Monthly Archives: May 2013

Remembering Mum

29 Wednesday May 2013

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We held Mum’s funeral this afternoon, and I was asked to do the tribute. My reason for publishing this is for no other reason to allow those who couldn’t attend to read what I said and remember her from afar.

For those of who were able to attend, we her family send our heartfelt thanks, it meant the world to us.

“It’s strange standing here today, if fact I think the last time I was here, I was stood on a box and was in Scout uniform!

Let’s start with a brief history of Gillian and her family. Laurence and Jessie were married at St Aloyious church in 1936, Gill was born in 1938, Celia in 1940 and Tim in 1949.  Laurie had a house built in Barton Lane, and the family attended mass here, until they moved to Staverton Road in 1953. So when after Mum married Dad and moved back to Headington in 1964 she returned to worship here, and continued to do so until her last few weeks with us.

Gill started school at Miss Welch’s preparatory school in Beech Road, and finished her schooling at Notre Dame High School, also here in Oxford. It was at Miss Welch’s that Mum met Deirdre, and that friendship lasted for the rest of her life. I cannot imagine Mum without including trips to see Deirdre, Ray and son James.

It’s comforting to see you all today. Its proof, if such a thing were needed, that the best things do come in small packages. In the few days since Mum died I’ve been struck by how much Gillian Mary Reade meant to so many people.

Of course first on that list is Dad. Married for 48 years, together for over 50, it shows what love, faith, and loyalty can achieve. A successful marriage and family were the lynchpin in everything she was.

That of course and her unshaking faith. Her Christian beliefs shaped who she was, but it was the quiet, influential type, few words, but many deeds.

But for me the Gill I’ll remember is the quirky smiling little thing you couldn’t help but warm to. I remember attending a garden party at Wolfson College for the retirement of Sir Raymond Hoffenberg the college President. Mum spotted him looking rather wistfully at the bouncy castle, so walked up to him and said “If I go on will you?” Two minutes later the throng were treated to the president of the Royal College of Physicians, and the college coffee lady jumping, laughing on the children’s bouncy castle! Dad and I turned to each other and smiled as we said, “Only Mum!”

That talent for organisation leant itself to many projects. There were stints as a school governor for both Headington Nursery School, and Quarry School. There was the Headington Wives Group, the WI and Religious discussion groups. This 5 foot nothing dynamo had the energy to organise absolutely anything! I remember the self service restaurant at Gatwick airport getting re-organised, because you SHOULD have the milk next door to the tea machine, and a hotel was gently let know that in a buffet restaurant it’s entirely sensible to have the desserts in one area, the last. Mum couldn’t understand why it would be any other way!

For many of you your memories of Mum will be the push-bike whizzing round Headington, with the little lady with the big smile, who didn’t fuss. You may be interested in the photo on the front of the order of service. Many years ago I was sat opposite Mum on a little Ferris wheel in Cape Town. I told one of my silly jokes and she laughed. At that moment I picked up my camera, and well, you can see the result!  Mum liked the result and she made sure the picture was framed and it still sits on the mantelpiece. Ah…. those memories…..

That’s why we’ve asked for donations to the Alzheimer’s Society instead of flowers. That terrible disease robbed Mum not just of her retirement, but also her memories and eventually the essence of who she was. That said, she bore the burden of her ill-health with typical humour and stoicism and even just a few weeks ago we still got a hint of her former self, when in Wallingford hospital a nurse suggested that Mum might enjoy walking. She smiled, and gave that shake of the head, that only ever was used when sport or exercise was mentioned. Exercise and Mum just didn’t mix; she even jumped over the hockey ball during games lessons at school!

We’re missing her horribly. It feels like the family is missing a limb, even though she wasn’t able to live at home from the end of February, the house feels empty.

We, her family would like close by passing on our heartfelt thanks to those who cared for Mum in her final few weeks. To Christine, Kate, Daisy-May and the nursing staff at St Leonard’s ward at Wallingford Community Hospital, and to Debbie, Vanessa, Vicky, Marie, and the all the staff of St Andrews Care Home, in Headington, your care and compassion was an example to us all.

