in Tenerife for the final was great, watching the Spanish celebrate and imagining what it would be like if we won something their party was over the next day, I know ours would go on for weeks!!!

So with Euro 2012 just a couple of weeks away, I wonder what memories this one will leave with me, lets hope good ones, COME ON ENGLAND!!

I am going share with you an obsession I have, a strange interest that seems to have got slightly worse since the invention of internet, football kits!!

I am not quite sure where my obsession with football kits started, I remember getting "Shoot" and "Match" when I was a kid and looking over new kits, I remember that Umbro once used this double page spread that showcased their new range of kits for the season, probably something like 1988/89 season because I remember the three England kits with the same template (White/Red/Pale Blue)!! 

What is wrong with me, why should I remember that in so much detail!!  The thing is its not just the kit, it’s the background, it’s the history of why teams use certain colours, Millwall play in blue because of the Scottish roots of the club, Italy play in their Blue because it is the colour of the Royal Family, this stuff truly releases the inner geek in me!  I've got books on them, I regularly check websites on them (don’t want to miss out on some breaking news!!), new kits, retro kits, I love them all!!

Now what has started out as just football, has spread into other sports.  Cricket and all the one day shirts that various teams have around the world, rugby they all interest me!  I even got a collection of shirts that spreads over probably three or four boxes and suitcases in my loft as well as my wardrobe, from memory of got Millwall (I dread to think how many), England, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, USA, Lincoln City, Brazil, Tottenham! Kent CCC, England Cricket, Indian Cricket, South African Rugby, NZ Rugby and I'm sure I could go on and on and probably on!!

So fast forward a decade or two and we arrive at today.  The kit obsession is now pretty bad, I think I've bored some of my friends at work to death about the new Adidas Team GB Kits (which I would like to add I think the football shirt is pretty awesome) and this brings me to following question, is it just me?  Today there was a massive thing about Adidas releasing Team GB's kits, for all the Olympic Sports, I know it’s probably because it’s in London…. 

But am I just a Marketing Man's dream or like me is the whole world becoming a little more kit obsessed!!

Let me entertain you...Right Here, Right Now...

Listening to my ipod a couple of days ago a song popped up that reminded me of something that myself and my former Cricket team used to get up too!

Song titles……

We took our inspiration from 1998 England World Cup Squad, who when being interviewed decided to drop in song titles into their answers, Alan Shearer, Tony Adams, Gareth Southgate were people who managed to get With a Little Help from my Friends, Dancing on the ceiling and even Club Tropicana into their interviews!  We decided that we could have a bit of fun with this and turn our Saturday afternoons in the field into something of Song-fest when "chirping" to the batsman (For Non Cricketing folk, Chirping is basically trying to put the batsman off with the power of words!).
 
This often ended with several people losing concentration from laughing too much when somebody came up with something new from the week before, however it was something that kept those hours in the sun chasing a small red ball that little bit more entertaining!!  A few years after this I decided to take to this idea to another level, by this point I was submitting match reports to the local newspaper which we subsequently published both in print and online, below is a report written in 2007, I believe that there are 14 Song Titles included, there are probably more than that inadvertently….

See if you can spot them and yes this did get published!

On the second sunny afternoon in a row, a young Old Stacians team travelled to league high fliers Holmesdale. Stacians captain Howard Wooding got the afternoon off to a good start by winning only his second toss of this league campaign and elected to bat first.  The Holmesdale bowlers took the attack to the “Old Boys” top order and with a mixture of good, tight seam bowling and good work in the field restricted Stacians scoring options but after the first fifteen overs the “Old Boys” would have been happy with only losing one wicket and not falling for Holmesdale’s masterplan.  Then the home team showed why they are pushing for promotion this season, Australian Chris Cann and Young Kent prospect Harry Galpin bowled well getting the ball to jump around all over the place to reduced Stacians from 37-1 to 81-7, it was a batting collapse that has been all too regular for Stacians over the past three or four seasons, Luke Reeves the only batsmen in the top six to get into double figures.  Things could only get better from this moment on, young guns James Rand and Daniel Coulson come together at the crease and showed great fight and commitment and put on an excellent 61 runs for the 8th wicket, both showed arrange of shots around the ground using both touch and power to give Stacians a target to bowl at!  With this weekend being the opening of the new Harry Potter film it proved a good omen for Harry Potter look-alike Jimmy Rand, he ended the innings as top scorer just missing out on what would have been a well deserved fifty and was unfortunately run out for 48 as he and the tail looked to put on vital runs in the end of their innings.  Daniel Coulson made a good 29 and brother David finished with 14 as the tail well and truly wagged with the final three wickets putting on 85, Stacians were finally bowled out for 166 in 50th and final over.

Stacians chose to attack Holmesdale from the start and opened the bowling with Australian leg spinner Paul Johnstone, who bowled well with the new ball, he showed good spin and drift to have the openers in some trouble, however the Holmesdale team again showed why they are pushing for promotion by digging in and showing a lot of patience when under pressure from the Stacians bowlers and used good combination of defence and attack and most importantly did not lose wickets during this spell of the match.  Paul “PJ” Johnstone finally broke the opening stand at 47 with a well deserved wicket, the Holmesdale opener falling for a trap that was only set the ball before!  This brought Aussie Cann to the crease and after showing his class with the ball began to show it with the bat to.  The Home team batted well and kept ticking the score board over and always stayed ahead of the run rate and controlling the game, chasing down the score in partnerships, the Stacians bowlers although bowling as well as they have done all season were just unable to pick up wickets regularly enough and in the setting sun Holmesdale reached the victory target with the loss of just four wickets.  Cann finishing 65 not out to cap off a fine game for him personally even managing to hit the ball into the busy road next to the ground, the Stacians fielders were left chasing cars to retrieve the ball back!  Sam Kennett finished with figures of 24-2 to be the pick of the bowlers for Stacians.  It was a good return to form from the 21 year old seam bowler who bowled with a good rhythm and consistency and looked to use the conditions to move the ball either way.
  
