Thursday 23 September 2010

Coniferous Basketball


We’ve only got a small bit of flat ground and for a few years this was the football pitch. With a growing son the shop-bought goal soon became too small and had to be replaced by £20 worth of timber and a bit of DIY. To begin with it seemed huge and impossible to defend, but he grew again, and so did his skill. Football with Dad was a pushover.

Football gave way to basketball and the crossbar became the pole onto which the board and bottomless bucket were fixed. The diameter was too tight for the ball and the relentless battering took its toll on the flimsy structure.

16th birthday ... shall we get him a proper job from the web? There are all sorts of expensive options to secure a high up hoop on a board. For the hoop to be 10 feet up, the pole would need to be 13 feet, plus more for foundations. With our stony ground this would be an engineering challenge.

Over the past 6 years a young Christmas tree had expanded into the pitch and parallel plans were being hatched to deal with this. Bingo! Shaved on 1 side, a tall secure pole, and branches behind to catch wayward shots. With a piece of painted ply, and a hoop with string, we certainly look the business.

But will the goal get higher with the growth of the tree?

Huw

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