At the weekend the Hopkins Family went to the Bedgrove Dynamos Presentation Day at Aylesbury Town FC’s ground. It marks the end of the football season which tends to define our weekends for all but about six weekends of the year. The league season finished (for the boys and for the professionals!) over a month ago, but we then hit the “tournaments” for a month or so before we get to presentation day!
For most of the year our weekends involve training on Saturday mornings, and matches on Sunday mornings (this year David has been coaching a kids team that none of our boys play in, so sometimes that’s been four matches in four different places). These activities are interspersed with watching football on the TV; playing football on the pitch beyond our garden gate; going to Aylesbury Town FC or MK Dons to watch live matches; and playing FIFA on the Play Station. Occasionally we push the boat out and go to the pub to watch an especially important match. And somehow we jam homework in amongst these things – often it manages to have a football theme!
I used to watch football with Da when I was a kid – both on the TV and at Priestfield Stadium (home of The Gills) which we could get the train to from Canterbury. Actually, I used to watch lots of sports with him – I think that when he realised number two was a girl two, he thought he’d teach number one about offside rules, lineouts, and the order to pot snooker balls in! Good preparation for a houseful of sporty lads in years to come.
The truth is I don’t mind at all. I love that the boys are all so active; I see how they organise games with children of all ages out the back; how they resolve disagreements; see them understanding the power of teamwork; and I’m sure that regularly winning and losing at sport is a useful life lesson.
Football can have a positive effect in poorer nations too. It can serve as a tool to bring communities together, and a give people a sense of pride, as well as encouraging fitness – and opening up a conversation about health in general. One of the projects you are helping us fund with the 3GKiliClimb sponsorship is in Zambia. It is run through Baraka Community Partnership and supported by Exodus. You can read more about the project here. And if you’d like to read a first-hand description about the football being supported this article by my colleague Gina (of the Cornrow Five, who joined Ma and Da for the Refugee Tales walk) explains how even a football-o-phobe can be sucked into the celebration of the game when surrounded by proud, excited Zambians.
