It's Murder, On The Orient Express ....

[Ally]

Great read, thanks Os.

Odd Down.

[TheOstrich]

10/11 - today, the RMT suspended their Saturday strike action for just the one day (probably because they were afraid of getting stick over not running trains to Twickenham for England vs the All Blacks ) – but I really wished they hadn’t. Because the Ostrich got caught in a fiasco more or less of his own making!

I walked down to the station and got there thankfully just before it started to bucket with rain, to find that the 10:51 from Gillingham to Salisbury was being reported as 17 minutes late. “What’s the problem?”, I enquired of the ticket guy. “Where do I start? ”, he replied …... closer to Exeter, the heavy overnight rain had caused flooding at Chard, and an unspecified incident at Feniton had also led to a 20 mph speed restriction being imposed there. So that meant it looked like my 11:33 connection at Salisbury would be touch and go , but I tend to build plenty of redundancy into my scheduling so I thought, well, I’ll give it a try.

Gillingham station is a passing loop on a fairly extensive single track section of the West of England line. Trains don’t tend to cross there normally, they usually utilise the loops at Tisbury to the east and Templecombe to the west, so everything departs from Platform 1, which houses the station buildings. At 10:56 there was an automated announcement to stand well clear of Platform 2 as the next train wouldn’t be stopping (there was no one on the platform anyway ) and a high-tec rail degreasing / leaf blowing track maintenance vehicle duly trundled in from the Salisbury direction – and to my horror rumbled straight through the station and off towards Yeovil . That decision by some eejit signaller, of course, meant a further delay to my London-bound train, waiting for the engineering train to clear the single line at Templecombe. So now we would be 30 minutes late ……

Next, the displays showed a second train coming down the line from Salisbury for Exeter, and this would therefore cross with my train in Gillingham station. OK. And then at the last minute, my train disappeared from the screens entirely! Ossie said “WTF ” and in the circumstances, we must allow the bird his profanity. Then it reappeared again – but this time on Platform 2! So the 100 London-bound passengers had to rapidly dash over the footbridge in the rain (and the poor disabled gentleman with us had to be wheeled across the “barrow crossing” at the end of the platform, as there’s no lifts) – leaving the 10 Exeter-bound passengers in the relative shelter of the station building! As the ticket guy, now porting a disability ramp, muttered darkly, “that’s a stupid decision taken by Signalling in Basingstoke who have no conception what mayhem it’s actually causing in Gillingham”!

So after all this excitement, Ossie eventually got underway some 30-odd minutes late, duly missed his connection in Salisbury but thankfully a second Southampton-bound train rolled up fairly quickly, and the bird was somehow able to get his schedule back on track! It was interesting passing Southampton Harbour as there was a humungous cruise ship moored alongside the terminal near Millbrook – research shows this was probably the P&O Cruise Ship “Ventura”, a 116,000 tonne behemoth due to depart in the next few days for Lisbon.

Leaving Southampton on a Portsmouth-bound stopper, we trundled alongside the banks of the River Itchen, filled with small sailing craft, before arriving at Hamble station, best described as being in the middle of nowhere. However, Hamble Club FC’s ground is a few hundred yards down the road on the right, next to the Hampshire Police Academy Training centre. As I arrived at 1:20, it absolutely chucked it down with rain, then stopped and we had a beautiful double rainbow. Holed up in the capacious turnstile block with several club officials, I asked with some trepidation if the game was going ahead. “The pitch is in good nick, we just need a stop to all these heavy showers – the ref and one of the linesmen are here and they’ll take a look at it shortly, but it should be OK”. However, the referee inspected the pitch and came back looking glum. “There’s a large wet patch in the middle that needs forking over; I’ll have a look at it again in 15 minutes time when you’ve worked on it”. At which point, it started raining quite heavily again – and then settled into a steady drizzle with no sign of a let up.

