Another Load of Cobblers ....

[TheOstrich]

What the dickens is a pea fritter?

Mushy peas lightly fried in batter. Delicious! The trick is to chill the peas first and then slap them into a burger shape before frying, apparently.

Pea fritter? Now that's a thing I've never had.

I would have thought that most fish 'n chips shop do them, along with the battered sausages and saveloys ....
Or do they only do you fried Mars Bars as a side order up in Wakey?

[Ally]

Hope your feathers are dried out now Ossie.

I'm glad I hadn't eaten before reading about that pea fritter.

Great read.

[cromwell]

Pea fritter? Now that's a thing I've never had.

I would have thought that most fish 'n chips shop do them, along with the battered sausages and saveloys ....
Or do they only do you fried Mars Bars as a side order up in Wakey?

Not at all!
On the menu gastronomique at Crofton fisheries we have kebabs and chicken wraps, I'll have you know!

[Workingman]

Now then....

Loved the report, Ossie, as usual. I also saw a 'criket score' game yesterday, but it was a rugby match: England 43-12 New Zealand, women's rugby. It was as good a game as you will ever see.

But back to your post.

Mushy peas are a big thing up here with fish 'n chips, but I have never heard of 'fitters', they must be one of Mr Lee's emporium's USP's (Unique Selling Products). I might try a home made version, sometime, or maybe not.

[TheOstrich]

they must be one of Mr Lee's emporium's USP's (Unique Selling Products).

Definitely unique. There was only one in the hot cabinet so I bagged it fast!

If you want a recipe, forget the BBC Good Food Guide. Head for Money Savings Expert .....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/di ... a-fritters

Didn't realise Martin Lewis was a Chef de Partie

[Kaz]

I quite like the sound of those fritters, but then I love mushy peas

[TheOstrich]

Car troubles this week – the amber engine warning light lit up – so by necessity, travel has been reduced to the barest minimum. Thankfully, we had already made the 20 mile round trip to Sturminster Newton for our Covid booster jobs, so we were spared a panic over that. Sage advice from the local garage was that, pending a diagnostic review (set for next Thursday), we could carry on driving as long as there was no noticeable problem with engine power, but we should stay local and keep speeds down. And like all good motor car squeaks, bangs and warning lights, as soon as I’d made the appointment – the light went out ! So I’ll run the vehicle a bit early next week, and see if it comes back on again.

One run out we might make is to a newly opened farm shop in Marnhull. I think it’s only been going a couple of months, but we want to check it out because, unexpectedly, our local independent butcher, on the town’s High Street, shut up shop permanently at the end of October (yet another nail in the town centre’s coffin ). I say unexpectedly, but they’d already gone down to opening just three days a week, and I do suspect that all was not well with “employee/er relations”; our outlet has closed but the parent shop up in Shaftesbury remains open. The butchers at our place have always been a bit dour, but they’ve gone noticeably North Yorkshire in recent months ! Trouble is, they did sell high quality local meat and we used the shop regularly for chicken breasts, boneless pork and lamb steaks. Not cheap, mind, and we had actually cut out lamb this year as the price became prohibitive, but you couldn’t fault the product at all.

We don’t particularly want to go back to generic supermarket meat unless there’s no alternative, although that said, we turned a 400gm pack of Aldi diced beef into a goulash today which will do us for two meals, and it was certainly tender and flavoursome . So the occasional foray to some far-flung outpost where we can source local products, coupled with supermarket stuff, may be the answer. We shall see what we see.
https://shepherdsfarmshop.com/home

So, to the footie, and the car problems really left me with a choice between walking across town to watch Gillingham Town vs Devizes Town in the Western League, or a short, one-and-a-half mile drive to the local rugby club. Surely the Ostrich could walk such a short distance, I hear you say. Well yes, but at least half of it would be along the main Wincanton road, which has no pavements, and the final stretch is up a twisty country road barely wide enough for a car anyway. The locals drive both at the highest possible speed they can get away with , so you would be literally taking your life in your hands to walk them. The Ostrich would probably be found upside down in a hedge somewhere!

So which game to choose? The soccer finished, not unexpectedly, 9-2 ….. Devizes Town are pants this season! The bird, of course, chose the rugby match …….

