Mad Birds and Cornishmen

[miasmum]

As i was reading it, I was thinking, this is Waitrose surely this is going to be more than £60.

Will you wear the bobble hat elsewhere or just wait for another fixture at Shaftesbury FC?

Than you as ever Ossie x

[TheOstrich]

Will you wear the bobble hat elsewhere or just wait for another fixture at Shaftesbury FC?

Not sure. At the moment it's being worn by a large teddy bear in the guest bedroom!

Kaz, I know

Thanks, Ally!

[cromwell]

Oh well, win some lose some. One good game, one bad one.
No one ever really connects Somerset with coal mining do they?
I bet the area is beautiful now; more so than back in the day with slag heaps and coal dust anyhow.

Oh dear, Waitrose disaster! Back to Aldi next week. We go regularly; there's a B and M next door and we go there too.

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.

Yes! I agree 100%.
LED headlights are a terrible idea, you are constantly being dazzled. Which genius allowed that to happen?

Great read Os!

[TheOstrich]

No one ever really connects Somerset with coal mining do they?
I bet the area is beautiful now; more so than back in the day with slag heaps and coal dust anyhow.

According to Wiki, not many mines in the Somerset coalfield survived beyond the formation on the NCB in 1947, Crommers.
Peasedown St John had only one colliery south of the village, Braysdown Colliery, which survived until 1959. I think it was here:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.30309 ... 312!8i6656

There are a number of memorials and heritage sites around the Radstock / Midsomer Norton / Cam Valley area, including the Radstock Wheel, which is a prominent road hazard slap in the middle of the town's gyratory system ....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_ ... eWheel.jpg
... and the other memorial I pass on my various travels is at the bottom of Camerton Hill, where there were two pits, and that's in the valley north of Peasedown:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.31803 ... 312!8i6656
it's been put up in the last 10 years or so according to Google Street View's timeline. There's supposed to be a "batch" or spoil mound at Camerton, but I can't locate it, I think it's been forested over.

Peasedown St. John and other nearby villages have been expanded massively in recent years; they're now effectively commuter hubs for Bath and Bristol.

Fascinating slice of English social history!

[cromwell]

Thanks for that Os. Yes, some slag heaps were forested over up here too.
The one at my home village of Sharlston though was an absolute monster. It had to be taken away and it wasn't a quick job.

ps MrsC has just told me that the Seymours (her mother's side of the family) were miners from Radstock in Somerset who came northin the late C19.
Some of the old people used to say thing like "Du bist" (you are?)

[TheOstrich]

"du bist?" - isn't that a form of German?

Not quite sure how we've managed to get as far off topic as the Eurovision Song Contest, though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KXWrVtNFiE

Some of my ancestors on my mother's side were miners in the Cannock coalfields, apparently.
My S has done a lot of genealogical research in her spare time and came up with this, but I don't think this was a branch of the family which proved to be easily traceable. I'll have to ask her sometime.

[JoM]

"du bist?" - isn't that a form of German?

Not quite sure how we've managed to get as far off topic as the Eurovision Song Contest, though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KXWrVtNFiE

Some of my ancestors on my mother's side were miners in the Cannock coalfields, apparently.
My S has done a lot of genealogical research in her spare time and came up with this, but I don't think this was a branch of the family which proved to be easily traceable. I'll have to ask her sometime.

I wonder if they knew any of my relatives?

I now live on the site of one of the Cannock mines

[Kaz]

Du bist in definitely German for you are

[Kaz]

"du bist?" - isn't that a form of German?

Not quite sure how we've managed to get as far off topic as the Eurovision Song Contest, though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KXWrVtNFiE

Some of my ancestors on my mother's side were miners in the Cannock coalfields, apparently.
My S has done a lot of genealogical research in her spare time and came up with this, but I don't think this was a branch of the family which proved to be easily traceable. I'll have to ask her sometime.

I wonder if they knew any of my relatives?

I now live on the site of one of the Cannock mines

That would be amazing!

[TheOstrich]

“So, that shall we talk about this week, then, Ossie?”
“Why not tell them about the latest fiasco Chez Nest," replied the bird.
And the Ostrich is right, because 2022 has truly been the year of Everything Going Wrong.

I think I’ve related before the saga of the built-in Belling double fan oven, where we had to get an engineer out from the local Euronics store because something went pop one Sunday lunchtime and tripped the switch in the consumer unit (in old money, “blew a fuse” ) and what eventually became clear was an element had failed in the main oven; it was eventually replaced for 146 squid including call-out etc.

Wrong element ….

