Category Archives: football

Saturday 8th September 2012 – WHEN WAS THE LAST …

… time I saw an SD1 Rover?

sd1 rover 3500 ohio usa october octobre 2010I can in fact vaguely remember – early October 2010 in Ohio, USA as it happens. Here’s the photo to prove it and I’m still recovering from the shock.

In the UK is must be years ago when I borrowed one that a mate was halfway through dismantling, so that I could go to Kings Lynn to drops some stuff off on a girl that I was seeing at the time and the exhaust fell off halfway out.

And so this morning in Montlucon I was completely stunned to see one drive past me as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. And seeing a second one drive past me an hour or two later was even more astonishing. I’ve no idea what was going on there and I bet that I won’t ever see something like that again.

And I nearly didn’t make it to Montlucon either.

The effects of the last few days have been telling on me, because despite the early night I slept right through the alarms this morning. It was only the farmer bringing the cows back (I’m glad I did that wall when I did) that woke me up.

I had a good wander round and bought nothing much out of the ordinary – maybe a pair of these shell trousers that I wear. Auchan had them on sale at €9:99 so I reckoned that I would buy a pair and see what they are like.

I’m fast running out of clothes because I left a huge pile in my lock-up in Canada to pick up when I go back – which should have been this weekend but it isn’t and that’s why I’m running out.

I had a good hour in the pool at Neris-les-Bains as well and finally managed to see the remains of the Roman Baths – how long have I been going there and I haven’t seen them before?

In the blistering heat the baths was crowded as you might expect. And someone was having a load of fun!

A couple were standing about 5 yards apart and hurling an object about between them – the object being a girl of about 3 or 4. And every time she hit the water she was squealing with delight.

I was squealing too, but for a different reason. All of the pool was open and the water was absolutely freezing. Almost as cold as that pool in Québec back in May.

Tonight the football season gets under way and with no game at Pionsat I went to Marcillat en Combraille to watch AS Marcillat’s 1st XI.

One division higher than FC Pionsat St Hilaire in theory (but they play in the Allier leagues, not the Puy de Dome leagues) but you wouldn’t think so. The match was awful and so was AS Marcillat – they only lost 5-2 but they were lucky to get the two and St Prix should have had a dozen.

I’m off to two matches tomorrow – at Chateaugay for the 2nd XI at 13:00 and then down the road to Clermont la Glacière at 15:00 for the 1st XI.

Two teams that I haven’t seen before.

-1

Saturday 1st September 2012 – IT’S HARD …

… to believe that not so long ago, I was up here in my attic melting away to nothing, totally unable to move with the heat.

This evening, not two weeks later, there were about 150 of us shivering to death on the terraces of the football ground in Pionsat.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. The footy has restarted.

veterans teams fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football puy de dome france We had a little competition between a few of the local sides followed by a friendly match between two veterans’ XIs – one of which represented the old team of Pionsat and the other the old team of St Hilaire before the fusion.

And believe me, some of these veterans cut still mutt the custard in the lower leagues of the Puy-de-Dome District Football League.

The final match of the night was the final friendly of the season (if any match with the Miners can be called “a friendly”) between FC Pionsat St Hilaire and Nord-Combraille.

mattthieu malnar wins the cup fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire puy de dome franceFC Pionsat St Hilaire won that encounter at something of a canter thanks to a blistering 3-minute spell midway through the second half when they stuck three into the Miners’ net.

What was even more interesting was that FC Pionsat St Hilaire had no recognised striker on the field. Cedric wasn’t there, and it appears that Jérome (who is probably the best player I have seen in Division One) and Thomas (who on his day is as good as anyone) have left the club.

But there were two players out there new to the team, one of whom I’ve seen playing at AS Marcillat last season, who took the Miners apart.

There was another guy called Rene, who I saw play once last season and who looked thoroughly unfit back then, who seems to have been working hard in close-season and ran the opposition ragged throughout the game.

les guis energies renouvelables fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire puy de dome franceWhat is even more interesting from my point of view is that my signboard is up, as you can see on the perimeter fencing.

I’m something of a sponsor of the club, not in a big way of course, and that gives me the right to have a signboard.

I don’t expect that too much will come of it, but it’s advertising all the same and no advertising is ever wasted.

Furthermore, it shows solidarity with the local community and that is also very important in my opinion. Participating in the community means that you are no longer an outsider and in my opinion, all ex-pats should make some kind of active participation in the community.

As for the weather, I closed all of the windows on Thursday evening which is just as well as the temperature has taken a dramatic plunge. Last night it bottomed out at 5.5°C, a far cry from nights that didn’t drop below 30°C just 12 or so days ago.

What is even harder to believe is that despite it being Saturday, I’ve been working outside – on the lean-to in case you haven’t guessed.

This morning I wrote up the additional notes for the October radio programmes (I intend to be well ahead in the future) and then I went into St Eloy-les-Mines to do the shopping.

I spent absolutely nothing extra although I did go into Cheze, the DiY place, and buy the glass that I needed (€4:80 – made me wonder why I bought that sheet of perspex in the week).

I managed to bring the glass back without breaking it and then trying to find a safe place to put it until Monday, I reckoned in the end after much reflection that the safest place to put it was into the window frame.

And hence the work on a Saturday.

till, it’s in now. One less thing to worry about and one less job to do on Monday and I can have an extra 15 minutes in bed to compensate.

Tomorrow is Sunday, my first Sunday off for ages. And I’m going to have a lie-in and then do nothing all day.

Just you watch someone ring me up at 10:00 and spoil it!

