The conditions were hardly ideal for watching football but to be honest I would’ve taken any kind of game. I walked the two miles to Paddington Rec (and back) on Saturday to see if there was anything doing. Well, beyond girls’ hockey practice, there wasn’t a lot.

At least there were two live games on TV on Sunday: Germany v Norway in the Women’s Euro 2005 Final in the afternoon and Brazil v Mexico in FIFA’s Confederations Cup in the evening. So "The Barber" kept out of the searing heat and focused on the small screen. There was even some European Cup athletics from Florence, a sport I’ve enjoyed watching since the 1960 Olympics. I was a competitor too, representing Croydon Schools at the triple jump in the Surrey Championships when I was 14.

Me as a footballer? One appearance for the school team (played in goal, let in six), one appearance for my university hall of residence (played in midfield, touched the ball twice) and then the curtain came down on a glittering career after playing at centre-half for the FA staff team against Barclays Bank at Paddington Rec all of 20 years ago. We lost 9-0 but I did hit the bar with one fabulous volley. If only it had been at the right end.

I was dizzy with excitement to find via the internet that there was a game at the Rec yesterday evening: BNP Paribas v Audit Commission in the London League’s Spring Cup. The London League seems to be the only league in the country which has fixtures during the official close season. I’m not sure how that works.

So after a quick call to Zurich to get FIFA clearance to attend, I took the tube to Maida Vale for this intriguing quarter-final. I sensed a "Cup tie atmosphere" as soon as I arrived, although the game was only watched by three people. There were hardly any joggers on the running track either – even at 6 p.m. it was still too warm for that.

There were no goals for half-an-hour, unusual at that level, before Audit Commission’s No.3 met a cross to the far post with a downward header that the ‘keeper pushed high into the net.

A second-half tap-in by the No.15 made the final score 2-0 but Audit were easy winners and might have scored five or six. This evening, in one of the other quarter-finals, Old Magdalenians meet Eastern Promise at 7.30.

Will "The Barber" be there? Is the Pope a catholic? (Sorry, I’m changing the subject.)

If it came down to a choice between watching football in extreme heat or extreme cold, I think I’d plump for the former. It was about 100 degrees when I saw Ramsgate play Sevenoaks in a Kent League game a couple of Augusts ago but I just sat in the shaded part of the stand, feeling sorry for those poor chaps out on the pitch. England v Cameroon at Wembley in 1991 was a fairly forgettable friendly but it was down to minus twelve by the end. That was a really miserable evening.