Where's Wally?

More about that in a moment, but first,

 2022 is upon us, and it has started with the selection of my successor as Wallasey Golf Club captain. Tony Davies is the gentleman to whom I will hand over in March. The selection process is a two meeting affair. In November 2021 the ex-Captains met without me to put together a shortlist of names for consideration and after some toing and froing we were presented with a shortlist to consider in a meeting before lunch s a few weeks ago.

After the dinner, myself and SWHBO drove to the new Captains home to offer him the gig. Luckily he said yes and he was then announced to the members at a presentation evening the following Monday. All a bit of cloak and dagger but huge fun.

Then, last Friday we had our annual ball. Three times it had been rescheduled and it was renamed The Frost Ball. It went really well, with a good Soul band, excellent food and good company. The only down side was that a few guests contracted COVID subsequent to it, but luckily nobody seems too unwell.

The following Sunday I then trotted off to Anfield with my cousin to see the mighty Bees take on Liverpool in their first league meeting for a long time..Brentford unfortunately were a bit off the pace, and while they had chances to put some pressure on the home side, they won at a canter. The day was not dissimilar to a rugby day, with a few beers before and after and the match really only being the reason to get out.

It's not Wally you looking for but two West London titans having their 15 minutes of fame on the Brentford FC web site, fan zone....

 

Good news to report is that my new golf net has arrived and I will be trying to assemble it tomorrow. The first attempt did not go too well as there seems to be a number of difficult operations which the netting does not allow to work, so i am waiting for the manufacturer to come back to me with some help.

So there we go, half way through January, the weather is glorious and I still have two dinners to look forward to. The weight loss programme will kick in in due course.  

Marty Collins ( 1940-2020)

SWMBO lost her lovely father, Marty, on Thursday. He went with his family around him after degrading quite rapidly over the last few weeks.
Marty was a gentle giant. When I first met him he had long finished in the Liverpool docks, but it was there that his personality was formed. He was a hard worker and a hard player, part of a diminishing generation who lived life to the full and if you did not live life on the edge you were wasting space
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The various dock boards across the Country were great rivals. They would hold weekend sporting events in a type of mini-Olympics. Marty would compete in the swimming and in open boat, skiff type rowing and regardless of who won, a vast amount of alcohol would be consumed.  They could be in Leith, Tilbury or Portsmouth, but everybody would clock in on time  the Monday such was the work life balance of the day!!

He was also a first aider and they too would travel away to London for 'conferences'. It was a very full and active social enviromment.

He taught his four children how to swim and was an instructor to many others, and he welcomed me into his family like another son. It was quite early in our friendship that I found out why they called him ' three gulps' Marty and we had to work out a shift pattern to keep up with his drinking in the pub!

He worked in Saudi Arabia after leaving Liverpool docks, as many of his colleagues did, and that allowed him and Winnie to buy a house in Formby village. They also enjoyed time together in Paris as a half way house due to the restrictions on him returning to England for tax reasons.

Apart from Win and his family, Liverpool FC was his first love. He was a long term season ticket holder and can still be seen behind the goal in old footage from the Sixties. He is there in his big joe90 glasses with a cigarette in his mouth. It has been his wish for 30 years to see Liverpool once more atop the football pyramid, and while he was in Istanbul and at other European finals nights, it was the Championship he craved for. It is with a tinge of sadness, therefore that he was not able to follow the final few games live, nor will he see the parade as and when it is scheduled.

He will leave a huge hole in the lives of those that knew him and he will be sadly missed. RIP Marty, you will never walk alone.