....It's my party.....

Out tonight for Marky Mark's 50th birthday.

Mark's wife Paula was the one who got me into Hockey. She was coach to the Son and Heir when he was an under 13 and she persuaded me to become under 15 boy's coach, even though I'd never played the game in my life. She was also involved, with me and several others with the setting up of Bury Jaguars Junior Hockey Club, of which I became Chairman. Mind you just about everybody at the party was involved in the Jaguars at some time, Mark and Paula both coached, as did Gary and Sharon, Paula and Graham, Michael, Mandy, Julia, I was Chairman, Keith was treasurer and the Boss, Diane, Suzette, Frank and Pat all supported us as partners.

We took a bunch of kids who only got together for the Greater Manchester Youth Games once per year and got pasted by all the other 9 teams and turned them into the leading Junior Hockey club in the Northwest. In the 10 years I was Chairman, we won everything, including one year all six County Championshsips ( Boys and Girls at Under 11, 13 and 15) and 5 out of six Gold medals at the Youth games, I've lost count of the County and Regional players we produced, in one year 7 out of a county squad of 15 at Under 15/16 boys were Jaguars. The Son and Heir had two England trials and later on we had several players go on to represent England and Great Britain, in fact look out for a young player named Bull at the 2012 Olympics. All of our own kids played, and several adult teams in the area operate now because of the number of Jaguars who progressed to their ranks. We were the first purely Junior club in the country to gain the Sport England Club Mark and we were frequently Bury and Manchester's club of the year, we coaches also won several awards, including one for me for "Special Recognition for Services to Sport" and umpteen Coach of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Young Sportsperson of the Year awards.

I retired a few years ago after my kids had grown up and left the club and gradually over the years so have the others...but the club still goes on....and still wins trophies and awards on a regular basis. It was a wrench to leave, but the time was right....and as you know I swapped for coaching angling to kids and am still involved with that.

We see each other about twice a year and on special occasions like last night and we just pick up where we left off last time....the jokes and banter just kick in and we laugh all night long. Last night was no different, we all took the mickey out of each other and the innuendo flew around the room all night. We broke up around midnight and we vowed to meet up again around Christmas?New Year....and we will....and it'll be just the same.

The back is a little better...or maybe it just feels that way because of the two Black Russians, 1 Ocean Breeze, 3 Between the Sheets, 3 beers and half a bottle of wine I've drunk!

Das vidanya moy padruga.