I read the writing on the wall. With it now 2:05, the game looking extremely doubtful, and the hourly train back to Southampton at 2:18, I decided to abandon ship and return back to the city for an afternoon’s mooch round the shopping centre there , rather than waste another hour.

Did they play the match? Well apparently yes, they eventually started it, but the referee decided to call a halt to proceedings and abandoned it after 20 minutes. I’m not surprised given the weather conditions.

I caught my scheduled train home from Southampton. It was absolutely packed, and I couldn’t get a seat, standing until Romsey where a lot of people got out. Approaching Salisbury, the guard announced “if you’re going forward to Overton, Whitchurch and Andover, don’t worry, your train’s running at least 20 minutes late. If you’re going forward to Tisbury and Gillingham, your train is also late. All I know is it’s late – but not too late!” What on earth did that mean? Well, it eventually resolved into a 4 minute late departure from Salisbury, only to be held in Tisbury loop for an up train for an unscheduled further 12 minutes , so eventually a 20 minutes late arrival back home.

So no football – just a day out trundling around in pouring rain. Onwards and upwards! Chipping Sodbury next week ….

Wessex League Premier Division: Hamble Club vs Portchester AFC – abandoned after 20 minutes, and not attended.
Admission: n/a, souvenir programme £1 (which turned out to be rubbish)
Refreshments: peculiar-tasting cup of coffee and a rather decent Cornish pasty £5.38 from Isaac’s Café on Platform 3 of Southampton station.

[Ally]

Flippin heck Ossie what a to-do!

That cruise liner was in Malaga a few weeks ago- it's huge!

Better luck next week for a decent game!

[cruiser2]

The Ostrich,
Cruise ships usually arrive and dock about 5.00 a.m. The first passengers will start getting off at 7.00 a.m All the passengers will be off by 10.00 a.m.
New passengers will then start boarding at 11.00 a.m. The ship will sail about 5.00 p.m.
Have done this several times on RCL Independence.

[TheOstrich]

Hi Cruiser,
I looked yesterday on the Southampton Ports live information website.
It's not the easiest to follow, but looking at Planned Movements, it gives Ventura going out on 12/11/18 at 17:00 from Berth 106 which seems right for the location visible from near Millbrook station..
I am fairly sure the ship I saw was the Ventura, as although the website mentioned other cruise ships coming and going, looking at images of them, Ventura closely fitted what I saw - in particular the turquoise upper deck colourings, and the racks of red/yellow lifeboats. The only thing was the funnel, different from Images pictures; what I saw from memory was a dark blue funnel with a stylised yellow rising sun motif on it? Does that mean anything to you?

[cromwell]

Os - what a performance! And they wonder why people prefer to travel by car.
How anyone gets anywhere by train seems to be completely hit and miss to me.

[TheOstrich]

17/11 - a few weeks ago, Ossie was minding his own business when a huge thump echoed through the house! Leaping up from his armchair, the bird thought the solar panel on the roof had blown up (again ), but thankfully, his fears were unfounded. There was wood pigeon-sized mark spread-eagled on the patio window, and a rather dazed-looking wood pigeon wobbling off the patio itself. Fast-forward to this week, and Ossie looks out of the kitchen to see, against a grey skyline, the black silhouette of a wood-pigeon-sized bird heading straight for the window. I ducked. But there was no crash. I raised my head and looked out again. The bird was still there, heading for the window. I blinked, shook my head, looked again. Still there! It was only then that I suddenly realised I was watching a sparrow-hawk, absolutely stationary, and in full hunting mode, hovering just on the other side of our garden fence! We’ve seen it once before, actually sitting on our back fence, but this was the first time we’ve seen it in flight. It suddenly swooped down, then up into a nearby tree – and it was around the back performing all afternoon. Fascinating to watch!

