The Chronicles of Ostrick ....

[Ally]

Ooh er re the dog!

231? Methinks many chaps wot would've gone were being dragged round doing last minute Christmas shopping.

Thanks for a great read Ossie and wishing you a jolly yuletide in your new home. xx

[Kaz]

Oh heck, poor dog, glad neither you nor he were injured Hope he found his way home

So Ossie got a bird bath? I hope your fevvers were dry before you got home

[JoM]

Poor dog, glad it wasn't worse though.

Ally, David Beckham makes me feel so old, as does Ryan Giggs. I used to go and see them play when they were flippin' teenagers and now they're in their 40s. Last time we saw Beckham was last year at his charity game and he actually brought his son on as a sub. Comes to something when the kids of players you watched when they were kids are running down the wing

[TheOstrich]

24/12 – I was going to give you a festive break from the sports reporting - but a rather remarkable game today! Firstly, it must be said that Ossie is not known for his social skills and does his best to avoid family reunions whenever possible, especially over Christmas. When he is hogtied down and transported to a festive gathering, he usually slopes off quietly into a corner and perches miserably on the back of a chair, rather like a world-weary vulture, confronted with a small plate of turkey sandwiches and indigestible pudding . So for the bird, it is a question of negotiating as many “get-outs” as he can with Mrs O. and the first stage of the battle was an adamant declaration that Boxing Day soccer was sacrosanct, and in any event, one of the teams he needed to see at Step 3 were the opposition at Frome Town. Having won that concession, he then gently slipped in the fact that the Wessex League were playing fixtures on Bank Holiday Tuesday, and she wouldn’t mind, would she, especially as there were no games on Christmas Eve. And there the matter lay until this week’s Western Gazette revealed that contrary to expectation, the Somerset County League were playing a full round of games on December 24th …..

So, off to the Donald Pither Memorial Ground, Ansford Road for a 12:00 kick off in the Somerset County League Division 1 East, which at Step 8 is not entirely the lowest form of pond life in the area, but nevertheless hovers just above the reeds. Now I know Castle Cary quite well, as Mrs O’s parents lived there for many years, and I knew where Ansford Road was, but as to the soccer ground, I still wasn’t clear even after consulting Bing Maps. It had to be where the cricket field was, but as for a clubhouse or car-park, or even a flippin’ entrance to the place, no real clue.

Therefore, following a frantic round of last minute Christmas shopping down in the town, it was off on a voyage somewhat into the unknown. Castle Cary is a quite straight-forward run from Gillingham, except that part of it involves the A303, and I wasn’t sure how the A303 might be behaving today with holiday traffic – summer queues are not unknown – so Ossie set sail initially on a south-west trajectory through the lanes, passing a number of stables and equestrian centres, reaching the village of Buckhorn Weston, and marking the whereabouts of The Stapleton Arms for future reference. Then onwards to Templecombe, where the church has a remote connection to the shadowy Knights Templar, but whose main claim to fame was as a major railway junction back in the days before Beeching. Onwards up the A371, into Cary from the top of the town, and right into the said Ansford Road, only to find no entrance to a Memorial Ground; in fact not even a sight of a Memorial Ground.

After travelling in a fruitless circle back into Ansford Road again, I decided to cut left into Catherine Close, which advertised a free council car-park, and found the entrance to the ground was in fact right opposite it, up a short incline. All then became clearer – the undulating soccer pitch, with impressive views across to Glastonbury Tor, was in one corner, behind the cricket square, with a tiny clubhouse set back in the other. Inspection of the latter revealed that players from the Castle Cary Cricket Club had played an integral part in the gold-medal winning team at the 1900 Olympic Games, when England defeated France by 157 runs. A certain gentleman called Montague Henry Toller, a lawyer and demon fast bowler, took 7 wickets for 9 runs as the French were skittled out for 26 in their second innings. And the Ostrich also had a pleasant pre-game chat with today’s match referee, Steven Taylor, down from Shepton Mallet.

Today’s opponents were “Frome Town Sports”, who were effectively Step 3 club Frome Town FC’s reserve squad. Their no.10, Adam Lock opened the scoring on 10m, drawing the keeper and rounding him to net easily, Cary equalised on 30m when the ball ran for Josh Owen presenting him with an easy chance, but Frome retook the lead on 39m when Kalem Marsh, a youngster possibly making his debut, struck a free-kick which took a slight but telling deflection off the wall.

1-2 at half time, all relatively straight-forward, but the second half was crazy! Both sides scored 4 goals each, thanks to a combination of sublime shooting and inept goal-keeping. Cary’s fourth goal , for example, was a screaming 35-yarder which hit the underside of the bar and bounced off the line into the net; Frome’s sixth was a tremendous 30-yard direct free kick from wide that bent round the keeper and into the corner of the net. So a final tally of 11 goals, which is in fact Ossie’s new record aggregate score!

Ossie’s other “first” at this game was a bit more of an oddity! After 14m, one of the home team’s coaching staff was “sent off” by the referee for smoking in the technical area – the first dismissal I’ve seen under Health and Safety legislation!

Back home on the more direct route via Wincanton and a strangely-quiet A303, passing alongside hedgerows coated with myriads of the fluffy off-white cotton balls of “Old Man’s Beard”, a variety of clematis prolifically growing wild around here and all looking rather ethereal in the winter sunlight ….

Somerset County League Division 1 East (Step 8): Castle Cary 5 Frome Town Sports 6
Admission free, no programme, packet of peanuts from the clubhouse 50p, attendance 24, not including the shoppers dawdling past the pitch on the public footpath ......

[Ally]

That's one of your best reports yet Ossie!

Love the 'banter' between you and Mrs O about you going to matches!

No programme, a packet of peanuts and 24 attendees had me laughing out loud!

Thanks Ossie.

[Kaz]

[TheOstrich]

"Now over to The Ostrich in our studios for a round-up of the rest of the sporting festivities ....."

26/12 - Evostik Southern League Premier Division: Frome Town 1 Basingstoke Town 1
Admission £7, programme £2, raffle £1, rather nice bacon burger in a bun £2.70, attendance 366
A mere 9 bookings and one sending off. Merry Christmas!

27/12 - Wessex League Division 1: Shaftesbury 4 Pewsey Vale 1
Admission £3, programme 50p, sausage roll of far better quality than my last visit £1, attendance 71
Routine win for The Rockies. I have no idea why they are called the Rockies, I'll have to find out.
They could have doubled that tally if they'd been able to turn attacking possession into viable chances.

[Ally]

Thanks Ossie.

One question. When you eat at these games is this your lunch..or a snack?

[TheOstrich]

Snack really, Ally.

Traditional pre-game brunch, before I set out, is a 400g tin of Grant's haggis (£1.40) accompanied by a 400g tin of plum tomatoes (50p) .......

Nicola Sturgeon should be very grateful for all my efforts boosting the Scottish economy .....

[Ally]

They put haggis in a tin??!!!

Great-uncle Hamish will be spinning in his grave.