Getting old, sadly it comes to most of us lucky enough not to die
young, which of course is sadder still. Most of us hope for three score
year and ten as a minimum, whereas only a few years ago 70 was considered a
very good knock indeed. Now most of us under 60 will be expecting to make
it to 80 or beyond. The aging population is playing havoc with pension
schemes where contributions were set with say an expected post retirement life
of 10 years and in a short time frame that payment commitment has doubled.
What a time to grow old in this 'vale of tears'.
I have passed 50 now and have had the day when
I realised that I had probably lived over half of my allotted span and that this
is probably as good as it is going to get. All downhill from now,
faculties fading and bits dropping off, I just hope my teeth hang on as long as
I do. How do we take this process? Grow old gracefully or go all
gung-ho like Iris Apfel (the 94 year old in the Citroen advertisement) and live
life to max? You're not ready and you
never will be! Well being a boring accountant I guess I will steer a path
down the middle but with the occasional mad moment.
Television doesn't help; I for one am sick
of the pathetic, contrived over 50s life cover adverts, so much so that if I
ever met a certain professional Yorkshireman it would be a tossup whether shook
his hand in awe or nutted him for being a sanctimonious git. You can get
that sort of cover for less and I hope you have BUPA cover too. But
seriously it can be frustrating getting e-mails from Saga trying to entice me
on grab-a-granny cruises and the like and if after a 27 year hiatus I decided
to 'get my boots out' it wouldn't be veterans now but walking football. I
am now old enough to play walking football; is there any wonder I feel like
crying?
For now I will concentrate on beer and
whisky and getting football fixes where I can at least until the cricket season
is in full swing...
Today its 'Tales From The Riverbank' and sees
Hammy (me), Roderick (Darren), GP (Rick) and the Wise old Frog (John) visiting
the Good 'ol Boys of Barton Town on the south bank of the Humber. A trip
to Mississippi or Alabama would have been nice but sadly the budget doesn't
stretch that far.
Barton Town Old Boys 3 (2) Thackley AFC 1 (0) Thursday 31 March 2016
Ashley Dexter (14, 22): Thomas
Dugdale (77)
Jake Vernon (72)
Attendance: 91
(Floodlight photo courtesy of Darren Norton - https://knockernortonfootball.wordpress.com/)
After last week’s race up the pyramid to
National League North (which mysteriously includes Lowestoft) today we are back
down to the Northern Counties East League Premier Division.
It has to be said that this nice little
ground is not the easiest to find even though it is in the shadow of the Humber
Bridge. It’s down a little lane amongst houses near a railway crossing.
There is a decent size car park and pay up £5.00 and you are in and then
realise that you can't actually see said bridge, it’s as if Dynamo has magic’d it
away! The Swans Review is the match day programme (£1.50) and is an
excellent publication, one of the best I have seen so far. Full colour with a
good mix of articles, statistics, player profiles and information amongst the
necessary advertisements. Well done, shows what can be done and is
certainly a level to aspire to.
The club building is single story and
pretty new, housing the changing rooms, a comfortable bar and committee rooms.
Opposite the dugout is a decent stand with seating and behind the goal to
the right (south) is a 'shed' in which the Barton flag was hung and the keen
lads stood. As near as you can get to Ultras in Curva Sud in this level
of non-league football and to be fair they did make some noise. As I had come straight from work in Doncaster
it was straight into the bar for something to eat. Pie and peas.
The pie was decent enough but the mushy peas were a bit of a letdown, a
small portion (I’m a growing lad) and a little watery. I guess that this
being the start of the south it is considered to be 'pea puree in pea jus' if
they have gone all Jamie Oliver on us. Still it set us up nicely for a
cold night of football.
The 'Curva Sud'
The first half was a slightly odd affair
with neither side creating clear cut chances from open play and Thackley for me
probably just shaded it in quality of play. It was Barton Town though who
were on the score sheet with two powerful headers from Ashley Dexter who may
not be the quickest of centre halves but can certainly head a ball with some
force.
As with most small grounds the ball
disappears out of play over some pitch side obstruction. At North Ferriby
United it may be the allotments; here it was the garden fence of some pitch
side houses. The lad assigned ball retrieval duties had to scale a 6 foot
fence to get the ball. Get the lad a
stepladder chaps, health and safety and all that!
The second half was just as frantic as the
first one but at least there fewer aimless punts up field. With the ball on the ground, albeit somewhat bumpy, Barton Town exerted their dominance and Thackley seemed to run
out of ideas. Both sides scored but Thackley's was little more than a consolation
goal and they never really looked like getting back into the game and taking
anything from it.
This was a hard fought game between two committed
teams and at the top level there would have been a flurry of cards for some of
the tasty tackles. A red one was shown for an impressive double pole-axing;
no quarter is given at this level and I did note that the coach did seem to
carry a tool box for some reason...
All in all an excellent evening; no doubt
we will be coming back next season.
*no rye whisky was sipped or baccy chewed
while producing his piece
