Category Archives: Q

The Bible Club

04 Monday Jan 2021

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Saturday 24th January 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division One

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 2 (Dobbie 10 Tosh 56p)

PARTICK THISTLE 2 (Doolan 17 Chaplain 77)

Att 2,811

Entry £15

Programme £2

Iain and I go back a mighty long way, back to the late 1990’s working for a high street bank with a CEO without a “Shred” of dignity, I met him once!. We didn’t meet in the most auspicious of ways, a 2 week business banking course at a golfing hotel just outside of Tewkesbury. I don’t play golf, and Iain couldn’t take his clubs on the plane down from Dumfries each week. We were bored, the hotel isolated, with an expensive bar, and the fruit machine was seeming set against us. We passed (somehow) despite another delegate having his room completely emptied by a burgler (save for a pair of underpants) on the final night, but we kept in contact.

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Crescents

21 Wednesday Nov 2018

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Saturday 13th October 2018 ko 13.45

Bedfordshire County League Premier Division

QUEENS PARK CRESCENTS 3 (Parrella 21 Rasol 53p 90) 

Yusuf sent off 90 (2nd booking)

CALDECOTE 0

Att 161

Entry FREE

Programme £2

We picked our way through suburban Bedford, and passed the Charles Wells Brewery on the way. Adjacent to that was the site of the Eyrie, home to Bedford Town from 1908 to 1982 and still just about recognisable as a ground, if you know where to look. This is the Queens Park district of Bedford, and it did come with a history all of its own.  Continue reading →

Shapes

26 Thursday Jun 2014

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Headington Quarry School 1864-2014

I’ve written about my part of the world before, click here, and as you may know I attended my first school here, from 1976-1981. It was a happy place, even though the only time I ever managed to see out of the windows was when I returned in July 2003 to have a look round. It had just closed as a primary school, but happily it soon reopened as a foundation stage school for children aged 3 to 5, and so last weekend on its 150th anniversary, once again I had the chance to visit again and reminisce. Continue reading →

Slayer

19 Thursday Jun 2014

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Saturday 14th June 2014 ko 16.00

Division 1 Södra

QVIDING F.I.F. 1 (Zhubi 90)

ÖRGYRTE I.S. 1 (Pangop 46)

Att 1,275

Entry & Programme 100 SEK

NB On the Swedish hop, the £270 cost covered entry to all games, programmes, coach travel and two nights Bed and Breakfast.

About 3 months before the Swedish hop, I received an email from organiser Kim Hedwall. It had the outline line-up for the hop but the line-up included a trip to the Gamla Ullevi to watch second-tier G.A.I.S. I responded by asking whether there was an alternative to it, this hop is there to show-case Sweden, and the grounds that you wouldn’t visit normally. After all, its not difficult to book a flight to Gothenburg and do the Gamla Ullevi under your own steam. When Kim came back to me with the news that Qviding were at home at the same time it was an easy decision to shift our attention to Valhala IP, but the influence of the Ullevi was never far away. Continue reading →

Wassail

27 Friday Dec 2013

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Thursday 26th December 2013

Six Bells, Headington Quarry, Oxford

Headington Quarry Morris Dancers, Handbell Ringers, Mummers Play, and Rapper Sword Dancing

“There was an old man and he had an old cow, and for how to keep her he didn’t know how, He built up a barn for to keep his cow warm, and a drop or two of cider will do us no harm.” Trad.

One of the great advantages of my return to Oxford, is I can immerse myself in Quarry life, and possibly the biggest tradition of them all is the Boxing Day Morris Men. For as long as I can remember we’ve all headed bleary eyed from our Christmas hangovers into the cold December air at one or more of the 4 Quarry pubs. The schedule hasn’t changed for years, its always

11.15 Crown & Thistle

12.15 Six Bells

13.00 Chequers

13.45 Mason’s Arms

It’s a sign of the times that the performance at the Crown was in front of a closed pub. The roots of the performance are pure folk, rooted in the traditions of old England. There’s the Mummers Play where King George and the Turkey Snight (Turkish Knight) fight for the hand of the King of Egypt’s daughter. It evokes the triumph of good over evil as the Turkey Snight slays King George, but is quickly revived by the good Doctor. The script is altered each year to keep it topical, this year Nigella’s troubles got a mention, I remember one year it was Jimmy Carter’s haemorrhoids! Continue reading →

In search of the Quarrymen

20 Sunday Jan 2013

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Sunday 20th January 2013

Greetings from my neck of the woods. This is a small, half mile square part of Oxford set at the city’s eastern edge. Every tourist has seen the fruits of the labours of the Headington Quarry when they visit the “Dreaming Spires,” as it was from here at that the Oolitic limestone that built the colleges was mined, and the last of it built the school I attended, Quarry School. Have a look at the blue door, and look at the new stone at the right, at foot level. It’s new because my friend Matthew hated going there so much, he’d kick the stone in anger each time he passed through.

To this day many of the Quarrymen’s cottages are still in evidence Continue reading →