Peter Steward

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October 30th-November 5th

This week seemed to admirably fuse together many of my passions including music and sport. Some weeks seem to bring so many social things that it is difficult to fit them all in. Others are much quieter. This was one of the hectic ones.

On Wednesady I had one of those butterfly days when my head seemed to be all over the place. I went to re-tax my car only to find I had taken the wrong MOT certificate and so had to return home and sort it all out again. It was that kind of day.

Of course it wasn't helped much by the confusion that is Norwich City. On Tuesday evening it was off the Carrow Road again to see them play Colchester and again it was hugely disappointing. They seem unable to work out how to play to their strengths, although to be fair they don't have many of them at the present time!

We have a midfield that seems totally bereft of ability or interest in what they are doing. The result was a mundane performance against a Colchester side that I referred to as impressively naive in their tactics.

Earlier in the day we had enjoyed a five mile walk at Loddon with the walking group.

Wednesday also brought a visit to the University of East Anglia to see the excellent Divine Comedy. It was wonderful to be at a concert that feature a consummate songwriter. Neil Hannon has an excellent stage presence and writes beautifully melodic and crafted songs - an antidote to so much of the dross we are subjected to nowadays. Next week I'm going to see Barclay James Harvest - so two of my favourite bands within a week of each other can't be bad.

I went on my own to see DC but soon hooked up with Tim Strugnell, who was formerly Head at the Middle School, Ralph Cross, who was stand-in head for a term at a difficult period in the school's history, and Richard Aldridge who I knew from my days at the Norwich School.

The UEA's ingenuity for obtaining parking money hit new heights. A year or so ago they tried to implement a £1 parking charge in the evenings with tickets and payments having to be made on the way out. This caused chaos and a traffic jam as everyone tried to get through the barriers. Some very irate motorists threatened to break the barriers. So the UEA dropped the idea and allowed free evening parking. Now they have a number of students out collecting money in buckets on entry to the car park. This is patently ludicrous. A ticket for the concerts there cost anything up to £20 nowadays and I presume the university take a percentage of that. So now they want to add insult to injury by collecting these pounds in a bucket!!

In fact when it comes to "begging" the UEA are taking a bit of a liberty. They are now getting students to ring round graduates asking for donations to the Alumni Society. I think this is taking money raising a little too far.

Apart from the horror show at Carrow Road on Tuesday, it was trick and treat night. We weren't there to answer the door so have no idea whether there were any witches calling. So where do I stand on this issue. Am I of the opinion that this is a nasty little American-led gimmick or just a bit of fun. In general terms I think it is a harmless piece of fun and no more likely to ruin our morals than celebrating the attempts of Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Maybe if he had succeeded we would have been saved from the machinations of Honest Tone!

There is a sinister element, however, as the yob brigade take it as an excuse to terrorise the old. In other words a fun idea that can get out of hand. The problem is any fun idea gets adopted by the more unsavoury areas of society.

Thursday was another table tennis night - a return match against the strangely named Shelley Telly. This time we won 7-3 although I had to fight hard to win one of my singles. It was another enjoyable evening, although I had to hurry away from a school meeting to ensure I got there in time.

The school meeting was the first of a new group set up to oversee our change from Middle School to Junior School status next September and there really is so much to do to ensure a seamless transition. We will be taking in Year Three children but losing our Year Seven.

On Friday I completed and worked with Mel Perkins to produce the November edition of the Football Club newsletter ready for distribution to the various teams over the weekend.

It was the usual busy weekend as well. On Saturday morning we attended a special charity breakfast at the Queen's Head for EACH (the East Anglian Children's Hospice) - a very worthwhile cause. It was a blow out full breakfast and an enjoyable two hours with our quiz team. It saved us having to worry about lunch!!

Then it was into Norwich to do some shopping before going to Carrow Road for another debacle.

Message to Norwich City Manager Peter Grant: "Supporters pay a lot of money to watch your team and all you can come up with is two shots at goal all afternoon. Sort it."

The match against Sunderland was quite frankly appalling. We showed little enterprise, little enthusiasm. We had one shot on goal in 90 minutes and that found its way into the net to give us a win. I was thoroughly bored as Sunderland were just as bad. This was sterile football. The most entertaining aspect of the whole afternoon was the skill of a guy at half-time who showed ball tricks in the centre circle. Apparently he has kept a football up for something like 14 hours. Pity the Norwich players don't have the same ball skills - and when is Grant going to give some of the good young players the chance to play and realise there is no future in playing 30 year old plus veterans.

