They Thought it was All Over ..... But Maybe It Isn't!

[cromwell]

Good report Os as ever. Poor French guy. I feel a bit guilty at laughing so much!
Many years ago we went to the Owermoigne (sp?) Cider Museum. Quite interesting. In those days the garages around them there parts (Sixpenny Handley) all sold cider. Quite rough dark looking stuff in plastic containers.

[TheOstrich]

No football blog from Ossie this weekend . It's rained heavily and consistently since yesterday evening, and the trouble with the sort of games I'm going to now is that they don't have any shelter. Well, apart from the odd spreading chestnut tree or oak, and even then you invariably get drips down your collar. The only feasible match this afternoon was Gillingham Town Reserves vs Shaftesbury Colts where at least they do have a small covered stand behind one goal, but Ossie carried out a pitch inspection at 11:30, promptly sunk in the mud , and called the game off.

In other news, the Bramley apple and green tomato chutney making on Monday was a great success. The Beeb recipe said the yield would be 5 x 400g jars; in the event we got 14 x 375g jars which will easily keep us going until next Spring. Ossie got a slap from Mrs O for putting his beak into the saucepan and chiselling off the burnt sugary bits before everything had been ladled out!

Our annoying intermittent gas boiler malfunction - the central heating simply fails to turn off when commanded - resurrected itself on Tuesday. A quick call to our resident engineer elicited a prompt response - he was round in 15 minutes to catch the boiler "at it" before it reset itself - and after a lot of harrumping and cussing, he eventually tracked it down to a sticking valve in the airing cupboard, so with parts and labour, that'll be another £200 bill . Still, if it's done the job and we don't have to keep on going out to the garage at midnight to fiddle with the boiler control panel, all well and good.

Wednesday was flu jab day, and very well organised it was to. At the local social club this year, plenty of parking, and we were met by a marshal from the Lions Club outside the entrance for the traditional Dorset medical health check:
"You'm all right, then?"
"Yuss, we'm OK."

Inside it was like the Heathrow terminal 5 check-ins, taped corridors down to a row of 8 inoculation stations, each double-manned with a nurse and a computer operator. Very efficient, we were in and out inside three minutes. A couple of aching arms for a day or so but otherwise no aftereffects.

Thursday, before the weather turned, we went out conkering. There's a large, prolific horse chestnut tree in the country park so we easily got a bag full. An elderly couple walked past. "You will leave some for the children, won't you?" It was probably a good thing nobody caught Mrs O's muttered reply ... Still, we now have several bowls in different rooms to deter the spiders. I am never sure if this is just an old wives' tale, but in the event, it does seem to work, we've found.

So onwards and upwards. Ossie has discovered BBC iPlayer and is currently watching "Battlestar Galactica" - all 78 episodes of it!

[Workingman]

Ah, the conker trick.

My friend Mo has a downstairs loo in what was the porch. It always had spiders so she never used it.

"Put a conker in each corner" says I.
"Get away ye daft beggar" was the reply.
So one day I put some in place before knocking on the door and said nowt.
A while later I 'innocently' asked about the spiders.
"Not seen any" came the reply.
"C'mere" says I and shows her the loo with its conkers.

She now refreshes them at this time of year for a spider-free loo experience.

[TheOstrich]

Yes, well, we put a small bowl of conkers on the kitchen window sill to deter them from weaving webs between the kalanchoe and the cactus plants. By Wednesday, the web was covering the conkers as well .....

A quiet week in contemplation of the looming national lockdown to come . Mrs O got one in at the hairdressers; Ossie contemplated his fevvers and decided they’d easily go through to next March without the need of trimming . We had a nice run out on Tuesday morning via country roads to Stourhead, where there lurks a farm shop – a bit on the expensive side, and actually not that well stocked (I suppose because Stourhead, a National Trust property, has only been partially open this summer, footfall there, which the farm shop would almost certainly benefit from, must be well down). Nevertheless, we got some scrummy oat biscuits, a couple of homemade pasties, a venison casserole in a foil container, a couple of courgettes and a pint of milk without ruining the bank balance too much. We also, driving up there, visited Gasper Dam, which holds back the lowest of Stourhead’s three large lakes, and which catastrophically failed back in 1917 . Downriver a few miles is the old mill in the village of Bourton about which Wiki quoteth thus:

