As ever, a mixed bag of results this weekend; apologies for the late reports but I`ve been waiting to see how Brechin City fared in their Scottish Cup game last night against Darvel from Ayrshire and who play in the West of Scotland Premier Division.  Like me I expect you could hardly wait to hear the result. Well, it ended in a 1-1 draw on a difficult night in the aftermath of storm Arwen, so the two teams will meet again on Saturday at Darvel`s Recreation Ground to see which of them will face Arbroath in the next round.

So, on to other matters.  The odd bit of good news saw Truro City travel to Binfield in Berkshire for an FA Trophy clash and they returned to Cornwall with a 3-2 win to set up a home tie in the next round against Dagenham and Redbridge.  Maidstone United crept through on penalties after a 1-1 draw at home to Billericay - the Stones will have to travel to Maidenhead for their next tie in the Trophy.  I think that might be it for this week`s good(ish) news.

As a lifetime Southampton fan I`ve got used to losing away at Liverpool, so the 4-0 defeat was not unexpected;  I`m just taking comfort in the knowledge that the week before Arsenal got stuffed by the same score at Anfield, but I put Saints defeat down to Liverpool`s excellence and Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl`s bizarre tactics which didn`t work and to which he has confessed and been let out on police bail pending further enquiries.

I felt sorry for my neighbour whose Gillingham were on course for an honourable draw against the blue few of Portsmouth at Priestfield, only to be undone in the last minute of the game to lose 1-0 but also to take what is hopefully a brief residence in the relegation zone of League One.

Back in Minnowland, there was a real local derby on Saturday when Stoke Gabriel(and Torbay Police) FC entertained near neighbours Dartmouth in the South West Peninsula League Premier Division East which ended with the visitors winning 4-0. Not very neighbourly, to be fair.  Vale of Leithen didn`t have a game and Fort William`s match at Rothes was called off due to a waterlogged pitch at Rothes.

But there is good news for The Fort, whose Claggan Park ground will host a friendly tomorrow evening against Greater Lochaber Thistle - the first time the ground has been used following extensive repair and maintenance work.  Let`s hope this might mean that Fort William can soon play their home matches, err, at home.

 

FAIR DELIVERY ?

Among the presents I was fortunate to receive on my last birthday was a subscription to `The Cricketer` and I am thoroughly enjoying reading this splendid publication when it arrives on my doormat each month.   It is like it says on the front cover - a magazine for those like me who have spent a lifetime in love with what I consider to be the truly beautiful game.

But cricket has been going through a difficult time of late, as witnessed by the goings on at Yorkshire and the more general suspicion that racism might have extended to most parts of the county game, if not at the game`s highest level.

It`s now reported that the hitherto much admired editor of The Cricketer - former Middlesex bowler Simon Hughes - has been dismissed from the role after appearing to `take a soft line` on the issue of alleged racism.  He is understood to have upset fellow members of the staff at the magazine with his recent podcast comments about the issues at Yorkshire in which he compared the alleged use of the `P` word to being insulted by team mates for being bald during his own playing career.  This was followed by the predictable backlash on social media which in turn led to an internal review and which led to the decision not to renew Hughes`s contract.

He also caused a bit of a fuss last summer when he criticised the ECB`s decision to suspend Ollie Robinson from the England Test team after it emerged that Robinson had posted historic racist tweets in his days as an innocent youth, which Hughes described as a `total over reaction and a media lynching.`  

In what is now becoming a familiar tale, former England captain Michael Vaughan has been exiled by the BBC and BT Sports for the forthcoming Ashes tour as a result of racism allegations made against him despite his strong denial about the comments he made all of twelve years ago.  

Seems to me that what`s missing in cases such as this is `due process,` when allegations of this nature are made but where people are entitled to a fair hearing before any conclusions are drawn as to guilt or innocence, especially in cases going back a number of years when a different `culture` predominated.   Doesn`t necessarily make it right, of course, but it would help if things were considered in their proper context.   Instead we have rush to judgment, for which a former Lord High Chancellor, Thomas Erskine, said that there should be a solemn pause before being reached and in more modern times, John Grisham was convinced that the trouble with rushing to judgment is that it makes a fair trial hard to get.

