SPARE A THOUGHT...

Now that the Thursday evening ritual of going outdoors and clapping seems to be drawing to a close, I`m beginning to wonder whether there should be something to take its place.  And given recent and ongoing events following the death of George Floyd, following which there seem to be the formative stages of something of a cultural revolution in the air, I see that `taking the knee` has been adopted as a symbol of support for the BLM movement and all it stands for.   There was a photo of Kent`s Chief Constable, Alan Pughsley, taking the knee at a recent event, so if it`s good enough for him, it should be good enough for me.

Now, I`ve had a pretty active life, engaging in all manner of sporting activity.   For example, I played a lot of cricket as a top/middle order batsman and a useful change bowler, specialising in right-arm unpredictables, all of which enabled me to consistently achieve the village cricket team target of 100 runs and 10 wickets in a season. (They even made me captain the side.)

I played a lot of football as a right footed box-to-box midfield dynamo with a good engine, an eye for a pass and the very occasional goal.  (I scored two goals in a game only once - for my regiment`s team in Germany against some other military outfit when - applying the usual army logic - I found myself as a right footed right sided midfielder playing outside left;  the two goals were both scored with my left foot, which was as surprised as the rest of me but then I was aided by some laughable goalkeeping and a brisk wind that saw the ball veer into the top corner beyond the despairing clutches of the opposing custodian.)

I refereed football matches once my playing days came to an end, even reaching the heights of being an official at the Kent Junior Cup Final at Margate`s Hartsdown Park.  It couldn`t get any better than that so I retired and took up golf, which I have been playing for years with varying degrees of ineptitude, although I once - and only once - managed to get below 90.  I just liked to get out there and hit something really hard and I discovered that if you are good at golf you tend to play in straight lines so you don`t get the same amount of exercise as hackers like me who wander all over the place looking for lost balls.

And over many years we have walked coast paths, forests, hills and dales and we still dog walk every day so still keep active.   Trouble these days is that all this activity has played a bit of havoc with my knees and my movements have become more restricted. So, if `taking the knee` now becomes the new normal on Thursday evenings, I hope Alan Pughsley and everyone else will spare a thought and understand if once again I decline to take part. I promise I`m not being `difficult` but the fact is, of course, that if I do manage to get down on one knee there`s every chance I won`t get up again.