The mill, which is mentioned in the Domesday book, has had many incarnations. As a linen mill it processed flax and supplied canvas to the Royal Navy but when industry declined it was developed into a foundry with a blast furnace and was one of the first places to make the new threshing machines in the West of England. It went on to build boilers, steam lorries and gas engines as well as gaining a reputation as a builder of water wheels. During the First World War, Mills Bombs were produced here in vast quantities. After the Gasper dam burst upriver in the summer of 1917, much of the machinery was washed from the factory and it took a number of years for industry to restart on the site. When it did return in 1933 the factory entered its final phase as a dried milk processing plant and this continued up until its closure in 1998. It is now derelict with many of the oldest buildings in a state of collapse.

Actually, to bring you up to date, it’s now the site of a posh new housing development, but I think some query has already been raised about ground contamination due to the foundry use of the land. Gasper Dam itself is just a large earthwork which you can drive across (or into, as I very nearly did due trying to avoid an eejit SUV coming the other way on the narrow road ) and a very pretty spot.

At least today the Ostrich managed to get to a footie match, after last week’s wash-out ! On offer was a clash of the Big Beasts of the Yeovil and District League Division 1 , necessitating a trip to Ashcott, a village in the Polden Hills, which forms the southern edge of the Somerset Levels. Ashcott is not a place I’ve ever visited before; indeed, it hasn’t really got any great claim to fame apart from being a “stop” on the old Bath to Exeter mail coach run. It is quite attractive, though, a couple of decent looking pubs and (a bit surprisingly) plenty of in-fill new-build housing blending harmoniously with the old stone terraces of yore. It sits to one side of the A39 Bridgwater to Bath road, so it’s well connected, and just before entering the village I passed by the old and rather spectacular Walton Windmill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton,_S ... ndmill.jpg

Ashcott FC are based at the Coronation Playing Fields in Kings Lane, which necessitated climbing up to the highest point of the village and then turning left along a winding cart-track for ¼ of a mile to access the substantial car park. It’s supposed to be in that way, and out through a set of wrought iron gates at the far end of the car park into a housing estate and back onto the A39 – except the wrought iron gates were firmly padlocked!

Today, I was here to see Ashcott Reserves, the league leaders, taking on second placed Wyndham Athletic. Both teams were unbeaten and in fine form, so I was expecting a close game – however in the event, Wyndham came out clear winners. I won’t say they “walked” it, because their victory was based on energetically harassing the home team at every opportunity, giving no quarter whatsoever in midfield – tempers threatened to boil over once or twice – and defending stoutly when required. Ashcott didn’t help their cause by having two penalties saved in the second half by Wyndham custodian Dan Blackburn; for the first, the keeper guessed correctly which way to go and was able to fist away the spot-kick, which had been well-directed but struck at an easy height to save. The second spot kick was hit straight at the keeper who didn’t even have to move . Wyndham were already 0-3 up at half-time, having run the home defence ragged, and went on to complete a comprehensive victory. Lee Begg had opened the scoring after just three minutes, and the powerful forward back-headed his second and Wyndham’s fifth and final goal on 69m. Ashcott did score a consolation goal, but that was all it was, they were well beaten on the day.

26/09/20 – Yeovil & District League Division 1 (Step 12) – Ashcott Reserves 1 Wyndham Athletic 5
Admission: free
Refreshments: The bar was open but I didn’t venture over that side as it looked pretty crowded around the clubhouse entrance.
Covid Rating: 4/10. A couple of QR Code notices, strategically placed, but easily avoided and no-one approached me about signing in. The wretched club photographer, despite having the run of the touchlines, kept on needlessly encroaching on my personal space in search of the right angle; he was lucky he didn’t get a good pecking .
Attendance: 31

And finally, from the local FB page ….

Hello, rather random but does anyone know of any Mugwort growing locally?
Thankyou!

Well - anyone?

[Workingman]

And finally, from the local FB page ….

Hello, rather random but does anyone know of any Mugwort growing locally?
Thankyou!

Well - anyone?

Someone into Absinthe production on a small scale using cheap voddy and the freezer method perhaps?

[cromwell]

Oh dear, losing 5-1 at home isn't good.
I can honestly say that never in my life have I heard of Mugwort!
Sounds like a villain in a Harry Potter book!