We’d like to thank Fr John Baggley for coming to see Mum at St Andrews as often as he did. We know it meant the world to Mum, as did the visits from her family and friends. The support from our friends and neighbours, particularly Betty Matthews during this difficult time has been of great comfort to us too. Finally we like to thank you all for coming today, and would like to invite you, after the committal, to the Masons Arms for some light refreshments and to remember Gillian Reade, governor, chairman, and organizer, but above all else, a friend, wife and mother.”

Would I? You bet I would!

27 Monday May 2013

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Saturday 25th May 2013 ko 14.00

Middlesex County League Premier Division

SLOANE 2 (Kelly 2 Ellerby 90)

FC ASSYRIA 1 (E Baki 21)

Att 9

Entry & Programme FREE

When I first started groundhopping I soon got used to the incredulity. I actually went to watch Barking FC when someone commented, “You must be mad,” so I could respond, “Yes, completely Barking, and I’ve done that one too!”

The other accusation I occasionally hear is, “You’d even watch a game on Hackney Marshes!” Well, why shouldn’t I and I do have history with the place! As a highly disappointing right back for the University of North London’s 5th XI I played 2 seasons here in the early 1990’s, and I hadn’t been back since graduation.

Perhaps inevitably a lot had changed, the old clubhouse has been demolished and replaced with an impressive modern affair that used rust as a means of decoration. The café bar served an excellent coffee, and the bar/viewing area upstairs was a far cry from the beer that was lousy but cheap all those years ago. I stood by the pitch and it took a good 10 minutes to align myself with my memories!

I had a little run-in with officialdom too, and it does seem to only happen at local authority run facilities. An employee behind a desk was at great pains to inform me that photography was only allowed with written permission of Hackney Council. So young sir, if you’re reading this, the letter’s in the post-honest!

The marshes lie on the western bank of the River Lea and were incorporated into the Lee Valley Park in 1967. It was originally a true marsh, but was extensively drained from Medieval times, and rubble was dumped here from buildings damaged by air raids during World War II.

The celebrated cockney music hall performer Gus Elen sang a song entitled If It Wasn’t for the ‘Ouses In Between’ which included the following chorus,

Oh it really is a wery pretty garden
And Chingford to the eastward could be seen;
‘Wiv a ladder and some glasses,
You could see to ‘Ackney Marshes,
If it wasn’t for the ‘ouses in between.”

In 1997 Nike used the facility for an advert featuring some greats of the game, and in 2006 got into trouble with Hackney Council over the use of the Council’s logo on their would you believe Hackney Marshes range of sportswear. The range was to celebrate the fields where David Beckham and Terry Venables got their start, “as a symbol of all that is great about amateur football” they said. The escapade cost the firm £300,000 in damages. but here’s the advert, it is superb and this at least offended no one.

 

Today the marshes provide many pleasant walks, in reach of the inner city, but the most famous use of Hackney Marshes is for Sunday league football, with 88 full-size pitches marked out. On a typical Sunday, over 100 matches are played by amateur teams in several local leagues. There are 2 show pitches, the first used by Sporting Hackney, who produced a programme for their fixture against their own reserves, and the second by Sloane.

The big impact on the marshes recently was last year’s Olympics a few hundred yards away in Stratford; the ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower is just about visible above the tree-line and the Eastern Marsh was temporarily tarmacked over for use as a car park.

I’ve watched Sloane before, at their former home of behind the Royal Hospital Chelsea, of Chelsea Pensioners fame. It was a unique location, but they were forced to move as the pitch was too small, but a move is afoot to another of their stamping grounds at Franklin’s Row, opposite the hospital which would provide quite a backdrop!

What I don’t understand is the Middlesex County League’s insistence on programme production. With an attendance of 9, or which I estimate 8 were hoppers, even if the club had charged for the magazine, there is no way it could have been anything other than a loss maker which in these straitened times clubs can ill-afford. Yes, hoppers do love programmes, but hoppers are by their very nature transient customers. Great on an organised event, but irrelevant day-to-day.

The game had all the hallmarks of end of season fayre. Both sides tried hard, the first half saw an exchange of goals, and some common-sense refereeing from Mr Thomas. The second half can best summed up by the end of season conversations including sex-change footballers, and the possibilities of playing snooker with a foam cue! That 45 minutes was at least punctuated by Sloane’s winner, Phil Ellerby slotting home from the left, but in truth this fixture was largely an exercise in completion, a little like the motivation of 8/9ths of the spectators!

