) DiL for a couple of days. After meeting up with Master O at Waterloo, we walked to the South Bank Centre and Royal Festival Hall for lunch - 3 plastic pots of stew, two coffees and a coke for a very reasonable £17 or so 
, before promenading across Waterloo Bridge, past Somerset House, and down the Strand to the Royal Courts of Justice (where Ossie perched on the famous steps in the forlorn hope that a BBC camera crew might want to interview him 
). We then strolled on along Fleet Street to the iconic 12th century Temple Church, which is off the main thoroughfare and in a quiet backwater surrounded by various Inns of Court. It’s all very much linked with the Knights Templar, the warrior-monks who defended the Holy Land against the Infidel back in the days of yore, and in more recent times, Dan Brown and “The Da Vinci Code” book. It’s a beautiful old building, especially with the stained glass windows illuminated in the autumnal sunshine.I then returned to Waterloo to catch my return train; luckily I made the 15:20 – the 15:50, which was the last train I would have been able to travel on before my ticket became invalid for the evening rush-hour, was, I later found, cancelled!
On Thursday, the RMT trade union announced a further series of Saturday strikes from the end of October all the way through November
, so I am having to re-think all my planned footie outings. Today, taking advantage of a rare strike-free day, I opted for a rail excursion via Salisbury and Southampton to Bournemouth station, from where a number of bus services, principally routes 4 and 5, run up the Wimborne Road to Peters Hill, Winton, a 10 minute walk from Wessex League club Bournemouth Poppies’ Victoria Park ground. A relatively straight forward two-hour journey saw Ossie arrive at 13:00, and by 13:20, the bird was firmly ensconced in Winton’s KFC for a rare fried chicken treat! 
The walk through the backstreets to the ground was easy enough, but the entrance off Victoria Avenue which you can see on Google Maps turned out to be gated and padlocked shut, so one has to walk on down the length of the strangely-named Namu Road to gain access to the stadium from the far end.
The ground has just the one pitch, but it’s on quite a large campus, so it all feels quite open and spacious. The bar is on the ground floor at the Victoria Avenue end of the main pitchside building, and sports big picture windows and comfy sofas it’s difficult to haul yourself out of
. Pasties and teas are also available from a servery in the bar, hidden away at the back and round the corner by the electronic remains of a gutted fruit machine. The grandstand has rows of wooden bench seating, nicely painted chocolate brown and numbered, and wooden flooring, although the latter felt a bit wobbly to me. Overall, you rather get the impression that the facilities are just a little bit needy of some TLC, but a pleasant venue nevertheless.As for the match, Cornish club Newquay were darn lucky they weren’t on the end of a double-digit defeat today. It’s a long time since I’ve seen such a one-sided first half - I recorded that Bournemouth created 16 goal-scoring chances, converting 4, but also missing 2 complete sitters, hitting the post, sending one ball into orbit
, and shooting tamely at the keeper on at least 4 occasions .A couple of half-time substitutions stiffened Newquay’s defence somewhat, but although proceedings were more even, the Poppies still squandered a further 7 reasonable chances after the break, including one comedy falling-over when through on goal, and one off-the-line clearance, before notching two late goals to make the scoreline more representative of the one-way traffic. Newquay had a few attempts on goal in the second half, but these were mostly long range, and blazed over the bar.
Add a couple of minor bouts of handbags, and it was as thoroughly entertaining a game as I’ve seen all this season, despite the one-sided nature!
Although the Wimborne Road bus services should combine to provide a daytime 4-5 minute frequency, I had a lengthy wait for a return bus, and then the bus driver dawdled and sat at one bus stop for a minute or so before continuing.
When this happened a second time, I went up to him and (nicely) “ ‘ad a word in his ear”, advising him I needed to catch the 17:22 Waterloo train. And kudos to him, he then put his foot down and we rocketed down Cemetery Road and round into the Railway Station bus stands, arriving at 17:18, so I thanked him on disembarking, made a run for it, and caught my return train with a couple of minutes to spare.A decent day out in warm sunshine, which was certainly not what the BBC Weather app was forecasting just 48 hours earlier!
FA Vase Round 1: Bournemouth Poppies 6 Newquay 0
Admission £5 including programme, not one of the better ones as I noted certain statistical information provided in it hadn’t been updated since 2015/16.
Refreshments: Available at the ground, but I didn’t sample any, being stuffed with a chicken fillet burger, fries and a diet coke (£6.59)
Attendance: 101
The large main stand still provides fantastic views of the match action and the surrounding countryside (well, from left to tight - junk yard, herd of cows, electricity sub-station, Dorset Police HQ and Custody Suite, and golf course), and the 4 tall traditional corner floodlight pylons make this a classic ground to visit. The other three sides of the pitch merely sport lengths of covered concrete terracing.
Given that the Terras (they traditionally play in terracotta and blue shirts) are currently leading the league, you might think that’s a valid point, but the team’s somewhat bland performance today certainly got the “Old Gits” in the crowd in the stand around me ticking a fair bit 
, and after 87m, they did just that, Jack Battle slotted in from a right wing cross. The Old Gits were stunned to silence! 
And I remember when they used to be £1.10, not all that long ago, either …..