Good morning from a dreary rainy Kelowna but looking brighter by the minute. Arrived yesterday afternoon and it is so great to re-connect with my friends here, we usually only get together in Mexico, so this is a nice interlude.

I wanted to tell you about one of my soccer games over the weekend. As one of the few senior refs there I was given the older kids to officiate, the eighteen year olds. Over Saturday and Sunday I had reffed 9 games and had to put up with the constant bickering of the coaches, players and sometimes parents. I am so used to this by now that it really doesn’t bother me and I try to use humour and smile a lot whilst I am doing the games. Late Sunday afternoon I was asked to ref girls under 13 game, as the ref that was assigned was too tired!!! So there goes me this old man still fresh after all those games. The match was a delight, maybe 200 parents and supporters in attendance and these lovely young ladies playing soccer as it should be played, with determination, passion and a great sporting attitude. I was just soaking up the enjoyment of it all, no backchat, no complaints no one shouting, “where’s your glasses ref?” and then it happened!!!

At this point I have to back track to set the scene for you. The soccer complex in Kamloops, known as the tournament capital of Canada is huge with 6 soccer fields, small golf course, pool, many baseball diamonds, BMX track and walking circuit. The game I was assigned to was field 6 and the end of the complex and where the field ended was a grassy slope rising up maybe 50 feet and then over the hill the baseball diamonds begin.

So here we are lovely warm sunny Sunday afternoon, the girls are playing hard and having fun, the parents and coaches content and me just enjoying the whole experience. About 20 minutes into the first half I glance over at the side of the field where the grassy knoll rises up and see the top of the hill lined with about 30 baseball players all staring down at us. Then from their midst walks this lady about 45 years of age dressed in baseball uniform carrying her bag and a baseball bat and she walks down the grassy slope and I knew exactly what she was going to do!! It was like a scene out of an old western movie with all the Indians on the hill looking down and their prey.

This woman just walked onto the field whilst the kids were still playing and continued to walk right across the pitch. I whistled play to stop and told the girls just to stand still and a couple of the soccer Dad’s ran onto the field in an attempt to remove her. I told them to leave her alone and not to antagonize her and she just walked right across the field. I went to with in 20 feet or so of her and told her she was setting a fine example and she just looked at me with hate in her eyes and in between many expletatives told me that would be a lesson to every soccer kid that had walked onto their baseball diamond this weekend. She just carried on walking off the field through the ranks of the parents and away she went. That was the end of it, I blew my whistle and the girls started to play again as if nothing had happened.

After the game it was funny I was talking to some of the parents and I told them I could envisage baseball guys fighting soccer Mums and we all had a good laugh. Just when you think you have seen everything up pops another one of those you had to be there moments.

Boy I sure go on a lot don’t I??? Anyway going for a long walk, where my friends live there are many lovely trails by the fast flowing run off river. Have a great day blessings