I left after looking round the new centre, it all seemed a far cry from student days and flat Toby bitter at 85p a pint, but that’s progress I suppose. I wouldn’t rule out a return though, I’d love to do a game on the pitch I used to play on…. any given Sunday!

Badge

27 Monday May 2013

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Thursday 23th May 2013 ko 18.30

North Leicestershire League Chairman’s Shield Final

LOUGHBOROUGH FC 1 (Varnham 64)

WHITWICK UNITED 4 (A Raine 40 Wade-Jones 53 90p Lawrence 80)

Att c80

Entry & Programme £3

I’m well used to trips to Loughborough, my famously unsporting ex-wife did her PhD at the famously sporting university, and I reflected as I passed the institution that this was the only time I’d turned LEFT at the roundabout on Epinal way!

I’d wanted to visit The Luffs for years, and for the most spurious of reasons. I’d visited Nanpantan-based Loughborough Dynamo, and soon after picked up an enamel badge from a dealer, only to notice that it wasn’t quite what I thought it was. I filed it away until I’d ticked off the ground, the trouble is that took 10 years…. Still it was well worth the wait!

The Drome sits on the site of the former Loughborough Aerodrome, on Bishops Meadow. That was originally planned to be a civil aerodrome but when World War II broke out the site was used for aircraft manufacture by Brush Coachworks. Around 335 de Havilland Dragon Rapide (known as de Havilland Dominie when used for military use)  aircraft were built here between March 1943 and March 1946. Several other aircraft were refurbished at the Loughborough Brush factory including Douglas Bostons and Lancasters by the Airwork company. The airfield even made it on to the Luftwaffe’s target list!

The postal address is on the Derby Road, but the ground is accessed through an industrial estate on Cotton Way. It isn’t straightforward to find, and I was not blessed with time to kill.

It became obvious that The Drome is a far better ground than just about every other ground in the North Leicestershire League, which was why the League picked it for their 3 supplementary cup finals. That was not popular with Whitwick who would have preferred a neutral venue, although I suspect their objections dissipated as the evening wore on!

The Drome is well appointed for two reasons, the first being the club’s 1998-2006 stint in the Midland Combination. The second is that the club’s administration is clearly of a standard way above their current station. They have a website, an active Twitter feed, and produce programmes for all home games, including this one, technically a game hosted by the league.

The club are go-ahead despite the limitations placed upon them. There’s no power, so the tea bar is powered by a generator, and solar panels provide part of the power needed for the showers. The club are pondering the installation of a wind turbine to supplement this. There’s no running water either so rainwater is collected, filtered and stored in bowsers. There’s a £38,000 grant application lodged with the Sports Foundation to get electrical power installed, but the local council aren’t easy to deal with and the club are worried as to whether they’ll let them dig the trench from the industrial estate.

The team have had no so such problems winning the First Division with only a solitary draw sullying their record. In fact their only defeat this season came against Shepshed in the county cup, no disgrace since they play 5 divisions higher than the Luffs. It does leave the club with a dilemma, do they go for the NLFL Premier Division, or do they fancy a crack at the Central Midlands League? It’s a quirk of the local football scene that the Leicestershire Senior League’s lower division is only open to them if they win the NLFL’s Premier Division, even though the two divisions are at the same level, 8 promotions from the Football League!

I did wonder though why the League had bothered with 3 supplementary cup competitions? League President Mike Jones, resplendent in his chain of office provided the answer.

” We were way ahead of schedule with our fixtures, at Christmas so we decided to play these as we didn’t want the lads to have nothing to do. Of course as soon as we started to play them it didn’t stop raining!”

What the game added up to for the Luffs, was a game too far for them. The competition is for sides in Divisions 1 and 2 of the NLFL but the opposition could not have been tougher, Whitwick finished second, and the opposition soon worked out they could win the tie if they slowed the game down, harassed the hosts and take their chances. That they did, and restricted the hosts to a handful of chances.

Adam Raine fired home from a corner, before Mitchell Wade-Jones doubled their lead after the break. Ashley Varnham jinked through to reduce the arrears, but Damon Lawrence’s magnificent free-kick settled the tie. Wade-Jones’ late penalty was mere garnish on an excellent win. They enjoyed the presentation, but I walked away impressed by the Luffs organisation in what has been a wonderful season, but also of the league they play in. I’ll keep an on both, they provided me with an excellent evening’s entertainment.

