Apologies for the lateness of this report – we have been inundated with visits from relatives!
Master O and family (G/S is now 7 months, teething and fractious
) arrived during last week for a 4 day stay, departing Saturday, and the bird’s S arrived for a two-day visit 24 hours later. The Nest has rather resembled a Travelodge with quick change-overs!
The Ostrich, that invariably reclusive and solitary avian, was a seriously stressed bird due to all this galivantin’ and socialisin’, and eventually hid in the broom cupboard, leaving Mrs O to conduct proceedings as she was firmly in her element.
And a Saturday afternoon soccer match for Ossie, more of which anon, was very welcome.
Ossie’s Top Tips for Visiting Relatives:
1. When having a private argument about money, do ensure that the baby monitoring unit is switched off first, because otherwise the grandparents get to hear it all!
2. When you have an S who is a trained and qualified personal counsellor, be careful what you say when casually chatting – be very, very careful ….
Saturday dawned extremely wet and slightly windy, and before long, fixtures were falling like flies to waterlogged pitches; however, Axminster Town’s Tiger Way ground has always had the reputation of being a “good drainer” and after an early pitch inspection, the match was declared on. The game, on the face of it, was a rather tin-pot South West Peninsula League Cup tie, but very interestingly, unlike the league itself, this cup competition isn’t regionalised, so today’s opponents (and apparently this was the first ever meeting between the clubs) was Cornish club St. Blazey, of immediate interest to me as I haven’t seen them play before. Historically, think china clay and copper mines; the Eden Project is located about a mile from the town.
It chucked it down all the way during by 45 mile drive into Devon, and I arrived at the ground to find a furious stand-off row in progress between a steward and the driver of the St Blazey team coach
, with the former trying to get the latter to relocate to the other end of the car-park. This was eventually done with extreme reluctance. Dashing to the turnstile, I was just sorting out my admission money when the elderly guy behind me said “Programme!” and was charged £1. “They always make me pay – and I’m the Club President!
”, he moaned at me. Dashing into the bar out of the rain, I found three St Blazey committee members staring moodily at their pints.
“It’s definitely on, then?” I enquired cheerily.
“It had better be – we’ve just driven 100 miles to get here!” was the response.
Sitting down at the next table, I was joined by a young coloured guy and two elderly white guys. The Club President handed them match-day programmes. Ah – refereeing team I thought.
At least they were a bit more forthcoming, the referee confirming that the pitch was “definitely playable; I’ll just need to be keeping an eye on one corner of the goalmouth at the turnstile end during the game.” There seemed to be a kid’s film of “Treasure Island” on the TV screen, so as Axminster have a second hand book stall, I wandered over and bought an old Lee Child “Jack Reacher” paperback for 50p to while away the time before kick-off.
By 3:00, the rain had eased, so I was pitchside for the kick-off, only having to retreat back under the clubhouse veranda for 10 minutes or so when a particularly dirty black cloud moved overhead and deluged us. Axminster do have a seated stand, but it’s very open and all the seats were soaking, so standing was the best option. The first half wasn’t particularly brilliant but the home side took a 1-0 lead into the break, thanks to a 21st minute goal from Tyler Wellman who got through on goal by literally bouncing off two defenders and finished with aplomb.
The second half was much more entertaining – St Blazey equalised on 65m via McGee’s direct free kick into the corner of the net, and 3 minutes later took the lead, Willmott picking up a weak header out of defence and slamming it back into the net. On 74m, a trip in the area led to a penalty for the home side, Converted by Hurford, but St Blazey retook the lead on 82m when McGee curled a beautiful shot over the keeper and into the far corner from a wide position. In between all that, Axminster had hit the post twice and St Blazey once, and the away side had also seen the ball cleared off the Axminster line. The final score could easily have been something like 5-5, but St Blazey ran out 2-3 winners, and that was at the end of the day a fair result. An excellent game given the conditions.
16/10/19 – Walter C Parsons (Funeral Directors) League Cup: Axminster Town 2 St Blazey 3
Admission: £4, programme £1
Raffle: I was accosted by the Club President and agreed I’d buy a strip for £1.
“You’re the first,” he said “you don’t want number 1, do you?”
“I don’t mind,” I said, “I never win anyway”
Come half time, he made the draw. “I can’t believe it,” he announced, “it’s number 1 – I’ve never had that happen before!!”
And indeed it was – number 1 Yellow. I’d bought the number 1 to 5 strip from the Blue book ……
Refreshments: Quality large traditional Cornish pasty £3, ham and tomato bun £2, cuppa tea £1
Attendance: 106
by cromwell » 20 Oct 2019, 08:34 