The cooker hasn’t been really right since. Mrs O and I avoided having The Conversation for as long as we could, but eventually we had to admit it, so I got a local white goods repairer in for a second opinion . The bottom line was, yes, an element had gone, but of the three elements in the fan over, the Euronics man replaced the wrong one.

First the good news. He hauled the oven out onto the kitchen table, opened up the back, and thoroughly tested it. The element not working seems to be the bottom element, not the circular one round the fan. The bad news, however, is that there’s a 5 week delay for the replacement part. He offered to source one quicker off EBay, but we said we’d rather have a pukka one from the manufacturer.
So here we are, without a main oven, and possibly not getting a repair until the New Year. Well, Christmas is not exactly cancelled, because we can still use the top oven for conventional cooking; we just can’t do all the trimmings. We had been thinking about inviting Mrs O’s S around for a festive meal, but that’ll have to be a non-starter in the circumstances.

We’ll survive. Worse things happen at sea.

So, yesterday to Sherborne Town and my first visit here since the ill-fated Tytherington Rocks fixture back in August 2021, which was abandoned after 21 minutes due to an away player injury - broken leg. I thought history might have been repeating itself after a prolonged stoppage late in this current game when the opposition’s Mark Goldsworthy went down with a serious looking injury , but thankfully he recovered, although being immediately substituted.
And the opposition? Their coach had started out at 08:35 from their home base, Trungle Parc, arriving at Sherborne’s Raleigh Grove at 13.30 after a journey of 175 miles. A 350-mile round-trip for a Step 5 football match in front of under 150 spectators. Yes, it’s the infamous Mousehole AFC !

I was going to spin out this “Mad Birds and Cornishmen” thread right until the end of the season, catching up with Mousehole at Keynsham FC in April 2023, but given the way any planning can (and usually does ) go pear-shaped, I thought I’d better knock them off whilst I had the opportunity.

Was it worth the journey from Land’s End? Well, quite a few spectators came up on the coach (I spotted the Cornish Pirates RFC team coach in the car-par when I arrived), and I think they presented the Sherborne club-house with a few kegs of Cornish cider, not trusting the Somerset stuff . And Mousehole scored after just 2m when an initial attempt came back of the woodwork and Goldsworthy reacted quickest, forcing the ball home. Sherborne were always chasing the game after that, and had their chances although Mousehole were pretty much in control of proceedings throughout the game. Their second goal came on 19m when Reece Thomson dummied a defender and created space to drive the ball past Attwood in the Sherborne goal. No further scoring in the first half with the away team content to stay in second gear.

Thomson swept home his second goal on 46m, and it could easily have been 0-4 a few minutes later when Callam McOnie caught Attwood off his line, but he hit the ball narrowly over the bar. Sherborne pulled a goal back when Murphy stooped to head in a cross on 57m but the result was never in doubt, Thomson completing his hat-trick on 87m. Good entertainment throughout!

An impressive performance by Mousehole, and you can see why they are 3rd in the table today, albeit some way behind the leaders. They seemed well co-ordinated and had the ability to launch fast, direct raids out of midfield; their attackers are more than happy to take defenders on. Sherborne had to work hard to keep up with them. Mousehole did appear a shade fragile in defence at times and they lost some of their rhythm towards the end, but they certainly looked one of the better sides I’ve seen at this level over the last few seasons.

19/11/22: Western League Premier Division
Sherborne Town 1 Mousehole 4
Admission: £5 concession (£7 standard adult)
Programme: On-line only. Sherborne were one of the first teams in the rush to ditch paper programmes once they became non-compulsory - anathema to a collector like me.
Refreshments: tea-hut open, but pay-back time ; no way am I going to spend more money than I have to when visiting this club. Sat in the car park and ate a £2.75 bacon and mayo sandwich on brown bread purchased from the Riverside Convenience Stores en-route. First time I’d been in that store and it was quite an eye-opener ; it’s huge!
Attendance: 142

A really horrendous journey back. Nothing like bowling along the windy A30 in the dark at a comfortable 45-50mph, rounding a bend, and being confronted by a string of red traffic cones across both carriageways and a “Road Closed” sign! No warning or other explanation - luckily the car behind me managed to avoid going into my rear. So, having pulled out a quick mental map, sharp turn right up past Henstridge Airfield and then through the trading estate, onwards via a heavily congested rural road to Fifehead Magdalan (which I’d never visited before) and back to the A30 further on down that road. Where there were flashing lights and police in attendance, diverting west-bound traffic in every direction. So why no police presence at the other end? I can only assume there had been a RTA on the blocked section; it is a tricky bit of main road with high hedges and tight curves. Hope it wasn’t serious .....