Подумаем о взрослых

 

At the age of 82, the former consultant has started yet another season with the London Hospitals Old Boys side that he helped to form 33 years ago when he was already 49.

 

A legendary figure in Sunday morning soccer circles, he was a regular in the team until he was 77 and scored a memorable hat trick at 79. And although nowadays he only comes on if someone is injured or arrives late, he turns up to watch every game with his kit on underneath his clothes and his boots in a battered hold-all, just in case. Last season, at 81, he managed two full 90-minute games.

 

That puts him in a vintage league of his own. And yet the extraordinary growth in organized veterans’ soccer has meant that more and more Sunday leaguers are now playing on into their forties, fifties, and sixties.

 

Eleven years after being launched with just 16 teams, the Umbro Veterans’ Cup now attracts 250 sides from all over the country, with divisions for the over 35s, over 40s and over 50s “Supervets”, a grand final played at Wembley and a special annual trophy for the Oldest Winger In Town, once awarded to a 72-year-old.

 

Cup organizer David Shepherd, a 50-year-old former professional, reckons there are now probably more than 12,000 players over 35 playing regularly in league and cup competitions around the country. “And the numbers are growing all the time, especially among the over 40s,” he says.

 

Warming up on the touchline before his side’s 6-0 drubbing of St George’s Old Boys, Dr Symons still looks in remarkably good shape for someone of his age. 

 

“Obviously, I can’t move around as much as I used to but the thing I find really frustrating is that when I get near goal I can no longer shoot with the same power,” complains the man who was once good enough to play up front for top amateur side the Corinthian Casuals. 

 

Although content these days to stay mostly out of harm’s way on the left wing, he still shows flashes of the ball control that was always an outstanding feature of his game.

 

He is modest about the hat trick scored in his 80th year. “I got a couple of terrific passes which I managed to put away,” he recalls. “Then, when the penalty was awarded, they let me take it so that I could get my hat trick.”

 

Known affectionately to the many generations of footballing medics who have played with him over the past 60 years as “Hughie”, he still loves the game so much that he can’t bear the thought of having to hang up his boots for good. Although he has also played a bit of golf, tennis, and cricket over the years, they have never given him the same pleasure. “Soccer is the best and most beautiful game to watch and the most enjoyable to play,” he insists.

 

Michael Beer, an independent financial adviser, didn’t even start playing until he was 45. But at 69 he is still going strong, running a team that plays a full fixture list every season and which, until five years ago, regularly toured Europe playing opposition of the calibre of Zurich Grasshoppers. 

 

It began when Beer’s son became goalkeeper for his school team and asked dad to give him some practice in the garden. This developed into a regular five-a-side game involving some of his son’s friends, and then a colleague suggested that Michael ought to play some real football.

 

Thus was formed Hamilton Academicals – “Hamilton because that was the name of the road we lived in, Academicals because a lot of the people I roped in to play were academics of some sort,” explains Beer.

 

Nearly 25 years later, the team still includes his son, now 42, while the oldest players, apart from the captain himself, are the BBC sports commentator Alan Parry and musician Ted Cusick, leader of the Joe Loss dance band, who are both in their fifties. A special trophy room at Beer’s Reading office traces the glorious history of the team, most of whose games are against school sides, including Winchester, Bedales, Bradfield, and Charterhouse.

 

One might have expected a 69-year-old’s lack of pace and mobility to have been cruelly exposed by such youthful opposition. “In fact, they take one look and assume that, being so old and still playing, I must be an ex-pro and that if they try and go past me, I’ll probably break their legs,” he says with a chuckle. “So they always pass before they get to me. If they only realized – all they have to do is push it past me towards the corner flag and run, and it would be all over.” 

 

* Думая о предстоящих экзаменах, мы вполне можем посоветовать ученику использовать эту статью в качестве “спортивного” топика. Такой рассказ обречен на успех у экзаменатора: неожиданный поворот темы и интересные новые факты привлекают любого слушателя. 

 

* Если наш ученик интересуется спортом, мы можем обсудить с ним проблемы любительского спорта. Мы, взрослые, помним, что в советские времена любителями в нашей стране называли профессиональных спортсменов, которые десятилетиями числились в том или ином учебном заведении. Мне самой довелось быть на одном курсе с олимпийской чемпионкой. На втором курсе она “училась” с нами, там же оставалась, когда мы закончили университет. Но в The Times мы прочли о подлинно любительском футболе. И речь здесь идет не просто о соседях по дому, которые в выходной вышли погонять мяч во дворе. Мы видим, что дело поставлено на вполне серьезный уровень – автор упоминает даже о европейских турне любительских команд. Поговорите с учеником о том, нужны ли такие чемпионаты, должна ли страна помогать развитию любительского спорта? В каких формах?

 

* Те, кто любит рисовать, могли бы придумать эмблемы, флажки, значки и другую символику, в которой были бы отражены особенности любительской футбольной команды, где играют люди старше 50. Нарисовать можно дома, а “защитить проект” – на уроке.

 

* С теми, кто спортом не интересуется, можно обсудить более широкую социальную проблему. Люди, ушедшие на пенсию, нередко чувствуют себя “выключенными” из жизни. Не случайно психологи считают уход на пенсию серьезным стрессом. Как можно помочь старшему поколению адаптироваться к новым условиям? Ведь ясно, что эти люди могут не только играть в футбол. А что еще они могут делать? Какие занятия можно для них придумать?

 

Конечно, кто-то может сказать, что перед Россией сегодня стоят совсем другие проблемы, и развлечения для стариков могут и подождать до лучших времен. Это не совсем так. В начале этой статьи мы говорили, что отношение к представителям старшего поколения – признак общей культуры. Глядя на жизнь российских стариков, невозможно представить себе, что и здесь существует культура, которой мы привыкли гордиться.

 

И еще одно соображение, которое мне представляется важным. Даже если у нас, домашних учителей, не так уж много учеников, мы тем не менее закладываем будущее нашей страны. От детей, которые приходят к нам сегодня, в той или иной мере зависит то, какой будет жизнь через двадцать лет. Кризисы не вечны, развитие на них, к счастью, не прекращается. Мы можем и должны научить сегодняшних детей по-взрослому размышлять о завтрашних проблемах.