SEXISM, IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT

Morning all. With all the latest news about sexism in sport i.e. Andy Grey and Richard Keys being sacked by Sky sports for derogatory comments on lineswoman Sian Massey. Has made me take a long look at sport in general and any competitive event involving both sexes. Now we know that men and women have always tried to get one over one another for all-time, that's nothing new, and its well known that men will usually make lewd comments when there's attractive women about. and vice versa. Now i am not a supporter of either Grey or Keys in fact i didn't like the way they run the program anyway, i found they were very biased against certain clubs and in favour of others, so in my eyes good riddance.But lets take a closer look. Football was supposedly invented by men, for men, that's why the old term (its a mans game) came in, having said that, men must have realised that women wouldn't let that be the case for ever. Now we know that it wouldn't be fair letting women play with men in the same team and against one another for the obvious reasons which is why there are men's leagues and women's leagues. I believe it is better that way in all honesty. I also believe it is better to have men officiating men's games and women in their games. My reasons for that statement. For a start, the first time a woman officiates a mans game, two men lose their jobs, that will now be in the history books for ever. But consider this, Men and women in offices working together, must have caused many many divorces over the years and must be taken into consideration. Why i can hear you say, young women running the lines and refereeing,in men's games will without doubt cause problems.22 young healthy wealthy men, must be a young woman's dream, and as soon as she has found her young wealthy mate, compromises her next game involving said mate. After all its bad enough now with doubtful officials, without bringing love into the equation. It is well known that in times of the Olympics, the Olympic village is a hive for sexual activities, a wealth of healthy athletes having the ride of their lives we do not need this in football. even in TV competitions such as strictly come dancing, contestants have affairs with their dancing professionals. Karen Brady the West Ham Director, who was also on the end of Andy Greys acid tongue, couldn't stop herself from falling for one of Birmingham's players, while she was there. I have watched over the years all of the football programs, and noticed that all of those programs which was always presented by men, has now introduced women, i must say at this time very attractive women dressed very sexily but i believe they would be better pushing the ladies leagues, rather than try and take over the men’s game, after all every woman employed means another mans job down the swanny, its my belief that women do not want equality, they want overall control. They are a rolling machine and wont stop till they have it. Margaret Thatcher, was another good example, in her 17 years in power, as Prime Minister, she did everything in her power, to put as many working men as she could out of work, from coal miners to ship builders. she tried her hardest to break as many unions as she could and in all honesty broke a lot of hard working men’s hearts. Things have never been the same since Emily chained herself to the railings, many would say she did it for all the right reasons, but had she been a man she would probably still be there. In my eyes certain things have improved with women's intervention, but other things haven't. A man who wanted a quiet pint with his mates, where they could sit and chat F and blind without offending anyone, in a Men’s only bar, Women hated that, not many Men only bars now is there. Only the other morning, i was watching the box, when two presenters man and woman were discussing something, and the woman said to the man ( i don't suppose your little brain can handle that, can it) although tongue in cheek, no reprimand there, sexism has to work both ways. It reminds me a little of, the days when this was a predominantly a white country, when a white man would call a black man a name and the black man would take it to the Race discrimination board, i don't ever remember a case where the black man called a white man a name and it went any further. Now the country is full of every race, all talking their own language, and that’s supposedly better. Remember Eve Handed the apple to Adam and the fool took it, its not time to make the same mistake again. Remember this, Sian Massey was pulled out of her game the other night to protect her, who’s going to protect her when she’s in the middle officiating, my view is don't mend it if it aint broke, I'm frightened to ask what's your view ? Written by an honest Steve Palmer