One of the joys of retirement is that we can have the odd midday meals out, and Mrs O has long been agitating for a visit to a particular pub she’s seen advertised, just over the County boundary and which had had good reviews. As a bit of fun, we keep our own “Ossievisor” notebook in the car to rate the places we visit, and unfortunately this pub didn’t score very well on the day, so slightly downcast, we motored onwards for a first visit to a farm shop we’d heard about – and that turned out to have recently opened its own café; very nice it looked too! So back we went the following day to sample the fayre there, which turned out to be excellent, and the bird had the faggots and mash :
https://www.kimbersfarmshop.co.uk/glouc ... k/faggots/

I’ve never met Grandma Hazel, the one with the secret recipe, but by gum, that lady should have a statue erected in celebration of her faggot recipe. And on a plinth!

So, getting my season back on track after last week’s (self-inflicted) fiasco at Hamble, off on Wednesday evening to watch Westbury United again. I drew into the Meadow Lane car-park behind the opposition’s mini-bus, which was heavily emblazoned “Up The Sods!” My first sighting of Chipping Sodbury Town.

Promotion-chasing Westbury ought to regard the result of this game as a point gained rather than two points lost - they came up against a resolute Sods side who played much better than their 18th place in the table suggested. In fact, it needed two stunning second half saves by Ed Baldy in goal to deny Chipping Sodbury the win.

The Sods opened the scoring on 10m with a free header from a corner – poor defending. Westbury equalised on 54m when the away keeper punched out a flick-on from a long throw, only for Joe Stradling to head the ball back over a ruck of players and into the net. In the same incident, Westbury attacker Ricky Hulbert looked like he sustained a broken nose in a clash and had to be substituted. As he had spent the first half falling over and appealing aggrievedly to the referee every time an opposition player got anywhere near him, some might have regarded this as karma ….

Westbury might have won it at the death but their no.14, put through the defence, hit a tired shot directly at the keeper. The draw was an eminently fair result.

In a way, I was lucky I found this match on. I gather that when I last saw Westbury play against Odd Down a couple of weeks back, after the game it was found that the boiler in the changing rooms had malfunctioned and no-one could get a hot shower. Odd Down reported this to the league, and both the league and the FA descended on Westbury, carried out an emergency ground inspection and failed them! Not only had the boiler to be sorted but, I was told, amongst other minor matters, “crosses” had to be painted (I have no idea at all what that meant), and a copious amount of fallen leaves swept away from the pitchside area. All had been accomplished by volunteers in record time, so the Chipping Sodbury game was able to go ahead.

Western League Premier Division (Step 5): Westbury United 1 Chipping Sodbury Town 1
Admission £5 including programme.
Refreshments: £1 for a mug of tea. And as no hot food was available last time I came here, tonight I was prepared – a packet of Bumble and Boots Original West Country Beef Jerky purchased from the Kimber Farm Shop for £2.95 *
Attendance: 49 (officially – although I counted 63 on the night!)

* According to the packaging :
“This product may contain traces on Nuts.
The little white bag in this package [the oxygen absorbent] is not suitable for consumption. Do not microwave.”

Today, a gentle visit today to Sutton Benger, which is a rather attractive, well-heeled village a few miles north-east of Chippenham. Lots of posh cottages, but tempered with some in-fill new builds. The easiest approach to Sutton Benger by car appears to be to follow the signs to the Council Rubbish Dump down the B4122 from the A350/M4 motorway roundabout, and then left onto the B4069 and into the village. Passing the Wellesley Arms on the left, turn next right into Chestnut Road and the entrance to the Village Hall and Recreation Ground car park is just past the local primary school. The car park only has a limited number of spaces (around 20) and quickly filled up today. My journey had also taken me up the Chippenham Bypass, and I'm pleased to report that the "improvements" are still incomplete (over two years on ), and the extensive collection of road cones are still in place. They should now be regarded as an indigenous species, and have probably started their own breeding colony!