Saturday evening was spent at Hethersett Cricket Club's fireworks and presentation evening. Sadly I didn't receive a trophy - they don't give one for "occasionally turning up and playing." Matt won the first team batsman of the year and also the performance of the year trophies. And the fireworks were good.

The week was rounded off in a delightful way by watching a team that do play open attacking football and seem to know what they are doing. The match between Hethersett and El Sol in the County Cup produced something like 50 attempts on goal (Peter Grant take note) and was an open game of pace and skill. We won 6-2 thanks mainly to our speed and superior fitness and that takes us into the quarter-finals - just two games away from a second final at Carrow Road. If we get there we will put in a better performance than Norwich City and it certainly will be more entertaining.

I wish Norwich City manager Peter Grant would come and see us play. I think he might learn a thing or two. We play open, attacking football where the players are given licence to push forward. The link play is excellent and we don't simply lump high balls aimlessly up to forwards. Sadly I think league players are over coached in systems. They lose all their ability thanks to "rules" and formations. Give the players freedom and they play so much better.

Now I'm not suggesting that Hethersett Athletic could beat Norwich City - far from it. What I am saying is that on Saturday at Carrow Road against Sunderland I was thoroughly bored by a Norwich display that saw two shots all afternoon and they scored with their only effort on target. I cannot see how a team can only have two shots all afternoon. It really is beyond me. On Sunday Hethersett must have had over 40 attempts at goal. The football was bright, entertaining and enjoyable - and free!!!

There's still a long way to go and we mustn't count our chickens before they are hatched. We desperately need to avoid being drawn against either Acle or Delaneys in the quarter-finals. Sunday was rounded off by another fireworks party. This time at our neighbours with their young children.

November 6th-12th

So we got Delaneys in the next round. Oh well, at least it's at home where we haven't been beaten this season. We will just have to work out a way to get through their tough defence. At least we have until January to plan.

* * *

From November 13th, 1971 at Harlow Tech to November 9th, 2006 - that's how long my Barclay James Harvest "career" spans.

Back in 1971 the progressive rock band forever set the standard for me for rock music. Little did I think that almost 35 years later I would be listening to the self same songs. I imagine that at the age of 19 I didn't even have a concept of what 35 years was!

So I had a feeling of almost light-headed euphoria as I waited with friends for their UEA appearance on Thursday 9th November..

It is many years since I last saw BJH. I think it might even have been their 25th anniversary tour and it was a sobering thought that three-fifths of last night's band probably weren't even born when John Lees and Woolly Wolstenholme were writing most of their excellent songs.

The band was tight without destroying the spontaneity of the playing and John, hunched over his guitar in typical style, was spot on all evening.

Woolly was a real star - playing to the audience and seeming to enjoy every minute. He made reference to returning to Norwich and certainly I have seen the band at least five times in the city at three different venues.

As I listened to the likes of Galadriel, Mockingbird, The Poet and After The Day I tried to transport myself back to how I felt in 1971.

Today I cannot remember much about that defining evening - who I went with, whether I had too much to drink, how I got home - but I do remember being "blown away".

More than anything this 2006 concert taught me that you cannot return to the past but you can keep the memories alive.

Musically it was excellent. Mockingbird has undergone a number of changes over the years, none of which have destroyed its beauty and Medicine Man was blistering. Suicide? was another highlight and The Poet/After the Day brought a fitting climax and should have been the last number. That's only a personal preference, however, as Hymn has never been a great favourite of mine.

I was sorry that She Said wasn't included. I had seen the set list before the evening so knew exactly what to expect. It is sad that there is no longer such a thing as a genuine encore in rock music. The return to stage to play one, two or three more numbers seems nowadays to be totally planned rather than spontaneous.

But these are all minor moans in what was a memorable evening. And none of the above will mean a thing to people who have never heard their music C'est La Vie.

At the end I announced my retirement from gig going. Having seen The Moody Blues, Divine Comedy and Barclay James Harvest within a few weeks I realise everything else would pale into insignificance. This really is as good as it gets, consummate song writers producing turbo charged performances. I really can't go back to watching semi-talented young pretenders going through the motions.

So I retire from gig going! Of course in the great tradition of footballers, musicians and virtually anybody else, that retirement is not binding and open to a re-think at any time in the future that I hear of a band I really want to see coming somewhere local - like America and Joan Baez at Cambridge in the new year!!!

I have been in contact by e-mail with a guy from Colorado for some years now. He was stationed in Suffolk during the Second World War and still has fond memories of Norfolk and Suffolk. He is very anti George Bush (probably in a majority of America there) and regularly sends me cuttings from British newspapers that he has found interesting.

