Four Weddings and a Penalty Shootout

[Ally]

A mini flask with hot soup would've gone down a treat, methinks?

[JoM]

What a great read. Disappointed that there was no food to report on though

[TheOstrich]

25/11 – An inauspicious week , but it ended well!

Firstly, both Mrs O and I are avid readers and have been happy, over the past year, to donate close on (I reckon) £200 worth of pristine hardback and paperback books to the local library. However, taking the latest donations down there on Monday, I was told they were no longer wanted. Fair enough, that’s their prerogative, but the manner in which I was told was, shall we say, not exactly forthcoming . So, their loss, and we’ll make alternative arrangements in future – there’s at least two local villages where the old red telephone kiosks have been turned into “local libraries”, and of course there’s also the charity shops.

The next disaster was Wednesday evening – a Wessex League Cup Round 2 tie for the Ostrich, and third time unlucky this season as I failed to get that all-important crucial winning injury-time goal ….. and thus had to succumb to a live penalty shoot-out for only the second time in my career! The match was again up at Shaftesbury; lower-ranked Fawley, from the Southampton area, had the better of the first half, bossing midfield and the Rockies found it rather difficult to get to grips with the game. As early as the 3rd minute, Fawley bounced one off the top of the bar, and they also had a sharp header cleared off the line after 21m.
This was followed by a more even second half in which Shaftesbury hit the bar and then had the ball deflected over the top in a 50th minute goalmouth melee, but otherwise chances were few and far between and the main action on the field was a slightly over-exuberant referee booking 6 players.

So, to the dreaded spot-kicks . Shaftesbury’s first penalty came back off the bar and their fourth was parried away by the keeper. Fawley converted all their four penalties relatively easily to win the tie. Still, I guess if it hadn’t been for the penalty shoot-out, this would have been one of those unmemorable games quickly consigned to the history books, so one must be grateful for small mercies.

Thursday brought an unwelcome phone-call from the insurance brokers chasing documents we sent them back in September and which one can only conclude hadn’t arrived or they’d lost. I wasn’t very happy about it, and I eventually told them I’d hand deliver replacements on Friday. Which entailed a 80 mile round trip to the other side of the county – Bridport – but we did get to go down to West Bay (Broadchurch, of course ) to see the sea and drink coffee in the Crab and Lobster, although Mrs O was less than impressed at having to walk on shingle wearing her new boots!

Saturday dawned, and Ossie emerged for today’s jaunt wearing full protective clothing and a face veil! Why? Because we were going Up the Nest to see the Hornets!!

Hornets RUFC’s’ ground is situated in Hutton Moor Road just off the A370 on the eastern outskirts of Weston-super-Mare. Travelling from North Dorset, I opted for the A371 via Wells, Cheddar and Banwell, but it’s a pig of a road with numerous speed restrictions and narrow points, and another time when travelling to that part of Somerset, I might consider the A303, Taunton and the M5, despite the considerable extra mileage. On entering Weston-super-Mare, you pass the Helicopter Museum, which rather menacingly has what I suspect is a Rapier missile battery pointed at the main road , and take the A370 towards town over the Flowerdown Bridge. At the next roundabout – Hutton Moor – bear left staying on the A370 and immediately scissor across into the outside lane of the dual carriageway so you can pick up the slip-road signposted for the Hutton Moor Sports Centre at the next lights. Turning off the A370, you’ll see the rugby ground immediately on your right, and the car park entrance is just past the next roundabout. The Sports Centre’s on the other side of the road.

The pay station is at the gate, and there’s a good amount of parking leading down towards the clubhouse, which is spacious and unpretentious; a club lunch (for past Colts team members) in progress when I arrived. There are two pitches running parallel to each other, both floodlit, and the main pitch, closest to the entrance, has an artificial playing surface, only the second rugby union one I’ve come across, I think, after Loughborough University. A small, modern-looking corrugated-iron stand (no seats!) provides an elevated view from the half way line, and a video platform scaffolding construction lies next to it. Between the stand and the entrance is a small refreshment hut dispensing pasties and drinks, and an electronic scoreboard resides in the clubhouse corner. It looked like they were having some fun programming it before the start (they had to omit the “K” in Bracknell to make it fit the display! ) , but it worked perfectly during the game.