In the cases of Hughes and Vaughan they may not be facing a fair delivery, the ball may have pitched outside off stump and gone on to miss the wickets - perhaps they should have called for a review?

 

I`m finding it difficult to curb my enthusiasm but there is an upcoming election hereabouts due to the resignation of a local councillor from whom we never heard anything.  The usual suspects are being dusted off and presented to the electorate in all their finery via leaflets and campaigning on the local village F***book page. I`ve even had one banging on my door this morning, such is their apparent desperation.

They are vying for a seat on the local Borough Council and the mere fact that one gets elected to the vacancy immediately means that the successful candidate is entitled to a minimum allowance of at least £5,000 a year plus `expenses` just for turning up.   There are as many as 54 Borough councillors so the annual bill for the council taxpayers is pretty hefty and it gets even bigger when councillors become chairpeople or vicechairpeople of the myriad committees, for which they receive increased `allowances` - the self styled `leader of the council` gets £20,000 a year minimum so questions surrounding value for money become relevant.

Anyway, I`ve had a look at the candidates and they all represent either Conservative, Liberal Democratic, Green or Labour - all very predictable.   Trouble is, the Conservatives already have a stonking majority and so even if you aren`t an aficionado of theirs and you feel inclined to vote for someone else it`s not going to make any difference to the way the council behaves.  Around here Conservative votes tend to be weighed rather than counted.

So it`s all a bit pointless, to be fair.  Could even be a case of `None of the Above.`  I`m thinking about it.

 

I see that the powers that be who run football are about to meet to consider a number of proposals deigned to improve `the match day experience.`   These include extending the half time break from the maximum allowed at the moment of 15 minutes to half an hour.   This is so that the half time `entertainment` for paying customers can have extravaganzas such as musical turns and other japes  ( and allow the customers to spend even more in the retail `concourses` I suspect.)

Back in the day when I plied my amateur trade as a box-to-box midfield dynamo with a good engine and an eye for a pass for Maidstone Dolphins in Division 3B of the Maidstone and District Saturday League, things were a little different.   Our home games were played in places such as Mangravet or Park Wood with changing rooms not best equipped to deter would be malcontents and so our first duty at half time was to ensure that our paltry belongings were still in one piece.  Each of us then managed to suck half an orange and have a cigarette before emerging for the second half and it occurs to me that if FIFA`s expected ruling on extending the half time break had been around in those far off days then we might have managed a whole orange and perhaps two cigarettes.  

 

JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS.....

......when the raindrops of football kept falling on my head.   A painful litany of defeats for some of the teams that have the unnerving habit of producing results that  are disappointing.  I shouldn`t really complain about Southampton losing at Norwich of all places but I will.  The 2-1 loss to the team propping up the rest of the Premier League came as a particular setback given that the Saints had been on a five game unbeaten run and dominated the encounter at Carrow Road.  A win would have propelled Southampton into something like 7th or 8th place but as it is they remain 13th with the prospect of a visit to Anfield next Saturday.   Another of those days beckons I guess.

A quick round up elsewhere beginning - and why not? - with my neighbour`s Gillingham going down 2-0 away at Crewe`s Gresty Road;  Fort William, bless them, suffered a 10-0 drubbing at the hands of  Deveronvale, who play at Banff - a mere 130 miles away and fellow minnows Stoke Gabriel and Torbay Police FC went down to the narrowest of margins, a 2-1 reverse away at Cullompton Rangers. 

There were some wins, however - Truro City went all the way to Kings Langley in Hertfordshire (a mere 525 mile round trip) and managed a 1-0 win;  Maidstone United beat Chippenham Town by the same score but it was once again Brechin City to go nap for th second week running in a 5-0 win away at Lossiemouth.   Mercifully, Aldershot Town didn`t have a game - they entertain Torquay United on Tuesday evening when we hope that our street`s hitherto pacy representative Scott ("Six pack") Wagstaff will have recovered from his recent `knock.`

In the end I suppose the results were mixed but somehow Southampton`s unfathomable defeat at Norwich was just silly.   Oh well, I`m never gonna stop the rain by complaining.....

 

THE ROAD TO CHILDHOOD..

