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Before today's Hawks v Salisbury match, Sharon from the supporters' club asked whether I'd present the October Player of the Month award to Rocky Baptiste. I agreed and she told me to be by the players' tunnel at ten to three. On the terraces I met Michelle and Jenna from the women's team, who were both on ballgirl duty; said hello to them and showed them an action photo of Michelle that was in today's programme - she was mucho embarrassed.

By the tunnel a photographer explained to me that there'd be no announcement of my presenting the award as the PA system was still kaput. He led me through the door in the perimeter fence onto the strip of grass mud beside the pitch, where we waited for the teams to run out. When they appeared the photographer called Rocky over, I shook his hand, said "Well done, Rocky" and handed him the shield, and we posed for photos. Then the photographer took the shield back and I retired to the stand to watch Hawks win 3-1.

I hadn't intended to have chips with my bacon roll at half time, but the aroma of cooking chips wafted up from the tea hut into the stand during the first half - they smelt so good I couldn't resist.

Tonight me ma and I were guests at the Thorngate variety company's Christmas concert. Our host for the evening was Geoff, an ex-mayor and acquaintance of my mother, who offered us drinks when we arrived - they do Magners there :) The show was very jolly, just the variety show cast dressing up and singing songs, mostly with a Christmas theme - a pleasant, light-hearted way of passing an evening. There were just two hiccups. Just as a ladies' choir began singing, a deafening buzz from the speakers filled the hall, and the ladies carried on gamely for a couple of lines before giving up - a man dressed as Tommy Cooper rushed across the stage behind the choir, presumably to sort it out as the buzz soon stopped and the ladies began again without a hitch. Then the 'sawing a lady in half' trick disintegrated when the side panel of the box fell off, revealing a second lady (well, the first one was actually the compère in drag and huge falsies!) inside the box; they got away with it the first time by saying 'You didn't see that, did you?', but before long it happened again, the whole box fell apart, and the first "lady" fell off the table onto the floor. Cue a rapid curtain, but that got one of the biggest laughs of the night.

One of the singers was a classy, handsome, mature lady introduced as 'Singapore Sue'. When she and another lady sang 'Love Is In The Air', they got all the audience waving their arms in the air for the chorus, then during the second verse, as she sang the loving lyrics SUE LOOKED STRAIGHT AT ME! I smiled at her, but by the time I blew her a kiss she was no longer looking at me :(

My mother was mega embarrassed when she was the first winner on the raffle. When she got up to collect her prize, with her Mayor's chain on, an old lady called out 'Fix' and one of the co-MCs said "I was going to make a joke about car parking, but I won't." (There's a lot of controversy on our Council at the moment about car parking charges.) She chose a box of luxury chocolate biscuits - they'll do nicely for Christmas. Another of her tickets won the last prize, but she gave the ticket to Gran who was sitting at the next table. At the end of the show I saw a lady from the cast standing at the front of the hall, still in her fetching lime green dress from the finale, and congratulated her and shook her hand. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get a kiss though - I used to go to the town panto every year when I was a lad; this lady was always a principal cast member, and my early adolescent years were spent lusting after her. Didn't get to meet Singapore Sue, though.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to see the Hawk girls win away

To Hamble to see Hawks Ladies take on Red Star. It was bone dry when I set off, so didn't bother with my waterproof ... about two minutes after I arrived beside the pitch, it started to rain and carried on all afternoon.

Before kick-off, Trev told me that Kayleigh, a player I used to know and whom I rate highly (she's a nice lass too), will be joining us in the New Year. Wizard! Lisa reported that lovely Michelle has left Hamble and joined the Portsmouth University team. Surprised, I said "Is she a student there?" "No," Lisa laughed, "they'll take anybody." Just as long as she still comes to us in the summer :)

Becky and her friends took refuge from the rain in the conifer bushes growing by pitchside : for the second half I did the same, half-concealed in a bush, much to the amusement of subs Amy and Jenna F when they jogged by me. I was only able to see half the pitch from there, but that half all the play was in the Hamble half anyway :) We won 9-1, including a magnificent hat-trick from Sam S who bravely struggled on for an hour after having her ankle twisted by a fierce tackle midway through the first half.

In the clubhouse after the game I went round the people who speak to me regularly, wishing them good luck for next week and Merry Christmas. Amy was miffed that I won't be coming next Sunday because I'm going to London to see The Pogues, but her dad was well impressed that they're reuniting for these Christmas gig - "The original line-up? Shane MacGowan? Really?"

At the start of the women's season, which came just after I became disillusioned with Big Brother, I invested a lot of emotion in the new Hawks ladies' team. I was looking for something new to focus my romanticism on, something to fill the hole in my heart left by BB. For that purpose, a newly-formed, underdog team of young lasses seemed absolutely perfect. That so far they've delivered results on the pitch way beyond my dreams was a very pleasant surprise. As I sat drinking mild, surrounded by the girls, basking in the glow of a nine-goal salvo, I thought : this is better than BB. Halfway through the season and the Hawk girls are flying high. Just as long as the New Year doesn't see them blasted out of the sky with a twelve-bore...

The girls all shot off pretty quick, leaving me to finish my pint of mild in leisurely fashion before walking to the station in the rain.