Am I still watching?

26 Sunday May 2013

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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 ko 18.45

South West Women’s Combination

OXFORD UNITED 3 (Allison 4 8 Caswell 76)

SWINDON TOWN 0

Att c100 at Oxford United Training Ground, Roman Way, Oxford

Entry FREE

No Programme

“For Pete’s sake!” I thought as I drove the two or so miles to the former Rover Cowley ground, “How on earth am I still watching Oxford United when it’s nearer to June than April?”

The answers of course were manifest. Apart from a tasty local derby, Oxford United’s women’s team are the success story of the club this season, and this was the last game of the season, and it transpires, the last ever time the ladies side will use the ground. However the best reason for being there was to celebrate the side having won the league.

With the club’s election to the Women’s Super League, ground-grading considerations mean games will played at Abingdon United’s Northcourt Road. That’s a shame for the Roman way ground as its a little gem of the Oxford footballing scene. Its a gem that needs to be visited too, as its future is, at best uncertain.

The entire facility, with its cricket, bowls, social club and multiple football pitches is owned by BMW, whose car plant is behind. The lease is owned by Oxford Sports and Social club but they intend to hand back the facility and cease trading when the lease expires in 2016, citing a falling membership and demographic changes. So far there’s been no indication from BMW as to their plans for the ground.

So from now on in, the only way to see a competitive game here will be to watch Oxford United’s youth team, or hope that the Oxford City FA, (themselves having problems with dwindling interest) use the ground for a cup final. All manner of teams both on Saturday and Sunday use the outside pitches.

But the job is hand was the final game, whoever the opposition. There were two surprises though, the first was the Swindon team not forming a guard of honour as the sides came out. The second was that the league didn’t see fit to present the trophy at the end. The players celebrated with gusto, but looking through my pictures it does seem that there’s something missing- the trophy.

Now as an Oxford United fan you will probably never hear me utter this phrase again, “I felt sorry for Swindon,” but I did. I’ll leave to one side the individually sponsored kit shirts, printed with red letters on a red background, but this was for them an exercise in completing the season. They only named 2 substitutes from a possible 5, and found themselves two down in less than 10 minutes.

That was down to Natasha Caswell’s eye for a through ball and Lauren Allison’s predatory instincts in front of goal. Goals 49 and 50 for the campaign is a exceptional return, and its a pity she’ll now be lost to the club, moving to the USA on a sports scholarship. After that, the game settled down to a pattern of complete Oxford domination, Swindon being reduced to two decent chances, Abby Picton and Niamh Rawlins both seeing shots hit the bar. But with time running down Natasha Caswell was on hand to bundle Dani Anderson’s cross home to give the score a more realistic feel, and then it was time to celebrate.


 

 

 

The Hub

24 Friday May 2013

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Tuesday 21st May 2013 ko 18.30

Central Midlands League South Division

BILBOROUGH PELICAN 2 (Tarbotton 62 Andrews 90)

BELPER UNITED 3 (Wadsworth 23 Smith 29 Nicholls 85)

Att c40

played at Pitch 2 Ron Steel Sports Ground, Lenton Lane, Nottingham

Entry & Programme £3

Nottingham’s Lenton Lane on the face of it isn’t the most prepossessing place, a narrow road, on a tight bend just off the Clifton flyover. It’s a place of a faceless hotel, albeit one owned by former Hi De Hi actress Su Pollard, and dull industrial units, but for groundhoppers it’s a footballing heaven.

Three adult clubs play here, nearest the bridge is Greenwood Meadows, then there’s Dunkirk FC, and at the end is Bilborough Pelican’s Brian Wakefield Memorial Ground. There’s more too, as nearest the entrance is Lenton Youth FC, and there’s Grove Farm now under the umbrella of the University of Nottingham, but home to many local league clubs. There can’t be many Saturdays where NO football is played on Lenton Lane.

That wasn’t lost on the Central Midlands League who in 2004 used the 3 clubs as part of a 5-games-in-day groundhop. They were the meat in a sandwich between Spondon-based Graham Street Prims and Sandiacre Town. With the 5 clubs now spread across several leagues that event is unlikely to be repeated, and so far no groundhop organiser has attempted the 5-game-trick again. There aren’t many places where its possible!

