Xmas Olympics
Sunday 18th December 2011.
After a certain (not to remembered by those who went) players night out, the Sunday training was always going to be slightly different. The usual throng of children, parents and coaches was replaced with tumble weed and very sore heads, as our usual start time of 10 am was certainly not adhered to.
However by 10.30 when all had arrived (except our U7 coach) the Xmas festivities were in full swing. The mixture of 37 brave U6 & U7 children with a further 30+ parents had a great time when eventually joined by Ian Smith at 10.45.
The warm up was slightly more subdued than normal with the children showing the rather hung-over parents and coaches their tackling skills, when the parents donned tag belts and were quite easily caught within the first 30 seconds. The second one lasted nearly 40 seconds before the children got fed up catching the now weary parents within 45 seconds of the third and last part of the warm up. Thanks must go to the two Ethan’s (from both year groups) who were very happy to relieve at least 10 parents each from having to run by collecting their tags.
Never in the history of Southport RFC has 2 simultaneous games of “Eggs in a basket” taken place side by side with parents and Children running “amok”, with Ash’s team getting to 9 “eggs” first with a little bit of ball stealing from the other game. It became quite apparent that the second game would never reach 9 balls each as Mark Warren had collected a good 20+ balls after the whistle had sounded. This unsavoury act was disciplined quite fairly by the now awake Ian Smith with the punishment of 10 push ups with Finlay standing on Mark’s back, obviously while wearing his boots.
It was difficult to establish in the next 4 games who was the winner, as the illegal ball retention progressed, however sights of Paul Grove and Ian Tindall under a mass of children paying “pileys” was a joy to behold, if not for them.
We then moved to the relay races, which could never be described as close, but in answer to Ian’s question about who is the quickest in the invitation to the games, without a shadow of a doubt the answer is Jack Carney as Andy had to work (At 10 am on a Sunday morning) which was quite unfair as he had only got in a couple of hours earlier.
The finale for the children was the passing game (target practice) where the coaches, forever immortalised in laminate, where the subject of some exceptionally accurate ball skills from the U6 and U7 players, resulting in the most handsome being knocked off first. This was followed by Ian, Ian and Jez with Mark Warren’s grotesque picture still flying to this day.
I believe the “higgysmith” cup deserves its own report, which will follow this; however special thanks to the clubhouse team and of course Santa and his elves, for a tremendous Xmas party later in the day. A packed clubhouse and playing field of children carrying gifts was testament to the excellent family atmosphere that surrounds the club. 2011 has been a great year here’s to 2012
Although the report may have some parent s believing it is tongue in cheek, the nicest part for all the Coaches is the riches we receive from seeing the delight on the children’s faces, and looking round at parents and kids a like, we were all very wealthy on that day.