Mad Birds and Cornishmen

[cromwell]

You did well with the tomatoes Os.
We were given two bags of apples which we used to make crumbles with; I have honestly never seen such big apples, they were nearly the size of turnips! It seems to have been a very good year for apples.
That sounds like a good game too, nothing like a winger going round the outside of the defence, or a length of the pitch interception try!
Great read, as ever.

[TheOstrich]

Echo your comments on the apples, Crommers; we bought a bag of 6 Bramley apples from a farm outlet this afternoon for just £1 and they're absolute corkers. In a supermarket, they'd be 80p to £1 each these days.

[Kaz]

They would be, Ossie, and the ones in Sainsburys last week were tiny! Hardly any bigger than eaters

[TheOstrich]

They say things always go wrong in threes, but with us, it seems more like seventy-threes. The latest appliance to go pop is the Belling fan oven - this is especially annoying as it’s only three and a half years old. Why is that when you take out “extended warranties”, things work perfectly, and when you don’t (because warranties are expensive and things always seem to work perfectly), they don’t! Anyway, the man from the electrical store will come on Tuesday to look at it. I suspect a £200+ bill may be in the offing .....

I think what it is is that the bottom heating element has gone in the main oven bit - when we were at the end of cooking Sunday lunch a week ago, something triggered the fuse box to suddenly cut the circuit, so I’m surmising it was a fuse blowing in the cooker as nothing else seems to have been affected. The fan still rotates, but the oven simply won’t get up to temperature. Tepid mushy peas! Still, the top oven still works, so we're using that for now.

Anyway - a bonus Friday night local rugby game fot the Ostrich this week.

No discernible changes up at North Dorset’s Slaughtergate campus since last season, although they have installed a contactless Lavazza (?) coffee machine in the clubhouse; a rather lowering, squat black affair, the instructions for which are far too complicated for my feeble brain. I’ll stick to ordering from the hatch!

The “Dorset & Wilts Matrix” is a competition for clubs’ teams that were not placed in the Rugby Football Union pyramid under their Grand Reorganisation during the close season. This competition has existed previously - back in 2019/20 it comprised two regional Groups of four teams playing before the Christmas break with a separate “Super Group” playing in the New Year. For 2022/23, it’s a season-long league with 9 clubs taking part, but already some games have been cancelled because one side or another has not been able to field a team . North Dorset have resurrected their 3rds this season, the infamous “Buffaloes”, and in the Matrix they be. Basically, it’s social rugby with a slightly competitive edge.

We got underway at 19:38 for a 19:30 advertised start which here in Dorset is quite an achievement! Weymouth & Portland started the game with two penalty attempts in the first 4 minutes and converted the easier second one from around 20 yards out. After that it was downhill all the way ! The Buffaloes took the lead on 8m with a lengthy mazy run by their very young, very speedy no.13, and this set the scene for the remainder of the game. North Dorset’s Facebook page had listed a squad of 23 players for tonight’s game and I suspect more than a few of them were last year’s Colts moving up - they have had a thriving junior section within the club for a number of years, and it looks like some really talented youngsters are now coming through to the Adult Men’s teams.

24-3 at the interval, the Buffaloes hit a purple patch on 60m with three tries in 5 minutes, one of which was a straight return from the kick-off. It’s not that Weymouth were bad, it’s just they were simply unable to get a sniff of the ball at times; North Dorset’s handling and their ability to find the gaps were superb. Eight home tries were scored in the second half and at least two more stopped on the line. 77-3 was a pretty accurate reflection of North Dorset’s domination of a game in which some very entertaining rugby was on display.

Friday 07/10/22: Dorset & Wilts Matrix - Group 1 (there is no Group 2! )
North Dorset III RFC 77 Weymouth & Portland II RFC 3
Free admission
Refreshments: Bacon and beefburger bap £3.50, ½ pint of Coke £2.25 (but served in a NDRFC logoed plastic cup which now resides in my display cabinet ). The catering here, sometimes a bit iffy in the past, has definitely improved. You can build your own burgers and the rabbit food has seemingly been consigned to the bin!
Attendance: a good turnout of 101

“Why are you wearing that silly white wig, Ossie?”
“’Cos we’re off to the surgery and I have a strong legal case that it’s positively unsafe to have both jabs in the same arm!”

Yes, the Ostrich has been scouring the internet and marshalling his arguments that the flu and the Covid jab should be in different arms. Quite a good article in “The Atlantic” magazine about this. Basically, the jury’s not yet back in on the subject, but the pointers are that it is best practice is to separate the jabs.

The surgery held their first immunisation clinic the previous Saturday, and by all accounts it was chaos . They’d invited 700 folk on the day - people were having to stand in a queue outside the entrance which in turn affected the car park; that then meant all the local estate roads were clogged up, and there were reports of a half-mile tailback on the main road. We suspect that the surgery then started giving people both jabs in the same arm to speed things up, judging by some of the comments we subsequently heard, but that is just conjecture.