Pelican’s Brian Wakefield Ground is shared with cricket, and with that sport taking precedence there at this time of year, the club’s final fixture of the season was moved one ground down Lenton Lane, or as the crow flies, through the line of trees! The problem was that Dunkirk had a reserve game to complete, so they took the main pitch, relegating the nomadic first eleven game to the reserves pitch. It broke every ground-grading league rule, there wasn’t even a rail round the pitch, but the game got played.

The Belper substitutes commandeered the one dug-out, and chairs from the bar provided the home bench with somewhere to sit on a cold, wet and windy evening.

And to be honest it wasn’t the easiest game to watch, Belper clearly had a little too much for their hosts and 0-2 at half time was a fair reflection on what was a niggly, scrappy game. The second half saw Pelican claw a goal back but Belper soon re-established their two goal lead, and although Pelican scored in stoppage time an equaliser never looked on the cards.

Tithings

19 Sunday May 2013

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Saturday 18th May 2013 ko 15.00

Gloucestershire County League

BERKELEY TOWN 1 (Mackie 45)

THORNBURY TOWN 3 (D Thompson 23 Derosa 31 N Irwin 63)

Att 102

Entry by donation

Programme £1

Tea-in-a-mug 50p

On occasion I get asked how I pick my games. Normally its fairly random, with the major determinant being what time I want to get home. This one broke the mould somewhat as I actually bothered to see if anything was riding on the result first. More on that later.

For a county associated with Rugby Union, Gloucestershire really is a footballing hotbed, with two strong, well organised leagues, the Northern Senior League feeding into the County League.

The surprise for me was just how much there is to visit and enjoy about Berkeley, and I have fellow groundhopper and subscriber Bob Mewse to thank for pointing me in the right direction. For a start there’s the castle, sadly closed on my visit. Its a motte-and-bailey affair, built around 1067 by William FitzOsbern, and is most famous for being where Edward II was murdered on September 21, 1327.

He’d been desposed by his wife Isabella of France and her lover and ally Roger Mortimer, and imprisoned. The difficulty was that Edward had to die, so their easily manipulated son (Edward III) could be installed as king. Execution would require the King to be tried and convicted of treason. Most authorities agreed that Edward was a poor king, the loss of the Battle of Bannockburn against the Scots in 1314 was the country’s worst defeat since the Battle of Hastings, but several argued that, since appointed by God, the King could not be legally deposed or executed as God would punish the country in retribution.

The solution was grisly, if legend is to be believed. A clean body was necessary for public display, so Edward was reputedly murdered on September 21st 1327 with a red hot poker, and I’ll leave it to your imagination as to where it was applied. The cell where he is supposed to have been imprisoned and murdered can still be seen and apparently you can still hear the screams each September 21st…

There’s more treats than just the castle. Edward Jenner was born here, and his house is open to the public. He is the father of immunology after discovering that milk-maids seldom got smallpox. Jenner concluded that the pus in the blisters that milkmaids received from cowpox (a disease similar to smallpox, but much less virulent) protected them from smallpox. On 14th May 1796, Jenner tested his hypothesis by inoculating James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy who was the son of Jenner’s gardener. He scraped pus from cowpox blisters on the hands of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom. The boy was then brought into contact with smallpox but didn’t catch the disease.

Next door to the Jenner House is the Church of St Mary, where Jenner is buried. Its an unusual place, the tower is separate from the main body of the church. It was used as a Royalist defence during the civil war, and the North Door still shows the scars, musket ball holes are evident. In the graveyard lies Dicky Pearce, famous as the last court jester. He was the Earl of Suffolk’s fool, born in 1665, but in 1728 during a performance he overbalanced from the minstrel gallery and fell to his death. The question has been raised; did he fall or was he pushed? He’d apparently made fun of one of Lord Berkeley’s guests who had taken offence, but the truth will never be known.

Berkeley’s football season has been one of struggle. It didn’t help when the roof blew off the stand during a storm, but the club’s principle problems have been on the pitch. With two to be relegated the club found themselves third from bottom, one point ahead of DRG Frenchay with Forest Green-based Taverners already relegated.

