Paddy the soccer player

Young paddy is not so young anymore having hit his tenth birthday yesterday.
He has had a busy two weeks, what with the build up to the big day itself on top of an operation to remove a growth from his arm.
That went well but left him with some swelling and ugly looking stitches. Anyone else would have cried off playing soccer the day after, but not our Padz. He was up for the game - especially as it was against his old schol, Pamapuria. He put 2 shin pads on his shins and another on his arm and he was off onto the "park". They won 8-0 and Paddy scored 2 plus got the Player of the Day award!
This Saturday was his birthday and he had a friend over the night before. Paddy was looking a bit worn out when he was being drivern over the hills to Taipa for the game. There is a lot of flu going around and I suspect that it will be visiting our household before long. Anyway back to the game. Eastern have a fierce reputation. Watching the 9th grade I could see that it is justified. Their players are able to spread out and pass the ball o each other so they run rings round most of the opposition, who generally cluster around the ball like bees round a sugar pot.
To cut a long story short, after conceding a first minute goal, Kaitaia were lucky to keep the damage to 4-0.
Then it was party on with a group of lads descending on our place like only 5 ten year old boys can do. The weather was kind, so they spent quite a lot of time outside and unbelievably a fair bit of that time they were submersed in our pond, swimming, boating and rafting.