So what was the Ostrich’s reasoning? Well, I chose this fixture as Warminster 2nds (aka the Pirates) prior results this season have been …..

1. Bath Saracens 60-0 Pirates
2. Bradford-on-Avon (Home walk over) Pirates
3. Combe Down II (Home walk over) Pirates
4. Pirates 0-61 Melksham II

…. which put them firmly as the bottom of the table with -10 league points! North Dorset 2nds (aka the Badgers) were second in the table, and as I think I mentioned up-thread somewhere, are arguably better than the first team.

Ossie does have a liking for the macabre at times , so this fixture was an interesting attraction – and boy, I was not disappointed . The only potential problem was that Warminster might not have been able to raise a team on the day, but they did, so game on with a 14:30 kick-off, on the lower pitch farthest away from the clubhouse.

Well, what can you say? 119-0. Yup, the Pirates were sunk without trace!

This result broke all my records, it was the first time I’d seen a team score into three figures, and it well exceeded my previous highest aggregate score of 97 (Sutton Coldfield’s 86-11 demolition of Banbury back in 2011). Looking at my notes, I see I actually finished up recording it as 125-0, but I have to go with the RFU Results Service's final score. The problem was, once the Badgers had notched their first 5 tries (within the first 16m), they started trying to forfeit the conversion attempts; the referee got rather cross and insisted they must perform the ritual, so it rather devolved down to the try-scorer making the attempt, usually a fairly hilarious dropped goal effort. The touch judges gave up retiring behind the posts so there was no confirmatory flagging as to whether the conversion was successful or not, and the referee didn’t always signal yes or no either, so that’s probably the area where my attempt at scoring went adrift. Hey-ho!

North Dorset’s fourth try was actually a penalty try – a very harsh-looking award by the referee for reasons not clear, but it was possibly a high tackle by a defender on the line. Shortly afterwards, a home player, to much ribbing from his team-mates, got confused as to where he was and touched down just behind the 10 yard line rather than the goal line , but that “non-try” was brought back by the referee for a forward pass in the build-up anyway.

67-0 (by my reckoning) at half-time, a couple of the home substitutes switched shirts and attempted to put a bit of steel into Warminster’s defence, with some positive results; indeed, one of these North Dorset lads got injured stopping a score. I was slightly surprised the team captains played the full 80 minutes; I have known a gentleman’s agreement to end games early in similar circumstances, but we went the full term.

For all the one-sidedness, it was an enjoyable game played in a very good spirit, with plenty of gallows humour from the Warminster side. Excellent craic on the side-line with a fellow spectator, who had also done the rounds of local clubs, and the touch-judge throughout the match. Late in the second half, one of the senior Warminster players came over our side of the field and took over the touch-judge’s duties.

“A well-earned rest?” I asked.
“I’m 61, I deserve it!” was the reply.

06/11/21: Tribute Dorset & Wilts 2 Central
North Dorset II RFC 119 Warminster II 0
No admission charge.
Refreshments: well, today a tasty, spicy veggie-burger with accompanying rabbit food from the clubhouse hatch for £3, far better offering than the chips previously reported on up-thread.
Sartorial elegance : from the club shop, (first time in living memory I’ve found it open) a pair of polyester NDRFC shorts from their clothing sale, price discounted to under £20 as they’ve changed supplier. They’re Canterbury ones as well, which is a top name in rugby circles. Not quite Gucci or ASOS, but up there!
Attendance: 41

[Kaz]

Noticeably North Yorkshire! That made me howl!

Another entertaining read

[cromwell]

119-0. Crikey.
Not too much fun watching a massacre, really.
I'm glad that the refreshments are better!
Pity about the butchers. Good local shops are finding it tough, I guess.
Hope the car warning light stays off!
Great read as usual Os.

[Ally]

:lol: Noticeably North Yorkshire! That made me howl!

Another entertaining read

Ditto!


Interesting about the local butcher Ossie as funnily enough during my lengthy stay in Scotland I noticed how busy the independent butchers shops were.

Same with the cake shops but that's nothing new.

My sis upped the profits of one in particular as she became slightly addicted to strawberry tarts and their mince pies.