With this being the last fixture of the season, Berkeley needed to better Frenchay’s result, with the Bristolians at home to Rockleaze Rangers. I had the added bonus of Lee West being at Frenchay. I kept the home bench aware of the score, they opted not to tell the players, taking the view that if the game was won, results elsewhere were irrelevant.

Sadly for this notably friendly side that didn’t happen. Thornbury started the brighter and soon worked out there was a real weakness in their hosts- their defence had shipped 89 goals in 35 games, and there was a real gap between left back and left centre half. Thornbury took full advantage with Brad Andrews in midfield pulling the strings, and a scoreline of 0-2 after half an hour was a fair reflection on play.

But then the unexpected happened, Berkeley worked out that their only means of defence was to attack. Karl Nash missed a sitter, then hit the crossbar, a certain penalty was denied by referee Alan Overthrow, and on the stroke of halftime James Mackie fired home to give Berkeley hope.

With the half time whistle having already sounded at Frenchay, and the score 0-0 it meant that Berkeley needed just the one goal for survival. That didn’t look likely as Thornbury soon re-established their superiority. Nathan Irwin scored the third, as the Berkeley players’ heads dropped, but salvation was at hand to the south. Rockleaze scored twice to make the game I was at irrelevant, but it was obvious that the players has no idea.

As the final whistle went, the home players sank to their knees clearly thinking that they’d been relegated. The Berkeley chairman quietly found the league delegate present, confirmed the Frenchay result and told his players. Other than one pumped fist their was no obvious relief, or celebration the players gathered up the two dugouts and trudged back to the clubhouse, no doubt reflecting on their lucky escape.

Wild West End

17 Friday May 2013

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Sunday 12th May 2013

“Stepping out to Angelucci’s for my coffee beans
Checking out the movies and the magazines
Waitress she watches me crossing from the Barocco Bar
I get a pickup for my steel guitar
I saw you walking out Shaftesbury Avenue
Excuse me talking I wanna marry you
This is the seventh heaven street to me
Don’t you seem so proud
You’re just another angel in the crowd

My conductress on the number nineteen, She was a honey,
Pink toenails and hands all, dirty with the money,
Greasy Greasy hair, easy smile.
Made me feel nineteen for a while,
And I went down, down Chinatown,
In the backroom it’s a man’s world
All the money go down
Duck inside the doorway, duck to eat
There just ain’t no way,
You and me, we can beat

Walking in the wild west end
Walking in the wild west end
Walking with your wild best friend.”

excerpt of  “Wild West End” written by Mark Knopfler 1978 from the album “Dire Straits”

Here’s a little tip if you’re visiting the West End of London. Don’t take the underground to Covent Garden, go to Leicester Square instead. The two stations are only a fifth of a mile apart and the walk is interesting. You take in the edges of Theatreland, Chinatown and of course Covent Garden.

All three areas are Meccas for the art of people-watching and it was a pleasure showing someone new around one of my old haunts. From the market stalls and street entertainers of Covent Garden, to the discount ticket booth underground at Leicester Square station, and the multiplicity of restaurants in Chinatown, there’s never a dull moment!

We finished off the day with a visit to another of my old haunts, Wonk Kei’s restaurant. To use its colloquial name Wonky’s serves the most exquisite Cantonese cuisine at bargain prices, with free green tea thrown in. There is a catch, the décor is tired, the plates plastic and the service such as it is, is designed to move you on quickly. When busy the staff can be positively rude, I remember asking for a beer many years ago and having the can thrown at me! Romantic it isn’t, but its worth a visit just to experience the place and I noted the best possible recommendation, Chinese people still eat there.

It seemed completely appropriate a place given the characters outside, a bog-standard restaurant wouldn’t fit in would it? I felt genuine regret as we caught the Piccadilly Line train back to Hillingdon.

The Pirton Hundred

16 Thursday May 2013

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Wednesday 15th May 2013 ko 18.30

Oxon Senior League Division One

WATLINGTON TOWN 1 (Pitts 74)

OAKLEY UNITED 6 (Woodfine 11 17 A Rogers 16 P Brown 73 78p Keeble 75)

80 minute game

Att 20

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

As a groundhopper I hanker after visiting grounds that I’ve driven past a lot. When I lived in Banbury trips to my former parents-in-law involved driving along the Shirburn Road. Its a just off Junction 5 of the M40, past the Model Farm (used for not-so-secret GM crop trials) and past the hamlet of Shirburn.