This week he sent me one from the Daily Mail expressing concern that we are not suitably ready to revoke any attack on our planet by aliens. The point about this is the comments come from the Ministry of Defence man formerly in charge of planning to repel aliens. He is now concerned about the future.

There are a number of caustic comments left at the bottom of the page from readers along the lines of Tony Blair and George Bush already being on different planets. It set me thinking. We almost get paranoid about aliens landing and destroying our planet.

1/ We never consider that if other life exists it might be much more primitive than ours and if it was advanced enough to travel to earth it just might be on a friendly mission as in ET.

2/ Given the knowledge that there is intelligent life out there somewhere, wouldn't we actually be more likely to be the aggressors? Can you imagine George Bush sitting back if he knew there was life on another planet that was reachable through space travel. No he would want to go there. And what would he want to do if he did make that journey - yes probably take over their planet. So perhaps they have more to fear than we do.

It reminded me of one of my favourite songs - "Armstrong" by John Stewart which is obviously about the Moon Landing in the sixties and includes the lines:

"I wonder if some time ago, somewhere in the universe, they watched a man named Adam walk upon the earth."

Luton Town Football Club manager Mike Newell has got himself in hot water yet again for comments made to the Media. A few months ago Newell was quite right to hit out at possible bungs and corruptness in the game and the ever increasing power that agents have. This time, however, he has made a right prat of himself by verbally attacking a woman linesman and stating that women shouldn't be involved in officiating at football matches. This is quite patently nonsense. A good woman linesman or referee is as good as a man and, like in all walks of life, there are competent and incompetent men and competent and incompetent women. I see absolutely no reason that women should not officiate in soccer providing they have the right qualifications. And Newell was remarking on one alleged mistake he thought this woman linesman had made in giving a corner that led to a goal. As I always say in these situation even if the award of the corner was wrong there was nothing stopping Luton's defence from dealing with the situation!

Still on the subject of football - eldest son Chris played for Sussex this week in their friendly against Kent. The match ended in a 2-2 draw and Chris played all the second half and has been included in the squad for a cup match against Kent next week. Meanwhile on Saturday we went to see Matt play (not very well) in Wymondham Town's 4-0 victory over Long Stratton. I would describe Long Stratton's performance as agricultural to say the least.

We were involved with two quizzes in the village during the week. On Friday myself and Anne took part in a family quiz at the Methodist Church in aid of the table tennis club. Most teams had eight players but our team only four as we were joined by Gill and Richard Whall. Despite our lack of numbers we won. Many of the questions were aimed at a younger audience, so that must say something about our intellect!!!!

The following night our full quiz team went to the Village Hall for the Yvonne School of Dancing Quiz. We have something of a reputation in the village for winning quizzes and have been the brunt of numerous jokes. Actually we do win our fair share but we also struggle at times. This quiz was once again set by the deadly duo of Mike Anderson and Roger Morgan who have been raising money through this means for years. They were quick to point out tonight that our team only finished seventh and couldn't understand what happened to us. It's like football guys. One week you play a blinder and the next you can't do a thing.

Which takes me to other footballing matters. The yobs were at it again on Friday night on the Memorial Field, pulling down our goals and throwing away the stanchions. Add to this the fact that the people who mark out the lines on the pitches had painted over the leaves, which meant as soon as we raked the leaves away the lines followed, and it became apparent that we would not be able to play on the pitches on Sunday. So we had to switch the Reserves match to Easton College. A big thank you to them for accommodating us at such short notice.

The vandalism situation is getting extremely worrying. I fail to see what pleasure these morons can get out of spoiling other people's fun. They seem happy to destroy what exists in the village, but of course if a marauding gang came over from another village they would be fighting for the honour of Hethersett. It's all a territorial thing and you will find my thoughts on that elsewhere on this web site.

It does give the football club a big problem, however. We leave the goals up to allow youngsters to use them during the week and also because to take them down after each match would be very inconvenient. It's no good buying a set of new goalposts as these would just be broken as well. I have no idea what the answer is but we will discuss the matter at the next club committee meeting,

Saturday morning also saw the first of two weeks of clean up work at the pavilion. I am sorry to say that I was the only member of the football club to turn up to spend two hours generally cleaning up the place. Our players and teams who use the changing facilities have been critical of them in the past but I do not see how they can continue to complain when they are quite obviously unwilling to help clean up.

Also during the week we had our latest music club on Monday, got some financial advice on Tuesday, had an important governors meeting at school on Wednesday and did plenty of work on various web sites that I'm looking after. I am also shortly going to start work on helping transcribe village baptism records. I believe these should be put freely in the internet, but opinion seems at present to be divided on this.

