Travels with my Ostrich ....

[Kaz]

Your posts on here are hilarious Osse, and I can just picture H's face over those shorts

A bun is sweet to me too Ally. Where I grew up Ossie that would be a bread roll, over here in Gloucester it's a cob, and where I used to live in Yorkshire it was a barm cake

[TheOstrich]

Saturday 14/11 – FA Trophy Second Round Qualifying
Evesham United 1 Spennymoor Town 2
Admission: £5, Programme £2, Pre-match cheese and onion bun £1.50, Half-time bacon roll and tea £3.50
Supporters’ Club Home-made Fluffy Robin wearing Bobblehat sitting in a ½ Pint Plastic Mug: £5 (don’t ask, my S is going to get it as a Christmas present … I was given detailed instructions on how to take the bird’s stuffing out and replace it with a Terry’s Chocolate Orange!)
Attendance – 294

Plan A today was Kidderminster v Aldershot, but this was duly scuppered by the incessant downpour as I prefer to visit Aggborough by public transport and didn’t fancy the walking in the rain that this would entail. However, this rather intriguing cup-tie between two Step 4 clubs, one from the Southern League Division 1 South and West, and t’other from the Northern Premier League Division 1 North, was a quality back-up – the pitch at the Spiers and Hartwell Jubilee Stadium on the southern outskirts of the Worcestershire town is a “good drainer” and in the event looked immaculate before the start of the game.

Evesham United sold their old ground for housing back in 2006 and whilst the new stadium was being built, they became nomadic and played home games at Worcester City’s ground. They could have moved into their new home in 2011, but there was a row over the positioning of the access road from the stadium carpark to the roundabout at the end of the Evesham bypass, and it took a further year to sort out the bureaucracy.

Despite the rain, little traffic today meant an easy journey down via the A435, despite some eejit in front of me who couldn’t make up his mind if he wanted the M40 or the M42 until he arrived at the divide, at which point he swerved in front of me; a driver who pulled up next to me at traffic lights at the M42 exit and proceeded to empty a 2 litre bottle of water out of the passenger window, as if it wasn’t wet enough outside; and finally what appeared to be an errant Christmas tree in a black sack in the middle of the carriageway on the Evesham bypass!

Spennymoor ran two coaches to Evesham – it’s a 430 mile round trip - and when I arrived, the bar resembled a Durham Miners’ Welfare Club! Chatting with some of the away fans, they’d left their house at 8:00 and the coach picked them up at 8:45 – they didn’t arrive at Evesham’s ground until 2:00! Some of the visitors appeared slightly bemused: “Are you sure that’s not the Malvern Hills?”, peering at the cloud-shrouded hillocks in the distance.

Before the kick-off, we were treated to a skilful flying display by the local flock of seagulls, flying into the gale and barely making headway, and then swooping down almost vertically to conduct an effortless landing on the pitch. After the players came out, an impeccable minute’s silence was observed for the victims of the “appalling and barbaric” events in Paris, with just the sound of the south-westerly wind whistling through the stand and snapping the flags.

That sou’westerly very much affected the game. Spennymoor attacked with the wind in the first half, and it quickly became apparent that the only way Evesham were going to make forward progress was by playing the ball along the ground. Their keeper’s kicks sometimes failed to make the half-way line. And Spennymoor quickly got the measure of them, closing them down with alacrity and sometimes ferocity – a less lenient referee might have settled things down with a few early bookings. As it was, eight yellows were shown, seven in the second half when the referee finally ran out of patience, and two of them were to Spennymoor’s Shane Henry, who was sent off on 78m.

Spennymoor had taken an early lead when Fisher scuffed a shot past an unsighted keeper on 11m, Brown equalised on 55m with a speculative 25 yarder, but as the home side pushed forward looking for a winner, substitute Frost scored on the counter-attack on 76m, and it was a goal that had, for some time, “been coming”.

One amusing first half incident occurred when Spennymoor were awarded a corner. Back on the half-way line, Spennymoor’s Tait decided he wanted a boot change. A new pair were tossed to him and he commenced changing footwear on the pitch. The referee was having none of that, and ordered him to the sidelines to complete the task. He then refused Tait permission to return to the game for the duration of two Evesham attacks. To say that the Spennymoor defender was less than pleased at being kept out of the action would be putting it mildly. I think it true to say that he was, if you’ll pardon the expression, “going apeshit” …..

A very entertaining game despite the weather, well worth the effort of attending.

[Gal]

Spennymoor is the next town to us Ossie!

[Ally]

Thanks Ossie for another great read!

Love the pre-match and half-time food choices.

Hope Master O enjoys his de-stuffed/re-stuffed mug.

[TheOstrich]

I had to look Spennymoor up on a map, Gal - I don't know your area at all, I'm afraid! Passed through Durham and been to Newcastle once years ago, but that's it!

There were a lot of "rumblings" about this round of the FA Trophy because it pits the northern and midlands survivors together - quite a lot of the clubs still in it at this stage may only have one or two paid players, and asking small clubs (Step 4 and below) to travel 2 x 217 miles on the day (as Spennymoor did) is a bit much. By the end, you couldn't have blamed Evesham for not trying too hard to equalise , because if they had, it would meant a reply in County Durham on a Tuesday night, and the possible loss of two days' wages for players having to earn a living outside the game ....

The raw onion in that pre-match cheese bun was more than a tad strong, Ally; my mistake for not buying a drink to help it down ... What Evesham were also selling from the hatch yesterday was a tray of faggots, chips, peas and onion gravy for £4 - I was going to treat myself at half time, but they'd long since sold out. Many disgruntled customers!