That’s where the interest starts, as the signpost is for a “Historical Church” not what lies at the end of the lane. In fact its the walls of Shirburn Castle, the seat of the Earls of Macclesfield, and its where in 1761 the astronomer Thomas Hornsby first observed the transit of Venus.

The present owner of the castle is the Beechwood Estates Company, the Macclesfield family estate management company. Following a long-running and acrimonious court battle, the 9th Earl of Macclesfield, Richard Timothy George Mansfield Parker, was evicted from the family seat at the end of 2004.

According to Sir James Dixon Mackenzie’s The Castles of England: their Story and Structure, “The castle is rectangular in plan, having a central open courtyard, and at each of the four exterior angles a massive round tower rising straight out of the wide and deep moat, which, supplied with running water from springs, encircles the whole fabric. Access to the castle is gained by crossing three drawbridges, and the summit of the walls is battlemented throughout; the main entrance is guarded by a portcullis.”

Its a real shame the castle doesn’t appear to be open to the public, as the history is fascinating. In in letter from Brunetto Latini, the tutor and friend of Dante, of Inferno fame dated 1802 he commented rather pointedly that,

“We passed through many woods, considered here as dangerous places, as they are infested with robbers, which, indeed, is the case with most of the roads in England. This is a circumstance connived at by the neighbouring barons, from the consideration of sharing in the booty, and these robbers serving their protectors on all occasions, personally, and with the .whole strength of their band. However, as our company was numerous, we had nothing to fear. Accordingly we arrived the first night at Shirburn Castle, in the neighbourhood of Wallington, under the chain of hills over which we passed at Stocquinchurque (Stokenchurch). This castle was built by the Earl of Tanqueville, one of the followers of William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy … It is now in the possession of a descendant of the said earl.”

I reflected as a drove the half a mile or so to the Recreation Ground on how I could miss something like that for such a long time.

You don’t actually see Watlington if all you do is visit the Recreation Ground. That’s a real shame, as its a fine market town, and there’s an interesting folly to find too! The Watlington White Mark was designed by local squire Edward Horne, who felt that the parish church of St. Leonard, when viewed from his home, would be more impressive if it appeared to have a spire. He had the unusual folly cut into the chalk escarpment of Watlington Hill in 1764. It is 36 feet wide at its base and 270 feet long. When you drive along the M40 through the chalk canyon near Junction 5 just glance towards Watlington and the mock spire is the other side of the chalk cutting.

It all puts the football ground rather in the shade to be honest. The club played in the Hellenic League from 1964 to 1977 and had one game in the FA Vase in 1976 a 4-0 defeat at home to Barton Rovers. These days there’s a pavilion and a permanently roped off pitch and really not much else. The vista is pleasant enough, but the neither of the town’s quirks are on show, but the players put on a decent show even if the game was trifle one-sided.

Its fair to say that Oakley are the form team in this division. Normally games this late in the season consist of teams whose grounds have drainage problems, but this one is because Oakley have been rather too successful! Their league record shows one blemish, a draw, against 19 wins. On top of that the Buckinghamshire club has made the finals of the Berks & Bucks Junior Cup,  and the Oxon Presidents Cup, losing both.

With the league title won on Saturday they were clearly focused on making sure the unbeaten league record stayed that way though this and the other 2 games left. And at no point did that statistic look like being shattered. They ran in 6 goals in batches of three and played champagne football in between. At the end of it all I suspect Watlington were happy to have got the game played and not been completely humiliated while Oakley march on to the Premier Division.

 

In The Gallery

14 Tuesday May 2013

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Sunday 12th May 2013

Roy Lichtenstein; A Retrospective

At the Tate Modern, London.

Entry £14

This might come as something as a surprise to you, but I really like art galleries. Yes, there are the obvious artistic qualities to the work of one of the great American exponents of Pop Art, but there’s far more to a trip to an art gallery than just the exhibits.

The Tate Modern has the advantage of a stroll over the Millenium Bridge from St Paul’s Cathedral if you take the tube to either Mansion House or St Pauls stations. But the interest starts as soon as you enter the gallery.

