Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry...

... red thread, yellow thread.

A tongue twister is a Zungenbrecher in German, which translates as 'tongue breaker' -- quite a bit worse than a twist. Well, that makes up for their version of the credit crunch not being quite so harsh (a word currently en vogue with my boys), namely: Kreditklemme, from 'klemmen', which means being jarred, or jammed. I suppose they wanted to keep some form of alliteration.

The red thread (der rote Faden) is a figurative term which may be translated (ha!) as leitmotif, or central/recurring theme. My recurring theme on this blog has been rugby for the last 4 months, and today is no exception. The last game has been played, so yesterday's Gala Day was The Boy's last act as captain of the under 14's, as the club operate a rotating captaincy.

Two Bees Shaking Hands (1)

And time for me to sum up. At school, the season finished back in April. The Boy was named Player of the Season in his year (I think that's three successive years now), and he was awarded the second set of 'colours'. These are awards which are sewn on to the school blazer. This time the badge was yellow, which resulted in the Hunt for the Yellow Thread. When he was picked to play for his county (unfortunately, 'Greater Birmingham' doesn't quite sound as good as the Shires they play), he was also allowed to wear a different tie in school (referred to as the county tie). With its Tudor shields (as on the blazer, above the Tudor Rose), it looks noticeably different from the usual striped tie, and is therefore supremely coveted.

It isn't the only rugby related tie he acquired this season. After the match against Staffordshire (2), the team were all presented with the Greater Birmingham tie, and after the surprising win of the Bees' u-14s against Redruth (3), who came top of the league in Cornwall, he received their club tie. (Just to avoid confusion, there's no causality. Redruth were on tour, and as captain, he would have received the tie anyway, win or lose.)

Redruth RFC, School's County tie, Greater Birmingham tie, Birmingham & Solihull RFC (Bees') tie

Our u-14s were on tour, too, over the Bank Holiday Monday, but I'm in no position to divulge anything about that - and this is not just due to heavy drinking! All in all, a very successful season, with more and more matches being won. I thought I'd shout 'freedom at last' after yesterday's last rugby obligation until September, but I feel strangely bereft. The Boy will, no doubt, not cease to talk about rugby in all its facets (in the vain hope that I will understand, one day).

U-14s on tour, in Bees' Away kit, The Boy is the face in the middle

The worries about his height - or rather the lack of it - will most certainly continue. When he started out, in Yr 7, he had this enormous height advantage, coupled with his early maturity, i.e. muscular strength and broad shoulders. We all stopped growing at 14 (his Dad, his brother, and I), so he's been convinced for some time that this is also going to happen to him. His friends have been catching up and overtaking him, and he's gone from 'big for his age' to being one of the smaller ones on the pitch, as can be seen above. On the other hand, it'll be some time until they match him for strength:

Greater Birmingham, match against Shropshire

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(1) The fully grown bee is Rod Petty.
(2) While that was a disappointing defeat, they won their next match against Shropshire.
(3) I nearly forgot: due to the single try by The Boy, perfectly placed, which was then perfectly converted by his extremely able team-mate W.