Tag Archives: aviation

Johnson Rag

03 Wednesday Jul 2013

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Sunday 30th June 2013

Twinwood Airfield near Bedford

Entry £4

At the risk of a bad pun this place wasn’t on my radar, but Dad’s a proud member of the National Service (RAF) Association, and they organised a day out here. My job was to drive, and plug the postcode into the satnav.

Being ex-forces, and therefore organised, the trip included lunch at the RAFA club in Bedford before a cavalcade of cars made the short trip via the village of Clapham ( a point learned- I thought the only Clapham was in London!) to the airfield.

The base was RAF Twinwood during World War II and is best known for being the airfield where in 1944 Glenn Miller boarded a Norseman aircraft, bound for France, and was never seen again. It seems slightly odd that a museum to him is in the control tower, the last place anyone saw him, but it is a fascinating insight to the time and to a man who, at least initially many thought of as a coward, until it was proven that his concerts were so valuable to morale, it more than outweighed any potential use he would have been as a fighting soldier.

That however isn’t all that’s on offer; there’s more museums on the site, based around the time of the Second World War, including a reconstruction of a WAAF’s hut. That caused a few smirks amongst the veterans,

“We’d have never got away with the stove like this!”

“My blankets were better folded…” and so on.

For those of us with no memory of that time the Summer of 44 museum is a wonderful collection of the mundane, the scales, the pots and pans, and the posters of the time. On their own these things mean nothing, together and in context they offer a viewpoint to the past.

There’s also the only Wartime Fire Service museum in the UK here,  it takes the form of a 1940’s utility station inside one of the Nissen huts, and comes complete with fire truck!

A poignant section is the museum dedicated to aircraft recovery. You see the bent propellers and twisted engine parts, but what stops you in your tracks is the little photo of the pilot and crew with their ages. Few seemed to be over 25, it was something to reflect upon over a mug of tea in the NAAFI.

For me, as is the case with a lot of what I do, its the little things that resonate most with me. Be it the book on 300 ways to cook an egg, or the ARP warden’s hat, these are the things that with a little imagination put you right in the position of those people less than a century ago. That included the black edged postcard sent to inform a wife than in fact she was now a widow. That reminded me that in any war people on both sides suffer, and I have too many German friends to look at it any other way.

http://www.twinwoodairfield.co.uk/

The Deer Park

03 Monday Jun 2013

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Thursday 30th May 2013 ko 19.30

Division 4 Mellersta Stockholm

VÄRTANS IK 3 (Morales 13 Sjöde 77 Isimeme 84)

BAGARMOSSEN/KÄRTORPS BK 1 (Sheriff 34)

Att 46

Entry FREE

No Programme

Recent events looked like making my attendance at the 7th Annual Swedish Groundhop impossible, but I was able to catch my plane to Arlanda, then the Pendeltåg, or suburban train in to Stockholm central.

I’d wanted to be in Sweden a day earlier than the rest of the other hoppers, as with there being a collection from two flights the next day, an extra pair of eyes and hands are useful. These groundhops are organised by Joachim “Kim” Hedwall, and specialise in the games of football that are a little off the beaten track, in short the games that I, and many others watch during the rest of the season in the UK! I act as his deputy, dealing with the UK end of things and offering help and advice when Kim requires it.

It gave me the chance of a bonus game too. If you take the Red T-Bana line to Ropsten you get to visit Continue reading →

The Stretch

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Saturday 2nd March 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Potter 10 Smalley 76)

PORT VALE 1 (Loft 16)

Att 6,322 (865 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (inc Oxford Mail)

This was the game that proved, if such a thing were needed, that I clearly know nothing about football! As ever I drove to the ground, buoyed somewhat by the unlikely away win at top-of-the-table Gillingham. That had come about due to a change in tactics, from a pretty but often ineffectual passing game, to a horrible niggly, but direct style. That saw a recall for Deane Smalley as a one man attack. He doesn’t score enough goals, but if you don’t concede you only need one yourself! Chris Wilder has set his stall out on the passing game, so I expected a home game to produce a return to the usual style, and as ever I was wrong. Similar line-up, same tactics, but here’s the thing; not only did it work, and well, Oxford actually played good positive attractive football, and beat the side second in the table! 6 points from games against the top 2 on League 2 is as welcome as it’s surprising.

The goals came from 2 players who frankly loked like they couldn’t buy a goal. Alfie Potter’s been passing to avoid shooting, his confidence shot, so his lofted finish following former OUFC defender Darren Purse’s suicidal backpass, was as welcome as was Smalley’s goal later on. That was a touch an shot from 6 yards following a sublime layoff from Andy Whing. His introduction was the one controversial moment of the game. Yes, Adam Chapman had a dreadful first half and needed replacing at half time. To withdraw him during first half stoppage time served little purpose other than to destroy his confidence. That commodity still looks fragile despite the two excellent results. The other notably point was allowing Sean Rigg to take the penalty. Yes, a former Vale player would love to score against his old club, but that is also a club that knows him well. Clearly with regular penalty man Peter Leven out for the time being a stand-in needs to be found.

