Delight and Deluge

So it has been raining for about 55 hours pretty much non-stop now. This has put the big brakes on training as across the board all sessions have been cancelled. This means I think we might want to re-appraise the definition of the term 'all-weather pitch'. It's pretty bad timing for us too as I know we'd have all really liked to have got another session in before we embark upon the great crusade for which we have striven for these many months; the league season. That's right, 22 games of intense competition will decide if we can sail the great ship Sale on to even higher seas. We feel we deserve to be there but as we've found in the past many many times thinking you're better and being better are two very different things. Every week now we'll have to push ourselves to the limit, only 100% is going to be good enough this time round, it's what we owe ourselves, it's what we owe each other.

I've started by mentioning the league as it is our main focus this year but of course I have to bring you the joyous news that on Saturday we were very much 'up for the cup' and pulled off a dramatic 3-2 win. The facts show that we bested a team a league above us but I'd much prefer to point you to the confluence of promotion/relegation/restructuring that means we beat a team which 6 months ago were playing 4 divisions higher than us. There was a bit of pride there naturally for us but as an old wife once warned me, pride comes before a fall. We played well yes, but we can play better, and we certainly thought we had it won and let our opponents back into the game. Where coach may of been delighted with our goals (one in particular that was straight from a training session, for maybe the first time ever!) he was having heart palpitations in the last minute when the score was reduced from 3-1 to 3-2. We battled through though, eased some of the heartache from last year, and moved into the semi-finals of the competition. We play Knutsford now on the 5th of January, which if previous Christmas excesses are anything to go by is VERY bad news for us.

That's a battle and a blog for the future though and I'd like now to thank those lovely friends of mine who I hassled into coming down to watch me for showing the support and flying the flag (or perhaps I should say foam hand) for the team, who knows, we may even make players out of some of you yet! My thanks is also extended to all the members of the club who came to watch, we're at home in January too so I hope you'll come down then as well.

Saturday also saw my second ever game as an Umpire take place, as I oversaw my Dads 3's best Didsbury 7ths (or some ridiculous team number like that). It was nice to get another game done and I'm moving closer to getting approved. Not too many tough calls to make though I'm sure I missed a couple of things too, only one way to better though and that's to keep trying. I'd encourage as many players as possible to get involved in umpiring, it's not a very easy thing to do but enables you to see the game in such a different light and appreciate how hard it can be to make a call sometimes. The fact we always need umpires for games is a factor in my encouragement too!

I've gotten a bit aware that these blog posts are a little texty and now that I have a phone that would be described by men in jeans and tucked in t-shirts as 'smart' I'll hopefully be bringing some greater image content over the next few weeks and maybe even another feature to add to the hugely popular song of the week feature. Speaking of which...

Song of the Week

Given that we had the delight of Saturdays battled win and the deluge of rain of Tuesday that washed out training I thought I'd go for a song that combined both Rain and happiness. Sadly, this ruled out most of The Smiths back catalogue as they were a bit heavy on the rain. So instead I went for a twist on the obvious choice. This weeks song of the week would've been Gene Kelly- Singing in the Rain but out of respect for those awesome street dancers they have on Market Street in Manchester City Centre I thought I'd go for the sick re-mix. I love street dancing, I hope they keep releasing more generic 3D films of it at the cinema (in this section italics denote sarcasm). This weeks song of the week: Mint Royale- Singing in the rain

That's pretty much it for this time but I feel bad for leaving you on the note of that atrocity of a song. So by way of an apology please see the below panoramic image that I took of our home pitch on Saturday AKA #FortressSale. For anybody interested it was taken during a Ladies 1st team game which they won 4-0. Cracking stuff girls, see you all next time!