Saturday saw Mrs O embarking on a Cultural Afternoon at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil*, accompanying her now-recovered sister and a friend.
That meant that I had to find a game to fit in between agreed drop-off and pick-up times at her sister’s house, about 10 miles or so from South Somerset’s principal town, and that proved not the easiest of tasks as many games around here are still kicking off at 14:00 giving me little scope for anything adventurous.
After a lot of ferreting on t’Net, I found that the (very minor) Perry Street and District League, which nominally sits at Step 11 in the scheme of things and covers a narrow band of clubs playing between Yeovil and Axminster, were still showing 14:30 kick-offs and that extra half-an-hour made all the difference in timings. With no real knowledge of the teams involved, I opted to attend the local derby being played at the Lightgate Recreation Ground in South Petherton.
The Rec in Pethy is easy to find from the large Lopen Head roundabout on the A303; merely a matter of taking the Petherton turning, crossing over two mini-roundabouts, and next right into Lightgate Lane, the rec being around 200 yards down that road on the right opposite a rather shabby 1950’s looking housing development. It turned out to be a multi-sports venue hosting cricket, tennis, crown bowling and basketball along with the ubiquitous children’s adventure playground; the carpark has around 45 spaces but was comfortably full by the time the footie started.
The Rec’s buildings mainly are situated by the entrance and are a bit of a hotchpotch - a sinister-looking pre-school playgroup portacabin with blacked-out windows
, a shipping container for equipment, the "Mike Saint Cricket Pavilion" which incorporated changing rooms and a small bar with a taciturn barman and a widescreen telly, an open-fronted covered drinking area with another widescreen, and sturdy youth club building. The tennis and bowling green have their own on-site clubhouses.
With a bit of time to kill, I wandered down into the village and spotted KD Carpets' rather shabby store - this stalwart family-run company has been in business for over 40 years and if I recall correctly, that’s where we bought the carpets for our first home in Somerset when we moved down from Brum in the early 1980’s!
Returning to the Rec in good time, I found the soccer pitch marked out in one corner behind the cricket square; it sloped gently from side to side, and had no “furniture”, rope or railing apart from a store-shed in one corner. It’s quite a pleasant enough venue with rural views across to Ham Hill on the other side of the A303, but there’s no cover or windbreaks around the pitch and it was flippin’ perishing in the Siberian wind today
. Ossie’s Shaftesbury FC bobblehat was therefore worn as a necessity
and created great confusion and many curious glances from the locals, at least one of whom had no idea where Shaftesbury was - “Never heard of it!”
I haven’t really fringed into the Perry Street & District League since moving down here. I visited Merriott Rovers in December 2020, who promptly folded at the end of that season, and a week later watched Drimpton in a Dorset Minor Cup fixture at Shillingstone, a game which turned out to be prime contender for the worst match of the 2020/21 season.
So I didn’t have high hopes …..
South Petherton are one of the heavyweights in the Premier Division, although I have to say that’s probably a better description of their girth than their status.
They’ve won the league for the past two seasons, but are currently second behind Forton Rangers, 4 points adrift and having played 2 games more. I was expecting them to achieve a positive result against mediocre opposition in Ilminster Town Reserves, but as for quality - well, what unfolded was one of those rather dire “hoof ‘n hope” games with midfield ping-pong, thanks to a noticeable lack of ball control by both sides.
We commenced 8 minutes late after the elderly referee had delivered long lectures to the club linesmen (one of whom had to be given a refresher course on 24m; mind you, he had missed a pretty blatant offside minutes before which even I spotted
) and the team captains. Pethy took the lead on 16m when a somewhat half-hearted clearance by the Ilminster defence fell to their no.5 who was able to pick his spot from around 15 yards out, and Ilminster subsequently equalised on 85m; a hard cross from the touchline by their no.7 was neatly dummied by their no.16 and no.9 converted crisply at the far post. Nothing much else of note happened per my scanty notes, and a draw was probably the best result.
25/02/23: Perry Street & District League Premier Division
South Petherton 1 Ilminster Town Reserves 1Free admission
Refreshments: Ha well, see below ….
Attendance: 29, some of whom sensibly fled the Arctic blasts for warmer climes before halftime.
* Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” starring Todd Carty (
Eastenders) and Gwyneth Strong (
Cassandra from Only Fools and Horses)
Admission: £28 (concession)
Programme: None. No theatre programmes these days, Really?
Half-time refreshments: None (too long a queue, apparently)
Attendance: sell-out per Mrs O so that’s around 620 folk
Our cultural and media correspondent pronounced it very enjoyable when I picked her up.
So, the Ostrich’s Annual “Beat-the-NHS” Diet started on Shrove Tuesday, under strict supervision. No pancakes ‘ere!
Ossie swore he’d be good on his afternoon out, so limited himself to a Yorkie Bar (80p) from the grumpy barman, and 2 freshly-fried fishcakes - no chips - from the Pheonix Fish Bar in the village centre (£3.20).
Now it’s worth mentioning that next door to the Rec is the Lightgate Bakery, which turned out to be on the premises of a 1940’s residential house. Originally built by Cyril and his wife, they ran the place as a small bakery until Cyril passed away, and the house was then bought by a Mrs Millward who operated it as a confectionery and sweet shop. Fast forward to June 2022, and the current occupiers decided to resurrect the bakery, selling their wares from a hut on their driveway. The enterprise is run by the affable Judy, and opened at 1:30 to dispense home-made pastries and cakes, bread and drinks - including proper leaf tea brewed in a teapot and served in a takeaway cup.
You’ll know when the urn’s done its business by the copious amounts of steam issuing through the roof!
She was doing a good trade - 8 customers whilst I was awaiting my tea - and the slice of Somerset apple cake and a hot cuppa (£2.75) was most welcome.
Oh, and I had some time to kill before picking Mrs O up again, so I holed up in the Cartgate picnic area café on the A303 to keep warm. It would have been churlish not to have purchased anything whilst in there
, and a gigantic bacon and mushroom butty and a cuppa whilst watching the start of the England rugby game fitted the bill and cost only £5.20.
Mrs O not best pleased
. The Diet starts again next week ……