Sometimes I wonder whether it`s just the time of the year, when the days dwindle down to a precious few, when the deep midwinter beckons and my dotage gathers momentum;  but I often find myself looking back to the days of my New Forest childhood and wondering where the years have gone.   I came across this photo the other day and immediately it brought back wistful memories of those long ago childhood days. 

It`s a photo of Summer Lane, the New Forest road that leads from Beaulieu to Exbury and it pretty much shows the forest lanes in all their peace and tranquility, even though my earliest memories of such places may be tinted with the recollections of wartime, as I spent my first five years during the conflict of WW2.

At the time my mother and I lived in the village of Blackfield with my aunt and uncle whilst my father, having been captured at Dunkirk, was confined to a PoW camp - Stalag V111B at Lamsdorf in Silesia.  If there were any `advantages` of having my earliest years in Blackfield they may have been that in one direction, just a couple of miles away, was Lepe Beach which was used as one of the departure places for the Normandy invasion in 1944.  In the other direction, another couple of miles away, was the village of Exbury, owned by the de Rothschild family, but their estate was taken over for the headquarters of  the Naval establishment of HMS Mastadon, which  played an important role in the strategic planning for D-Day

It`s all different these days, of course - Exbury Gardens being famous for their spectacular displays of rhododendrons and azaleas - but Summer Lane hasn`t changed.  It`s a lovely drive towards Hill Top on Beaulieu Heath and each time I make the journey I get that feeling, as with all the other New Forest lanes, of being `home` again.   Click on the picture and you`ll see why perhaps........

. 

FADED AWAY...

.....as old soldiers do. Hardly a week goes by these days when there is not a report of an old comrade, an old friend passing away.  One of the inevitabilities of getting older, I suppose. and there was  sad news for me yesterday when I heard that the gentleman in the photo above had left us the day after his 101st birthday.  I had the privilege of serving with him during my National Service days in the 10th Royal Hussars, based in what was then West Germany in the early 1960s.  He was Major Dougie Covill, DCM, MBE and he had a very long and distinguished military career and a full and rewarding life in his later years.

He was born in Croydon and joined the Army in 1937 whilst being a bit under age.  The 10th Hussars (`The Shiny Tenth`) were part of the 1st. Armoured Division sent to Normandy in May 1940.  In late 1941 the regiment was in North Africa and Dougie was by then a tank troop sergeant and in this front line role he fought in all the 8th Army battles in the Western Desert, Libya, Tunisia and Italy until the end of the war in May 1945.   He was wounded twice and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for acts of conspicuous bravery.

After the war the regiment moved to Austria and then to Lubeck on the Baltic coast, where Dougie met and married Inge in 1947.   After many years of moving through the ranks of Army life, in 1959 he was commissioned as Quartermaster for the 10th Hussars and it was in that capacity that I grew to know and respect him and he finally retired from the Army in 1970 with the rank of Major.

He then played a number of active roles with equal distinction, among them as Chairman of the Distinguished Conduct Medallist`s Association and Hampshire County President of the Royal British Legion, which resulted in his award of the MBE.   He represented Alresford on Winchester City Council and became Lord Mayor in 1987. 

In one of my former lives I was once despatched to Winchester to attend some meeting or other - possibly one of those tedious seminars - which was held in Winchester and  the delegates were welcomed by Dougie who opened proceedings in his mayoral capacity, so it was an opportunity to meet up with him again and recall our time together with the Shiny Tenth in Paderborn back in the 1960s.  The grandeur of his office had not affected Dougie - same smile, same easy going nature, always time for people - and he is missed by us former 10th Hussars who knew and admired a true gentleman.  It was a privilege to have known him and it is sad to learn that he has faded away like old soldiers do.   Rest in peace, Dougie - you`ve earned it.

 

INNOCENCE RECALLED...

A few disappointments lately in the relative serenity of the world of cricket - England losing the T20 World Cup semi-final;  New Zealand losing the final and the growing controversy over alleged racism in county cricket which has ended up with questions in the House and appearances before a committee of MPs.

Now there is a difference between racism, other unacceptable forms of discrimination and the dark arts of sledging and genuinely innocent banter.   Sometimes it`a a job to tell them apart without the context but the lines seem to be clearly drawn between the allegations surrounding racist remarks in places like Yorkshire and the good old fashioned wind-ups that added a certain piquancy between the likes of Glenn McGrath and Eddo Brandes.  

