Walking Football/Wounded

The traditional Xmas Eve celebrations to mark Dave Williamson's birthday (his 66th, in case you wondered) took a bit of a left turn this year with the first ever Walking Football match, held at the Sports Centre in Banchory.

We had a full complement of 5-a-sides, albeit including a couple of slightly reluctant participants. As it transpired, one of them had good reason to be fearful - John McWhinnie took a tumble in the first few minutes, twisting his back in the process, and not long after this, he went down as if he had been shot. John's immediate reaction was that he had been kicked in the back of the leg - the classic indication of a snapped achilles tendon. It looked bad - John was on the floor for several minutes and soon the Sports Centre's First Aid team were on hand. Eventually John managed to get to his feet and, with some assistance, got back to the changing room. He urged us to carry on playing - which we did, with Steve's son, Eddie, substituting for John.

The match finished in an agreeable 12-12 draw and all - bar one - indicated that they would like to repeat the exercise on a slightly more regular basis than once a year - or was that the drink talking? Yes - it was Xmas Eve and several beers were consumed in the Legion after the match - not to mention the (very) large drams that Dave bought us all for his birthday.

Here's the team photos - first of all pre-match:

Back row - l-r: Lodge, Marshall, Williamson, Tyrie, McWhinnie, Sharp, Kilgour and Stewart.
Kneeling: Mullins and Paterson.

 Then afterwards in the Legion with Dave's drams:

l-r: Sharp, Stewart, Kilgour, Marshall, Mullins, Williamson and Paterson.

I'm happy to report that John is alive and well today - in fact, it's the back injury that is now causing him more discomfort than his leg. Hopefully he'll have fully recovered soon - although I suspect we may have seen the end of his brief walking football career.