Snow Day Antics for Sparticans
By Simon Fitch
This week, our Sparticans bring us news of their snowman competition…
After last week’s edibles extravaganza, the Sparticans were expecting a week off, but then the snow came and it was time for another competition. And once again the team rose to the challenge, with a full team (plus subs) worth of masterpieces being submitted throughout Snow Day 2021.
Grant K led the way, with Grant G following shortly afterwards, once again wanting to put their extensive South African childhood experiences in this area to good use. As the entries came flooding in, it became apparent that there were actually two competitions – those experiencing a true wintry dump (Surrey Tier 4 – remember that, oh so last year) and those doing their best with more of a dribble of the white stuff (essentially those not benefitting from Mr Bell’s multiple gardens). In the latter category, we had Jimmer’s lockdown hair horror, the Hot Tub hero, the Creaser’s Masked Man, Sophie’s birthday Snowman, the Family Welch, JRA’s man and cat and finally Selfish Steve’s entry – completed despite a clear lack of snow in the photo…
In the outer Surrey competition, aside from the Grants we had the aforementioned Mr Bell’s Dough Balls, and the thoroughly on-brand entry from the Fitches of Horsley. As dusk fell, we passed the team’s efforts to Mr Sean Edwards, arbiter in chief, for his adjudication – we thank Sean for carrying out this high pressure decision making with the calm and dignified approach he clearly learnt in the good old days of controlling Fatman and Fitchy in the AAAAs. Competition was fierce, and judgments were as follows…
‘Category 1, Outer Surrey – some excellent use of accessories and clothing. High commendations to the very tall Mr Brand with his hockey stick, but the winner for me is Kevin Grant and family’s with its traditional three tier structure and aesthetically pleasing rotundness’.
‘Clearly a lot of work had gone into Category 2, Inner City Life – the snow dog is very cute but, as an umpire, I have to be a stickler for the rules and so it can’t win for not technically meeting the entry requirements of a snowman competition. Jimmer’s self-portrait, complete with lockdown hair, sneaks this one for me.’
This week’s junior champion was Ciaran, for equipping his strike partner with the requisite mask. We apologise to Chris Baker for disenfranchising him from this week’s competition, but if you will move to sun-kissed Sydney you have to take the consequences. All in all, another triumph for the team on a weekend when hockey was frozen off – apparently there were other reasons for us not playing Leatherhead, but that’s for another time.