In my normal trips round the world’s football grounds I see, well football types. I know them, I understand them, and in many cases I like them, but artistic types are a whole new breed, and I find them fascinating! It was a shame that the gallery didn’t like me taking pictures, understandable if I were looking for pictures of the actual Lichtenstein works themselves, but if you want reproductions of those, there are no end of books available, or better still come to the exhibition, it really is excellent.

But look out for the people too. There’s the culture vultures, studying every brush stroke, and there’s the gaggle of sixth form art students, who feel they ought to be there. There’s people like me, the tourists eager to learn something, and look out also for the pensioners on their Sunday out. Then there’s the parents to whom it hasn’t occurred that for a 5 year old the art gallery is nothing more than an adventure playground.

But the people I found the most interesting were the poor souls who were employed to mind every room. In today’s digital age it’s impossible to enforce a no photography rule, short of banning every mobile device. It was almost written on their faces, “Be involved at the cutting edge of art they said…Britain’s best gallery for Modern Art they said… Now look at me- stopping a tourist taking a picture….” I felt for them even if I was part of their problem.

I smiled as I exited via the gift shop (isn’t that the way these days?) but I did enjoy the genius that is a Lichtenstein colouring-in book, and the great advantage of having a coffee in the Tate Café is that the people watching needn’t finish!

 

The Game That Could Have Been

13 Monday May 2013

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Monday 13th May 2013 ko 18.45

North Berkshire League Division One

BERINSFIELD 1 (D Murphy 53)

SAXTON ROVERS 2 (Belcher 31 Whitehead 67)

Att 51

Entry FREE

No Programme

Let’s get one little known fact out there; no club reads like Berinsfield. If you find this surprising consider this. In the 18 months or so I’ve been writing these reports the most read article was the one for Irvine Meadow with 368 hits. I turned up last week at the Oxon Intermediate Cup to watch Berinsfield and so far the resulting article has been read a quite unbelievable 541 times! Thanks Berinsfield, and as I said no-one reads like Berinsfield!

Few clubs locally at this level attract the same level of support either. The entire village seems to levitate towards Lay Avenue when there’s a game on, this wasn’t a massive attendance for the club, after all it was a cold and wet evening and there was nothing riding on the game, but if the circumstances had been just a little different just think what it could have been.

On Saturday if Berinsfield won, and Saxton lost, then this game would have become close to a shoot-out for the title. However Saxton crushed Kintbury 7-1 to take the title leaving Berinsfield to mop up 4 more games to finish off a highly successful first season in the NBFL’s top flight.

And for all of that the village turned out to watch their sons (It really is like that) play, and the tea bar did its normal roaring trade keeping them all fed and watered. If you’ve been here by the way, you will have no doubt noticed that the pitch has been rotated though 90 degrees for this season. They’re rather particular about a good pitch here, and the club will be using their best pitch, the one the other side of the clubhouse for their groundhop game in September. With the sort of attendances Berinsfield get, I’m hoping they’ll beat the NBFL hop record attendance of 190. I wouldn’t bet against them!

Sadly the game will be remembered only for the broken ankle suffered by Berinsfield’s Brian Rawlings after 26 minutes. As is so often the case it was an innocuous challenge too. He tackled Louis Bloomfield but landed awkwardly causing the injury, and the game looked like being abandoned in the hail and rain while he laid there on the far side of the pitch. Eventually the paramedic arrived followed by the ambulance, and as the stretcher was loaded on to the ambulance he managed a grin, as both sets of players and spectators gave him a sporting round of applause. I trust he makes a full and speedy recovery.

After that 40 minute delay the game seemed rather irrelevant. I and everyone there would have understood if the game had been abandoned, it must have be almost impossible for the Berinsfield players to concentrate on the game after watching their teammate leave the ground in an ambulance.

The fixture was reduced to a total of 30 minutes for the first half and 40 for the second. Gary Belcher opened the scoring for Saxton, and David Murphy equalised for Berinsfield. But once former Oxford City and now Saxton player manager Matty Whitehead thumped home the visitors’ second, the travails of a long season finally told on the hosts. The minds were willing, but the limbs weak.

Berinsfield don’t lose at home often but teams like Saxton don’t turn up at Lay Avenue very often, even if on this occasion they only had the basic eleven men. Still in a week’s time, the season for Berinsfield will be over and they’ll just be the small matter of the end of season party at the local pub to negotiate. Knowing them as I do, that will be quite a party. That’s the Berinsfield way.