The Coronation of King Charles the Third might have been the highlight of the last weekend and the excitement seems to be building for the Eurovision song contest weekend coming (although I doubt that too many Aunt Sally players will get too excited about that!) There’s also a bit of interesting football with the Champions Leagues semi finals taking place midweek and at least one Aunt Sally player I know will be looking forward to the Europa Conference League semi final, but only because it’s so long since the team he supports were in a semi final of any kind!
But in reality the highlight of the week must be the return of the Abingdon & District Aunt Sally League tonight and with an increased number of teams taking part up from 48 lin 2022 to 52 in 2023. Welcome everyone!
So what does it really mean? Well for a start it means that we enter our 63rd year as a functioning organisation and despite all of the gloom and doom that seems to surround us it means that over 200 of us will turn up to play at 26 locations every Wednesday for the next 18 weeks playing the game that keeps us both captivated and frustrated every year. It means that the good natured rivalry and banter will be back and old friendships and acquatancies will be renewed.
It probably means that the evening will be damp and cold which so often typifies the opening weeks of our season!
Our game is really important to the pubs and clubs that we support and who support us because how many of us who play and support us would be heading off to the pub or club every Wednesday through May until September and for the publicans/managers and stewards that’s so welcome considering the financial hit they have taken over the past 2 or 3 years.
Our game is open to everyone with no minimum or maximum age, any gender, any colour, creed or religion, no minimum entry levels of ability (if there were we would soon see a deduction in the number of players!). It’s not an easy game to play, but it is both fun and often very competitive. It’s a social game with sometimes a bit of gamesmanship thrown in, there’s no VAR to decide whether it was a doll or not, no throwing ourselves to the ground, abusing officials and it is not likely to be recognised as a spectator “sport” or admitted to the Olympic games anytime soon, but never say never!
It’s a game we all enjoy and just going back, for a moment, King Charles the Third and the new Prince of Wales have both thrown sticks in the past and the photos are on our website to prove it!!
Enjoy the season, play hard, play fair and respect each other and your opponents!
Hi Roger, There was some confusion over the official start time. At the AGM a compromise of 8.15 was agreed I believe. The report of the AGM seems to bear this out.
The Summer Rules still state 8.30pm, and this is where people will look.
Would it be possible to display the official start time somewhere prominent on the website.
Thanks
Kevin