Tuesday sees Rotherham as the visitors, another good side. It also means the antics of manager Steve Evans will be much to the fore. Still, he does give me plenty to write about!

 

 

The Cold Wind Doth Blow

13 Sunday Jan 2013

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Saturday 12th January 2013 ko 13.30

Reading Senior Cup 2nd Round

WOODLEY TOWN 3 (Cripps 14 Edwards 53p Elmore 73og)

NEWBURY FC 1 (Shaw 35)

Att 15 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Programme NO

Coffee 50p

Now I’m back in Oxford, my local league, is I suppose the Hellenic, which covers clubs 5 and 6 promotions from the Football League, from West London to the Welsh border. There are several Woodleys in the UK, this one lies on the A4 on the outskirts of Reading. It’s the home town of TV star Chris Tarrant, and comedy actor Felix Bowness, and the site of the long closed Miles Aircraft Factory.

It had made copious use of the aerodrome that had sprung up in the late 1920’s and visitors such as Charles Lindberg, and Amy Johnson tested the latest planes here. On 14th December 1931 Douglas Bader lost both his legs at the aerodrome attempting some low-flying aerobatics. His log rather laconically reads, Continue reading →

A sense of identity

28 Friday Dec 2012

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Saturday 26th December 2012 ko 15.00

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

HALL ROAD RANGERS 0

TADCASTER ALBION 3 (Qualter 14 J Barrett 82 D Barrett 90)

Att 52

Entry £5

Programme £1

Hall Road are one of those clubs whose name gives little clue as to their location. For the record, they play in the village of Dunswell, just north of Kingston-upon-Hull. In fact now I think about it, they don’t even play at Hall Road. Dene Park, is in Dene Close, just off the Beverley Road.

For me Hull has always had something of a split personality. On one hand it has the Continue reading →

Procedure

29 Sunday Jul 2012

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Tuesday 24th July 2012 ko 19.00

Pre-season Friendly

RAF BRIZE NORTON SELECT 2 (Rockley 7 Groves 47)

CARTERTON FC 3 (Fitzmartin 68 74 Duerden 72)

Att 21 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No programme

Bottle Diet Coke £1.20

The normal procedure to get into an RAF base is to simply turn up with photo ID and time, and after checks as to your address and purpose of visit you’ll be allowed in. That was the case when I watched Benson Lions at RAF Benson, but with the Olympics imminent all military bases are on “Heightened” alert, so more stringent procedures are in place.

I phoned the Carterton manager Martin Wilkinson, and its purely down to his kindness that Lee and I were able to watch this game at all. The base asked that over and above the normal procedures, that all players, coaches and spectators should submit details for scrutiny before arrival, and that everyone should arrive en masse.

That meant meeting at Carterton’s ground, Kilkenny Lane, and driving in convoy to the base, around 5 minutes drive away. The check-in at the guard post was remarkably efficient, and in was interesting to see the departure board, exactly as you’d see at a domestic airport, but with destinations such as Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. I considered the memorial garden just outside the main gate, now in use since repatriation flights moved here from Royal Wootton Bassett. My fun evening, suddenly had a dark edge. Also of interest was the list of what you can’t take on a flight to Afghanistan. I quote, “The Sun, FHM etc.” Innocuous enough to western eyes, but not to an ultra-orthodox Islamic state.

From there we drove round to a large sports ground. Two football pitches, the remnants of an artificial wicket, and a positively gargantuan assault course. Lee took pictures, I chatted to the referee, the RAF’s Billy Moggach, and a bored WAG settled down with her copy of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” It turns out that there are many links between the two sides, indeed the Carterton reserve keeper was playing for Brize tonight! The Brize team consisted of members of the 3 teams that play on the base, in military leagues, which I pondered must mean when the base is on “Heightened” alert it must be virtually impossible for a civilian to watch a game!

With the Hercules aircraft providing a spectacular backdrop, Brize made by far the better start and deservedly opened the scoring when Aaron Rockley’s curling
shot found the top corner of Damien Mulhall’s net. The hosts looked far better organised and it was of little surprise that they double their lead just after half time, Phil Groves having all the time in the world to walk the ball in.

The game was turned on its head as late as then 68th minute, when the visitors finally learned to play together. A neat one-two set up Ben Fitzmartin on the
edge of the box and he blasted home. That was followed up by Mike Duerdon’s shot from a similar position, and the victory was won just 6 minutes after the comeback begin, with Fitzmartin doing well to follow-up a Lewis Brownhill free kick to nod home.
On a worrying note Carterton right-back Aaron Perry had to be taken to hospital suffering with breathing difficulties, manager Wilkinson missing his side’s come-back to take him, but I understand he suffered no ill-effects.

All in all this was both an interesting and spectacular evening out. I’d like to thank Lee for spotting it, and Martin Wilkinson for allowing us on the guest list. Martin, I promise I’m not scouting for anyone!