matchday

hi again

after the t-shirt theatrics, a post closer to the type that family and friends would probably rather see here!

James' school recently had a massive "sports day" thing, with all winter-ish sports on display, sadly no cricket, then, so he could not show off his rather class batting gear that Father Christmas brought him. James could, however, use the goalkeeping gloves that he insisted i buy him "just in case" he decides to become a goalkeeper!

here he is, getting ready for the kick off!

in case you are wondering, yes, indeed if not oh yes. i was chased off by James not long after i took that picture. when one watches footage of England's greatest hour in the realm of football, one notices a distinct lack of Mr Banks snr running on to the pitch to take a picture of his son Gordon during the match. James felt that the same level or respect and behaviour should be shown with this match.

as far as his stint in goal went, rather well to tell the truth. he made one or two decent saves, no doubt helped by the ace Predator gloves that he had on. on that note, i am most disappointed that the Predator gloves are most un-Predator-like in the sense i was hoping. there's no thermo-nuclear bomb control on them, and there's certainly no special button one can press to make class blades pop out.

the opposition, alas, were rather good, and as a consequence they did manage to sneak one or two (well, two) goals past James.

sorry for showing the one he didn't save; i seem not to have taken any decent pictures of the saves he made. i was probably too busy applauding or encouraging him!

Mummy and William were there watching too, of course, and during a break in games they took the liberty of "sharing" a yoghurt.

William's interpretation of "sharing" is an interesting one. when you offer him something to share, it becomes his and his alone. i am pretty sure he gets that from his Mum......

moving on to the second match, and James had a crack at being a striker. well, a defender-striker-midfielder, really, as did his whole team. and all of the opposition. watching both teams run around in one big gang after the ball reminded me of the great tactics Middlesbrough usually employ, although there is a difference in that it seemed to actually work in the case of James' team.

the match finished 1-1 thanks to a last minute penalty won - and indeed scored - by James! he was very happy with himself after that, even if the tackle was a bit harsh, even by standards for the age level!

James was excellent at point and shouting at his team mates about what to do, and as he had the talent to back it up i have no doubt that he will one day be a great midfield maestro. he's certainly much, much better at the sport than i ever was!

other than the borderline offensive start time - why do schools insist on starting things off before the sun is up on a Saturday? - a wonderfully pleasant day out! well done James!

later om, and this probably does not fit in here, William was very excited about the idea of me taking further pictures. here's why!

William, for some reason, wanted a picture of him coughing. i suppose it's not something you would usually see yourself doing, now that i think. he is not, i should stress, actually ill at the moment - he was just doing his "pretend" coughs for the benefit of the camera. he certainly seemed to be happy with how the pictures came out, if that's worth anything!

more updates later!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!