It might have taken me a while to get back into writing regularly, but I managed to write another 2,000 words tonight, taking me well into the 2008/9 season as 1,309 Days Later continues to make solid progress.
I was disappointed to discover, on reading back the match report from the time when we took eight men to Kettering, that we hadn’t in fact taken the lead as I had earlier thought. It wasn’t quite as epic a game as I remembered but still a considerable achievement:
When England’s rugby team was reduced to 13 men against New Zealand in 2003, and facing a two-man deficit in the scrum, inspirational captain Martin Johnson and a team of world-class players drew on all of their experience and skill to keep the All Blacks at bay. Kettering also play in black but we had MacAllister thrust into the role of captain, only one player left on the pitch over 30 and one natural defender – yours truly, as well as a full 70 minutes ahead of us.
We lost 10-1. Our Jonny Wilkinson wasn’t to arrive for a few seasons yet.
It’s interesting to think that I’ve been playing hockey for about half of my life. I wonder where my first coaches and captains are now, if they are still playing and what they would make of my story at Grantham. Some of them have been named in the book and it would be lovely to think that some may read it when it comes out.
Although the book’s main focus is on Grantham’s rise from the depths of despair, it is written from my viewpoint so there is a section about my own beginnings in the game and progression from school hockey at lunchtimes to club hockey to playing future England internationals. However, it’s a section I keep cutting back on – as this is chiefly Grantham’s story, not mine.
1,309 Days Later, the story of how Grantham Men’s 1st XI went over three years without a league victory, is due to published later this year. A proportion of any royalties will go back into the club to support grass roots hockey.