With Handsworth's trip to Golcar ruled out because of the weather last Saturday and the fact that about 3 inches of snow fell on our estate so I couldn't get the car out, it was a no football weekend for us. Well, I suppose I could have got the car out but I don't drive in the snow!
The reorganisation of Handsworth's original fixture schedule due to earlier postponements meant the new dates had left The Ambers with 7 games in December 2023. Three of these were to be at home and 4 away. A tough ask given that Christmas and New Year were later in the mix somewhere.
Handsworth should be in action next on 5th December (tomorrow) in the County Senior Cup game at Sheffield FC. Nortoner Towers is about a mile up the road from Sheffield FC's home at the Coach & Horses ground so conditions will be similar to what they are in my back garden! Despite rain all day there is still standing snow about and with more rain forecast for this evening and Tuesday morning, another postponement looks on the cards. We'll see.
A cuptie postponement complicates the remaining fixture list because Cup games take precedence over league matches so a new date for this tie would add to the congestion. As well as the County Senior Cup, Handsworth will have another fixture to slot in.
We await news of our next opponents in the JCP Construction League Cup but the draw for the 3rd round hasn't been made yet. There are 2 second round League Cup ties to be played over the next week so it will probably be in the New Year before those games can be arranged.
Fixture lists compilation is one of the hardest tasks for any league administrator at grassroots level. The Duchess, (my other half - Sheila) spent many long hours over many years sorting out fixtures for the Under-11 to Under-16 age groups when she volunteered on the Committee of the Sheffield & District Junior Sunday League. Before she finally retired from the Junior League, she had the process down to a fine art and could compile the fixture lists for all age groups and all divisions in about a fortnight.
Anyway, with the Golcar game to be added and cup ties to be sorted, as it stands, Handsworth remaining fixture load looks like this:
December 2023 - 6 games - 5 league fixtures and 1 cup tie. 3 games away and 3 at home.
January 2024 - 4 games - 4 league fixtures. 2 games away and 2 at home.
February 2024 - 6 games - 6 league fixtures. 4 games away and 2 at home.
March 2024 - 3 games - 3 league fixtures. 1 game away and 2 at home.
April 2024 - 1 game - 1 league fixture. 0 games away and 1 at home.
As ever in these cases - fixtures are subject to change! 😉
Since there's no new football pictures to edit and show you, here's a picture of a winter moon taken from our bedroom window.
This one shot reminds me that almost all of my photography these days is concentrated on football. Pre-Covid, I did a lot of wildlife and landscape photography and the plan is to get back to a more diverse portfolio in the new year. That's the plan anyway although knowing me, this plan will just get tagged on to my "Gunna do it!" list which is already several pages long!
Until the next time. See yer!
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