WENGERS SO CALLED BEAUTIFULL GAME

The beautiful game has been Arsene Wengers dream way of playing for many years, slick quick passing, team mates moving like a well oiled gearbox, synchronised meshing, often making lesser teams seem as if they are running around like headless chickens.  Media, Pundits, Managers and players all agree that when Arsenal play like this its beautiful to watch. Playing this way takes tremendous amounts of training and practice but if you have a sticky gear it can upset the smooth running.
This way of playing has its for's and against, I will start with the for's:
When we are in possession, the quick passes that we play seldom gives the opposing team a chance, they run from player to player and just as they are about to tackle the ball is gone. Large amounts of possession is accumulated, making the game look one-sided, our players gain confidence and try trick passes which often work and can split any defence but if they don't, we hand the ball to the opposition.
The against:
We play the beautiful game but we play it slow.  Most of the time we bring the ball out from our keeper, sometimes we have five or six passes before we cross the halfway line, the same on the other half.  But what we have achieved with all these passes is to allow the opposition time to form their defensive lines, we spread the passing from one side of the ground to the other but there are so many played back, we appear to be knocking on the door but are not allowed in.
This was apparent in our game with City, a team who visited with no demands but with the belief that they could earn a result and with their dogged defending did it very well, albeit only a point but an away point against one of their rivals in the top four of the league. They set their stall up not to lose and that's exactly what happened.
They had a tactical plan and apart from one, maybe two shots on target from us it was a resilient defending night from City, I know some would say we hit the post three times and stranded their impressive goalkeeper Joe Hart but I count that as a shot not on target but a miss, Hart at no stage looked under pressure.
How can we work this out so that we retain possession and score goals and turn these frustrating draws into happy wins. Wenger appears to struggle with this scenario, we appear to play the same whoever we play and the rest of the league know it too. Most of the other teams are using the same ploy against us and all who use it often get results. We ought to learn a lesson from games like these and watch how other teams perform given the same circumstances.
Look no further than Manchester United, I understand a lot of readers will find this distasteful but if it helps us to pull our head out of the sand it has to be done.
Now Manchester Utd  play a similar game to us but faster, they are more direct and push forward extremely quickly defences hate this pressure.  Forwards race into the box awaiting a quick cross which often produces the wanted goal, they catch the defenders before they have formed their back line everybody is running at sixes and sevens.
Tottenham have also adopted this ploy this season to good effect, with Gareth Bale a spurting run direct with forwards running for all their worth to get in the box has attributed to their goal tally as was shown against us, Chelsea, although not at their best this season, are also past masters of this ploy and with eager forwards have reaped the rewards in passed seasons.
Perhaps its time to swallow our pride and attempt a new approach as of our rivals as we have become a team who are becoming predictable and easy to play against. We need to mix our play up so that opposing teams do not know what is coming.
If we carry on as we are the beautiful game we play could also end up being our downfall.
Time to look and learn from others?
It's no weakness, it's the way forward......
Written by Steve Palmer

ONE MANS DREAM AT NAZEING AND HOW I SAW IT

Nazeing Golf Club is situated in Nazeing in the county of Essex, it was the brainchild of a local farmer, this man owned several acres of land, and as i understand, at the time farming was not going to good, now all the dates and years i give are not necessarily the right ones, as precise dates is not my thing, having said that this all started about 20 years ago, the man in questioned had a membership at one of the local golf courses, quite prestigious, and his dream was to build his own course and make it as prestigious, apparently he only had enough land to build  half a course, so he enquired around the local land owners, and found one who would throw in with him to build the course.

Subsequently the course was started, and a golf course designer by the name of David Gillett was put in charge of the design, in all honesty he did a fair job, The course took a few years to finnish and eventually opened about four or five years later, that's when i first heard about its opening, i was a member at another course and my playing partner had heard that Nazeing had just opened and that we should go there and black our noses, and that's exactly what we did, there was a long drive from the gates of the course to the car park and the road meandered through much of the course, i must say at that time the road in, was not much more than a dirt road but the course looked in pristine condition. Once into the car park my first thought was wheres the club house,i looked round and there were two porta cabins one of which was the makeshift Pro shop and the other a snack bar and toilets and that was it,

We entered the cabin with the pro shop sign on its door and met the resident Pro, we informed him we were looking for a round of golf and  possibly membership, he was very informative told us lots about the course and the future plans of the owners to make this course one of the best around and that now was the time to join as this course will take off and how it would be harder to join later. we paid for our round and started, after 2 or 3 holes we realised that it was in very good condition for a new course and continued. We saw the pro as we finished nine holes and he asked us what we thought, as we stood chatting he said why don't we have a cup of tea in the snack bar before we continued so we did, once inside we were introduced to one of the owners who was running the  snack bar at the time, and he was telling us about their plans to build a club house, and how he had plans of what the clubhouse was going to look like on the wall. We carried on, and walking down the 10th fairway and looking at the way it was cut in a criss cross style it looked superb and we realised that we could easily be convinced to join.

