Whistle blown on sporting lives

WRITING my column last week about my son, the Coventry City fan, set me musing about his fascinating sporting interests.

School days offered the usual rugby and cricket and, although he likes cricket that is as a spectator rather than a player.

Sport at school was a nuisance until he found cross country running, and that has persisted. He ran his first 10k road race when he was 16 and since then has run a few half marathons and four full marathons.

I am convinced his best distance is up to a half marathon, but he has always wanted to run the full version in a fast time. He invariably finishes in the top half but never fast enough to justify all the preparation he does.

He has now reached the veteran stage and delights in doing park runs every Saturday. I do not know when these first started, but wherever you are in the UK there will be a Saturday 5k park run to take on. These are now well supported and perhaps more importantly, very well organised.

After watching Coventry City play, the summer months will see him watching cricket. He favours Warwickshire in the County Championship and is a member at Edgbaston.

When Covid and his annual leave allow, he will watch a full four days of a County Championship game.

Senior management and I also enjoy watching cricket, particularly English Test cricket. For years we have joined our son at the Edgbaston Test and are frustrated this year with no live Tests that we can attend. We do wonder if 2021 will allow us to again visit Trent Bridge and Edgbaston.

Both of us and our son have watched test matches in Australia, although not together. We are a couple of countries ahead of him having also visited New Zealand and Sri Lanka for the cricket. That also has to be a past memory as we accept we will be too old for distant trips by the time the grounds are open again.

When he was at university in Bristol our son decided to take a football refereeing course so that he could officiate a match on the Downs each week to earn some extra cash to top up his grant.

He became a good referee who quickly rose in the ranks to what was then the top rating of class one. It meant that when he eventually started work in the West Midlands he could continue his refereeing progress.

Nowadays he is the training officer for the West Midlands and one or two of those he has trained are starting to appear in the Football League.

He has also qualified as “the man in the stand”, the Assessor who evaluates and marks the officials. When time permits he will still turn out as an assistant referee – that used to be known as a linesman. Although still fit, he is the wrong side of 50 to be taking on the referee’s job.

He has enjoyed a very full active sporting life despite never having played either football or cricket. He still enjoys his involvement in sport and has friends who are now full-time referees in the Championship league.

More than one has refereed at Pride Park! Personally, he had some hope of running out at Highfield Road to referee Coventry City. He did manage that, but it was to referee the under-19 side on a Saturday morning, which was never quite what he hoped for.

The pandemic has severely restricted his sports spectating as he can no longer spend time at the athletic meets he enjoys. Senior management has reminded me he took in the Olympics in China some years ago and also spent a lot of time at the London Olympics when he could get the tickets.

He may have gone to Tokyo this year if the pandemic had not happened.

We visited New Zealand and Sri Lanka for the cricket. We accept we will be too old for distant trips by the time the grounds are open again.