After months of deliberation I decided to bite the bullet and turn up for a RAF Veterans football match. It’s been 10 years since I played 11-a-side football so I was a bit worried about how I’d perform.
Over the months building up to this commitment, I had brought the tracksuit, bag, polo shirt, blazer and tie. I’d also had to buy new boots as I only had some astro turf trainers, which wouldn’t look cool!
So, on Sunday morning I set off to meet the rest of the team at Cobham FC. It was a great day for football and I was looking forward to being involved, even as a tea boy!
The team was announced and I was on the subs bench, as expected, which was quite a relief. I had the chance to watch the guys in action and check out the opposition.
‘The gaffer’ gave me the nod just before half time and I was starting the second half. For the first fifteen minutes I couldn’t do anything right – I was probably, the oppositions, best player! I then got into the swing of things and was enjoying the experience, until my new boots gave me a couple of big blisters. I had 20 minutes to go and every step was so painful. It must have looked like I’d run out of energy – poor old man!
All in all, I enjoyed the experience and it made me remember how unforgiving service people can be! The comments were brutal, at times, and players told it as they saw it – honesty with no sugar coating!
I loved it!
No-one took it personally, no-one got offended and we just got on with putting things right for the team. After the game the ‘banter’ continued, we all had a laugh, shared stories and then set off on our journey’s home. I felt so comfortable in that environment and, even though I left the RAF in 1992, it brought back good memories.
I am now looking at other fixtures to be involved with and will plan to be better next time, which , to be fair, won’t be difficult!
I do wonder how many other potential ‘players’ would love to be involved but haven’t actually turned up for a game yet, for whatever reason. I have to admit, I had been dragging my heels and it took a while to make the commitment to attend this event, so I appreciate it takes effort. It was worth it though.
Is there something that you have been putting off and, you have really wanted to be involved with, but haven’t made the effort yet? Why not put it in the diary and book the day out – then it’s almost done!
All I did was to go onto the FaceBook events page for the RAF Veterans and I clicked “I am attending” – that was all the doubts taken away – I WAS going.
Give it a go…..it’s great fun!