Not quite a flying start ...

My laddie (young Master F) played his first game for his new football team today (St Annes) and came on as a sub with 10 minutes to go. This year he’s a right sided mid-fielder as opposed to being a goalkeeper the last two seasons for his previous team (YMCA). It was a pre-season friendly and they were beaten 0-1 but it’s under 11s this year so they now play 30 minutes both halves, are up to 11-a-side and the offside rule is played … so it’s almost the real thing!

I thought the Illuminations weather was going to play a big part as just like yesterday it was bucketing rain from early this morning and blowing a gale, however it cleared up and calmed down by 2:30 when they kicked off. The match was played on the pitches near Blackpool Airport and there were loads of planes arriving and departing because of the Southport Air Show just across the Ribble estuary. It goes without saying that concentration was distracted by various display teams of helicopters, bi-planes (wing walkers not attached when we saw them) and Red Arrows. The distinctive smell of aviation fuel as it wafted over the playing fields was a novelty.