Mad Birds and Cornishmen

[Ally]

I'm always using 50€ notes. I like spending money.

Double pasty Ossie. What a treat.

Great read, thanks.

[Kaz]

I like my debit card, helps me turn a blind eye to how much I'm spending....

Crommers, a lady in front of me in the shoe shop the other day was paying for a pair of ankle boots with a fifty. The woman on the till yelled across the shop, "Marian, I'm taking a £50 note!" Can't be that unusual in a shoe shop, surely, as cheap they ain't!

[Ally]

Oh my debit card gets big licks as well.

That's not real money, is it?!

[Kaz]

Nope

[Ally]

Just as I thought.

[TheOstrich]

Just to add to the "cash v card" debate, Corsham Town FC, I've seen it reliably reported elsewhere this weekend, have now gone to "card only" payments at their ground. This is Step 5 with crowds of around 100.

I went up there at the end of August and managed to pay cash to get in (new girl, I suspect, running the pay-station took my admission money with no trouble, and I then blagged my way to paying cash at the hatch for a burger by tendering the correct change). I think in hindsight I got lucky that day.

I hope this isn't going to be a trend. I don't like using a card at a venue I don't really know and I'm visiting as a one-off. OK, it's not quite as heinous a crime as on-line only programmes , or having to register and obtain a QR code to get into a game due to "safeguarding issues" (AFC Stoneham, I'm looking at you ) , but I hope it's not going to be the shape of things to come. Not in my lifetime, anyway. If it does become more widespread, I might have to look at one of these pre-loaded cash cards that WM's mentioned once or twice on these boards, simply for security. In the meantime, a proposed second visit to Corsham later on this season has now been expunged from the Master Spreadsheet ......

[Kaz]

The pre-loaded cards have their uses, Ossie I have given them as gifts before now.

[TheOstrich]

So the clocks have changed, it’s now much darker and the lights are coming on earlier - and the Ostrich has to consider whether, in his dotage, he’s up to attending mid-week evening matches . I’m less keen these days to drive after dark - it’s the LED headlights from both oncoming and tailgating vehicles (I usually lower the rear-view mirror to deal with the latter) and the central and verge road markings on even the main A roads in this neck of the woods leave a lot to be desired, let alone the rutted cart-tracks that pass for B roads in Dorset . So at the start of this week, I was contemplating a short trip “up the hill” to Shaftesbury for the soccer on Tuesday, and/or a longer, 30-mile round trip to Sherborne on Friday for a rugby match.
After much thought, I’ve taken the decision that midweek games ought to be limited to (say) around 10 miles out and back, so Shaftesbury was on, and Sherborne ditched. A far cry from those heady days back in the 1970’s when I once drove from Birmingham to Ellesmere Port and back for a speedway match!

So to Tuesday evening, and if this fixture hadn’t been played on an artificial surface, it probably wouldn’t have gone the distance - teeming rain half an hour before the game and again just after half-time would have put paid to it. As it was, the game was played at 100 mph, occasionally increasing to 120 mph as the ball skidded across the immaculate surface.

The other noticeable feature was the amount of light and heat generated on the pitch by two of the most vociferous teams I’ve encountered this season, with the noise reaching shrieking level every time a challenge went in from behind or over the top - and there was no shortage of those. The referee somehow got through it, with only three bookings; he must have been wearing earplugs . The last booking could easily have been a straight red last-man foul, and it was probably lucky for the Moneyfields defender that it was committed just outside the penalty area. Seriously, if you’d connected this lot up to the National Grid tonight, you’d have solved the Energy Crisis.

Moneyfields (they’re from Portsmouth) took the lead on 34m when Laycock forced home a cross into the box from a free kick. Shaftesbury equalised on 45m with Chipangura finding an opportunity and drilling the ball low past the keeper. The Rockies made it 2-1 on 57m when Luke Delaney unleashed a speculative 30-yarder from a wide position, and Kramer in the Moneyfields goal seemed to be unsighted and reacted too late as the ball flashed past into the corner of the net. On 78m, Moneyfields’ Bailey, who’d just come on as a second-half substitute, then fatally hesitated when presented with a glorious opportunity to equalise and the moment was lost. The visitors then seemed to run out of steam and Shaftesbury were able to comfortably pin them back into their half in the final stages.

One of the most riveting games I’ve seen this season!

Tues 08/11/22: Wessex Premier League
Shaftesbury 2 Moneyfields 1
Admission: £4 (concession) Programme: £1
Refreshments: Steak pie and cuppa tea at halftime £3. The chippie opposite the ground was closed!
Sartorial elegance: OK, I’ll confess to buying a red, black and white Shaftesbury FC bobble-hat for £10. It was either that or get drenched dashing from the clubhouse to the pitch …..
Attendance: 56

Now what is it with supermarket clubcards. They drive me potty . Waitrose is the biggest store in town so yes, we have a MyWaitrose card. Over the years, benefits such a free paper if you spent £10 or more on your shopping, or a free cup of coffee in the café have vanished, and now it’s all personalised vouchers and apps. I can’t be doin’ with they app thingies, but luckily there’s a “print at home” option when you choose 2 from the 8 “personalised” items they allow you to pick every week. So, armed with vouchers 50p off Alpro Almond Milk for Mrs O and 50p off a pack of 9 mini Hot Cross Buns for Ossie, we set sail for the store.