As i stated before we were members at another club, and i had just paid my green fee of £500 for the year but my pal hadn't paid his yet, and he was saying he wanted to join Nazeing instead and how i could take him to my course as a guest and him me at Nazeing, the only stumbling block was Nazeings Joining fee  at that time was £1750 plus £700 green fees but he thought with all of the spill we had heard from the Pro and the Owner that now was the time to move, so he joined. We continued playing both courses but Nazeing was a much better layout, and pretty close to where we both lived, and the hype around the course soon convinced me to join  about a couple months after.

Building works started about 2 years later for the clubhouse, and after work every night we would meet up and play then walk around the build site and see how it was progressing, and in all honesty it didn't take that long, we enjoyed going into the building and watching the bars being fitted in, and the changing rooms as they were being fitted, it was as if you was having it built for yourself. Within a year or so it was complete, and adverts was being placed for staff, and not long after that we started to use our own club house.

I suppose its now time to explain the ownership, of what i will now call the club, the man, who's idea was put in motion sadly died while the course was being built, but he had two sons who between them took over the running of the club, there was still a part of the farmland still being used as a mushroom growing business which by all accounts wasn't doing to bad, so one of the brothers concentrated on the farm and the other on the club,he became the man in charge of course management cutting of the fairways and the greens and the workings of the clubhouse, so he was always busy, the other owner that put in with his land at the start of the project was involved with the clubhouse as well, but as time went on i don't think that all the parties were that happy with their lot, and the two brothers decided to buy the other partner out, and that was what happened.

We had quite a small membership and it was hard to find members as times were tight so the owners were not exactly raking in the funds to plough back into the business so staff were at a minimum, the course staff were also thin on the ground and every time i visited i was to see the owner working bloody long hours on the tractor. It wasn't very long after this that something had happened in the family and the brothers decided to change roles and we started to see the other brother on the tractor also working long hours, members can only be thankful of these two brothers hard work that the club is still  here today.

A couple of years ago the club was in danger of closing the climate wasn't that good membership was on the decline and all the signs was bad, i imagined that all  of the hard work around the course for not much return, must have been very demoralising and i was afraid that that was it. Then all of a sudden which was a big break for all concerned, a company came in with an offer to take control of the club on a lease basis and try and build the club up, i imagine that the two brothers would have grabbed that offer with both hands and the club changed hands but i am sure that all of the members were very grateful to the family for all of the hard work over the years, that they had put in, and i only hope they did alright out of it, they certainly deserved to.

Well the new Management took over and it must be said a very professional outfit they are turning out to be , work on the course has bettered the course, and new idea's and more staff has turned the club around, inside the clubhouse has also changed with good staff and social events, and a restaurant on weekends where the public can also use the facilities. At the moment we have increased our membership and everything is moving towards what the man with the idea at the start, and hopefully accomplishing his dream.

As in all clubs, be it social or sports, they depend on the support of the members, Nazeing is no different, for a smooth running club a lot of effort has to be put in by volunteers, Social secretary, Handicap secretary and so on, but the most prestigious position, is the club Captain he has to volunteer a lot of his time throughout his year in office, people are not always aware of the commitment that the Captain has taken on, he needs to be there for all of the club meetings, all the club competitions, to present the trophies and prizes, all of the speeches he has to make, and to back up, with his time all of the social events i like to think it is appreciated by the members. And to the ladies Captain Ditto. The club professional also has a big responsibility, he sells the products that members need, he gives tuition to the members, he is involved in all the workings in the club score boards society bookings and tee bookings, plus lots more that i wont bore you with, we are very lucky to have a very active pro.

Members, makes me smile, when i think of our members at Nazeing, we have people from all walks of life Firemen Builders Solicitors businesses of all sorts, if you need a Chippy Sparks Plumber Tiler Painter anything, you could build a house with all the trades, so a very handy place to be, It takes all sorts of personalities in a golf club, and at Nazeing we have a very good mix, every body gets on well with every body, and new members or members guests are welcomed, plus if you are competitive this is the place for you, although most golfers like to see good golf being played, they also absolutely love it when you play bad as well, so if your thinking of joining a golf club you wouldn't go far wrong with Nazeing.

