New Year, new...er...start?

Saturday 5th January

CML Challenge Cup Round 2

Easington United v Belper United - match postponed

Having enjoyed my two trips to watch the Tigers over the Festive Break, I was really looking forward to the New Year and the return to local action it would bring.  Oh well.

I should have known things weren’t going to turn out well when Mrs Slush was struck down by a virus that not only consigned her to a party-free New Year’s Eve.  Thus, instead of seeing in 2013 in the company of friends, I greeted it with a single glass of Balvenie Double Wood in front of Jools Holland’s annual Hootenany while from outside came the sounds of fireworks and – somewhat bizarrely – kids playing ‘Hide and Seek’.  I would term it a “low key” celebration.

Up early the following morning allowed me to take in a brisk walk around the village, which in turn helped set me up for my own “festivities” - an afternoon in the Granby, accompanied by the Slushettes.  A very fine pint or four of Tom Woods Lincoln Gold cushioned the blow.
Mrs Slush’s ailments also forced postponement of her impending operation to have her tonsils removed, scheduled for the first Friday of 2013.

Sensing that she was slightly disappointed by this fact – having got herself all psyched up for what isn’t the most pleasant of experiences - I thought it best not to mention that now I was no longer needed to drive to Castle Hill on Saturday afternoon, I could instead be down pitch-side at Low Farm…there’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity.

In the event any smugness I may have felt got its deserved comeuppance.  Having convinced myself on the Friday afternoon that the League Cup tie against Belper United would go ahead as planned, a subsequent inspection by locally-based referee Steve Spruce ruled otherwise.  It was going to be another blank Saturday down on the Farm…