The Third Round of the Cup

The first Saturday of the New Year is always special; it is the third round of soccer’s FA cup. Again as in many of my blogs an explanation is due, the FA cup is a knockout competition for all those clubs who belong to the Football Association. It starts in September with the first of several preliminary rounds. The Third Round however is when all the major clubs join the competition, but can potentially play clubs many leagues below them who play at tiny grounds. This is a shock to players who are paid millions having to use the somewhat primitive facilities of part-time players. This there is always the prospect of a small club beating big club and such feats become legendary. My son in law still talks in awe of the time when his club Colchester beat Leeds who were then the champions of Britain even though it took place over thirty years ago.

Now today we were clearing my mother’s house, a difficult task made lighter by having the soccer commentary on the radio in the background. The commentators always reach new levels of hyperbole on these occasions. So they always refer to the jobs of the part-time footballers from the smaller clubs. Thus the fact today that one was a scaffolder was accompanied by laboured comparisons of the defensive barrier that he was erecting. Best of all today one commentator referred to a small club as defending like Trojans. That got me thinking and following through the analogy. Surely this meant that the team had arrived unannounced onto the pitch in some sort of disguise, and when the opposition started to attack they she their disguise and proceeded to mow them down.

The commentaries can also be patronising of the smaller club. So on e commentator felt that his view of the game was impeded by the floodlights not providing sufficient illumination to the corner of the pitch. So I thoroughly enjoyed listening to bizarre commentaries about teams of whom I only had the vaguest idea. And yes because everybody was in a good mood much clearing got accomplished. This was despite making many interesting finds, particularly photos that caused diversions while we tried to work out who was who.