DOES GRASS ROOTS FOOTBALL HELP THE PROFFESIONAL GAME

If your one for statistics, or Arsenal memory reminders, then this post is probably not for you but if you have sport in your blood and anything football rings your bell, this could just be up your street. I’ll start off with how this idea came to me and try not to bore you to much.
After reading the daily posts and commenting on one or two points, an idea struck home and I started thinking back to the time I played in our local football side  and it made me wonder if what we played, was anything like the real thing.

Arsenal in those days was always one of the best teams in what was then termed as division one, they usually held their league position from midway up to the top.
I of course, was Arsenal through and through, so when I played local football, I always imagined myself as our latest center forward and having Tottenham’s training ground just round the corner from where I lived, gave me the benefit of seeing how professionals trained. I must admit our local team was miles away from it. (Yep, even from Spurs )
On our match days we would meet in the pub, have a couple of pints, then make our way to the ground. Some of the guys used to arrive late because they couldn’t leave the pub but we normally managed to start with eleven. Sometimes the groundsman never turned up, and we would have to change on the touch-line, leaving our clothes there until the game ended, hoping it wouldn’t rain. More often than not though, it did and the facilities were so poor back then, we’d have to change back into our damp clothes….
As years went by we got a sink  but even then you had to wait your turn, I often wondered what the professional clubs facilities were like, bet they didn’t have one sink to share!!

Poor old Steve.......

We had to take our turn in washing the kit, funny thing was, we played in Arsenal colours but by the end of the season, with all the boys taking turns to wash the kit, we ended up playing in pink, we got a lot of funny looks from other clubs though. We all paid about a pound a week subs, that helped to pay for a match ball and a new strip for the next season, the referee needed paying as did the rent on the ground we played, we even had to pay for our place in the league.
Some, like me, had two lots of fees as we played in the Sunday league as well.

Then we had the cup games, once we’d been knocked out of these we’d all go off to Highbury and watch Arsenal. I used to watch the players come out and get that thrill, something I still get at the Emirates today as the fans start to cheer the lads on.  As we watched the team in what looked like a brand new pristine strip, swaggering around, we looked at all the boots they had on, hoping we would some day be able to afford them.
One of the games I watched, someone got injured and stretchered off, another had to be carried carried off. It made me think back to the week before, when one of the other side that we were playing, broke his leg, and the game was stopped, until the Ambulance came and they took him away, close on an hour we waited and then the game resumed, a win for us as they never had a reserve.

Injury happened in our games as well, I don’t believe we were anywhere near the fitness of teams like the Arsenal, funny really I played local football for almost thirty years but I cant remember the term metatarsal ever! We had sprained ankles and broken legs ,concussions and the odd hamstring injury but the posh ones of today, never.
I suffered a hamstring injury once and the pain was unbelievable, so I know how Cesc must have felt, with mine though, despite it hurting like f**k,  never stopped me working! Maybe i was lucky…..
As I drew towards the end of my playing days, my cartilage went. Twelve months I waited to have treatment, I was in much pain during all that time but I had to carry on. When it was done, I was in plaster for a fortnight, then back playing about two months after, needless to say my playing days were really over after that.

Players come and go in the Arsenal team, some turn out to be legends in the game - that’s usually a player that left a legacy of outstanding play in the minds of the fanatical supporters, players of skill and long service to the club or players who are idolised and sorely missed when they leave. But life goes on and a new player steps up to the plate and it starts all over again.
We, that is the guys I played with, often heard there was a scout out watching certain players in games played on our communal grounds, that’s when we all tried their hardest hoping to make an impression. In one of those so called games I scored five goals, got the headlines on the back page of the local rag but, like thousands more, I was never judged to be good enough.
So the difference between local and professional football was massive.

I often think back to those days and believe that at least we had a chance to become big stars but just wasn’t good enough. Right now I worry that with all the foreign players that are being brought in, the grass roots of football is a thing of the past. I am not against foreign players as they posses amazing talent but are British players are being passed over in preference to foreign?
I must admit, I was shocked when Arsenal was the first English club to field a complete foreign side, I felt we had let our country down but I suppose in this multicultural country we live in today, we have to accept change. This is happening throughout, be it religion football or politics. Foreign players playing for foreign owners in what seems a foreign country, I suppose the British will just have to try harder.
The trouble is, you cant make a silk purse, out of a pigs ear, so I don’t expect change.

Does grass roots football help the professional game, or is it over?
Written by Steve Palmer