Category: Pic of the week

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A musical 2018

Pic of the week 9/12/18

Back in March I was persuaded (chiefly by Sam) to get Spotify Premium for the family.

I must confess, I’m glad I did. Having so much music on tap has been wonderful, and although its a little sinister to think how well the Spotify algorithm knows me, its recommendations and personalised playlists have helped me to discover new music and re-discover many old, forgotten favourites.

This weekend I, like millions of Spotify users, got a personal review of our year on the service, the headlines of which can be seen above. There is, of course, a danger that what you listen to gets locked in – you chose what to listen to, Spotify then suggests similar, and you can end up in a cycle of great music, but miss out on whole catalogue of great tracks. For example, there is no Stone Roses or Billy Bragg anywhere on my lists, very little New Order, all omissions to be rectified in the new year.

But I’ve really enjoyed my music this year, and will do long into the future, I hope.

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Where did November go?

Pic of the week 2/12/18

So where did November go? It just whizzed by and all of a sudden we find ourselves in December and Christmas has hoved into view on the horizon.  This time next week I’ll be on my hols (hurrah!) but it is a little concerning just how quickly the last month seemed to pass by.

Although looking back, it does seem some time since half term, the days are short, the evenings dark and the weather traditional December weather – no, not frosts, clear skies and a sprinkling of snow, but grey damp drizzle and rather warm for the time of year.

The refrain from “Fergus sings the blues” still pops into my head, a week after the brilliant Deacon Blue concert, I’ve refereed a couple of one sided Somerset County Cup games and had two floodlight league games called off on Tuesday and Thursday due to waterlogged pitches; am hoping next week’s game at Wells City goes ahead.

Although a busy week ahead, I think I can safely chart my progress until Friday lunchtime when my second longest holiday of the year begins. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to it.

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Deacon Blue

Pic of the week 25/11/18

Saturday 24th November, 2018, Portsmouth Guildhall – “To be here someday – 30 Years of Deacon Blue”

Blummin’ brilliant.

Words can’t do it justice. A 2 hour + set, including the real belters.

Loved it, so worth the effort and travel. Life enhancing and re-affirming.

Your real gone kid.

 

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Lawn

Pic of the week 18/11/18

Becky met Sophie in London yesterday, they both had a lovely day.

It was a beautiful day yesterday – its getting “November” cold, but it was a bright sunny afternoon, and today has been much the same, but with a brisker wind to chill the bones further.  The temperature is set to plummet in the coming weeks so, …

… today I mowed the lawn for hopefully the last time this side of spring. It has recovered well from it’s summer difficulties and I think it is growing better now than at any time since we’ve lived here.

The moss has pretty much all gone, and I think the hard scarifying I did in September took out all the old, dead thatch, giving the grass light and air to grow. Although things looked bad a couple of months ago, it seems to have paid off.

Time to batten down the hatches, winter is coming!

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Geoff Cottell needs a dog

Pic of the week 11/11/18

Geoff Cottell needs a dog.

As a young man, say 35 or 45, I dreamt of playing in front of packed stadium. As one mellows and matures into more advanced years, as I edge (stumble, limp, hobble) towards my half century I am more realistic in my aspirations and now I am happy to play the beautiful game in front of one man and his dog. It was great to see the Legend’s legend that is Geoff Cottell come and support us today – if only he’d had a dog, my day would have been complete.

We call ourselves “Legends” and play in the “Veterans” league but today, of all days, it was humbling to share a minute of remembrance and reflect that it is only because of the sacrifice of so many true legends who never made it to veteran status that we enjoy all that we do.

It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning and we welcomed Middlezoy Rovers to our green, green grass of home at Kingweston. The game began with both sides playing cagey, controlled football, probing, seeking weakness that were not there, both defences proving solid and assured, our back four snuffing out danger at its first hint. At the other end, we looked threatening, but couldn’t quite put together that final precision pass to unlock a well drilled opposition defence. Perhaps against the run of play, a communication cock up at the back let the opposition in to steal a goal. Heads didn’t drop, we continued to pass and play, giving a display of cultured, considered football and we dominated the remainder of the first half, but without bagging an equaliser.

The second half continued in similar vein until, 10 minutes in, we won a free kick ten yards outside the box. The big men stepped up, players jostled for position, runs and feints were made. Not interested in these antics, Andrew C-D simply stepped up and struck the ball sweetly, oh so sweetly, into the top right hand corner. 1-1.

