Thank you VARy much

Greetings! As this blog had as many reads as Baldrick’s “Turnip and Worm Cookbook” I have not posted anything since 2015. And what do I find when I decide I might try again? A great big warning about privacy notices. Of course, I know about the GDPR due to my work in insurance but it never occurred to me that I needed one. I don’t collect information and the only cookies I had were taken by that greedy Cookie Monster.

Anyway, the main reason I am on here again was because it is my only outlet for book news. One of my novels is now available as a paperback on Amazon as well as an e-book. “Rewind” is my latest novel although I am slowly working on another one. It is regarded as my best and I don’t say that myself but the few reviews I have seem to bear this out.

A US website Readers’ Favorite gave it a 4 star review as follows:

“Rewind by David A. Wardle is the story of Jason, who commits suicide on his 40th birthday in the year 2003. However, he doesn't end up dead but wakes up in his eight-year-old body in the year 1971. He still knows everything about his life, about what happened in various years, which scores soccer teams had and so on. Reliving his life was one of his dreams - but when he suddenly got that chance he realizes that things aren't as easy as he would have imagined, especially with horrible parents and the body of an eight-year-old boy.

What the book does very well is to make the reader understand the situation in which Jason finds himself and to portray the man/boy in a very engaging manner. There is a big contrast between the knowledge Jason has - it could turn him into a very influential person - and the weakness he has to live with in the body of an eight-year-old boy with unloving and even violent parents. David A. Wardle manages to create a believable character with believable problems in a rather unbelievable situation. Jason not only faces the typical problems of an eight-year-old nerdy boy (e.g. bullying) but he has to live with the knowledge that he should be able to change everything, to do everything better this time around.

The book is really nicely written, entertaining and witty. David A. Wardle should certainly let the reader know how Jason goes about his life when he gets older. There surely are heaps of stories to tell! I certainly would be interested in reading them.”

The few reviews on Amazon back this up and the only criticism is that I never wrote the follow up – as yet. It just needs discovering. After all, seven people cannot be wrong! Most of them very discerning ladies.

Talking of ladies, hurray for the Women’s World Cup. I have been watching with interest. It is good I think that this is being covered in full by the BBC. The first woman’s football I saw, I think, was an FA Cup Final in the 90’s and the earliest names I can recall are Marieanne Spacey and Rachel Yankey.

I am reminded too of something that happened around that time. I used to play with a group of guys in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoons. One such afternoon, there were not many of us there and a girl in here early 20’s asked to join us. She had jeans on and walking boots and she ran rings around us. She was Norwegian because she asked me what I thought of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who had just finished his first season at Old Trafford. She wanted to play for a ladies team and was asking about that too. I only knew of Arsenal Ladies at that time and said so. I always wonder if she made it. She was good enough.

What is not good enough though is VAR. Yes, we want cheating out of the game – diving, shirt pulling and other such acts, but on the offside it is all wrong. One of the things strikers are told to do is keep themselves onside by keeping in line with the defenders. However, if now everything is to millimetric precision, not visible with the naked eye, how are they supposed to do that? This is not just my view but others share it. Football, to boil it down to its basic intent, is to put the ball in the net and anything that detracts from that is bad for the spectacle of the game. Offside is part of the rules but if you cannot see the rule how can you play to it? Surely it is reasonable to expect that if the naked eye cannot ascertain offside then it should be let go? How can a player allow for such precision ?Jesse Lingard’s goal for England should have stood. As the attacker he kept himself onside as far as he could tell. It was his big toe that put him offside.

The WWC has suffered too. It should be fun in the Premier League this coming season. Not!

VAR aside the WCC has been good to watch and I was just thinking to myself that the next development will be mixed games. I also said to myself that it will probably happen first in some sort of charity match. And what do you know, in today’s Soccer Aid that will happen.

Anyway, I got a bit off track, but it has been topical. Please check out my novels which have been lost in the Amazon jungle since 2012 and just need a search party. And good luck to the Lionesses for the rest of the tournament.

Rewind