[TheOstrich]

Continuing Ossie’s Odyssey through the Yeovil and District Leagues, and again picking a team with a silly name to keep WM amused, today it was off to see Lantokay FC!

Yes, there’s another pub involved – the Lantokay is a JD Weatherspoons in the centre of Street - but actually there’s a bit more to it than that. Cue the Ostrich to don full ceremonial Druidic regalia ! The name of the pub recalls the town’s origin as an ancient settlement called Lantokay which, given its proximity to Glastonbury and all that, reputedly attracted several Celtic saints to the area. It was one such saint who settled on the higher, drier ground above the marshes, where Street Church now stands, who founded Lantokay – the "Ilan" (or "sacred enclosure") of Kay. (That’s Kay as in St. Kea, absolutely nothing to do with Peter ). Anyway, over time, that name was forgotten, and the settlement became known firstly as Leigh and then as Street, given there’s a nearby Roman causeway over the marshes – ‘strata’ = paved road.

Wiki sayeth that St. Kea was a late 5th-century British saint from the Hen Ogledd ("Old North")—the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. Well, we all know they talk funny up there . Reputedly, he was the son of King Lleuddun Luyddog of Lothian, and served as a bishop in North Britain before moving on to become a hermit. He first went to Wales and then moved south, founding churches at Street and Landkey, Devon. before finally settling at Kea in Cornwall, which was subsequently named for him. It is said that he was harassed by the Cornish king, Teudar when he sheltered a deer that Teudar was hunting. Having his oxen confiscated, he used the deer to plow the soil instead. He later travelled over the Channel to Cleder in Brittany, where he eventually died, and where he is known as St. Quay.

A Kea is also a rather large parrot in New Zealand – apparently they are highly intelligent and can solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain order to get to food, and they will also work together within the flock. They have even been filmed preparing and using tools, but I’ll end the sermon here before we get too far off topic!

Lantokay FC play at Strode College Sports Centre at the eastern end of the town. You wend your way down Church Road and round a series of blind corners before you see a large car-park on the right - going through this car park at the recommended maximum spend of 3 (three!) miles an hour you get to a smaller one in front of the main Sports Centre building, and the soccer pitch is a short walk down a track to the right. It's a newish 4G artificial pitch inside a cage, and being newish, the ball's high bounce often caught the players unawares.

Firstly, we’ll start with a bit of a query over whether today’s game should ever have been played at all . It seems an Odcombe first team player tested positive for Covid on Thursday and the first's game today was correctly postponed with players having to self-isolate. I knew about this postponement from the FA’s FullTime website, but not the precise reason for it (although I suspected). With nothing on social media and the Lantokay vs Odcombe Reserves game still showing on FullTime as "on", I took the chance and motored up to Street. Ominously, upon my arrival 40 minutes before the start, none of the Odcombe players had arrived, and Lantokay had no idea what was happening . The referee (not the happiest of bunnies at the situation ) turned up; he knew about and confirmed to us the positive Covid test - he said he had taken advice from the League and duly stalked off to await Odcombe's arrival in the car-park. They eventually showed up, and the referee having issued dire threats and extracted pledges that (a) there were no first team "ringers" in today’s reserve squad, (b) none of the reserves had taken part in last Saturday's first team game in any way, and (c) the two Odcombe squads habitually trained completely separately, he let the game go ahead. Well that was an unwanted piece of excitement pre-match , the moral of which appears to be never leave the house without at least 4 back-up games to hand .....

The game pitted 4th placed Lantokay against the league leaders. Odcombe had the better of the attacking play in the first half, whilst the home side created the better chances. Deadlock was eventually broken on 28m when Lantokay's no.10 managed to steer the ball across the keeper, and, instead of going wide like all previous attempts, this one clipped the post and went in .

Lantokay then set out to grimly defend their one-goal advantage . In the second half, they had two penalty shouts rejected, continued to give a masterclass in shooting just wide , and managed to successfully shut up shop at the back. The game wasn't settled until the 84th minute when the no.10 managed, possibly inadvertently , to deflect a cross past a wrong-footed keeper. An absorbing rather than entertaining game today.

