My late wife Clare and I at Brunton Park
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Brian the sheep and the Cumbrian flag
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The last year has also been an eventful one for me away from CUFC, with selling my house in Cambridgeshire, getting used to being back in Carlisle and getting over losing Clare, and house hunting for somewhere new to live for the next decade or so. I've done some odd things to help myself, including 'founding' the Cumbrian Separatists and its spin off Soccer-6 team, The Separatists, but principally writing my journal of my time with Clare and my Tenets, and trying to enjoy myself again. Going back to Brunton Park has been part of that, but it was difficult as Clare had also become a CUFC fan during her time with me, and used to go to the games with me.
I've also entered into the odd debate at times over various things, including football. Now, when I say football, it means different things to different people and this is because it is often forgotten that football is the name for the family of sports involving some sort of large ball, teams and feet! To name a few:
Now all these sports have other names of course, and this is where some misunderstandings can be averted. Aussies often call their game 'footie', as do some fans of Association Football. The name which causes most debate is 'soccer'. It is most commonly believed that soccer is an American invented name for Association Football, but this is not the case. The word soccer originated in British public and private schools, including is spellings such as 'socca'. Rugby was common at many of these schools and was similarly known as rugger. When the 'new world' opened up and there was a call for educational establishments there, many of the resulting colleges and schools were staffed by British teachers and professors. These colleges in particular were the only early centres for organised sport and over time Rugby evolved into American and Canadian versions of the game. This also led to Association Football being commonly referred to as soccer in North America.
So where have I been going with this? Well, I went to Keswick School and it was a Rugby Union playing school. As a result I often refer to Association Football as soccer. Yep, these last couple of paragraphs have all been about explaining that :-)
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