At this point AJW demonstrated why he is SLT material. With the hoi polloi of both sides gasping what they feared may be their last having run around for the best part of an hour, up rocked Whatling, fresh as a daisy, to join us for the last 25 minutes, to show us how its done. But despite the introduction of our impact sub, we still couldn’t convert possession into goals.

And then the unthinkable happened, the opposition snatched another with five minutes to go. 1-2.

Spurred into (even more) action, we pressed, and pressed again. Andrew C-D broke down the right and neared the bye-line. Peabody was hammering into the box, six yards from the goal line. A simple sideways pass and even your aging author couldn’t miss. Andrew looked up, shaped to pass but then he saw, he realised. He knew. Pass it to Peabody and even he couldn’t fail to score. He would then gather the ball from the net, quit whilst he was ahead and retire from football forever, closing down the Legends XI as he left the field of play. So, prioritising the long term over short term gains, Andrew took the shot himself, only to see the ball gathered by the grateful keeper.

And so it looked destined that we would be denied any points. But no. A late free kick swung into the box – white strikers took turns to shoot but fail to score, blue defenders took turns, but failed to clear. After watching this comedy, keystone cops football for what seemed an age, a calm, collected Richard Bradshaw decided enough was enough and stepped up to prod the ball home from 8 yards to secure a deserved draw. 2-2

A great morning’s football, witnessed by one man (minus his dog) (My only concern about getting Geoff a dog is that it would savage our debutante keeper – Jake “The Cat” Mawford.)

First point of the season (which means I can now successfully tick off my PDR target for the year) – next game an away fixture v Aschott, a team still licking their wounds following a 4-0 mauling at the hands (paws?) of Huish Tigers, Sunday 9th December.

Millfield Legends 2 Middlezoy Rovers 2

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The gloves are on

Pic of the week 28/10/18

Yesterday we went to visit Sophie at uni in Reading.

It was lovely to see her again, and a lovely family day. An easy two hours in the car to Reading, met her at her Halls, before we all went “into town.”

It turns out Reading is a nice town – modern, vibrant, etc. etc.

But even better was the discovery that Sophie is thriving at uni – she seemed so happy, so organised, enjoying her subject: thriving. A great day.

Today I went for a run. Fortunately I had had the foresight to hunt out my running gloves a couple of days ago as it was cold, very cold. After such a fantastic summer that never seemed to end, and a benign, beautiful autumn, the cold snap that has snapped over the last couple of days has come as a real shock.

Running wasn’t easy today, I seem to have lost my “easy, lolloping bounce” – I was aware of every impact of foot on ground with every stride. As soon as I encountered the slightest incline or headwind my split time crept above 5 mins per K. Still did 7 K in a respectable time, but a good minute slower than my summer pace. With half term now upon us, perhaps I can get some miles in and get back to running ways.

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Match Report – Legends v South Cheriton (a)

Pic of the week 21/10/18

Match report (nothing to do with the pic above!)

You could have chosen to spend your Sunday morning in bed, surrounded by the morning papers, toast and marmalade. You could have chosen to listen to Marr try and wheedle out a half-truth from a lying politician. Or, as fourteen brave, brilliant souls chose to do, you could have witnessed the bright dawn of a new season of Legends football.

With a squad – yes, a squad – of fourteen, there were selection headaches to go with any self-inflicted headaches from the night before. But the first five minutes suggested the lineup was good. With the last, lingering strands of mist still swirling across the dew-laden grass, new man Simon C drifted into the box like a willow-the-wisp to put us a goal up. A goal that was straight out of the Mawford coaching manual.

Reacting first to the danger, Paul Sequin nicked in from right back to steal the ball from a Cheriton attacker. Having won the ball, it was zipped across the back four before being unleashed to the waiting Whatling down the left hand side. The ball was worked well with crisp, neat passing before Simon was found in the box and he finished with aplomb. 1-0.

From the restart the greens made their strategy clear: lump it up to the big man up front. “Deano” (the big man up front) had a good first touch, acting as a pivot to bring his team mates into to play, but Steve P marshalled the back line with a calm efficiency, reducing the opposition to taking pot shots  at Shane Potts in goal, who coped with all that was thrown at us.

