A day On The Farm

I've just got back from taking the A Class U10s for a trip out into to the country......................well Tottenham actually, or Broadwater Farm to be precise.

Many of you of elder vintage will maybe feel a shudder go down your spine when you read that name, recalling the awful events of two decades ago that culminated with the lynching of PC Keith Blakelock when the estate exploded into violence borne of the frustration that germinated between the total misunderstanding and a breakdown of respect between the culture of the local youths and the authorities.

Happily that's all history now, and on a crisp autumnal Sunday morning it was the venue of A Class U10's first venture into the Waltham Forest Sunday League that we have entered simply to get our boys more accustomed to playing football on grass rather than astro turf.

Broadwater United are the fulmination of the hard work and dedication of Clasford Stirling MBE who's son Jude plays for MK Dons and who is the mentor of many a young professional footballer in this country at present................... Nile Ranger (Newcastle Utd), Rickie Sappleton (Macclesfield) and Lesantha Lua Lua (Brighton & Hove Albion) to name but three. Clasford is a big man in every sense of the word with a "Frank Bruno" laugh and the frame of The Jolly Green Giant.

To give you an insight of the type of man he is, he asked me why Anthony wasn't playing today (too late to register for that league to be eligible today) and then insisted he take to the pitch to partake in the pre-match handshakes and exchange of ID cards.

We last met down at QPR the other week when he was there with a few of his latest young hopefuls and I have known him for years..................he is the very epitome of the FACT that if you put yourself out and show positivity to youngsters you will be rewarded with the warmth of seeing them blossom and become good citizens. He has taken his youngsters as far afield as Japan to represent this country on the football field and like all of us who work with kids still has to put up with the weekly frustrations of oversleeping mums causing their kids to be late and all the other crap you get when you run a football team at grass roots level. I think we'd all be millionaires if we had a pound for every player who turned up without boots, one shin guard and who can't yet do his own laces up...............but set 'em loose on a football pitch and they're little geniuses.

We also use this league to give the players who only get limited pitch time in the high pressure Friday Night league a bit more time on the pitch, and today's game ended 1-1 when we snaffled a last gasp equaliser against the League Champions for the past two years ~ so we'll take that; and I took even more pleasure watching my daughter Olivia and little 'un Calvin playing in the sunshine with no mean ball skills amongst the tots on the side lines...................I think at 17 months of age Calvin has learned there is more pleasure to be gained from dribbling his own little ball endlessly round and round instead of running on the pitch and getting trampled underfoot by the "Big Boys" as he seemed hell bent on doing until recently!