K is for Kit

When it comes to sports kit, it is almost impossible to keep up to date with a growing family of sports-minded people. Football boots that cost more than they should are guaranteed to have been outgrown by half-way through a season; although I have to hand it to offspring#2 who finished the last few matches of last season with boots taped afresh each week to hold them together and in situ - with size 13 feet it is far from easy to find footwear to fit!

The approach to this year's cricket season was tempered with queries and suggestions such as, "Do your whites still fit? Do you know where they are? Have your feet grown (again)? Should you check any of the above." With replies assuring me that all was, "Fine, Mum," said with suitable 'go away and leave me alone' tone, I relaxed. Cricket is, after all, the preferred sport for the males of the family and I know that they're keen to begin the season.

First match was last Monday. Monday morning came the cry, "Can't find my whites and the only shirt is too small." And then before I had a chance to swing round from making up packed lunches, "Are you going out today?" Books tend not to write themselves when interrupted by ad hoc shopping trips which may well explain why I'm only half way through this re-write instead of considerably further along.

Wearing a shirt three sizes too big, the afore-mentioned child played in multiple layers designed to help keep him warm for this summer game played in decidedly temperate conditions. Other-half's missing kit was found in a plastic bag at the bottom of the stairs and older sibling's grubby kit retrieved from the bag in which it had been sitting since last August - surprised it didn't walk out of its own accord.

I buy tracksuits on a regular rotational basis, know that it can take one child up to two hours to find a pair of trainers to fit, another will be satisfied with the first pair tried. We have, somewhere, different length spikes for various athletics disciplines, at least 10 mouth guards here in assorted colours; we have weapons aplenty in the form of bats, sticks, riding crops, racquets and a javelin; pads for protection, gloves for virtually any sporting discipline, body protectors, helmets, hard hats, boots, balls ranging from in size from squash and golf to medicine balls for strength and conditioning via the greenhouse-shattering cricket balls. A catching net props up one end of the garden in the summer, a makeshift goal at other times there is a temporary badminton net and the yard becomes a cricket pitch when weather permits. And 101 socks.

Yes we have kit, but the never the right stuff at the right time!