Hornets are the newcomers in town, founded as a community club in 1962; in contrast Weston-super-Mare RFC have been around for 142 years. They are both, however, in the same division, and the first of the season’s local derbies is scheduled for next Saturday. Hornets are currently bottom of the table, so today was very much a must-win fixture against fellow strugglers Bracknell (10th ex 14). The home side looked fine going forward but the basic problem is tackling in defence. Bracknell made more than a few surging runs during the first half, the 3G pitch being ideal for a fast-paced handling game. Hornets opened the scoring with a short-range dive-over on 4m, but by the 10th minute were 7-12 in arrears as defensive coverage failed and Bracknell exploited the gaps. The hosts quickly pulled back a penalty, game on, and then spent the remainder of the half pounding the Bracknell line, utilising superior drive in the scrum, and some pretty deft close passing. Bracknell couldn’t hold out, and two rapid converted tries around the half-hour mark, with a further score just before the interval, made it 29-12 at half-time.

Just after the restart, Hornets opted for an easy penalty in front of the posts to put further distance between them and their opponents, and then elected for consolidation rather than flamboyance . Bracknell never got back into contention, and Hornets ran out comfortable winners. An enjoyable end to the week on a sunny but cold day, when the shelter of the stand from the stiff westerly breeze was very welcome …..

South West Premier (Level 5): Hornets RUFC 42 Bracknell RUFC 17
Admission: £5 (non -member), programme: included with admission (28 pp glossy, excellent value – all the basics plus a recent history of Bracknell and a few quirky articles besides)
Refreshments: £3.65 for an OJ and two well-filled buns, (ham salad and pulled pork – finger lickin’ good! ) from the bar, £1.70 for a tray of fairly run-of-the-mill chips from the kitchen hatch. They had a huge array of dressings you could put on your chips, unfortunately I piled on the American Mustard and subsequently regretted it ), attendance: 151

[Ally]

re your library.

Is this normal that libraries are knocking back books? If so, what a shame.

Good value on the bun front (although not being a pork lover/liker/actually makes me a bit squeamish front ) I would have been happy with the ham salad.

Thanks for another super read Ossie.

[cromwell]

Well, your good run avoiding penalty shoot outs had to come to an end some time Ossie! The rugby match sounds rather more entertaining than the soccer one.

The food must have been very welcome after last week's strike out!

[Kaz]

Another great read Ossie I can empathise with MrsO on the boots v shingle scenario

[JoM]

Well the food sounds better than the last offering!

Unbelievable that a library will refuse free books!

[TheOstrich]

Ally, Jo, the library thing really bugged me, I must admit, and a large part of it was the way I was told, as if I was the one creating a problem. Never had any issue donating books in Birmingham; they were very grateful, largely because they had no budget for fiction at all!
I don't expect a red carpet treatment when I'm giving a donation, but I'm not going to be treated as a josser either ......
Anyway, their loss, the books are going in future to the Scope Disability charity, who said they'd be delighted with them once they've finished refurbishing their outlet next January.

Yes, Kaz, I walked with Mrs O up to the top of the shingle bank so we could view the sea; they've packed it quite high as a coastal erosion protection, and it wasn't the easiest to navigate, new boots or not!
Even at the back end of November, there was a coach party there on a "Broadchurch" tour and we were lucky we just beat them into the café!

If there had been food at Donhead United 2 weeks back, it would have been an added bonus; it would be unusual to find any catering at very local levels unless there was a social club attached. Apart from the excellent buns at Hornets, the fayre was passible but now't to particularly write home about, Crommers, and I should have gone for red ketchup, not that American mustard .....

