Sports

Football

Football was in William’s blood, which became obvious from the way William started kicking a ball from an early age.  On many occasions his mum or his Uncle Gerald would take William up to the local field and play either just between themselves or with Sue (aunt) in tow. If there was a ball and space, William just wanted to play, either in a garden or in a house if he could, in fact anywhere.

As time moved on and he became a little older, Saturday morning training started. At first it was at one of local recreation grounds, then professional training came along and he joined a group at the Danes recreation ground. This would incorporate proper training and learning skills. This training took place nearly every Saturday during spring and summer and at the local Leisure Centre during autumn and winter.
During the summer holidays he would take part in other professional groups, i.e. Arsenal’s local training and Dover Athletic under the expert guidance of the team’s manager.

William also caught the eye of his school’s football coach, and firstly got into St. Richard’s R. C. Primary School 2nd. Team, and then to his mother’s delight, stepped into the 1st eleven. This was even though he was a year younger than most of the other members of the team.

What William knew about his favourite football team “Chelsea” was second to none. And though he never actually saw them play in person, his knowledge of them was 100%. His love of football was everywhere, including his local team “Dover Athletic”. He must have been in love with football!

Through his love of the game, he asked his mum if it was possible for him and his friends to play 5 a side football at the local Leisure Centre.
This was arranged by his mum and uncle and a centre was booked every fortnight for one hour on a Sunday afternoon and William with his friends played football.

Although football was sport Number 1. for William, he still had a strong desire to take on something else.

Tennis

William’s interest in tennis probably came around the age of six. It did not take long for him to excel in this sport, by going to weekly classes, he soon became hooked and surely he would have triumphed in this sport too. In fact he was that good he was put forward for a scholarship.

Swimming

William started swimming before he was walking, that is how good he was. He used to train regularly in a local leisure centre and just before William was taken ill, he won an event for his Cub group in a Cubs Gala Swimming Event.

Wrestling

This was more an armchair sport than an active one; though there were occasions that William would actively try some of the moves and positions.
Once again his knowledge of wrestling, especially American wrestling (ECW, RAW & Smackdown) was beyond reproach. He would watch it on the television and then talk about the characters, especially which camp they were in or if they had retired etc. He had miniatures of these characters which he kept in separate boxes for each group and every so often would move them around. (He even had a box for retired wrestlers.)
Once again, as in football, he kept stickers and cards of the characters.

Other Sports

William would dabble in everything.
Cricket for example. Though his uncles loved the sport and William played it, it never came into his top list of sports.
Athletics, especially longer distance running.
Ten pin bowling, he loved it and even introduced his aunt and uncle to the game. This was one thing he could still play with his family and friends during his illness.
Golf, another one. William especially enjoyed playing crazy golf. Whenever he was out and near a crazy golf course, William always wanted to play.