You might recall the occasion when the rotund lower order Zimbabwean  batsman arrived at the crease and proved difficult to remove.  In a fit of frustration, McGrath enquired,"Strewth Eddo, how did you get so fat?"  "Well, each time I make love to your wife, she gives me a couple of doughnuts."  After that exchange, Brandes didn`t trouble the scorers further as I recall.   

Now the photo above shows the old cricket ground in the Kentish village where, back in the 1950s and 60s I played cricket on Saturdays - the church in the background is where Mrs. S and I were married 60 years ago - and when those games were played between other nearby villages in a spirit of friendly rivalry - no leagues to worry about, unspoken respect for the game and for our opponents and courtesies such as clapping incoming batsmen to the crease and never questioning umpiring decisions.

Sounds innocent...sounds idyllic.... but that`s just how it was.  We  were blissfully unaware of any need to do or say anything that would disrupt the enjoyment of those sunny Summer afternoons.  On Sundays I played for another village team at Basted just a couple of miles away and the recent controversies at Yorkshire - and now Essex - have recalled to mind the annual game we had at Basted against a team from south east London - Dominica.  As the name suggests that was a team of gentlemen of Caribbean origin who looked forward each year to their game against us on that tiny ground on its Kentish hillside overlooking the Bourne Valley.

Those games were a delight, made even more so by the qualities of our visitors - their cricket, their personalities and the sheer fun of being in each others` company.  Never a word out of place, never anything crossing our minds but the enjoyment of those blissful days. 

It`s called innocence I suppose - of a different time, a different place and as I am often accused of having failed to grow up properly, I do look back on those years and wish they could still be here today.  So do people at Headingley, I imagine.  Just to confirm the mists of time and the recollection of innocence, here`s a photo of Basted Cricket team back in the days just before I joined them :- 

If only.......

 

Well, with the international break in full swing, not much to report on the football front so it will be short with just a hint of sweetness.  I can`t resist mentioning, however, that the odd Southampton player has featured in one or two international successes over the weekend.  

The lethal combination of Stuart Armstrong and Che Adams contributed to Scotland`s 2-0 World Cup qualifier win away at Moldova and Moussa Djenepo helped Mali to a 3-0 win away in Rwanda - a difficult place to go to I imagine.  I had expected to see Saints` Chelsea loanee Slough born Albanian centre forward Armando Broja appear against England on Friday evening but it seems he was either injured or unwell.  Saving himself for Norwich away next Saturday I hope.  Meanwhile, our Norwegian playmaker Mohammed Elyounoussi  played in the 0-0 draw with Latvia and Jan Bednarek featured for Poland in their 4-1 win in Andorra.

On the domestic minnow-watching front Vale of Leithen went down by the narrowest of margins - just 2-1 - against The Spartans in the Lowland League and Maidstone drew 0-0 against Havant and Waterlooville and away from minnow land, Gillingham secured a creditable 1-1 draw away to Sheffield Wednesday and Aldershot Town finally managed a 2-1 win at home to Grimsby.  

Truro City play today against Bognor Regis Town but neither Fort William nor Stoke Gabriel had a game yesterday;  which leaves Brechin City to be the star of the show this week with a 5-0 away win at Formartine United in the Highland League Cup.

Today however I shall mostly be concerned with the cricket T20 World Cup final in the hope that New Zealand finally get their hands on that trophy.  C`mon you Kiwis....

 

So, England lose the T20 World Cup semi-final or, to be more accurate, New Zealand came through victorious.   I have no complaints about that result for a number of reasons.  Of course, cricket buffs like me go back two years to that extraordinary day at Lord`s when England somehow managed to win the 50 over World Cup by beating New Zealand off the last ball of the super over.

I was as pleased with that result as any other England supporter but I felt for New Zealand that day and it really was one of those games when neither team deserved to lose...or even to win.

The Kiwis now face either Australia or Pakistan in the final and I really don`t care too much which of those two make it through but I also really hope that New Zealand can win the title for a number of reasons, not least because they deserve it.  It will provide some redemption for their defeat in 2019 but also because it will be a just reward for the way they play the game.