[TheOstrich]

02/12 – Being an old-fashioned sort of football supporter, I have always been an avid programme collector. Unfortunately, when we downsized moving back to Birmingham in 2001, I threw away my existing collection at that date, and now fervently wished I hadn’t. However, I restarted the paper-chase once we had resettled in the Midlands, and there’s now a couple of cardboard box-worths residing in the wardrobe. You could be 98% certain of obtaining a match-day programme down to Step 5 of the Non-League pyramid, mainly because the relevant leagues invariably require clubs to issue them on pain of a fine, and indeed when Evo-Stik took over the sponsorship of the Step 3 and 4 regional leagues, they insisted that clubs submit a copy of every programme to them to that they could see that the requisite number of Evo-stik product adverts were included in them – after all, the company had paid good cash for the sponsorship rights, so the advertising requirement was only fair.

Programmes of course vary in size, content and price, ranging from the very good to the truly awful. To some compilers, they are a labour of love; to other clubs, a right pain in the neck. But as attendances are generally on the downwards spiral, and older, more “traditional” supporters, such as the Ostrich, who look forward to a programme as part of the match-day experience pass from this mortal coil , there’s less and less demand for the product. Clubs who can ill-afford it are making losses; reduced sales on the gate, and they find it harder and harder to attract local advertisers to help defray the costs.

And so we come to the start of this season and – shock, horror – the Evo-stik sponsored Southern League announced at paper programmes would no longer be compulsory; clubs would be allowed to ditch them as long as they produced one on-line, available to download from the club’s website. The less-enlightened, more Luddite, older generation of supporters, including Ossie, were suitably outraged as more than a handful of Southern League clubs quickly embraced the new relaxation of the rules. Including Fleet Town ……

Hampshire-based club Fleet Town would therefore not normally be on Page 1 of my bucket list for a visit, or Page 2 for that matter; however, I had, prior to the home side’s announcement of their dash for digital, pre-arranged a meet-up with a couple of old school pals / ground-hoppers at Calthorpe Park, and today, I couldn’t convince them over a pub lunch to divert to Farnham Town …..

So, an early departure on a very crowded 09:51 from Gillingham station – most passengers disembarking at Salisbury, presumably for Christmas shopping – for Basingstoke, where I met up with P. who had travelled overnight from South Yorkshire, stopping in a hotel in Banbury before travelling on from there by train this morning. B. picked us up from the car-park, and we travelled the last 15 miles or so to Fleet, where we decamped at the Fox and Hounds for a short canal-side stroll, followed by the afore-mentioned lunch (vegetarian chilli con carne with rice and tortilla chips for Ossie, £10.95, not bad value). After a good chinwag, B. drove us up into Fleet itself where we had a good mooch around the mall and shops; it certainly seemed a thriving and bustling town centre. Then back to Calthorpe Park and on to the game. I had vowed not to put any money in Fleet’s coffers as payback for the ditching of the programme , so P. paid for my admission and B. funded pre-match coffees – mind you, in fairness, I had picked up the tab for the lunch!

Well, what transpired was a totally forgettable first half. Thankfully, the game was much Improved after the break, Fleet opening up a 2-0 lead thanks to the Kempston keeper failing to take command in his 6 yard box on 55m and allowing Ruzicka to score, and a well-taken goal by Wilson on 58m. Kempston, who had looked very marginally the better side in a scrappy encounter, pulled one back on 71m through Goodman, and piling on the pressure, got the equaliser through Newman on 79m, both goals clinical finishes from inside the box. A draw was by far the fairest result, although if we’d been asked to put money on the result at the interval, all 3 of us would have probably plumped for 0-0 …….

A smooth return journey, and back in the nest by 7:30!

Evo-stik League South East Division (Step 4): Fleet Town 2 Kempston Rovers 2
Teamsheets issued free at the turnstile which slightly mollified the bird; attendance a meagre 91

[Ally]

It's sad about the decline of the programme - I kept all mine when I used to attend matches alot when I lived in Scotland.

I stored them in mum's attic - but mum decided they were rubbish and binned them! Fair enough. Her house. Her attic. But when I think of all those Rangers - Celtic programmes I had....

But then this is the same mum who thought my hamster had died and buried it in the garden! I'd gone away on a camping weekend, poor wee Hamish went for his first ever hibernation...and never woke up!

She's still apologising to me 45 years later!

Sorry....tangent.

Great read Ossie...I love veggie chilli con carne.