Memoirs of a Roadie

Two Tribes

Posted on 18th February 2008

DanDan playing for Callowbrook Swifts

This Sunday Callowbrook Swifts were playing Glade Rangers away. A couple of weeks ago we played their neighbours, Hampton Sports. For the first time since DanDan has been playing for the team, they had a full strength team of 10 men. Glade Rangers finally managed to make a full 7 man team, as we were thinking they might have to forfeit the game when only 5 players initially turned up. From the kick-off Callowbrook Swifts made their presence felt. Glade Rangers put up a galant fight all the way through the match, and never gave Callowbrook a chance to take it easy. However, a mid-week training session seemed to make a huge difference in the team play. Callowbrook were passing, making and finding space and generally taking on their opponents.

DanDan was sub for the first half, and came on for the second half. Sharpy had managed to take Callowbrook ahead, and nearly got a second, in the first half, and the constant pushing and driving kept the ball in the Glade half. The pitch was slightly sloped in our favour, and the early advantage could easily have been taken away by Glade, but they never quite managed the same level of pushing and dispite getting close to goal on a few occasions, Ross, Jack and Zak held their own. Jack taking the ball up the full length of the picth on several occasions. Soon into the second half Callowbrook got a corner. My previous hinting of DanDan standing in front of the goal, rather than standing back, paid off and ball fell more or less right at his feet. He just had to kick it, and he did. Right into the back of the net. His first goal for the team. Understandably I was delighted, although I was disappointed that the camera wasn't quick enough to capture the moment.

Callowbrook Swifts

Both teams to their credit continued the relentless driving of the ball. It was the best match I've ever seen Callowbrook Swifts play and much better than several professional matches I've seen. Sharpy did himself proud with a second goal, supported by passes from DanDan and Charlie. All the team played brilliantly, although it was a shame that we saw a few casualties. Joel suffered towards the end of the first half and Cameron got a bad knock just after he came on for the second half. They all played better as a team this week, with much better passing and calling for the ball, so a 3-0 win was well deserved. We're at home to Marston Green next week, so fingers crossed we're on form again. Well played lads.

Surreal Madrid

Posted on 6th February 2008

DanDan looks to intercept

DanDan is now a fully fledged member of the Callowbrook Swifts Juniors Football Club, playing in the 7s age group. He played his third match, his second full match, at the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed himself. He's getting really good these days, and although there are still plenty of improvements and confidence needed to get the best out of him, it's been really consuming to watch him and his team mates play. I don't think I've shouted so much at a football match in years! The whole team are great to watch and they have some stars in the making too.

They played against Hampton Sports on Sunday and put up a good fight. Zak and Jack held the defence well, to the point Zak unanimously earned himself man of the match, and the remainder of the team certainly got in the way, just not really making the most of their potential. One of Hampton's goals was very lucky to go in, as their man just happened to be on the far wing, as a throw-in on the other side got kicked further over, and then when he shot for goal, Zack, Jack and Ross just couldn't quite reach the ball to kick it away. For a Callowbrook corner, DanDan was standing too far back from the far post, and had he been level, the ball would have dropped at his feet with an open goal. Joel made several attempts at getting the ball in the goal, but was tackled down every time. In the end they lost 2-0, but it could so easily have been a 1-1 draw. The team are getting better, now they just need to get the goals.

It took a while to notice, but amusingly there was a Kane, a Jack and two Dan's on each team. Unsurprisingly, calling out to Dan caused some confusion, especially among the Hampton players. With our DanDan having problems with his ears, he never seemed to notice. As such one of the Callowbrook mums suggested we randomly shout Kane, Jack or Dan to put Hampton off ;)

At some point this year I really ought to revamp DanDan's website and start adding all the football matches and photos from the last few years on there. I've given the coach photos of DanDan's first two matches, so hopefully they use them when they update the Callowbrook Swifts site. In the mean time, some of the action shots from the last two matches from the first half of the season:

• 16/12/2007 - Callowbrook Swifts vs Warriors (3-0)
• 27/01/2008 - Cadbury Athletic vs Callowbrook Swifts (3-2)

Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll

Posted on 14th January 2008

I got hold of Lost Cities last week, and this weekend DanDan and I played a game of it. We would have played more, but he has still yet to finish his homework :)

It's a fairly simple game and as a consequence pretty quick to set up and play. Although the box specifies a minimum age of 10, I would have said those younger can grasp the gameplay without too much difficult. DanDan certain understood the concept of playing and taking the cards, and building up the expeditions from investment cards to numbered cards. He hadn't spotted that he quickly ran out of time building the expeditions beyond the 20 points needed, as he spent time trying to build up all 5 expeditions. I did the same to begin with, but in subsequent rounds concentrated on 3 at maximum. It made a big difference. DanDan said he really enhjoyed the game, and Nicole liked it simply because it meant he had to do maths to play the game.

For reference, should anyone need them, an English rules translation is available online. It's a shame that The Games Cabinet no longer runs, as that was a great source of reference for the English language versions of the rules. I note there are links to other language versions (mostly Portuguese) on Boardgame Geek, as well as some other interesting resources, but they seem to forget that some of us buy the German versions of the games as they can be cheaper.

What I Go To School For

Posted on 6th July 2007

Following my adventures in Houston last week, Nicole mentioned to DanDan's teacher that I could show the class my photos. They have recently been doing a class project about space and specifically the Apollo 11 moon landing.

So today I went in to do a short 15 minute presentation. Nicole thought 5-10 minutes would be enough, but I think the kids would have happily talked for an hour :)

I picked out a few photos and talked about the rockets, capsules, moon landings, mission control, the mockups, the international space station, the space shuttle and the Saturn V rocket. As I knew they'd already done the class project, I prompted them for answers, which they really relished. I got asked whether there was an Apollo 24, how did the spacemen go to toilet, how did they have a shower, how the rocket got into space, how they got back to Earth among many many others. They also enjoyed telling me about all the things they'd learnt too. They knew the astronauts had to be strapped in when they went to sleep, and that they ate lots of dried food. Not sure if they quite understood that it was freeze-dried and rehydrated, plus they also got a bit confused with the idea of a monkey and a dog landing on the moon, but it was great to see they has such a fascination of the subject, including the girls too.

Mrs Clarke, their teacher, seemed to enjoy the presentation too and confessed that she even remembers watching the moon landing on television. I was only 4 :)

All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit

Posted on 20th April 2007

DanDan has been going to The Strikes Soccer Accademy for the past year, and had some great football coaching. He already had the ability to drop-kick and aim the ball from as young as 3, so we knew he had a natural talent. Thanks to Neil his coach, and getting the chance to play with the older boys at school, he's come on leaps and bounds.

My only disappointment is that Strikes doesn't seem to be able to market themselves very well. At the moment there are only 4 boys being coached in the under 8s group, which DanDan is a part of. It's supported by Birmingham City FC, Walsall FC and Birmingham City Council, so I'm surprised that it hasn't had a lot more publicity. Having a smaller group to coach has meant that Neil has been able to give each boy much more dedicated coaching, which is good, but it does mean there isn't more of a challenge for DanDan.

There was talk of a marketing campaign earlier in the year, but I haven't seen any evidence of it. It would have been good to promote the football coaching to local schools, as there are several. Callowbrook Swifts seems to be the next step up for some, but they seem much more orientated to playing rather than training, and I think DanDan needs more of the training at the moment.

I was thinking the other day, if we did manage to nuture his talent and help him become a first team player with some (preferably local) club, I wonder whether he'd get labelled as "the next ...."? I hope not, he's DanDan. Our DanDan ;)

And for the youngsters among you, regards the title ... see here.