Soccer

In the Turner household, many an early Saturday morning during the autumn and winter seasons was spent putting on the gear, grabbing a pair of mum's sponges for makeshift shin pads, slinging the footy boots over the shoulder, then hopping into the Kingswood for the trip down to the soccer fields, which are located in the industrial area of Tamworth.

I played outdoor soccer from about year six until the first year of high school. I was keen, but not overly talented, except when I was in goals. I was a very reluctant 'keeper (no kid wants to be goalkeeper, they all want to be the one sticking the ball in net at the other end of the field) but for some reason the position agreed with me.

In the eight years that I played outdoor soccer, I managed to play in every position on the field (scoring four goals along the way, well four that I can remember that is), but 'keeper is where I spent most of my time. I recall being the target of many an opposing player, having my hands kicked whilst fielding the ball, being rammed up against goalposts, playing on muddy and waterlogged pitches on cold winter days, having eight or nine goals put past me during a game, making diving saves, tipping balls over the crossbar and even stopping a penalty. In my last season though, I was removed from goals (much to my relief) and given another chance in the forwards. In my last game of outdoor soccer I scored a rare goal, a flick over the goalkeeper's head into an open net. It was only one of two goals my team had scored that season!

Indoor soccer though was a different story. In April 1993, I formed an indoor soccer team made up of members of the wargames club that I was involved with at the time, and their wives/girlfriends. We named the team “Damaged Inc.”, which is a title of an old Metallica tune. Our first game was nothing too special, we lost 5-1. I made some comments in diary about finishing the match with a very sore right wrist, seeing I spent half the game in goals. At our height, we were able to field three teams, a mens and two mixed sides (named “Damage Mixed” and “Charlie Company”), a sponsor for our team shirts (black for the mens and Damage mixed, white for Charlie) and I had problems trying organise the sides so that everybody got some game time. After finishing runners-up on three occasions beforehand, we finally bagged a title, winning the B-Grade mens final 2-1 in July 1994.

Interest was dropping though by that time. Charlie Co had folded first, then the mens. For quite a while I had to rely on (and pay for) ring-ins to keep the teams on the pitch. Damage Mixed soldiered on for while longer, until I was the only wargames club member to be still playing in the team. The last game was played in July 1995. Fittingly, it was a final, but the team lost on penalties.

I was to play for a number of teams after that, but it was never the same. After breaking my left wrist that night in goals, well, as you can imagine, my interest waned considerably. The last game of indoor in Tamworth mirrored my last game of outdoor, going down 4-1, and me scoring the only goal. I did play one game on the Central Coast, but it was a much different game than what I was used to, and having eight goals put past me wasn't very encouraging, so the shin guards and gloves got retired for good.

I reckon all up, I played somewhere in the vicinity of 170 indoor matches, and scored 75 goals, including one great game where I netted five, and another where I put three in the second half after spending the first half in goals. It had been fun, despite what it ended up costing me.