Stat Attack

Typical Bank Holiday Monday weather scuppered my plan to attack the mini-jungle that passes for our back garden so I spent my morning sorting out my photo logs and spreadsheets. (That's right - photo logs and spreadsheets. Sad really innit?!)

Anyway, I can confirm that during the 2022/23 season, including pre-season friendlies, the Duchess and I have seen 48 games involving Handsworth FC sides, including 1st team, Reserves, Under-21 and Under 15.

Photo albums from all but the Under-15 game have been posted to my Flicker pages along with other Handsworth-related albums such as mascots, presentations etc. 

The 22/23 season efforts brings the total number of "Ambers albums" on my Flickr page to 330 since my first posting on January 6th 2015 when Handsworth lost 0-3 at home to Cleethorpes Town in a NCEL Premier Division game.

(The Ambers gained sweet revenge 4 months later when they beat Cleethorpes 4-3 in the League Cup Final).

Those 330 individual albums are made up of a total of 47,759 photographs.

The first photo I posted - on Jan 6th 2015 v Cleethorpes:

And the last of this season's images - from the Reserve side 0-1 defeat to Penistone Reserves in the Cup semi final on May 3rd.

Without blowing my own trumpet too much, my football photography has generally improved since my early efforts at Belper Town but I guess that's to be expected. If you learn from your mistakes then I'm getting a fabulous education!!

Looking forward to next season when I hope to get to some of the Under-18 and the Ladies teams games.

When does pre-season start please?! 😉

Changed the format!

Looking at the blog, I realised whilst the original colour scheme closely resembles the Ambers club colours, it's a little hard to read so I switched to a new template.

I think it reads easier!🤔

Here we go again...

 After an absence of 10 years, I'm going to have another go  at this blogging lark!

Not sure how far it will go or for how long I can be bothered to be honest. I guess we'll just have to see. I aim to avoid any of the controversy which basically caused the demise of the original "Norton Yer Life". I've learned to "bite my tongue" as it were! 🤞

Since my last proper entry, I've retired. March 28th, 2014 was the actual date of retirement and it seems like forever ago but as with most aspects of retired life, time seems to be passing more quickly as I get older.

My photography still mainly centres around football but my allegiance has basically switched from Belper Town to Handsworth FC where I am, for my sins, the "Official Club Photographer." Sounds very grand but it isn't really! It's a volunteer position I have held since early 2015.

We (Sheila and me) started following Handsworth after Peter Duffield left his post at Belper and then resurfaced at Handsworth. Several ex-Belper players followed Peter to The Ambers and so we followed too basically.

Never looked back to be honest. It's been an interesting journey and sometimes, a bit of a rollercoaster ride but in truth, we're happy to be a part of a well run, family club with brilliant facilities at Oliver's Mount in Sheffield. 

When we first became addicted, the team played at Sandy Lane, Worksop which meant a 45  minute drive to home games but the ambition was always to return to their roots in Sheffield. That objective was achieved in 2019 when the new 4G pitch was completed. The new dressing rooms and hospitality building were finished about a year later and so the set-up is complete.

The whole COVID debacle, with it's lockdowns and so on, massively delayed things but the club and it's volunteers, led by Chairman John Ward and his Vice-Chairman Steve Holmes persevered and the "off field" set up is now second to none. 

Unfortunately, the 2022/23 season hasn't been our best. A combination of injuries to some key players and a general lack of luck in some games has hampered progress. Someone said a few weeks ago that if it wasn't for bad luck, Handsworth would have had no luck at all!

I particularly recall one mid-season game when we hit the post twice, had an effort cleared off the line and the opposition goalkeeper played a blinder. Our opponents scored the only goal of the game late on to nick the 3 points. Sums it up basically!

Still, what's passed is done with and we look forward to next season with a new management team in place and optimism and enthusiasm amongst the Amber family as high as ever.

COYA!!! 

Here Endeth The Lesson....

I am closing down the blog.

 

It has become more trouble than it's worth.