Anyway, thankfully this Saturday’s clinic went far better. They had done a deal with the Neal’s Yard premises next door, and the latter allowed folk to use their carpark. They’d also appealed for people to walk up to the surgery if they could. We fell into that category, and had a pleasant 25 minute stroll up the riverside path and across to the surgery, where we sat on a bench outside the pharmacy until our appointed “time”. There were no queues and we were straight in and out within 5 minutes. And jabs in separate arms - “Right is for PfizeR” - so no need for the bird to start pontificating on ‘Uman Rights. Or should that be Avian Rights.

“Careful, Ossie. Don’t stick your head in the sand or they’ll be tempted to jab you in both buttocks!”

Then a quick turn-around for a short trip across the Somerset border.

No noticeable changes at the Castle Cary Cricket Club ground, also home for the local football club, since my last visit back in March. The free public car park in Catherines Close was full today, so I parked up on the Rec itself, following everyone else’s lead on the grass just below the clubhouse building. The Rec’s parking facilities are adequate, but you need to watch how you drive in and out of the narrow entrance; visibility is poor, the track bumpy, there’s a sharp curve, and I nearly winged a bollard. I then walked down into the town using the cut-through just beyond the public car park; you come out on Market Place by the Museum and close to the famous Bailey Hill Bookshop (£40 quickly spent! ) and visited the Coop for food.

Castle Cary were promoted at the end of last season and are currently hovering around the bottom of the Somerset County League Division 1, with their visitors Uphill Castle, from Weston-Super-Mare mid-table. Cary’s pitch (simply roped on all four sides, and on the far side of the cricket oval from the clubhouse) is flat between the halfway line and the Town end, but there’s a noticeable slope down from the halfway line to the other goal . In fact, any ball leaving the field of play by the lower left-hand corner flag is in great danger of rolling right down the steep public pathway into Ansford ! The only pitchside furniture is a sturdy concrete dugout; most punters watch the game from the afore-mentioned path which runs behind it. A drawback is that there’s nowhere convenient to park weary bones if you’re reaching my age; I am going to have to start bringing along my own seat!

As for the game, it was one of those matches that get entered into the Master Spreadsheet and then promptly forgotten. All a bit incoherent at times with both sides happily cancelled each other out. Yes, a fair bit of goalmouth activity at both ends, but little to set the pulse racing. The short long story is that Uphill took the lead on 41m when their no.11 stooped to firmly head a cross just inside the goalpost; the home keeper stood no chance, and the equaliser came on 87m from Cary’s no.8 with an almost identical header from a corner.

The final score of 1-1 was a fair result, and was coincidentally the same as my visit last March. That game (versus Ashton & Backwell United Reserves in a top-of-the-table clash) was also a dour affair, but somewhat more memorable as it descended into multiple handbags with a sending off just before the end . I ended my report last March saying “Let’s just say not the best of games today …..” and I think that adequately sums up today’s epic as well!

Saturday 08/10/22: Uhlsport Somerset County League Division 1
Castle Cary 1 Uphill Castle 1
Free admission
Refreshments: didn’t investigate the clubhouse this visit. Cheese and red onion sarnie from the Coop (£2) and a large Aero bar (£1)
Attendance: 30

[Kaz]

Ossie, I look forward to these reports - a good giggle for a Sunday afternoon I'm very glad you were able to get the jabs in separate arms

That coke was a bit steep!

[Ally]

Dorset time sounds very much like Spanish time.

Great report as per Ossie but I really shouldn't read them when I'm hungry.
I now want a burger!

[cromwell]

Blimey, 77-3. It would be a long journey home after a walloping like that.
MrsC was talking to a man who has had his fourth jab (Moderna) today. Apparently he had a bad reaction to it, I'm glad you seem to have avoided this.
Yes, a forgettable 1-1 draw?
Mind you I'd have settled for 1-1 for Leeds at Palace today!
We need a reliable, fit striker. It might be a long nervous season otherwise.
Great read, as ever.

[TheOstrich]

Firstly, a quick note for Kaz - this was Mick’s old team, wasn’t it? He needs to come out of retirement …..
https://www.oldpats.co.uk/first-team-vo ... elegation/

Well, the cooker got repaired last week - eventually! As I mentioned before, we don’t have much luck with our household equipment – the main fan oven (Belling) started playing up a couple of weeks ago; initially, it tripped the fusebox in the garage whilst we were coming to the end of cooking lunch, but it wasn’t immediately clear which appliance on the socket circuit had caused the problem. However, during the week, it emerged that the ring heating element surrounding the fan had failed. Annoying, as the wretched thing is only 3 ½ years old. The repair guy from the local Euronics store came on Tuesday and agreed with the diagnosis, but at the time, he didn’t have a suitably sized replacement in his van, so that had to be ordered. He said it’s just one of those things , could happen at any time and to any cooker, even the best – watery grease fumes get sucked into the fan and that corrodes things. Luckily the new part came through quickly and he was back on Thursday to fit the replacement. At the end of the day, the callout, labour and parts came to £169, which was cheaper than I thought it was going to be - we shall call into the shop tomorrow to pay the bill. Yet another expense …..