A few dodgy offside decisions and a strong penalty shout denied saw us fail to extend the margin before half time, but we went it deserving of our one goal lead.  Half time saw some tactical changes to accommodate tiring legs; “Clean Sheet” Potts swapped the keeper’s jersey with “Leaky Sieve” Peabody, and the second half kicked off.

For a while we struggled to gel into new positions, but we weathered a stream of green attacks, and always looked dangerous when we exploited the width of the pitch.  However, midway through the half, we failed to effectively clear, the ball breaking to a Cheriton player who struck it sweetly, the ball moving away from the keeper’s flailing hands and into the net. 1-1.

But not for long. From the kick off, Andrew C-D collected the ball, beat five men, beat another seven, then went back round the first five just for good measure before calmly slotting home to restore our advantage. 2-1.

As legs tired on both sides, space opened it up and either team could have added to their tally. Greens won a free kick just outside the box on the right hand side. The taker nicked a couple of yards, seen only by himself & the keeper, giving himself a better angle and he whipped in a curling attempt at goal. Between the posts, Peabody flapped and could only tip the ball onto the bar. A green head nodded the rebound goalwards, Peabody again tipped the ball onto the bar, but here his luck ran out as it fell kindly for a green tap in. 2-2.

We pressed on, the better footballing side, trying to once again take the lead. But the opposition broke, and broke at pace. Together Peabody, Pockett & Potts were able to withstand the attack, combining to send the ball off the side for a throw. But like a green tsunami, Cheriton continued to surge forward whilst tired white legs drifted back like the mornings mist.  A quick throw in, and our defence was outnumbered, overwhelmed and unable to prevent the Greens taking the lead for the first time. 2-3

We didn’t give up: Andrew auditioned for an Oscar and Whatling practised his judo moves, but it was all to no avail and, as the final whistle blew, we trudged off feeling hard done by to have lost.

But the score matters not a jot. It was a beautiful day for the beautiful game. The simple pleasures of chasing a lump of leather around a pitch is not a joy shared – or understood – by all, but all those present today understand and shared in a magnificent morning.

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Fit for task

Pic of the week 14/10/18

I like this “grabbed” snap of the three of us on our way to Yoga (Sam was going for a walk around the block.) Tuesday and Wednesday were glorious days with wall to wall sunshine – very different from the last few days when Storm Callum has lashed us with wind and rain.

I’ve been doing a lot of referee-ing of late – and really enjoying it, although it hasn’t mean I’ve done much running of late.

And for much you can substitute any.

Due to a late cancellation, I found myself at a loose end this afternoon so I went for a run – my first since August 26th!

Not the ideal time to run (2.30 ish, rather than in the morning), it was windy (the lingering wake of storm Callum) and I was overdressed in two layers, but I didn’t find it easy.  Ran my Upper 6K route, the time wasn’t too far off normal, all splits sub 5 mins, except for the hill which was 5.12 but it did strike my how I’ve lost my easy running rhythm.

I’d still describe myself as fit – possibly fitter than I have been for some time, cruising my way around the pitch as referee, but it just shows how fitness can be task specific.

Anyway, with half term beginning to appear on the horizon, the opportunity to once again pound the streets of Street will soon be here and I can eat up those miles.

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Tired

Pic of the week 7/10/18

I’ve/it’s reached that point where I seem to be permanently tired. A one day weekend just doesn’t cut it, its not long enough to refresh and recuperate. One now just needs to manage the decline ’till half term, which is still two and a half weeks away.

Anyway, here’s a nice pic of some self seeded tomatoes that are growing nicely in the front garden.

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Sophie starts at Reading

Pic(s) of the week 23/9/18

A major milestone today, as we took Sophie to University of Reading to start a whole new chapter in her life.

It has been a long time coming – it seems an age since she got her results in the summer, but despite the anticipation, its still hard to believe that the day has finally arrived and she has “left home” (of course she hasn’t, but she’s not here full time any more)

The mechanics of the day were memorable for the wrong reasons – up early for a 6.30 am departure in the pouring rain, rain that did not stop until after I had made umpteen trips transporting her stuff (and there was a lot of it!) from the car to her new room. I was soaked. But what father wouldn’t do that for his daughter.

By the time Becky & I left, the sun was shining, probably a metaphor for the fantastic sunny future Sophie can look forward to.