My Sporting Life (1)
Part one - just a little introduction.
...Yes, my sporting life started early.
As I recall, my first experiences were in the playground of the primary school in Paisley, Scotland which I had to get to by (unusually for Scotland) crossing the ground of "Kelburn Cricket Club", because it was the shortest way to get there, unusual because then as now, there is little cricket played in Scotland generally.
It was a favourite place with me on Weekends, listening to the clunk of leather on willow, and sometimes playing with toy bats and balls in the training nets!
It was by crossing this thing that I could get to my school "Williamsborough Primary School" on time, and if I had any money at all (normally only on Mondays when I was supposed to pay the weekly school meals) then I'd stop off at a little shop run by a famous old St. Mirren and Rangers footballer - "Willie Waddle" -
who sold a pound of "broken biscuits" at one half-penny a pound bag!
Of course getting to the School was really only for the playground bit, and that's where another one of my problems appeared
Hobnailed boots...also known in Scotland as "tackety boots".
Once in the school playground, there was invariably some time to waste kicking an old ball or something else around, and the playground surface was made from concrete, just made for "wee bairns" with tackety boots to go slithering around, because of course the iron nails made concrete surfaces like an icy winter slide.....!
I'm amazed to this day that my hips are still intact, the number of times I went over after a skid of some 20 or thirty feet - my hips, both of them were a concoction of colours ranging from bright red to dark black passing through all the shades of yellow and green.....and we still carried on!
Amazing really, but there you are - my introduction to "sports" - something which was to play an enormous part in my life later on.....but then - that's another story, so come back when it's ready......!
..........
...Yes, my sporting life started early.As I recall, my first experiences were in the playground of the primary school in Paisley, Scotland which I had to get to by (unusually for Scotland) crossing the ground of "Kelburn Cricket Club", because it was the shortest way to get there, unusual because then as now, there is little cricket played in Scotland generally.
It was a favourite place with me on Weekends, listening to the clunk of leather on willow, and sometimes playing with toy bats and balls in the training nets!It was by crossing this thing that I could get to my school "Williamsborough Primary School" on time, and if I had any money at all (normally only on Mondays when I was supposed to pay the weekly school meals) then I'd stop off at a little shop run by a famous old St. Mirren and Rangers footballer - "Willie Waddle" -
who sold a pound of "broken biscuits" at one half-penny a pound bag!Of course getting to the School was really only for the playground bit, and that's where another one of my problems appeared
Hobnailed boots...also known in Scotland as "tackety boots".Once in the school playground, there was invariably some time to waste kicking an old ball or something else around, and the playground surface was made from concrete, just made for "wee bairns" with tackety boots to go slithering around, because of course the iron nails made concrete surfaces like an icy winter slide.....!
I'm amazed to this day that my hips are still intact, the number of times I went over after a skid of some 20 or thirty feet - my hips, both of them were a concoction of colours ranging from bright red to dark black passing through all the shades of yellow and green.....and we still carried on!
Amazing really, but there you are - my introduction to "sports" - something which was to play an enormous part in my life later on.....but then - that's another story, so come back when it's ready......!
..........