Now they also occasionally send vouchers through the post. The latest we received were 8 coupons for £6 off if you spent £60 instore, valid for November. Well that’s all very fine and dandy, but since switching to Aldi for our basic needs, we rarely spend more than £20 when visiting Waitrose these days - so the coupons were shredded as useless.

Back to the store - outside, they were selling off last season’s Tomorite tomato fertiliser cheap, £3 a bag, so Ossie snaffled a bag for next year. Mrs O wanted a pre-Christmas browse, and headed for the “Fancy Bikkits” section where she spent some time deliberating over a choice of Ameretti biscuits.
“Have one of each,” said the Ostrich.
No Hot Cross Buns on the shelf, typical, so that’s one voucher wasted.
Then there was Heston Bloomineck’s Pear and Fig Parcels, cheapest of his range at £3.50.
“We need some mince beef, I’m going to do a great big Cottage Pie mix next week”.
“We ought to have got that at Aldi last week.” “Well, you forgot!”
Viakal Spray’s on special offer. “You might as well get a couple while you're at it,” says Ossie.
Christmas wrapping paper and tags on a 3-2 offer. And so on.
Not forgetting a couple of tins of vegetables for the Food Bank - and it is helpful when they actually say what they’re desperately short of rather than leaving it to your imagination.

To the checkout - and you’ve guessed it.
“HOW much?” said Ossie.
£60.40 ……..
You couldn’t make it up!

Road closures and diversions on the A303 all this weekend, with the main focus being the removal of a temporary bridge on the Sparkford to Podimore road-widening scheme, so I opted to go north rather than east or west and visit a new ground, only my third such this season. A straightforward drive, therefore, from North Dorset via Frome and Radstock to Peasedown St. John, about 4 miles south of Bath and firmly in the old Somerset coal-mining district.

The Miners’ Rec is a very attractive ground perched high up at the southern end of the village with countryside views over the Cam valley north-west towards Timsbury and Tunley; very picturesque on a cloudless Autumnal day like today. Because the ground is so open, however, there’s a problem with low sunlight shining straight down the pitch, blinding goalkeeper and spectators alike. The pitch also seemed very large to me, probably a misconception due to its unenclosed surroundings.

The entrance to the grassed carpark on the corner of the old Bath Road and Church Road is rather tight, but once you’re inside the Rec, there’s ample parking available. Two newish portacabins provide for a toilet and the tea hut; next to them is what is probably an equipment store and the squat changing rooms block, the latter appearing freshly painted cream and gleaming in the afternoon sun. These are all behind the near goal, whilst down one side of the pitch is a substantial breeze block covered standing area with a tin roof, and two small dugouts. The pitch is railed on all four sides, a substantial construct involving wooden posts, metal railings and wire mesh designed to prohibit wayward canines from entering the playing area.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.31414 ... 312!8i6656

A very pleasant venue to spend a warm Saturday afternoon , and lazing in the sun was a welcome distraction, I’m sorry to say, from the soccer - which was dire!

If Peasedown had a game plan, it wasn’t obvious and what emerged in the first half could best be described as “enthusiastic pinball” . Imperial (a team from Bristol) took the lead on 14m when a ball into the area hit a defender, wrong-footing the home keeper; the away team’s no.10 opportunistically picked up the loose ball and managed to score despite the keeper getting a hand to his effort.

The remainder of the game saw Peasedown trying to salvage something and failing - decent scoring chances were at a premium and the Imperial keeper was able to comfortably deal with anything that got past his defence. Somehow the referee conjured up 7 minutes of added time, and it was only then that Peasedown had three viable chances; a downward header that bounced up and hit the crossbar, a shot that struck the outside of a goalpost, and finally an on-target header that the Imperial keeper tipped over the bar.

Some you win, some you lose, but my Match Notes for this one are being archived under R for “Rubbish”!

Saturday 12/11/22: Uhlsport Somerset County League Division 2 (Step 9)
Peasedown Miners Welfare 0 Imperial 1
No admission charge or programme but they dinged me £1 for the Raffle.
Refreshments: tea-hut open at half-time but a long queue of Old Boys gossiping so I didn’t bother . Pre-match, I visited Ken’s Fish Bar on the village’s main drag for a small cod ‘n chips £8, which were so-so. Batter tasted funny …
Attendance: 49

[Ally]

The Waitrose saga had me in stitches Ossie.

A very enjoyable Monday morning read.

[Kaz]

Oh Ossie! We use Sainsbury's for the Nectar card, now the app, but what doesn't make sense is that they put some offers, the Christmas extra points for example, on the Nectar app, but you still get those extra paper vouchers from the till with the bill. That means you can be messing around with both at the till. Why don't they all go onto the card or app, otherwise what's the point of it?

Another great read