"Snazza frazza rashin' fashin' Rick Rastardly!..."

The owner of such wonderful words was a blend of breeds that would only get his boss out of trouble in return for a medal being penned to his chest.

Half Hunting Dog, a bit Blood Hound, part Pointer and an air of Airedale made up the flying helmeted Mutley from the 1960's cartoon Wacky Races.

Mutley is a good analogy in part for White Roding SuperVets... a couple of founding members from a decade ago, a number of waifs & strays who followed, a few former footballing friends, topped up with a couple of the Gaffer's old team mates. Occasionally bad tempered but usually kind-hearted and often unintelligible when muttering under their breath.

Wednesday also afforded them and the club the first opportunity of bringing silverware back to CM6. As with most Match Reports, the Gaffer prepares the theme before the game takes place and adds a few stats in at the end... this is no different. In the build up to the final, I only made 1 decision without consultation - not to receive medals after the final whistle, whatever the result. With only 16 made available on the night (to recognise the maximum number that can play in any one game), it does not take into account those that helped the team get this far. Once we have the complete set for the entire team, then they can be awarded together.

With recent events about Covid19, this final was in doubt. It was only after much work by the League Committee and the agreement of all parties concerned that the first cup of the Essex Vets Football season could be played. Those selfless individuals delivering thankless tasks to let countless others play the game they love should be rewarded for the work they do. If Government advice, powers and restrictions develop in the same pattern as other countries, this could be the only cup "up for grabs" in 2019/20. The week's build-up was a myriad of massages, yoga, training, weddings, holidays, team tactics & meetings, precautionary measures for virus (all clear) and luckily no one needing to be quarantined...

...So obviously events took over from the best laid plans as we had our pre-final training session, on 4G and under lights nearly 2 weeks ago. Whilst waiting for guidance and good fortune, I thought it was best not post a blog entry, plus the fact I was inundated with Twitter quizzes, Gifs and jokes by housebound players. In the end, the news came that this season was to be written off and hopefully we can all start afresh later in the year. We never got to play in the biggest match of the club's history, compete for the league title, make further additions to the WotW Trophy or have an end-of-season celebration. Instead the nets have been taken down, the new balls marked up but never played with and the freezer emptied of food.

"Doing things differently" was my mantra in my first season in charge and part of that was better hospitality with fresh-cooked food by ourselves, vegetarian options, organic ingredients where possible and eaten off proper crockery - almost civilised! The purpose of proper food was to eat more healthily, be kinder to the planet and get more players to stay behind after a game - we'd like to think that it worked, albeit we only had 5 games at Home this season. We upped the budget to a heady £30/game and being honest, if we had shopped every match, we would have spent more. In order to maximise the budget, we bought in advance, using 1st Time Customer Discounts from Ocado, Sainsburys & Tesco. So we stocked up the freezer full of yummy stuff to see us through to the end of the season... that arrived too soon.

With 5 games left to play, no chance of feeding 150 mouths and the Boris Ban limiting options to cook the contents, the food was in danger of spoiling (even in the freezer) by early May. White Roding is a rural Essex village, with limited village facilities but a good community spirit. In agreement with the Parish Council and the Sports & Social Club (effectively one and the same... like some villagers' partners & siblings!), the food has been distributed to those self-isolating or in great need.

In these challenging times, we are only too happy to contribute what we can in the only way we can (as most of us do not live in the village). What we can only hope for now, is to see as many local faces join us for football, food and frivolity back up the club when the new season starts up. Please stay safe, be sensible and support those in need.