R'n'R

No, not rock 'n' roll, but Respect and Re-occurrence.

The Respect part comes from last night's Sunday League meeting where the County RDO was persuaded to brave the motorway traffic and appalling weather conditions to deliver a presentation on the Respect programme to an All Clubs Meeting. The intention was for a vote to be held immediately after the presentation, deciding whether the League should join the Respect programme.

There was some dissenting voices, some asking for more information and others offering support. In the end, the League decided that we would provide more information to all the clubs, so they could go away and consult their club officials, managers/coaches and players before holding the binding vote at the next All Clubs Meeting in early January. It's a sensible course of action and while it gives the interested parties time to consider the implications, I can't help feeling it also gives more time for doubt to creep in. I hope to be proved wrong.

The re-occurrence part of the post also comes from last night's meeting. I was disappointed to be told by James that he could see me still limping from the injury incurred 10 days ago, as thought I'd stopped limping a couple of days ago. What made matters worst was my deciding to skip down a couple of steps after carrying the Respect programme documentation to my car. The skipping wasn't bad (it was more of a hop and skid) but when I got out of bed this morning I had a stabbing pain up the inside of my Achilles.

This is on the opposite side of the tendon from the original pain source. It's probably an indication, now the swelling has virtually faded away, that the injury goes deeper than I first suspected. I believe I am now going to have it properly assessed so I'll be booking a doctor's appointment in the morning. I mentioned to Fat Lad last night about my lingering doubt whether I can come back from this injury and that this might be the one that finally forces me to hang up my whistle.

On the subject of Fat lad, his game last night nearly made it to the end, but the floodlights failed with around 20 seconds of time left on the watch. It could only happen to him!