There are plenty of positives to take out of this game and as Stacians look to do a double over next weeks visitors to Goat Lea Park, bottom of the table BOCA Sports.

Hair today, gone tomorrow!!

Hair, I miss it! 

There you go that’s my opening statement, I have been let’s call it presenting the image of someone that is follically challenged for nine years now and although I have saved god knows how much in hairdressing bills over those years I still miss sitting in that chair, being shown that back of the head in that mirror (as it makes all the difference at that point), the choice wax or gel (I was always a gel man, I thought wax was for pretty boys, not for the likes of me!).  Those were the days.

Shaving your own head is pain in the backside, I have spent the last year or so “bic’ing” my head but my last experience of this resulted in so much blood that it looked like my head had had a brief encounter with Freddie Krueger!  This was just before Christmas, the irony of this all was that I was brought a set of clippers as a present by my Dad and Step-Mum!  So I am now back to the shaving my head with clippers, which is fine until there is about three days growth and I start to resemble something of a monk, DAMN YOU HAIR, DAMN YOU!!

So why am I bald, it’s supposed to be hereditary and I am informed that it is your Mother’s Father that you are supposed to follow when it comes to hair but my Grandad had a full head of hair and when you look at my brothers, one has the hair I’ve always wanted and pulls off all kinds of hairstyles (not that I am jealous), the other is rocking the surfer dude look, let’s just hope my 7 year old brother follows them and not me! 

I am going to place the blame on this and this alone!  Being a teenager in the 90’s has a lot to answer to, waistcoats, drinking bottles of 20/20, Boy-bands and highlighted hair!!  In my quest to look as good as possible I may have slightly dyed my hair quite often to pull off that blonde tipped look and to make it worse my hair dye of choice was that classic “Sun-In”, a quick spray or two or ten and spend a few hours in the sun and there we have it beautiful blonde tipped hair!  My Mum always warned me against using it as well!!

My thought of the day, listen to your Mum, she always knows best!

And to my hair, I’m sorry, I miss you and wish you were with me now!  x   

My Olympic Dream....

A couple of months ago a competition was held at my work for one of two chances to be part of “Olympic Torch Relay”.  We had to write an inspiring piece related to sport/London/Olympics, this was my entry…..

I believe that I should be given the opportunity to carry the flame for running this year's London Marathon.  That may not sound a good enough reason alone but those that know me will understand that I am built for comfort and cuddles and not endurance running and the fact that I could not walk up the stairs with being out of breath before I started training, you may begin to see the challenge I was undertaking. 

Six months’ worth of training, getting up at 5am most mornings to run in the wind, rain and snow all seemed worth it on that HOT Sunday in April when the City of London came together to support 40,000 of us plodding round its streets.  Running through London the streets lined with steel drum bands, Gospel choirs singing and most importantly the hundreds of thousands of people who are shouting your name (it was on my vest) willing you on to the finish was an amazing experience.  I found that even though the heat was sapping my energy and I was feeling pain that I had never put my body through before, I had a smile on my face every minute and I can only describe it as enjoyable, as this was my Olympics and I was battling for my Gold Medal.   If the way I felt that Sunday is 1% of how an elite athlete feels when they compete in the Olympics, especially with the backing of the people of London behind them, I have a new appreciation and understanding why they dedicate themselves to their sports and battle for their Gold Medals.

As I was lucky enough to be selected via the ballot I could run for the charity of my choice, I choose The Demelza Hospice, a locally based Children's charity that provides care for Children with Life-Limiting illnesses, with the support of my family and of course my friends and colleagues at Eurostar I was able to raise nearly £2,200 including Gift Aid.  At Ashford Contact Centre the Social Club supported my efforts, my Team at the time (Group Sales) held a packed lunch service for the rest of ACC and general sponsorship of all those around the business helped me raise this amount.  I was then invited to visit the hospice in action, this was a moving experience and confirmed to me that I was running for the right charity.

I would love to be part of this once in a lifetime opportunity not only to represent Eurostar but to help raise awareness to an amazing charity.

No, I didn’t win!!

Music 1 NLP 0

So here we are…..

I put a status on Facebook today and a friend commented that I should start a blog with a statement like that!  Writing a blog is something that I have been thinking about for over a year now but just never got round to doing it, well the time has come to grab that bull (computer) by the horns (keyboard) and get blogging!!

The status earlier was…..

“I love that listening to a song can just take you back to memories, a mini time-machine! I know a bit deep for me but hey ho!!”

I know, l know a bit cheesy and something that am I sure we have all thought at some point but it amazes me that 3 or 4 minutes of a piece music and some lyrics can stir up so many different memories and emotions and really take you back to those moments years ago.  A few years ago I dabbled in spot of NLP and got a little sucked into to the mentality of all, one of the things I learnt was a technique called anchoring when you use memories of being confident, happy and basically just feeling on top of the world, then linking this to touching a part of your body or to something like an item of jewellery, I spent hours practising this and truly believed I had cracked it but after a while it slipped and to the delight of my best friend (who hated the concept of NLP) said this was proof that it was just a load of rubbish! 

Now listening to one song that randomly comes on my iPod takes me straight back to happy, carefree times and I suddenly have a spring in my step and smile on face!  A feeling that all that time wasted on “anchoring” never got me close to.  Yes, not all songs will have happy memories but that’s life and that’s who we are and the experiences that have made who we are today!   

So what was the song and what was the memory……..

Parklife (Blur) and the memory is just mucking around with friends in 6^th Year Common Room at school.

Until next time,

Gav.