There was an incident in the late stages of yesterday`s game against England when the Kiwi batsmen declined to run because they felt there had been an obstruction to the England bowler who was attempting to stop the ball.  To behave like that in the pivotal stages of a high pressure game did not go unnoticed.   As Nasser Hussain said on commentary, "That is just so New Zealand" and he was quite right as it encapsulated their approach of fairness and respect for the spirit of cricket.

If they do win the final at the weekend it will be a fitting result and one which will bring a  feeling of quiet satisfaction in memory of those dramatic events on that remarkable day at Lord`s.  They`ve got this far - now go and win it.

  

.......is defined in the Cambridge English Dictionary as "a willingness to give your time and energy to a job, to an activity or to something that you believe in."

That`s a pretty reasonable definition but I suspect for many people commitment can also be exemplified from experiences gained through life`s rich pageant.   For me, I have clear memories of when I realised what true commitment really is.  In my formative years I learnt to swim by the simple expedient of my father throwing me into Southampton Water from a small jetty to the rear of our house at Hythe.  Fortunately the tide was in and I swam alright but I have always thought that that episode not only evoked a sense of commitment for myself but also for my father, who must have known that  my aquatic baptism would be an activity that he believed in.  It turned out OK though.

Now over the last week or two I have been surprised (perhaps I should not have been) by the number of Premier League managers who have lost their jobs so far this season - Xisco Munoz (Watford,) Steve Bruce (Newcastle,) Nuno Espirito Santo (Tottenham,) Daniel Farke (Norwich) and Dean Smith (Aston Villa.)  And with those dismissals came the usual speculation as to who might replace them.  Some have been resolved already - Claudio Ranieri is at Watford, Eddie Howe at Newcastle and Antonio Conte at Tottenham.  

But it`s the remaining two where speculation has become rife and that is particularly concerning for us Southampton fans when we see that `our` manager, Ralph Hasenhuttl has been linked with both vacancies.  And this is where the business of commitment comes in, for me at least.  Ralph has been at St. Mary` for three years now and it has taken him that time to sort out the wheat from the chaff, bring in new players and begun at last to form a team and a squad in his own image.

During his time with us there have arguably been more downs than ups including two 9-0 drubbings at the hands of Leicester and the Damned United.   Now in normal football times those results alone would have seen the manager shown the door but the response of the Southampton boardroom after the second of those thrashings was to offer Ralph a new four-years contract which showed belief in him as an individual and what he was trying to achieve - a resounding demonstration of true commitment.  Ralph signed the contract on offer and maybe, just maybe we are beginning to see the rewards for that commitment.

So in my octogenarian naivete I hope it`s the case that Ralph will return the compliment, come out and say that he is flattered by the interest shown in him by other clubs but feels that he has a commitment to Southampton, is happy here and is going nowhere.  That would indeed live up to the Cambridge Dictionary`s definition as Ralph has already shown his willingness to give his time and energy to the job at Southampton, which he seems to believe in.   I hope I`m right..

 

Well, after another weekend of football`s of ups and downs, I must start by mentioning the fact that Vale of Leithen - our newly discovered ultra minnows - have reached what is perhaps an unhappy milestone in their season in the Scottish lowland League.  It came when their 7-1 home defeat to East Stirlingshire brought their record this season to 18 games played, none won, one drawn and 17 defeats;  but it`s their goal difference of scoring just 7 goals this season, conceding 107 and thus reaching the milestone of minus 100 that brings them pride of place this week.  But congratulations to them for carrying on against all the odds.

In other news, despite my forebodings about Friday night football, Southampton overcame Aston Villa 1-0 under the St. Mary`s lights to climb to 12th in the Premier League table following three wins and a draw in their last four games.  Heady stuff. Pass the sal volatile.

Two other wins to report - Brechin City`s 1-0 away win at Clachnacuddin kept them in second place in the Highland League; trouble is that only the team finishing top is guaranteed promotion and as things stand Brechin are six points behind rampant Fraserburgh.  A long way to go though.   The other victory came courtesy of Truro City`s 3-1 win away at Merthyr Town in the Southern League Premier South.  Reminded me of the old days when fans produced club fanzines; Merthyr`s was `Dial M for Merthyr` which almost rivalled Fulham`s `There`s only one F in Fulham` for an inventive title.

