Combe 2: Tower Hill 1

On Tuesday I took Ben for his first practice with the Combe Under 7's team.  His best friend Ehren plays for the team and they were looking for new team members, so his mum invited Ben along.  At the start of practise all the boys had to introduce themselves to Ben by shouting out their name (this is their usual way I heard) and when it came to Ben, he whispered "Ben"shyly from behind his hands.  "I didn't hear that!" called out the coach,  "Ben", called out Ben once again.  "Sorry?!" called back the coach.  "BEN!!!" screamed Ben at the top of his little lungs!  After that, any last vestiges of shyness or nervousness (he told me on the way to practise that he was feeling a bit nervous - bless) were gone.  Ben actually loves to shout and scream, but not surprisingly, he doesn't get to do it much at home.  So once given the green light he shouted with the best of them. 
His first match was this morning against a local team, Tower Hill.  He was so excited he was up at the crack of dawn asking if it was time for the match yet. Warm ups started at 8:45am, so needless to say, I wasn't there (Saturday is my lie-in!) so there aren't any pics for this post - though I did beg Nick to take the camera!  Anyway, I got a full commentary when they got back and it turns out that Ben's team won 2:1!  Nick was really proud of him, as am I.  He has a really good touch with the ball, very light and skillful, and he can run like the wind when he gets it.  According to Nick though, there are some areas that he needs to work on...namely, that when you are playing a match you can't just walk off because you are cold or because you want to tell daddy that your football socks are going to need washing!