Oh and finally on Friday I bought a new car. Myself and Matt went to the Norfolk Motor Group in Norwich after seeing an advert for new two litre Kia Ceratos at a very reasonable price. So I arranged a test drive and loved the car. So we pick it up this coming Friday. I have had my Mondeo for around nine years and have to say it hasn't been a minute's trouble. Chris' car in Sussex has been playing up recently and so I will be passing the Ford on to him and hope he gets as much enjoyment from it as I have had.

November 13th-19th

It's amazing how some weeks just seem to slip away unnoticed and when you look back it's difficult to remember much about them. This was such a week.

I remember picking up the new Kia car on Friday and leaving it in the driveway without driving it all weekend. "Why" asked my son and it's difficult to give a reason. I have this strange thing that when I buy new things I want them to stay in pristine condition for ever and of course that just doesn't happen. In reality its pretty mucky weather at the moment and I still have the old Mondeo until the weekend. That has petrol in it and the Kia doesn't, so I'm using up what I have before I turn to the new. Does that make any sense?

We are now being assaulted with advertising for Christmas and this week I started work on the festive edition of the football club newsletter. In spirit, however, I refuse to acknowledge the onset of Christmas until at least the start of December, although I must say I have laid down the foundations for a few unusual presents this year that has involved work on the internet and with scanning in photographs (more of this later). I must remember to get the American cards off soon. It only seems like weeks ago that we had last Christmas (well I suppose it is - about 47 to be precise).

I spent a considerable amount of time during the week further updating the Hethersett Athletic web site. My aim is to place minutes, press cuttings etc on-line so that I can severely tidy out my study in the New Year. I wouldn't say that I'm an untidy person but I have tidy up sprees that are full of good intention but then lapse into periods of untidiness.

I think I am suffering brain ache after a run of five quizzes in nine days and it was a mixed bag of results from those. I mentioned last week that we came first and seventh in the first two. On Wednesday this week we went to the Marlingford Bell for a charity quiz with just three members in our team. I thought we did very well to come third out of about 15 teams, considering others had up to eight members.

Then it was onto the monthly quiz at Bawburgh on Friday and we were really out of sorts, coming seventh in a quiz we usually either win or come in the top three. The following night honour was restored at the Hethersett High School Quiz which was rather a subdued event. Thanks to getting maximum points on our joker round we managed to win by three and a half points. Again we only had six players, which makes victory even sweeter. We changed our name for this one and denied all knowledge of ever being or knowing the notorious Bookworms. We have had the ultimate accolade paid to us in the village in that one of the other teams (always desperate to beat us) re-named themselves WoodLice (that's a pun on Bookworms). Anyway it's all a bit of competitive fun.

There was one very sad aspect of the week. On Friday we went to the funeral of Janet Cross in the Parish Church. Janet was the wife of Ralph who we have known ever since moving to the village. I can remember babysitting for their children. Janet had been suffering for many years from Multiple Sclerosis and I saw Ralph just a couple of weeks ago at a UEA concert.

Monday also saw our latest table tennis match at the Norman Centre against a team that are top of the league and consist of some very good young players. We battled really well but lost 6-4 which certainly wasn't a bad result. I lost both singles but won our doubles with Adam Thompson who is a very steady player.

Tuesday saw the two-weekly walk centre around the Costessey area and the walk was followed by a meal at what used to be the Oval Pub on Dereham Road and is now called something like the Rose or the Angel Garden. It's been turned into one of these two meals for one plastic places that seem to be squeezing the originality out of eating. The food was cheap and very average and that's about all that can be said about it. There was an interesting side to the walk when we were moving through a wooded area. A group of youngsters who looked as if they should have been at school walked alongside us. I think some of the party felt threatened but I chatted to them for a while. I am a firm believer that all young people have some vulnerability and can be reasoned with if you talk to them on a sensible and non patronising level. Some can't of course but that's a different story.

"What are you doing," one of them asked.

"Walking in the woods," I replied.

"Why?" he inquired

"Aren't you doing the same thing. Aren't you in the woods and all of you apart from you are walking (he was on a bike)?" I replied.

"Yeah suppose so. Why do you have a stick is it because you're old?" the boy came back with.

"Absolutely not. It's a skiing stick and I just enjoy carrying it and using it. Just like you enjoy being on a bike."

So a rapport was established and it wouldn't have been difficult to have stayed there and chatted to them and ultimately found out if and why they were bunking off school.