Gillingham drew 1-1 with Cheltenham in the FA Cup, so a replay at Whaddon Road looms for my neighbour`s heroes.  Maidstone United contrived to lose again, this time 1-0 at home to Slough Town, all of which suggests that Maidstone`s game plan of just avoiding promotion for financial reasons seems to be working.

As for Fort William, their game at Keith was postponed because Keith`s Kynoch Park ground failed a pitch inspection, which leaves only Stoke Gabriel and Torbay Police FC to mention and they duly obliged by losing again, 4-0 to Axminster Town in the South West Peninsula League Premier Division East.  That result keeps them at the bottom of the table thanks only to Sidmouth Town`s slightly superior goal difference.

So that`s that for another week - it might be an international break now for a couple of weeks but I doubt that will trouble most of my perennial minnows although the Saints could lose Bednarek, Adams, Armstrong, Salisu, Ward-Prowse, Broja, Djenepo and Elyounoussi (yes, he`s Norwegian believe it or not) to international call ups.  Come back safe, lads - there`s Norwich away in two weeks time.

ting for 

Especially when Southampton FC are live on worldwide tv this evening, so I have to go and hide in a corner until it`s all over.   Sad, I know, but that`s the way it is when you follow a football club that has the unhappy knack of turning a bright blue sky of optimism into a deluge of disappointment.  Surely, after four games unbeaten the Saints can see off struggling Aston Villa, currently recording four defeats on the spin and without £30million former Saints` striker Danny Ings?  Wake me up when it`s all over.

And it`s Friday 5th November - gunpowder, treason, plot and all that - so I expect I might be spending the evening comforting our golden retriever, Dudley, who dislikes fireworks as much as I dislike Manchester United.   I think I`ve mentioned before that I can`t understand why on earth we are `celebrating` a failed attempt to blow up Parliament when it would be so much more sensible to celebrate if the attempt had actually succeeded.

Especially after the antics in Parliament this week.  Boris and his cronies (or is it Mrs. Boris who`s in charge these days?) have been revealed in their true colours - again - and that`s something else that leads to despair because it tells me that there is not one political party in this country worth voting for any more.  I suppose there are some good MPs scattered around the House of Commons; my local MP (who cannot be named for legal reasons) knocked on my door the other day and asked me what I thought about things, so I told him.  I believe him to be one of the good guys, however and I`m sure there are others in other parties too but they do seem to be an endangered species. 

So the Tories have blown it; Labour did so a few years ago; the LibDems are anything but democratic; the Greens are irrelevant to the extent that they can`t decide who their leader is, so they have two of them and I can`t see my constituency putting up Plaid Cymru, DUP or SNP candidates in the next election. 

But putting all that to one side, as we are stuck with the Conservatives until the next election (which might be earlier than we think?) I hope that the latest debacle coming after so many since Boris was made PM might just encourage the party's `elder statesmen or statespeople` to produce an alternative who might actually display a penchant for leadership, statespersonship (I`m not going woke, honest) and a degree of integrity and honesty that is so badly needed in any country that calls itself a democracy.  Is there anybody out there?

Maybe I`ll feel better around 9.50 this evening when it`s all over. Told you I don`t like Friday evening kick-offs.

 

OVER THE TOP...

Seems to me that everything to do with this COP 26 thing is really over the top, bearing in mind the probability that civilisation as we know it is poised at the cliff edge with no-one willing to prevent us falling into oblivion.  There`s just so much stuff to be depressed about watching the antics surrounding this `global event.`

We`ve seen the hypocrisy - private jets, motorcades, 20,000 `delegates,` 200,000 `activists,` and I`ve lost count of the number of media `representatives` involved.  Not much has changed since the doctrine of climate change - or was it global warming? - hit our consciousness all those years ago.   Repeated warnings from the likes of St. David of Attenborough, juvenile rantings from the likes of the equally sainted Greta and the forebodings from countless `experts` have all largely gone unheeded until we the `ordinary members of the public` don`t really know who, if anyone, to believe any more.

