Roll or stick

The validity of the decision to leave the roof open at the stadium in Warsaw hosting the Poland vs. England World Cup Qualifier is one for discussion elsewhere. What couldn't be disputed was the action taken by the referee to help him decide whether the surface was playable after heavy rain left water standing in a number of places around the field.

He used the same method used by referees across the world; he went out, in his boots and took a football with him. He tried to replicate the action of the ball during the game by rolling it along the ground, by throwing it in the air to see if it bounced. He threw it with forward spin, back spin and without spin. In the final inspection, he tried to kick the ball without much success.

In each case the ball did not roll as it would do normally during a game, even on a wet surface. That meant that if the game had taken place, players would not be able to pass the ball with any degree of accuracy, nor would the ball be where they expected it to be when they were trying to tackle an opponent nor would it bounce correctly. All of which would have resulted in mistimed tackles which increases the potential for injury and possibly the need for disciplinary action.

So despite what the TV pundits say, the referee followed a sensible course of action to help him decide that the field was not fit. He was bound by competition rules and I believe the pundits showed a lack of respect for the game by behaving in the manner they did. Final point, well done to the Head of the Referee's Committee in Poland for facing up to some aggressive (and unjustified) questioning by the interviewer without losing his cool!

Manly things

Having been badgered by my wife for just about all of the close season to get some DIY tasks around the house and garden completed, with the first few weeks of Supply League appointments for match officials out yesterday, I thought I'd better get a move on.

So it was back up in the loft to tackle the over active header tank inlet valve. We invested in a new inlet mechanism yesterday and a larger float (to shut the water off sooner). I found I didn't have the correct size wrench (doh! poor workman, etc.) so I swapped out the float and that seemed to do the trick.

From there it was straight outside to complete the cleaning out of the gutters for the conservatory. We bought a new hose for this purpose 2 weeks ago after I had removed two or three Triffids from the gutters and found at least a centimetre of silt lying in the gutters, along with old leaves, a discarded slice of salmon from a barbecue and some tin foil. Unfortunately we didn't have the correct attachment for the taps and a trip to B&Q saw a new multi grip attachment solve that issue.

At first I was just going to blast the water along the gutters but then I was overtaken by some madness and spent nearly 90 minutes scrubbing cobwebs, dead insects and spiders off the exterior of the conservatory and found it was actually white underneath all that gunk.

The final task was to install a new washing line. I was taking down two anchor points and putting up a dual line system (please contain your excitement). I had to drill out the fence posts to insert rawlplugs but I didn't have the correct size of drill bit (see the pattern developing here?). I sufficed by using a smaller bit and the using an old attachment to widen the hole. 30 minutes later and the line was up.

So brownie points earned all round and all my manly things have been done! I then put my feet up to watch some cricket (which I usually hate but the England vs India Test seems to have a lot going on) and then some of the Hungarian Grand Prix (which I usually hate but there have been some good races recently). Now it's time to fire up the barbecue and have a couple of beers on the last football free weekend of the summer ...

Return to civilisation

I spent 5 days last week at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset England. The beard continued to be cultivated ...

While I was there England sneaked into the Round of 16 before being humiliated by Germany at the World Cup. I also managed to see quite a few bands and caught a couple of halves of other games at various venues around the site.

As the quarter finals have kicked off today, there's been a couple of shocks. The first came as Brazil were knocked out by Holland. As things stand at the moment (one hour played), Ghana are taking the game to Uruguay with the score at 1-1 after Muntari put Ghana ahead on the stroke of half time with a wonder strike from 35 yards, before Diego Forlan equalised with a sublime free kick.

My new season is shaping up nicely with a spot booked for me to deliver some training at the 7-6 promotion seminar at County HQ on July 22 followed by the RA-FA Meeting on August 9 at the same venue. Some of my friends have completed their PGMO fitness tests today, so well done to Bob, Andy, Ricky and Ross.

Some of the other lads have had their Supply Leagues confirmed for them and I have to admit, I'm beginning to miss being out on the green bit again. I'm sure pre-season training (starting on July 12) will knock that out of me!

Spoke too soon

It's taken me a couple of days to recover from the abject performance by England against Algeria on Friday. It was truly one of the worst team performances I have seen. Things need to change if they are to beat Slovenia on Wednesday and progress to the next stage of the competition.

Other games have been more exciting, whether it was the defeat of Germany by Serbia after Klose was sent off, the battling display by USA to gain a draw after being 2-0 down against Slovenia or the strong defence by Australia against Ghana after Kewell was sent off, it seems that the competition has finally come alive.

We also have the first team to be eliminated from the competition as Cameroon's defeat against Denmark, after they took an early lead as well, means they cannot qualify for the Round of 16.

I'm now signing off for a few days as I prepare for a trip to the 40th anniversary of Glastonbury. I've not been before, although I have attended other festivals. So it's mud, music, beer and baby wipes from Wednesday onwards ... they also have a 40ft screen on which to show the England game on Wednesday afternoon :-)