Play the game

Played footy last night and was, of course, ace ;)

It's always good to have a game of 5-a-side...Have been playing for years with the same gang of people so it's pretty friendly...fitness levels ebb and flow but nowadays well seem to be wearing more bandages and failing fitness tests more often.

My brother played for the first time in 2 years...he struggled a bit which was kind of funny but as per usual a good time was had by all. At one point I, for some unfathomable reason, decided to focus only the ball and run full pelt into Mike Summers......this has left me with a rather bruised nipple where his elbow caught me, very painful.

After footy nipped to St Benets now it's been decorated it's been described as "Less Phoenix Nights and more Boogie Nights"...not sure if it's completely Phoenix-free but it's still a friendly enough place and it doesn't mind a bunch of stinky, humid lads trooping in straight after playing footy. There is no pint like the post-footy pint on Tuesday.

St Benets is a really nice parish...at the moment I am going to St Francis in Garston because an old school friend of mine, Fr Ron, is parish priest there. St Benet's will always be home though. A nice little community & we've been very lucky over the years with some ace priests Fr O'Reilly, Fr Paul "Figo" Fegan and Fr Sean to name a few.

Fr O'Reilly was an irishman who built it up from nothing when Liverpool expended and Scotland Road, the old Catholic area of the city, was cleared and the people dispersed to new suburbs. He was an old school priest. If he said pray you said "Alleluia". Figo is actually more of a family friend than a parish priest and actually used to play five-a-side with us. Fr Sean is the current priest and is another lovely bloke. There are plenty of others I could wax lyrical about, I remember one priest who REALLY hated communists and used to deliver real blood & thunder sermons about it. I remember seeing little old ladies walking out in disgust as he shook his fist and called Chairman Mao a "little bastard" (as kids we thought it was the coolest thing ever).