Travels with my Ostrich ....

[Ally]

Ossie...where exactly is it you live?

[TheOstrich]

Ossie...where exactly is it you live?

In a world of my own, Ally!!

To give Ibstock / Ellistown their due, though, lest you think they're at the back of beyond, there's plenty of new homes being built on the outskirts of Ibstock village by Bellway, who are big regional housebuilders, and there's a few large industrial trading estates within a couple of miles of Ellistown. The attraction is, I guess, they're within hailing distance of junction 22 of the M1 .... it's around a 15 mile commute to the nearest city, which is Leicester.

Where I live, there are plans for 6,000 new houses (opposition to this green-belt building has rapidly receded with the prospects of Aston Martin relocating from Newport Pagnall to this area - how fickle people are ), and there's already plenty of surrounding industrial trading estates. The main attraction is, I guess, is that we are within hailing distance of junction 9 of the M42 and it's around an 8 mile commute to the nearest city centre, which is Birmingham.

In fact, if you put it like that, where we live is not so different from Ibstock / Ellistown - it's just a question of scale and the fact that Birmingham "swallows" everything around it .....

[TheOstrich]

Saturday 27/02/16 – Vanarama National League @ 15:00
Kidderminster Harriers 0 Bromley 1
Admission £11, programme £3
Refreshments: cottage pie (see below) £4.50, soup £1.50.
Attendance: 1,539

I have been reading Bill Bryson’s latest book, “The Road to Little Dribbling – More Notes from a Small Island”. For all that it is a good, and sometimes very funny read, he really does come across as a curmudgeonly old whatsit, railing on about British social attitudes and mores, and this can be, at times, a bit of a distraction, nay, an annoyance. Nevertheless, he does make some interesting observations, not least concerning the amount of litter festooning the country, and he’s right to be harsh. My journey by train today takes me through the heart of the Black Country and I have to say that the amount of rubbish alongside the lines and on the embankments, especially around the Smethwick area, should be a source of great embarrassment to the locals. It’s an absolute eyesore. A full clean-up would be hugely time-consuming, very costly, and virtually impossible to achieve. Personally, I think they should stop all the trains for a day, round up the population, supply them with rubbish picks and black plastic bags, and beat them until all the cans, bottles, clothing, paper, cardboard, wood and metal has been removed from the tracks and the undergrowth. Which I suppose makes me sound as big a curmudgeonly old whatsit as Bryson, but there you go.

Today’s match was pre-scheduled on the Ostrich’s master spread-sheet, but I very nearly made a last minute switch to an alternate (Wednesbury RUFC), as my cunning 3-year plan to complete seeing all the teams at Step 1 of the non-league football pyramid has rather come off the rails this season, thanks to unhelpful fixture lists and various cup runs, not to mention the recent demise of virtually all the Midlands clubs in the National League. Kidderminster are still rock-bottom of the table, and are now on their third manager of the season (Dave Hockaday, who you may recall we met back in October at his first home game in charge of the team, was duly sacked on 7th January, have achieved nothing). I don’t really fancy spending 9 Saturdays next season trying to shoehorn myself in and out of the car-park at Solihull Moors, who look like being the only local Step 1 representative for around 50 miles in every direction, so I think I’ll find some other amusement like trying to complete visiting all the grounds in my local Midland League Division 1 (Step 6) – we shall see! And quite honestly, I’ve rather had my fill of Conference soccer (as the National League used to be known), as this was yet another game where it would have been both more entertaining and rewarding staying at home and prodding my nostrils with a chopstick than sitting in the cold watching another less than stellar contest. “Less than stellar contest”, before you accuse me of Bryson-like terminal grumpiness, is actually a direct quote from the Kidderminster Harriers website report of the game ….