 

It's been fun - for the most part - but if I want to say what I truly feel, think and believe, then that cannot continue to be done here.

 

Norton Yer Life will carry on - but to access it you will need the keys to my desk and your reading glasses as it will become a paper-based, personal, private and honest record of my life and surroundings.

 

The upside of this is that I can change the sub heading back to it's original form and truly record the "Random Thoughts Of A Random Mind" without fear of stirring up trouble or controversy.

 

It's been emotional..... as they say.

Hmmmm Looks Like My Readership is Larger than I Thought!

My "Disappointment" post from earlier today has reached a wider than intended audience it seems.

 

Someone has lifted it and posted it on the Belper Town forum.

 

That was obviously never my intention and perhaps I was a little naive in believing that a post on my blog during which I vented my spleen and a separate, personal e-mail to the Club Secretary would have been sufficient to sort the matter out.

 

In fact - I am genuinely amazed that I have a wider readership than I ever realised.

 

Google Stats certainly doesn't reflect that.

 

Anyway - I am now firmly in the bad books and have asked for the post on the Forum to be deleted since that was never where it should have gone. So - thanks a bunch whoever you are.

 

The blog sub heading will now be changed to EXTREMELY carefully considered thoughts from a random  mind if not ceased altogether....

 

Seems like its more trouble than its worth perhaps.

 

 

Pictures From Our Day At Old Moor

Finally finished editing and creating a Flickr set.... here they are...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62126085@N04/sets/72157632943556218/

We had an absolutely super day.

It's Been An Interesting Month....

...with some developments which won't be discussed here but which, collectively, have had a profound effect on my personal philosophy and outlook on life.

 

Anyway - as I said - that discussion is reserved for another forum.

 

Life goes on - with no time or inclination to post until now. And again - I don't know why I chose to post now.

 

Footy is going well. Belper Town are on 12 game unbeaten run and strengthened their grip on the last play off place with a win at Halesowen Town Tuesday night. An important three points because Halesowen have had seven straight wins and were closing in on Belper's 5th place in the league.

 

We decided that a 3.1/2 hours round trip (plus 90 mins of the game itself) on a  Tuesday night was not on so looked at various fixture lists and planned to go to watch Worksop Parramore in the NCEL Premier Division. A 40 minute drive on a fine evening seemed a grand prospect (anything other than Man U on the telly tbh!)

 

We set off at 6:15 and were back home just before 7 pm!! About 15 minutes into the journey, at Eckington, we found dense fog and a visibility of around 10  yards!! Although patchy, the fog seemed to be getting worse as we drove on so I aborted the drive and  we headed back home. Turns out the game was called off because of the fog anyway! 

 

Belper have a tough game coming up on Saturday - Stamford at home. That will be difficult. Stamford are in 2nd place and their current form shows P8, W6, D1, L1, F15, A4.   Compared to Belper's P8, W5, D3,  L0, F24, A8. So it's a 3 goals per game Belper attack against a defence that's conceded an average of a half a goal per game. Got 0-0 written all over it? (Mind you - I'd take that if it were offered now.) We gotta be there early - Ops Committee meeting at noon.

 

Photography? - well - got the camera back and all seems fine. Done a couple of football "shoots" which came out quite well and last Saturday, as Belper were away somewhere in the wilds of Leicestershire, we decided to have a trip to the Old Moor RSPB reserve at Wath-on-Dearne as it was an absolutely glorious day. We had a terrific time and I managed some cracking pictures of various birds, grasses, sheep (??) etc (big headed maybe - but I'm proud of 'em!) I'm sorting an album out when  I get a moment and a link will appear here soon.

 

So - another week toward retirement is passing as quickly as the rest of my life! I'm not sure yet if I'm totally convinced retiring is something to look forward to or to dread - we'll have to wait and see eh?

Attending the funeral of a mate we've known for around 30 years doesn't help the mood any. Pete was 68 - which is no age these days - and had been involved with the Junior League for all of the time we've known him. He lived just around the corner from us and will be missed - RIP Socks!

 

Gonna close this now - before I get even more morose........