Something a bit sporty

A few weeks ago Leon and Teresa, Danielle and I went to watch Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey. I hadn't been for years but all I could remember was that I loved it and wanted to go and finally we sorted it out. It was amazing! It was great to be in Coventry to be surrounded by passionate, enthusiastic, crazy people because more often than not Coventry folk are more known for being a bit apathetic quite frankly. Secondly it was pretty great as stadiums go; it's obviously benefiting the people and the city of Coventry loads and it's nice and central (fab cheap parking) and perfect for an evening out. Thirdly Coventry are actually good! The team has a growing number of British players which is great for British sport generally and gives the kids of Coventry something extra to aspire to. And we're at the top of the league. Not only that but as far as I could tell the quality of the game was pretty high. We won but it was a tight game against Edinburgh; they game us a real fight. It was really thrilling! There were plenty of times we went down to 10 men 'cause a Canadian chap on our team had a tendency of getting a little overheated - bless him. It was thrilling, it went to extra time, it was fast, and aggressive... I'm hooked and definitely hooked - 'Come On You Blaze'... might even ask for the shirt for my birthday!

Last weekend we gathered for a quite different sporting event. Alex is a Villa fan, as is my dad and as was granddad. Brummies got very excited that Vila had made it to the league cup final last week at Wembley against Man U. Leon and Nathan, Milly and Rob gathered in our upstairs room to watch it on the Radiation King. It all started off rather well. Villa went ahead quite early and looked intent on doing some damage, then they just sort of sat back and tried to hold on to their lead. Then the ref had a mild case of being blind and stupid every time Man U fouled a Villa Player (but not the other way round) - and no I'm not being biased! Then, predictably Man U brought on Roony, Villa ran out of ideas and Man U started to make it look easy. I could barely watch the telly (which bearing in mind that monster takes over half the room meant I had to get a book out just to ignore it). Finally we ran out of time and Villa got the runner's up prize. Bless them... But, as Milly consoled herself before their drive home to Bristol, they don't have the experience of big events that Man U does - and at least we didn't lose to Man City. The boys did the only thing left to do, the only thing a self-respecting Villa fan has left on these occasions - we printed a photo of Alex Fergusson's face, put it on the dartboard, and played a game.