My Sporting Life

Background

Its been over 5 Years since i last ventured into the world of Blog’s and social media so it’s somewhat ironic that for other reasons my return is now for therapeutic reasons. I will however explain more later in this introduction. Sport has always played a major part of my life and early experiences go back to the age of 5 & 6 when i would walk with the fans to see Bristol City at Ashton gate, standing on the terraces and yes i remember the smell of the Bovril.

In 1967, Alan Dicks was appointed manager, and things gradually began to improve,with promotion to the First Division finally being achieved in 1976, ending a 65-year exile from the top flight. My most memorable game was Bristol city 1 Liverpool 0 Season 1978-79 Joe Royle scored that day. In 1977 liverpool had won the European cup and having watched McDermott, R.Kennedy, Keegan, Heighway &Callaghan strut their stuff at Ashton gate i became a Liverpool Fan to this current day. I am though a huge sporting fan and we are so fortunate that we have so much sport to get us talking and the internet has only added to great debate.

It wasn’t just football though,  my father would drag me anywhere to take in a good day of sport , Cricket , Horse racing and even the good old greyhounds on a Thursday night. After Leaving Bristol and moving to the west country My father then went on to manage many football teams before becoming an official. My sporting life went on! I played football until  my late teens. I enjoyed athletics especially the long distance running unfortunately it was brought to an end when breaking an ankle in a 5 a-side football match, my employer was not so empathetic though especially having to rest up for 11 weeks. So off to the referee’s course I went and soon found myself in black and white getting untold abuse! it wasn’t really for me and my mind was made up when one team refused to pay my £7.50 fee. Yes £7.50.

I took up an offer to coach at the local community centre before taking my coaching badge with a little help from Man City Legend ” Thomas “Tommy” Hutchison”. Fresh from Coaching School i took over a struggling Sunday league side and soon found my self washing the kit , Coaching and talking to sponsors. It was the emergence of Sky TV that changed my enjoyment of sport especially during the winter. It seemed strange at the time to see the England test side with t-shirts on during their winter tours but certainly made my Xmas much more enjoyable along with the odd day off work to catch the final day.

I still however get out to my local racecourse and football grounds and if the price is right a day at the cricket. My Personal career which includes a HNC in business management and a PGCE in adult education came to an end in  2011 when i found myself detached from reality after a mental health breakdown and was then told i was born with Asperger Syndrome  , a rare genetic disorder which means the remainder of life will be a huge challenge but one that im beating day by day.

Having Aspergers allows me to express a really strange sense of humour and an extreme level of intelligence so what better than putting it out there for you to enjoy. Please feel free to join in with the articles and your feedback and questions are welcome.

For more information on Asperger Syndrome Click here