There’s a full-size soccer pitch on the Sutton Benger campus (although one of the goalposts was uprooted and lying flat by the hedge ), a cricket square, a couple of tennis courts, and a kids’ play area; the rugby pitch is located in the far corner of the rec from the rather nondescript chalet-style hall which incorporates the changing rooms. The hall itself was shut up today. The rugby pitch isn’t roped or railed, and the only pitch-side furniture, apart from a few park benches scattered around, appear to be a wooden shed which houses the club’s equipment and their current pride and joy, a brand-new portable training floodlight. (Just the one, although it does have 4 directional lamps ).

Both sides are in the lower reaches of their division. Pewsey Vale have already conceded one walk-over, and last time out suffered a 7-124 home defeat at the hands of league leaders Combe Down . I enquired about this, and was told the club have an ongoing problem with player availability – many are young farmers, and work has to take priority. They were at full strength today, though, and looked quite a formidable (if slightly overweight ) proposition. Sutton Benger, in contrast, were a smaller, lighter, mobile side, and the two teams combined to provide a closely-fought and entertaining match.

Pewsey were quickly on the offensive and opened the scoring after 12m with try down the right wing. Sutton Benger opened their account on 18m and took the lead through a conversion that only just wobbled between the posts, but Pewsey made it 7-12 at the interval via a converted try on 26m although the scorer was very nearly stopped on the line.

Three rapid yellow cards for over-exuberant tackling at the start of the second half reduced Pewsey to 13 men before a home player was sin-binned, but Sutton Benger couldn’t make the numerical advantage pay. It wasn’t until 69m that they managed to draw level with a classic passing move down the line and over in the corner, and then on 75m, their no.3 replaced the established place kicker (who wasn’t having the best of days), and he became an unlikely hero, landing a 30 yard penalty that just managed to clear the bar. Hard luck on Pewsey Vale, though – a draw would have been quite a fair result.

Wadworth 6X Dorset & Wilts 1 North (Level 8): Sutton Benger RFC 15 Pewsey Vale RFC 12
Admission: free, no programme
Refreshments: nothing on offer. The village shop/post office closes at 12:00 on Saturdays, and the best (only) bet for sustenance seems to be the Wellesley Arms on the High Street, where for £2 I bought a Kitkat and a packet of Read Handcooked Oak Smoked BBQ Rib Flavour Potato Crisps which were somewhat salty, and after which I could have murdered a mugga tea.
Attendance: 34

[cromwell]

17/11 - a few weeks ago, Ossie was minding his own business when a huge thump echoed through the house! Leaping up from his armchair, the bird thought the solar panel on the roof had blown up (again ), but thankfully, his fears were unfounded. There was wood pigeon-sized mark spread-eagled on the patio window, and a rather dazed-looking wood pigeon wobbling off the patio itself. Fast-forward to this week, and Ossie looks out of the kitchen to see, against a grey skyline, the black silhouette of a wood-pigeon-sized bird heading straight for the window. I ducked. But there was no crash. I raised my head and looked out again. The bird was still there, heading for the window. I blinked, shook my head, looked again. Still there! It was only then that I suddenly realised I was watching a sparrow-hawk, absolutely stationary, and in full hunting mode, hovering just on the other side of our garden fence! We’ve seen it once before, actually sitting on our back fence, but this was the first time we’ve seen it in flight. It suddenly swooped down, then up into a nearby tree – and it was around the back performing all afternoon. Fascinating to watch!

Os we have the same re the pigeons. Our window cleaner commented on it last time - three pigeon outlines on the windows! Also - we had a sparrowhawk yesterday too! It was sitting on top of a neighbour's roof. All the other birds had made themselves very scarce, there wasn't another bird to be seen.

“Up The Sods!”

Broken nose though - ouch.

Attendance: 49 (officially – although I counted 63 on the night!)

They used to do that at Rugby league matches, under declare the size of the crowd!

Sutton Benger! Another memorable name. I'm strangely glad the young farmers won.

Great read!