But first, today’s lesson covers that culinary creation known as the Award-Winning Kidderminster Pie. Brian and Joan Murdoch have been serving their home-made cottage pies at the Aggborough ground for at least 50 years now, and it is reputed to be the finest footie fayre in the land. It ain’t cheap – each pie costs £4.50 these days , but it is served in a 2” deep foil container measuring around 6” x 4”. So you get a reasonably sized portion. They also offer sweet ‘n sour pork, lasagne, chicken curry, chilli con carne fillings, and cheese and onion, chicken and mushroom, and steak and kidney pies. And the Famous Aggborough Soup. The Ostrich had, as traditional, the cottage pie, not at its best today, it must be said - possibly spent too long in the hot cabinet. The more cynical might say it had been in the hot cabinet since the end of the last home game a week ago ... Somewhat overdone on top, more potato than meat than I’ve known in the past, and they forgot the hot gravy which I had ordered. But nevertheless, after the meal, the bird perched replete in the top of the main stand, burping happily to itself. The Famous Aggborough Soup, which I imbibed at half-time on a chilly afternoon, was a hearty home-made beef broth with a good quantity of shredded vegetables, and quite palatable.
Brian Murdoch served me my soup today, Joan was prowling around organising the rest of the family on the other side of the kiosk. Here’s a Birmingham Mail article about the Murdochs and their pies from earlier in the season.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/f ... s-10265576

To the game. Bromley’s direct running posed a threat at times, but Harriers defence was rarely under pressure. Kidderminster had three good attempts at goal, but Bromley keeper Alan Julian pulled off excellent saves. You could count the number of on-target shots on your fingers, without troubling your thumbs. Harriers also had two penalty shouts – the first I thought was 50/50; the referee gave Bromley a free kick. The second, well, my instinctive reaction was that Garnett had stumbled and fallen trying to control the ball under pressure, and it seems the referee thought the Kiddy player had over-run it, so he waved play on, (to the absolute wrath of the faithful Kiddy fans and the home bench); however, the Bromley defender appears to have admitted after the match that it was indeed a penalty. The old truism - when your luck’s down, the decisions rarely go your way.

Bromley’s somewhat unmerited winner on 86m was a classic. Anderson swung a long-range direct free kick into the area. It looked over-hit, like most of the free kicks before it, so everyone – attackers, defenders and keeper chose to ignore it … and it calmly sailed just inside the far post. Dear, oh dear …..

A goal-less draw would at least have been a fairer result. Like today’s pie, not a game to live long in the memory …

[Ally]

I know what you mean about the litter Ossie...I remember thinking when I was over last November "does no one use litter bins here?!"

£4.50's a bit steep for a cottage pie. It'd have to be top notch tasty at that price!

I log onto the Birmingham Mail online once a week for a wee catch up.

Thanks for a great read.

Do you get withdrawal symptoms once the season's finished Ossie?

[Kaz]

Oh Ossie, I like my cottage pie with the spud overcooked. I like to scrape all the little burnt bits off the side of the dish before I wash up

I agree about the litter thing, it's disgraceful

[Ally]

Oh Ossie, I like my cottage pie with the spud overcooked. I like to scrape all the little burnt bits off the side of the dish before I wash up

I agree about the litter thing, it's disgraceful

Kaz..my mum just loves scraping the little burnt bits off too!

I always make her and dad's cottage pie in 2 crock pots that I have (the rest goes in a big Pyrex dish for the rest of us )

Years ago, when mum and dad were coming here for lunch, Jacob declared it "International Cottage Pie" day and every time since then, whenever I make it, that's what we call it!

[Kaz]

You can't beat it

[TheOstrich]

I don't mind a bit of "overcooking" of the spud, but Saturday's offering just wasn't quite right, somehow .... the missing gravy would have helped.

Regarding the litter, I think there's some sort of "Clean for the Queen" initiative just been launched, but I'm not entirely sure how wide-ranging it is or what it's all about. That's possibly a topic for a new thread if anyone has views and would like to start one?

Ally, because I have an ad-blocker, the Birmingham Mail has now started blocking me from reading its articles in retaliation. I could remove the ad-block just for that site, but to be honest, the Birmingham Mail is an awful rag, it's not that good at reporting news, and it's too left-wing and PC for me anyway, so I don't intend to bother. Interestingly, I'd "saved" that Murdoch Pie link back last November for use in my footie blog, and it does still work for me - it's just the current Mail content I can't access! Strange.

The rugby season finishes 30th April by RFU decree (in practice, various cup finals are held after that date). The footie continues to around the third week in May, thanks to all the postponements. I'll be wrapping this blog up following the North Midlands RU Finals Day at Dudley Kingswinford on Sunday 15th May, an all-day event which incorporates 6 rugby matches, and last year they ran out of pasties before I even had a chance to fight my way to the front of the queue! Still, there's always the barbie ....