17/10/20 – Yeovil & District League Division 2 (Step 13) – Lantokay 2 Odcombe Reserves 0
Admission: free
Refreshments: now’t
Covid Rating: 6/10. A QR Code was available at the entrance to the cage, and I actually saw a couple using it to log in. The funny thing was they only stayed for 4 minutes or so before walking off ! A large notice said “Socially Distance by using the Floor Markings”. What floor markings ? Indeed, social distancing at a venue like today is slightly awkward as you’re really caught between the pitch railings and the wire-mesh of the cage – probably about 6 feet between them. There’s always a lot of pitchside paraphernalia lurking about like portable goals which can be wheeled on and off the pitch; Ossie did take up residence inside one of them – nicely socially isolated! – but after an errant clearance from the home keeper actually flew across the pitch and hit said goalpost with a resounding clang , he decided it perhaps wasn’t that safe after all ….
Attendance: 8

Meanwhile, back at the town’s FB page:

Does anybody know if any local waterways or lakes have a population of invasive Signal Crayfish? I’d be interested in catching some (good to eat) but want to comply with the EA regs. Thank you.

There’s bloody hundreds down at Ecliffe …..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_cr ... sculus.JPG
The stuff of nightmares, crawling up a street near you ....

[Workingman]

I actually found Odcombe slightly more amusing, or as us Brythonic Briagantes would say "Odd comb" of the sort Boris uses.... or doesn't, as the case may be.

I know nothing of signal crayfish, but I did discover that the Lantokay Wetherspoons is "possibly the worst" in the country. That's some achievement.

[cromwell]

Well done Lantokey! The grim battlers prevail.
'Spoons vary.
The last one I was in the carpet stuck to your feet.
The one before that did some nice food.
No Crayfish though!

[TheOstrich]

A quiet week with the Ostrich only venturing out twice, once to the pharmacy and a subsequent evening visit to the supermarket. Our Ossie is very hot on the old social distancing rules these days , so when a third person entered the pharmacy after the bird (there are only two customers allowed in the shop at once), the Ostrich puffed himself up to his full height and pointed a warning wing at the interloper. The poor man backed out of the door mumbling profuse apologies, and in fact then disappeared completely! Emboldened by this, that evening whilst wheeling the trolley away from the supermarket checkout, the bird suddenly became aware that there was a similar trolley-pusher on his left, keeping pace with him - and gradually getting closer ! Again, an outraged Ossie swung round to give the interloper a piece of his mind – only to find that the bird-brain was staring at his own reflection in the shop window

Today’s choice of fixture was very much based on the weather – I knew there was sufficient tree cover at the Zeals Recreation Ground to shelter me from the worst of today’s gusty squalls, but even the sturdy oak tree behind one corner flag couldn’t save me from an absolutely monumental downpour in the second half during which you couldn’t even see the far goal . This was my second visit of the season, so I won’t bore you with another description of the ground apart to say it’s a pleasant countryside venue, regularly overflown by buzzards (although they were having a hard time of it today in the gales ), but the hum of traffic on the A303 can be intrusive in the background.

Zeals duly completed a demolition job on Ilchester Reserves and the margin of their win should really have been higher. The club are unusual at this level in having squad numbers and players names on their shirts, although there’s at least three Carters in the team! After the home keeper had pushed a shot over the bar on 8m and Ilchester had then hit the post from the corner, Zeals extracted revenge just a minute later when the No.23 Carter was put through and easily slipped the ball into the net, before the No.8 Carter scored with a downwards header from a corner on 11m. Johnson’s glancing header from a long throw on 30m made it 3-0 at the interval.

Ilchester pulled one back in the second half, but then conceded an unfortunate own goal when a wind-assisted corner swerved sharply onto the crossbar before hitting a defender and rebounding back over the line. Overall, an entertaining game in foul conditions, which the referee cut short by 5 minutes at the end. Nobody was going to argue over that, and I’m still drying out …..

24/10/20 - Yeovil and District League Division 2 (Step 13) - Zeals 4 Ilchester Junior Reserves 1
Admission: free
Refreshments: tea and chocolate available from the “kitchen” in the clubhouse, so I indulged in a 20p 2-bar KitKat
Attendance 10

And finally, from the town’s FB page:

Strange question in October, but does anyone know if Otters Nursery Wincanton have their reindeer Christmas display yet? TIA

Apparently it's penguins this year.

There's no answer to that!