Wandering in 'The Waste land'

The day didn't start well, an early trip out to the Valley Park to umpire the game before was wasted, when after arrival I was advised that I needn't have bothered,+ as the match was postponed. The pitch was frozen (as was I at this stage) and the next game delayed - so the the eternal question, why are we here and what do we do for the next few hours. Moose went off umpiring, Gordy was at the wrong match anyway - but not if you had looked at Instagram.... and Ben and Dave went home - and back to sleep if they had sense. The others left already by this stage.
Me, I went to the SDCC Library in Lucan, and to cheer myself up re-read The Waste Land by TS Eliot (having seen the pitch earlier, not sure why it came to mind, maybe it was the post war allusions to bleakness and misery - either that or the hangover hadn't quite cleared).
By the time I got to the pitch the 2nd time, it was positively warm ( I exaggerate!) and the game could go ahead....... the game itself - suffice it to say, they were better and deserved the win - but with Captain Jack winning the toss (the only thing we won all day), the game went quickly downhill - a literal slip from Gordy led to the first goal and then 4 penalty corners in the same place (you'd think we'd learn). There were some good points however and Simon/Jacob alone up front did manage to create some chances with Dylan also eking out some possession on the left. Midfield was a little packed and Jake did impose himself at times to good effect.
Two contrasting umpires (the nice/normal one and the emotional one) - had an interesting effect on the game when our emotional 'thought leader' had a heated debate with the emotional umpire he started seeing colours (first green, then yellow but luckily not red) - and hopefully the official report does not continue to call him Neil (who was exemplary in his behavior). Once the hormones/emotions/whatever had died down and calm was restored the game continued and eventually finished .. so we wandered off from the Wastle Land (but before leaving the Northlands there was time to wander further onwards to see the Van Gogh exhibition/experience and since traffic was mental, detoured to the Gravediggers just for one, so the day wasn't wasted). Suttonians next - oh joy!