The teachers strike in the mid 80's had an impact on my sporting life, I was decent at running, town and district champ at 400m and 800m , but missed the County Championship with a bout of glandular fever, the following year I was out of age group and finished runner up in both events at town level, then when I was in the form of my life, I'd just broken 2 minutes for the 800m and was being touted to potentially to compete at a higher level and join the Harriers, I was going to stop playing cricket and give up athletics as my summer sport, the teachers went on strike so I missed two years of development and I became more involved in football due to the ease of access with my Dad, I'd train with the juniors one night and the first team on the following night.
I ran cross country for the county and played football, rugby, cricket and ran both athletics and cross country for my district but only played football for Cleveland at 6th form college level. I was a bit of an all rounder in a very small district, but I think all those sports helped in different ways. Football in my late teens kind of took over and probably had a negative impact on my first forays into adult relationships, with training 2 or 3 nights a week, then matches on the weekend, in hindsight I should have been more selective, I'm pretty much knackered now to do too much, I can't remember the last time somewhere didn't have a twinge on a morning or my knees and ankles didn't click.
Still it was great fun, and have some great memories, with a few disappointments along the way, I've played in every position on the pitch, although the less said about my emergency stints in goal the better, and won cups and leagues, along with the occasional personal trophy, made friends that I still keep in touch with and in the main avoided any real serious injuries until rupturing my achilles right at the end, I had 25 years of playing organised 11 a side, played at a few league grounds, scored at Ayresome Park, the consolation in a 4-1 defeat in the years of the very tight nets and my family thought I'd hit the post as the ball bounced back out.