Next season "starts" at the beginning of July with pre-season friendly matches, so my only "down time" is June. How do I fill it?

Well, there's the hapless Coventry Bears rugby league side to watch, which is a sort-of spring and summer league, and I'll be introducing you to them in a few weeks time when they take on Rochdale Hornets. Be warned - they have cheerleaders! I have in the past watched Aston Villa Ladies league matches in the summer, but the standard of football isn't that good - that's not a reflection on the ladies' game so much as the Aston Villa side itself. Then there's all the planning for the 2016/17 season once the league constitutions are settled, all the wrangles and hissy fits have been resolved , and the fixtures have been released .... 24/7/365, this footie lark!

[TheOstrich]

Saturday 05/03/16 – National League 2 North (Level 4) @ 15:00
Stourbridge RUFC 15 Sedgley Park RUFC 7
Admission including programme: £8
Refreshments: hand-made cheeseburger £3.50, hot chocolate with whipped cream and mini marshmallows … lots of marshmallows … £1.50, 2 x Cadbury’s Crème Eggs £1.30 (one devoured, t’other for Mrs O as a Mothering Sunday gift …. Last of the Old Romantics, eh? ).
Attendance: around 350

This was my second visit of the season to Stourton Park. An awful journey today – over two hours for the trip from north east Birmingham to Stourbridge – mainly due to the sheer volume of traffic trying to get across the northern suburbs of the city, but exacerbated by a total road closure north of Hagley village on my usual rat-run route, which left me Using my Intuition to get back on course, leading to the inevitable Five Point Turn in a Muddy Farm Gate when my ad-hoc “diversion” duly petered out from a single track country road into a footpath! After retracing my journey back to Hagley, I picked up the official diversion signs, and eventually made it to the ground just on 2:15 for what I hoped was going to be the start of the first half of Stourbridge Lions vs Wolverhampton in Midlands 2 West (North) on the No.2 pitch, but in the event that match didn’t kick off until 3:00, so I concentrated on the higher level National 2 North game. Sedgley Park Tigers were the last team I needed to see to complete that particular league, and I’ve now seen 23 of the 25 teams I set out to view at the beginning of the season – not bad!

Sedgley Park RUFC’s first ground was a farmer’s field in Whitefield, which lies between Manchester and Bury. The players apparently used the cowsheds for changing, and the farmyard pump for washing! Whitefield had a tram system in the 1920’s and the trams had a letter box fitted so that if you posted a letter on them, it would then be transported straight to the sorting offices in Manchester. Nowadays, Whitefield is merely a stop on the much more modern Greater Manchester tram network. The rugby club dates from 1932 and moved to its present home, next door to the M60 motorway, in 1955. They’ve been quite successful over the years and have even played rugby at Level 2 in the pyramid, not that many years ago, either. Sedgley Park were 2nd in the table this morning with a 1 point advantage over 3rd place Stourbridge and three games in hand. Last week, they slipped to an unexpected home defeat to Caldy, so the pressure was on today!

A cagey start to the game, with Sedgley pressing, and Stourbridge didn’t get out of their own half until the 14m, but when they did, it was a devastating break straight up the pitch and a 40 yard run by Trinham (I think) culminating in the first try. The Tigers missed a penalty a few minutes later and buoyed by this, the home pack started to give Sedgley a right good mauling. A series of short range plunges led to Stourbridge’s second try on 28m which was duly converted and the home side went into the interval at 12-0 and looking good.

Shortly after the restart, Stourbridge’s Scott knocked over a routine penalty kick but missed a longer attempt three minutes later. Sedgley belatedly found their feet and started running the ball, but Stourbridge’s gritty defence kept them at bay until a Greville try from close range and a Riley conversion brought the score to 15-7 on 69m. Another Sedgley score would have given them a losing bonus but they went down to 14 men for the final 5 minutes following a wild tackle, and the home side comfortably saw out time.

Tonight Stourbridge are second in the table, and Sedgley have fallen to fourth place behind Leicester Lions. The Tigers still have their three games in hand which should clinch them a play-off spot behind run-away leaders Macclesfield, but today’s result makes the task just a little bit more difficult …

[Ally]

Blimey Ossie, that traffic sounds horrendous.

The food would've made the trip worthwhile though..I love hand-made burgers.

Thanks for an entertaining report...and I hope Mrs Os enjoys her choccy treat.