Stuff coming out of Glasgow might give the illusion that things are happening and that real progress is being made to ensure the survival of planet Earth, but a lot of it might just be the usual political window dressing.  One example of many - Brazil apparently signing up to stop deforestation by 2030;  result? - more intensified deforestation of the Amazon rain forest in the nine years left before the appointed cut off date;  that`s if it happens at all.

Seems to me that we are heading for that fatal leap from the cliff face;  maybe that`s the fate which awaits human nature anyway and that, like the over-the-top sideshow of Glasgow, we are sleepwalking into a lemming-esque act of self destruction.  

We may be concerned about the future of `civilisation` but I`m not sure the planet is too fussed, for it will survive even if we don`t and once again I`m reminded of Sheldon Harnick`s `Merry Minuet,` which tells us that `There`s hurricanes in Florida; and Texas needs rain; they`re rioting in Africa; there`s strife in Iran;  What nature doesn`t do to us will be done by our fellow man.`

Oh well, it`s been fun while it lasted

 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE.....

.....that might be the question for our street`s local hero Scott ("the only way is up") Wagstaff, settling in to life in the National League with the Shots of Aldershot Town.   Unfortunately his new found chums aren`t doing too well, currently lying next to bottom of the National League.  That league is a difficult one - including some big clubs with long histories such as Wrexham, Hartlepool, Southend and the oldest football club in the world in Notts County.

Maybe, just maybe, Scott with all his experience of playing for Bristol City, Charlton, Wimbledon, Gillingham and Forest Green Rovers (to name but a few) can inspire his fellow Shots team mates to get their act together and climb away from the relegation zone.   Time will tell.

But what intrigues me is, given the countless times he has appeared on television and YouTube videos through his football prowess,  whether he could now successfully apply for membership of Equity - the union for those who appear on the stages of the world.   This might give him an outlet for when his playing days come to an end and surely the ups and downs of his long and distinguished career have provided him with enough insight into the world of drama, tragedy,  triumph, disaster, comedy - even farce - to guarantee his acceptance.

After all, having scaled the heights, been there, done that and also suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, he might find it nobler to take arms against the sea of troubles that currently afflict the struggling Shots and by opposing, end them.   I do wish him well.  To be fair.

 

Well, a bit.  Not quite dancing in the streets just yet but definite signs that things are looking up.  This week I can report two wins, two draws and whilst there were the inevitable defeats for our plucky minnows, at least those defeats are now only by the odd goal rather than the usual drubbing.

At last Southampton won a game away from St. Mary`s, the first since last March - this time at Watford, where Vicarage Road is always a difficult place to go to.  The game was won by Che Adams` solitary goal but his deft finish has rocketed The Saints up to a heady 14th place in the Premier League.  The other victory came courtesy of Brechin City who handed out a 7-3 walloping on lowly Strathspey Thistle to maintain their position in the upper reaches of the Highland League.

The two draws were, firstly, Gillingham who played out a goalless stalemate against Accrington Stanley at the Priestfield and our newly acquired strugglers Vale of Leithen managed a 1-1 draw away to second bottom Gretna in the Scottish Lowland League.  This was the first point Vale had managed after losing all their other 16 games from the start of this season.

And so to the defeats.  Maidstone United were perhaps surprisingly beaten 3-2 away at Hungerford, although having a player sent off twice didn`t help (He was apparently shown the red card but the referee changed his mind and later in the game he was shown the red card again but this time it was for real.)   Back in the Highland League, Fort William put in another spirited performance last time out, this time losing just 3-2 against Turriff United but the club are delighted to announce that football will be returning to Claggan Park on Wednesday 1st December as they welcome near neighbours South Lochaber Thistle AFC in a mid season friendly.  Let`s hope that the condition of their ground will encourage the Highland League to allow them to play their remaining home matches, err, at home .

And finally to Stoke Gabriel and Torbay Police who lost yet again but this time by the narrow margin of just 5-4 at home to Crediton United.  (Truro City play tomorrow night against Cirencester Town in an FA Trophy tie as a result of Saturday`s game being postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.)

So, all in all a mixed bag of results this weekend but one which suggests that things might be looking up, if only a bit.