Friday 24 February 2012

The Rocky Road: Dunipace - Stenhousemuir - Mount Florida - Paisley

Visited four football stadiums in the space of six days this week - not bad going.

Saturday's appetizer was served at a muddy Westfield Park, Denny. I'd only ever seen Denny in the holiday catalogues so it was nice to finally get there in person.

Westfield Park can fair fill up

The Pace (Dunipace Juniors) were hosting The Undertakers (Port Glasgow Juniors) in a Central District Divison One game.

Junior football is smashing but I'm afraid this was just a flying visit.

The guy trying to get the ball got nutmegged several times

Next stop that afternoon was Ochilview in the Stenhousemuir/Larbert area for East Stirlingshire v Queen's Park.

Queen's keeper Neil Parry's crucial save from Andy Stirling with the game at 1-1

I was on match-reporting duty for a local paper and got treated to a pulsating game which ended with a 93rd minute winner for Queen's Park, courtesy of the Scottish Football League 3rd Divison's top scorer Jamie Longworth.

Queen's Park's David Anderson assisted for the winning goal

Tuesday night saw me join 413 other football fans at Hampden to see Queen's Park host Berwick Rangers.

Now, perks of the press pass at Ochilview the previous Saturday started and ended with free entry to the game.

However, at Hampden it was an altogether different affair.

That's some of my fingers on the left

Yes, at the national stadium there was access to a half-time home-baking extravaganza. Whole platefuls of goodies were the centre-pieces of many circular tables and I managed to secure a tremendous slab of Rocky Road.

Rocky Road: one of your five-a-day

Oh and the game finished 2-2 with injury time goals for both sides.

Thursday night's location was St.Mirren Park in Paisley, but not for a game this time. This was to be part of an audience during a live recording of BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound programme.

Some of The Borrowers got front row seats

Hosted by Jonathan Sutherland, it was really interesting to watch Jim Traynor, Chick Young, Billy Dodds and Steven Thompson discuss football's hot topics and take questions from the audience.

So there you go, four stadiums in six days.

Tomorrow it's back to Hampden for Rocky Roa.......I mean Queen's Park v Stranraer.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Male, 29, seeks minority sport

So, at uni, some of us are being gently reminded to write about subjects other than football. Yep, it's in my best interests. Understood. Crystal.

Don't get me wrong, the course I've been on this year has required us to write about all sorts of topics. It's just that when we get a free-choice assignment, there's always four or five individuals clambering towards the beautiful game.

It's not a crime. It's what we know. But I acknowledge there's no harm in being able to write indepthly about another of the sports I like to keep one eye on.

So what's it to be then?

Here's three potentials, with their justification.....

Golf

Hopefully it's only a matter of time before I start playing golf. Maybe this summer actually.

I flirted with it mid-teens before entering a ten year period of taking nothing more than a fleeting interest in who won the majors.

But the dormant golf volcano within me is rumbling. The last two or three years have seen me closely follow the sport and I find watching it on TV both enjoyable and relaxing. Can't beat hearing the bird-song in the background at Augusta.

Pangs for the fairways and greens only multiply when playing putting in Portpatrick.

Portpatrick Putting Course - where friendships are put on hold

So, golf's a serious front-runner.

American Football

Aged five, I sat my parents down for a chat and decided education was the best route for me. Enrolment at Bothwell Primary was a formality.

There I developed a real aptitude for eating Quarterbacks, the 10p cheeseburger flavour crisps. A love for American Football was born, and I especially liked this American Football lark when I got a small broken crisp from the bottom corner of the bag which had an over-abundance of flavouring.

I stuck with my studies. Primary 1 became Primary 2, which became Primary 3. It remained Primary 3 for six years until I was ready to cut it at Primary 4. But, the graft was worth it, and before I could say 'touchdown', I was in Primary 7 with responsibilities like 'monitor'.

In Primary 7, I think I was the only person in Scotland to have a stab at completing the Panini NFL sticker book. I soon soaked up a solid knowledge of all the teams, colours, crests and players. Having no-one to swap with was the collateral damage.

Since then American Football and I have been complete strangers. Almost awkward at times. It'll take a lot of patience and hard work but I reckon we could be ready to pick up where we left off.

A good friend of mine supports the Chicago Bears. They're from Chicago.

Cycling

Used a bike for paper-rounds. Rode around Millport within 24 hours. Can sometimes cycle one-handy. Only needing the single stabiliser these days.

So that's a start.

Couldn't work out why this one didn't work, so took it back to the shop

The Tour de France has turned my head. July dinner times are enhanced by the catchy tune of the one hour highlight show - I had it as my ring-tone for a three year stint.

The tactics, the teams, the sprints, the jersies, the crashes, the scenery. No complaints writing about that. Click here to see an infamous crash from the 2011 Tour.


Now that's just three potentials. I must say I'd be open to bringing cricket, motorsport, tennis, snooker, darts and rubgy into the mix too, but you folk must have homes to go to by now.

Where do you think I should channel my writing energies then?