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

[Kaz]

Ossie, have you ever been to Surbiton station? The Art Deco frontage has been used in a couple of Poirots

Ally, now then, you've never used that phrase during our DOI convos

[Kaz]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surbito ... ay_station

[TheOstrich]

Thanks for the link, Kaz. Amazing piece of architecture, that.

[Kaz]

[cromwell]

Corinthian Casuals. Conjures up visions of mutton chop whiskers, baggy shorts and heavy as lead leather footballs!
Pity they lost but full marks for the chips!

[TheOstrich]

02/03 – After last week’s excursion to The Big City, time today for a more relaxed Saturday afternoon’s entertainment, not too far from the Nest. As they were playing at Yeovil, I took the opportunity to watch Thatcham RFC, a rugby club that’s been tentatively on my bucket-shop list for this season.

In the South West Rugby pyramid, where two lower leagues feed into a single higher league, it’s usually three up and three down. The three promoted teams are the top two teams from the two lower divisions, plus the winners of an end-of-season play-off between the two runners-up. Now if, say, a Southern Counties team beats their Northern Counties counterparts in the play-offs for a couple of years or so in succession, you can get to the point where there’s a geographical imbalance; more Northern teams playing at that level than Southern teams, so the rugby authorities have to find a “patsy” amongst the Northern teams and reallocate them sideways into the Southern league . That situation arose at the start of this season, and Thatcham, a middle-ranking Northern Counties side, previously happily meandering up the Thames Valley to play local rivals like Reading, High Wycombe and Windsor, suddenly found themselves having to travel to far distant outposts like Sherborne, Yeovil and Dorchester! So I wanted to go watch them locally this year as the chances are, possibly at the end of this season, they’ll be transferred back north again …..

If Thatcham were at all perturbed about being flung into a different league, it’s not immediately apparent, and in any event, they have other matters of a more serious nature to address. Browsing their Facebook page, in a forlorn attempt to find today’s kick off time (the Yeovil RFC social media firmly failing to deliver up that information ), I found the following post, which I quote in full:

“Message from Clubhouse Steward - Whoever is stealing the biscuits from the Clubhouse kitchen please STOP.
The Club buys these biscuits and are available, no charge, along with squash for the Minis in the Clubhouse for when they finish their Sunday training. Unfortunately this week they will go without as they have been stolen. I noticed as I offer the DidiRugby Coaches a biscuit with their tea, so they're missing out as well.
Please remember we have CCTV so I can find out who it is. This has happened on more than one occasion, it's not just one or two biscuits it's the whole box.
Looks as though I need to lock the kitchen and restrict access to it.
Will”

I glanced at the Ostrich. The bird was looking shifty. But then his guilty conscience (especially where biscuits are concerned) has always been as big as his ego …..

So, a gentle trundle the 30-odd miles or so down the A303 into Somerset. There is a long stretch of 50 mph roadworks by Wincanton where they are supposed to be renewing the central reservation barriers. Although there is a portaloo, a rubbish skip and what appears to be a tea hut , in over three months, I’ve never seen anyone actually working on this project. The whole affair appears to be proceeding with glacial slowness, at the rate of one length of barrier every two and a half weeks or so. Having navigated that, I then turned off the A303 down the Cartgate link road on the west side of town to avoid Yeovil’s notoriously congested centre, the rugby ground being out by the County Showground along the Dorchester road. Mind you, the “improvements” to the Cartgate link, which have also been ongoing for months, appear extremely complex and took a bit of navigating around; strange traffic light junctions seem have replaced roundabouts. I knew where I wanted to go, (a road called Bunford Hollow), but getting there proved very difficult (although a lot easier after doing a three point turn in a trading estate ).

I’ve been to Yeovil RFC’s ground once before - last season for a Friday night game. I find it a rather soulless place, to be honest; the clubhouse is huge, echoey and rather devoid of furniture. A chap at the bar grimaced as I walked in – not at my arrival, I hasten to add, but because the pint of lager he’d just been served was apparently horribly flat. As I’d arrived early, thinking that the kick off time might be 2:00 (in fact it was 2:30), I had plenty of time to kill, so retired back to the car to continue reading the crime novel I’m currently engrossed in (“Blowback” by Scottish author Peter May – recommended if that’s your genre ). The dark clouds that had been piling up on the western horizon were now spilling over the ground as the first gusts of this upcoming Storm Freya were beginning to make their presence felt, and heavy rain showers were evident over the valleys to the south – thankfully we stayed dry throughout the game.

So, third in the table Yeovil (club crest: two red dragons apparently squabbling over an acorn ) vs third from bottom Thatcham; two young, fast-paced sides who set out to play a running game. Occasionally, they took the ball with them ; there were an awful lot of mishandled passes and play sometimes resembled basketball …..

Nevertheless, an entertaining, end-to-end affair, with Yeovil taking the lead on 18m, Christian Lewendon put through the away defence by a lovely delayed pass, and doubling their tally 7 minutes later when Oliver Bailey broke two tackles and rumbled over the try line. Docherty converted both tries. Thatcham got a belated reward for effort just before the interval, touching down amidst a confused passage of play in front of the goal-posts.

A penalty gave Yeovil a 17-5 lead shortly after the interval, but Thatcham kept pressing forward and a 55th minute try by Sam Smith brought them back within touching distance. Yeovil’s response, however, was immediate and uncompromising – three tries in the next 6 minutes to take them out of sight. Thatcham never gave up, but couldn’t breach the home defences; Yeovil wrapped up the scoring with a final converted try at the death.

Wadworths Southern Counties South (Level 7): Yeovil RFC 41 Thatcham RFC 10
Admission: free, no programme
Refreshments: an egg mayo and bacon sandwich, wrapped in enough cellophane to mummify an elephant: £2. It was rather nice, so I bought another one and took it home for supper! Just finished it .....
Attendance: 65

[Ally]

Cellophane.

I take sandwiches to work on my #bonkers days if I'm not going out for lunch. Sandwiches that I wrap in silver foil. Sandwiches that hubadub insists should be wrapped in that slimy, sweaty plasticy stuff that I call clingfilm.

Tis a bone of contention.....

Fab read Ossie. xx

[Kaz]

#biscuitgate

[cromwell]

Great read Os. Biscuitgate!

[miasmum]

Ossie you really should write a book

If my Ipswich boys sink much lower you'll be eating your cellophane wrapped sarnies watching them, obviously not playing rugby although scoreline could look similar, cos they are a bit shite really too.