[Gal]

I had to look Spennymoor up on a map, Gal - I don't know your area at all, I'm afraid!

Don't worry about it - my geography is sketchy on local places outside of this county .....yes we are about 4 or 5 miles from Spenny, that's the Asda I go to (when I mention shopping at Asda, it's our closest decent supermarket)

[Kaz]

I want a robin in a bobble hat now - especially if he's hiding a choccy orange! I'm quite partial to a cheese and onion roll myself, but tend to go for a red onion as it's a bit milder

[TheOstrich]

I want a robin in a bobble hat now - especially if he's hiding a choccy orange!

They were certainly popular, Kaz, they had 5 on display in the clubhouse when I arrived about 40 minutes before the game, and they'd all gone by half-time!

I guess £5 was a bit OTT but I've always have a soft spot for Evesham United as a club, and anything home-made like that to raise funds deserves supporting, in my book ....

[Kaz]

Oh definitely

[TheOstrich]

Saturday 21/11 – Midlands 2 West (North) – (Level 7)
Harborne RUFC 14 Old Saltleians RUFC 40 (that’s per the RFU website; I scored it 14-38! )
No admission or programme
Refreshments: Nothing obtainable on site. However, the Ostrich unerringly tracked down the nearest food source as the RVS Café on the ground floor of the Birmingham Women’s Hospital, which is about 150 yards from the pitch. Go in at Reception, then past the South Birmingham Breast Unit, round the corner and it’s just beyond the Assessment and Birthing Centre. I had a Ginsters Festive Turkey, Pork Stuffing and Cranberry slice and an Americano coffee take-out for £3.80.
Attendance: 39 (h/c) and a black dog which obviously didn’t think a fat lot of the proceedings and made a dash for the exit during the first half.

On a bitterly cold but bright day, I thought it politic to tick off team number 23 on the Ostrich’s seasonal hit-list, as I knew this wasn’t a venue to visit in inclement weather. It’s an easy one to access by public transport; train to University station, cross over the road and then head in a straight line along the pedestrian path for the huge carbuncle known as the New Queen Elizabeth Hospital, passing the signs commemorating the site of the old Roman Metchley Fort en-route, then turn right uphill alongside the carbuncle, carry on past the Women’s Hospital, and straight on into Metchley Park Road. Just up there on your left is the Metchley Lane Gymnastics Centre and changing rooms for various playing fields - basically two elderly wooden-clad buildings with no facilities for spectators.

I first visited Metchley Fort as a nipper with my primary school back in the 1950’s. They’d actually reconstructed part of the buildings back in those days but that’s long since gone now, and the site is pretty much swallowed up by the ever burgeoning medical buildings in the QE Hospital complex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metchley_Fort

The new QE Hospital, opened in 2011, has now weathered in but looks a bit plasticky and tacky on the outside, to be honest. It’s huge and dominates the skyline from the south and the west. I’m not sure about the care there, either; for example, did you know that in 2013, the hospital actually suspended a surgeon over allegations he branded his initials onto a patient's liver? Takes signing for your work to a whole new level ….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Eli ... Birmingham

Harborne RUFC got promoted at the end of last season, and therefore appeared for the first time on the Ostrich’s radar, hence today’s visit. They are having a tough time of it, however, in M2W(N), having now played 8 and gained no league points.

I first saw the opposition, Old Saltleians RUFC, back at the end of the 2009/10 season. They’d gone through the year unbeaten, but had to defeat their rivals Lichfield, at home, in the last league game of the season to clinch the title and promotion. It was a “winner takes all” game – and in front of a huge crowd of over 300, including the Ostrich, they lost, 19-20. Not to worry, that gave them a home tie two weeks later in the second place play-offs against Old Laurentians, who had finished second in the East division, and winning that would also secure them a promotion spot. So the Ostrich attended that game as well – and Salts also lost that one, 12-14!

Old Saltleians were founded in 1933 as the old boy’s club of Saltley Grammer School. If I’ve got this right, Saltley Grammar School, in time, subsequently became Saltley School, and then Saltley School and Specialist Science College – and in 2014, this school was named as one of the notorious Birmingham “Trojan Horse” schools ; hopefully now it has turned a corner ….
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi ... on-9081759

The rugby club have got their own problems as well! In 1955, they acquired their current ground near Water Orton, only to lose their main pitch in 2001 to the M6 Toll road. They moved sideways so their pitches are now alongside the motorway – but have now found that their complex will be totally obliterated by HS2 when it gets built …..

To the match, and Harborne were in trouble even before the start as the referee rejected four of the six match balls as being underinflated, and no pump appeared to be available. To add to the grass-roots feel of the game, the referee started the proceedings in a dark-blue tracksuit top with a hoodie; however, he did change into a more conventional blue shirt after 5 minutes.

Old Salts were quickly out of the blocks, and 0-28 up by 26m with Harborne rarely mounting any sort of threat. 0-33 at the interval, the second half was a slightly different story. Harborne notched a converted try from the restart, and then gave Salts as good as they got. Salts got frustrated, and by 65m were down to 12 men with 3 in the sinbin! The home side managed a second converted try on 72m, their forwards rumbling a scrum over the line, but that was the extent of their comeback, clumsy handling badly let them down, and an unconverted Salts try at the death completed the scoring. A good game, but by gum it was cold out there on the sidelines today!