On Thursday myself and Matt drove over to Snellings at Blofield to look into changing our rather large rented television set for one of the new flat screens. It ended up being good economic sense. The new system will start off £3 more expensive than my current one, but will reduce by 10% every six months to a maximum of five drops or a 40% saving. I prefer to rent rather than buy as it allows us to keep up with new technology and also if anything goes wrong it doesn't cost us anything to have it repaired.

When I tried to pay for the car on Friday on debit card it was initially refused (presumably due to the largish sum of money involved). Eventually it was allowed after I had answered questions like where did you holiday in August this year. That one threw me as I couldn't work out how the company involved would have this information, but of course I probably used my debit card in both Alaska and Canada.

It was another busy busy weekend, partly dominated by the saga of the missing Christmas Cards. I know I don't recognise Christmas as existing until the start of December but certain planning does have to take place. The cards in question were for the Hethersett Churches and were being delivered from printers in West Yorkshire (the printing company in question is owned by my brother-in-law).

Amtrak tried to deliver them on Friday and I was out, so they took them away. This proved very inconvenient as we had a number of people at church on Saturday morning ready to fold and bundle them up. I tried to ring Amtrack to see about alternative delivery time and of course they were on an automated response system which was no use at all. I just got recorded information which told me nothing and was totally non specific. So now when the cards come I will have to do all the folding and bundling myself.

All that made me late on Saturday morning for part two of the tidy up of the pavilion. Got down there in time to help with the painting, however.

Sunday was as usual dominated by football. Went to Easton College for Hethersett's latest match. Matt was back in defence and we scored against Poringland after just 15 seconds (possibly the fastest goal in the club's history). We raced into a three goal lead (just like last week) and then allowed the opposition to come back at us to make it 3-2 before only making really sure of victory with an injury time fourth goal (15 seconds from the end).

We are certainly doing things the hard way, but the win takes us into the top three for the first time this season. That's a good turnaround as a few weeks ago we were in the bottom two (mainly due, however, to having played less games than the other teams).

Norwich City went to Ipswich for their local derby and put in another limp performance to lose 3-1. If only we had some kind of midfield!!!!

November 20th-26th

There seems to be no end to the dotty potty ideas that our beloved government can come up with in an attempt to paper over the cracks that exist.

The latest idea apparently is to reward GPs for providing exceptional service. On the surface this seems like a good idea. But they are going to rate doctors from a survey of five million people. It's another bird brained idea put together by some committee or other to detract from the real problem which is a lack of investment in truly frontline services in health, law and order and education.

Dotty Potty Tony Blair seems to have lost all grasp on reality. Strip out the middle management Tone, get rid of meaningless league tables and targets and put the money back into providing the services we all want without the crap and spin. We know when we are receiving a good service and don't have to be told. How many times do we waltz round a problem because it's easier than tackling it head on and getting to the heart of the matter?

The Christmas adverts are beginning to build up on television and they are becoming extremely annoying. We are continually subjected to grinning nodding morons celebrating the fact that they have been given a new razor or the CD of their dreams. There's one in particular that makes me want to throw something at the screen. It has a cackling young man thrusting his head back and guffawing loudly at a book featuring the comedian Peter Kay. Now correct me if I'm wrong but even the funniest book can only bring out something of a short-lived and light-hearted chirp. We really do not throw our heads back and go into stultifying hilarity. Why don't we have an advert of the disappointment on the face of a youngster when he or she gets the wrong present - or would that be too frighteningly real?

And whilst on the subject of Christmas, as I get older I feel myself wishing for more traditional Christmases and thinking about the meaning of it all. I really don't want bags of presents, just a few meaningful gifts and some contemplation about what it is all about. More of this as we get closer to Crimbles.

Monday night brought a decent football club meeting. It lasted less time than most which is usually an indication that everything is going ok. I think to get tot hat position takes time because everyone has to be united in the same aims. My aim is purely and simply to make us one of the best clubs in Norfolk both at adult and youth level.

It was a good weekend as well. Chris and Lynne came on a pre-Christmas visit as they are away until after Xmas. Didn't get much of a chance to spend time with them but it was a reminder of the past when they came in at 4.30 a.m on Sunday morning and promptly woke me up by emptying crisp packets everywhere. It didn't make that much noise but did remind me of what a light sleeper I am.

On Saturday went to a very pleasant retirement do at Anne's school at Cringleford. It was for Jenny Smith - a dear lady from Wales (but I don't hold that against her). The food was exceptional and there was a lot of good vibes, although we had to leave early to get to Carrow Road for the Norwich match against Hull. On the evidence of what we saw there I wish we had stayed at the reception, had some champagne, coffee and cake. It would have been warmer and much more enjoyable than the rubbish that was served up on the football pitch.

November 27th - December 4th