These reminisces returned to me last Saturday following yet another cancelled round of soccer for my kids after an overnight shower apparently rendered the Sir Jack Brabham ovals “unplayable”.

The week previously, a light dusting of snow 36 hours before again saw all soccer cancelled. This followed a three-week break for school holidays.

If Orange City Council and Orange District Football Association intend to cancel games every time conditions approximating normal winter weather are experienced in the Central Tablelands could they please warn us at the start of the year? 

Maybe a note on the registration form: “All games will be abandoned under anything other than perfect playing conditions…”

The rah-rahs, leaguies and AFL - with much greater body and ground contact - manage to struggle through an Orange winter without constant cancellations, why can’t soccer?

Should our precious little diddums be afraid of a little teensy-weensy mud on mummy’s new Nikes? Or is it that all-purpose excuse of lazy bureaucracies everywhere - “insurance concerns”? I would have thought that far more Australian kids are suffering from obesity and lack of physical activity than from injuries on wet sporting fields.

Or are the constant cancellations to protect Brabham’s pristine playing surface? It is, after all, a sporting venue, not the Royal Botanic Gardens. I would have thought that having kids carve up its muddy surface on wet Saturdays was its main reason for being.

My two eldest sons,  sick of missing out on so much sporting fun, in the last weeks signed up for both league and rugby gala days and are having a great time at both.

The rugby gala day was held at a quagmire at Waratahs (Orange City) with the kids slipping, sliding, tackling, and laughing throughout, coming home exhausted, muddy and contented. 

Something to ponder for next season maybe.

Meanwhile, Orange City Council grounds staff are even now carefully assessing the “playing” surface of Brabham Park to ensure that stray kites, pets, joggers, and footballs have not inadvertently damaged its unruffled beauty.

Liam Brady, Millthorpe