As for Saturday’s entertainment, I got lucky with my choice and saw a real humdinger of a game, riveting from start to finish . Frome Rugby Club was the venue, last visited back in April 2022 when I saw the home team score a somewhat controversial win over Newbury RFC, whom I still believe were short-changed by the referee blowing up for full-time early . The only changes on the Gipsy Lane campus I could see was that they’d removed of the video scaffolding tower alongside the first team pitch. Judging by Frome’s performances, most would probably have been X-rated!

Today’s first team game was against Winscombe who hail from not far away, near Cheddar, but they said it was the first time the two teams had actually met in a league fixture for nearly 15 years.

Frome would have been in line for relegation from Step 6 at the end of the 2021/22 season but under the RFU’s Grand Reorganisation, they managed to keep their status. Going into this game, they were 10th in the 11 team league (Old Patesians RFC, a team based in Gloucester, having taken late voluntary demotion to Step 9 due to a lack of experienced players in their squad, and understandable safety concerns for their young players). Winscombe were 9th in the table, so an early relegation battle!

Both teams came out of the traps at a fast pace and within 2 minutes, Frome had crashed over in the corner for an opening try. Winscombe’s Kieron Hill followed up an excellent chip into centre field to touch down under the posts on 14m but Frome quickly regained the advantage when Dominic Jones chased a grub kick forward and it stood up for him to take at full speed and score. He converted to make it 14-7. Both sides were playing open, expansive rugby at a fast pace, real end to end stuff, and having exchanged long range penalties, Sam Dearsley notched a further kick on 31m to pull the score back to 17-13. Just before the interval, the visitors Adam Scrase was yellow-carded for stamping and from the resulting advantage, Frome scored a push-over try in the corner. 22-13 at the break.

Exhilarating stuff, but after the interval, a complete (and rather baffling) change in tactics by Frome . Winscombe opened the half with Tom Bloom struggling through a packed defence for a try in the corner, so with the score a precarious 22-18, Frome then opted for retaining possession with a short carrying game, pounding away (for some reason) exclusively down the right flank. Twenty minutes of this brought them no success whatsoever as Winscombe stalwartly manned their defences, and the phase culminated in Simon Westlake attempting a dropped goal and failing miserably.

Then the game turned on its head. Winscombe took the initiative, started throwing the ball about, and mounted wave after wave of attacks on the Frome line that the home team desperately kept out.

Something had to give and on 72m, a rather controversial try saw Winscombe take the lead. As I saw it, Winscombe knocked on, Frome recovered the ball. The referee allowed Frome the advantage, only for them to eventually lose possession and Harry Brean went in for a try for the visitors. The crowd were expecting the referee (who was being assessed by a senior official) to call the play back, but the try was given . 22-23, and to add insult to injury, Dearsley then launched a long range penalty which curved beautifully inside the posts to make it 22-26, leaving Frome 3 minutes per the electronic scoreboard plus a lengthy add-on for stoppages to salvage something from the game.

Winscombe’s Jack Buchanan was sin-binned and Frome’s forwards put in one last mighty effort. They got over the try-line but couldn’t touch down. Back they came from the resulting 5-yard scrum, got across the try-line again, and this time Sam Barlett scored the all-important try (in the 11th minute of stoppage time! ) which Jones converted with virtually the last kick of the match. Needless to say, huge celebrations from the home fans!

A climactic conclusion, and this has to be an early contender for Rugby Game of the Season!

15/10/22 – Regional League 2 South Severn (Level 6)
Frome RFC 29 Winscombe RFC 26
Admission: free
Teams: were published on each club’s FB page before the start.
Refreshments: Well now! This was scene, last April, of the notorious “chilligate” when the chef in the kitchen tested the heat of the chilli pot on the stove with his finger! In the interests of true reporting, I had to visit the kitchen again at half time, and opted simply for 2 x small sausages for which he charged me £1. It was the same guy. He picked up the sausages with his fingers and deposited them in a tray for me ……
Attendance: 139. An increase of 4 compared to my last visit!

[Ally]

Maybe the extra 4 bods were from 'elf and safety.

I laughed out loud at sausagegate.

Fabulous read Ossie.

[Kaz]

No Ossie, Mick played for Old Richians, the club for old boys of Sir Thomas Rich's school here in Gloucester. Old Pats is out Leckhampton way - Mick has played there though

Sausagegate