[TheOstrich]

24/11 - only a short report from the bird this week, I’m sure you will be pleased to hear . Ossie has been spending much time agonising over his Christmas card list – who to send to, who to cut, who to play chicken with – and this, together with making copious teas and coffees following the long-awaited and much heralded arrival last Monday of the plumber and the tiler to start work on the refurbishment of our nearly 30 year-old en-suite has rather cramped our style. We originally sounded them out about this work back last April, thinking that despite the application of Dorset Time, we’d probably get it done in September. Here we are now at the end of November! Let’s hope it’s completed before Christmas …..

As for the footie, I was slightly spoilt for choice yesterday at Cup action again brought an interesting selection of visitors into the area. Fine by the Ostrich, as although currently holding a beakful of Rail Travel Vouchers, there weren’t any trains to use them on thanks to the never-ending strikes, so a local car trip was ideal. The FA have many varied competitions – the FA Cup, the FA Shield, the FA Vase, the FA Trophy and so on (in fact almost anything you can get away with mounting on a plinth ) and today was a round in the intermediate FA Trophy competition. The choice was eventually boiled down to two - Chipp’num Town v Wingate & Finchley or Poole Town v Dorking Wanderers - and I was leaning towards the former until research showed something I hadn’t previously realised - that travelling up to London at some point and seeing Wingate & Finchley on their home ground was quite feasible, as their stadium is about a mile walk from West Finchley tube station. So Wingate & Finchley were duly filed under “Possible 2019 Projects” and Ossie headed south for a second visit of the season to the Black Gold Stadium, Tatnam, Poole, where he hung around the cheese stall until they started selling their bespoke products for club funds ….

Famous citizens of Dorking (I had to look up where it was – it’s in Surrey, sort of in the North Downs) include Sir Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The town is reputed to have hosted football since the 1830’s when there used to be an annual challenge match between the inhabitants of the East end of town and the West end, played in the street - no doubt the scene of much drinking and rioting ! The original Dorking football team, with a fine old stadium in the town centre, went out of existence in 2013 (the ground was condemned under ‘Elf and Safety), but out in the sticks, a young upstart community club, Dorking Wanderers, founded in 1999, was very much on the rise. Starting in the West Sussex League Division 4, they achieved 10 promotions in 17 years and now find themselves at the heady heights of Level 3 in the non-league football pyramid. They have also taken over the old Dorking FC town centre ground after a reputedly £6m refurbishment.

Dorking Wanderers’ club crest is a chicken! The Dorking is apparently one of the oldest recognised breeds of English poultry, characterised by having 5 toes and a large vivid red comb.

It was a decent game under miserable conditions – bitterly cold and drizzly rain throughout; a complete contrast to my last visit here which saw blue skies and warm sunshine. In an entertaining first half, the home side took the lead twice but were pegged back twice. Poole might have had a two goal cushion at the interval but for some bad luck up front and slightly sloppy defending at the rear that cost them the equalisers; they looked, on balance, the better side in the first half. But Dorking’s Slovakian goalkeeper, Slavomir Huk, was in ominously fine form.

After the break, it started to feel like the next goal would be the clincher, and so it proved with an incisive close-range turn and strike by Dorking captain Sami El-Abd on 57m. Poole’s second half substitutions weren’t exactly inspiring and the game rather petered out with Dorking resolutely defending their lead and Poole losing their earlier momentum. A fair victory for the Isthmian league side on a day when I was glad to get out of the cold and back into the car for the drive home.

FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round: Poole Town 2 Dorking Wanderers 3
Admission: £8 (concession), and decent programme: £2
Refreshments: £4.20 bacon bap and tea. £3 for a small wheel of “Tatnam Treble” cheese. It’s basically a bog-standard Wyke Farms cheddar, but they send it to a firm in Wincanton who personalise it by applying a waxed logo of a football on the top of it!
Attendance: 285

[Ally]

A shorter report indeed but every bit as entertaining as usual.

Love the sound of the cheese.