-2

Saturday 31st March 2012 – WELL, I’VE SEEN SOME …

… bad football matches in my time, but I was totally taken aback by the one that I saw this evening.

Phone call at 19:00 to tell me that the floodlights at Pionsat hadn’t been fixed and so FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s game planned for this evening is to be played tomorrow afternoon instead.

That had me at a loose end this evening and with no footy at Marcillat-en-Combraille, a quick glance at the scheduling told me that there was a Regional Elite game at St Gervais d’Auvergne where the home team was to play Orcines.

I’d never seen a Regional Elite game and so I went for a wander down there, and to be quite honest I’m not sure that it was worth the effort.

St Gervais were pretty dire and Orcines weren’t much better, even though they had a couple of veterans playing up front who had clearly done this kind of thing at a much higher level a few years ago, although these days their zimmer frames were something of a danger to the other players on the field.

Add to that the fact that the St Gervais keeper was having a real off-day (he surely can’t play like that at this level each week, can he?) and a 3-0 victory for the visitors was almost a foregone conclusion.

After that I popped round to Liz and Terry’s where some ginger cake needed eating, and then back here.

This morning though, I had to write the text for two radio shows. It’s getting all exciting with a new series of programmes, but it’s much more work than I ever imagined it to be.

I popped into St Eloy-les-Mines for shopping, and excelled myself here.

6 small shrubs that will (I hope) grow into a hedge at the back of the raised beds, 6 rose bushes to make a hedge just outside here, some rosemary and thyme plants and a couple of lavender bushes. I can’t believe that I’m buying things like this.

It isn’t like me at all to buy flowers – I suppose that it is symbolic of how much I am becoming settled here.

-3

Sunday 25th March 2012 – THERE ARE NO PHOTOS …

… of FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 3rd XI’s match against Blot l’Eglise this afternoon.

I was busy doing other things.

Like running the line.

Well, walking the line actually, if it comes to that. It was a hot day and I’m not as young as I used to be.

“But surely the linesmen have to keep up with play” said Steve. Indeed they do, but that’s never an issue with FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 3rd XI. They aren’t as young as they used to be either.

But I did feel so sorry for them. Again, playing without anyone with any pretensions to goalkeeping, the first goal that they conceded was from a corner with the keeper stranded in no-man’s-land (or “no-person’s-land” as was once famously said by the legendary Turdi de Hatred on one memorable occasion quite some tiime ago).

Either come for the ball or stay on your line – don’t dither, otherwise you will be beaten by the looping header over the top.

Apart from that, the match was finely-balanced and although Pionsat didn’t offer much up front, the Blot l’Eglise team never ever gave the keeper anything serious to worry about, despite all of their possession.

The second half saw a different goalkeeper (said he, using the term loosely) and once again in this half there was nothing to differentiate either team. That is, until tragedy struck late in the game.

And not once, but twice.

On both occasions the Blot l’Eglise attackers had a decent fiery shot on goal. On both occasions the Pionsat keeper dived full length qnd got both hands to it. On both occasions he couldn’t hang on to the ball. On both occasions he dropped it – right at the feet of one of the Blot forwards. And that, I’m afraid to say, was that.

The big difference was, that I have said at great length on many occasions, that the Pionsat hierarchy is not doing enough to find a real goalkeeper for the 3rd XI.

And the fact that they went off to Blot this afternoon without anyone being asked to accompany them to run the line is something else about which I can rant for ever.

After that I shot off down to Menetrol to watch FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s Ist XI.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire us menetrol puy de dome franceMenetrol have a decent side – not as good as Clermont Fontaine du Bac the other week but decent all the same, and they scored just as I arrived – some 20 minutes late. And they scored another later in the game.

Pionsat pulled one back late in the match but the referee then, inexplicably, blew for the end of the game with, according to Franck, 3 minutes of normal time remaining – never mind stoppage time.

And there were a couple of bizarre refereeing decisions made in this game, as well as a completely one-sided issue of yellow cards, to the detriment of Pionsat.

Apart from that. I had an early start this morning due to an urgent need to ride the porcelain horse,

And so with the hour’s difference today as well, I’m not feeling myself, which is just as well as it’s a disgusting habit anyway. But I did some more work on the radio programme before the early start to Blot.

After the football it was round to Liz and Terry’s to discuss the radio programmes and Liz cooked a gorgeous meal. Penne al arrabiata.

The recipe calls for two chilis but Liz only had small ones so she put in 4, forgetting that the smaller the chili the more concentrated the spicy effect is. But then again who’s complaining? Especially as there was ginger cake for pudding.

I also picked up a hitcher, a prisoner on the white lins of the freeway coming back from Menetrol.

I do that every now and again, really out of thanks to the thousands of people who have picked me up while hitch-hiking in the days of my youth.

But it’s a windy road from Chatel-guyon to St Georges de Mons and I bet he was glad when I stopped to drop him off. It’s doubtful if he knew how quickly a Transit Van can move when the driver has his foot down, and how well the aforementioned handles with decent tyres on it.

Caliburn is running quite well just now. 

-2

Saturday 24th March 2012 – JUST FOR ONCE …

FCPSH FC PIONSAT ST HILAIRE football club de foot lapeyrouse puy de dome france… The 2nd XI of FC Pionsat St Hilaire had a little bit or two of luck in a football match.

On several occasions Loubeyrat’s forwards broke clean through the centre of the Pionsat defence with only François to beat – a rather regular occurrence unfortunately – and twice they hit the woodwork and on a couple of other occasions they either put it wide or over the top.

They did actually score two goals, but so did FC Pionsat St Hilaire, and the match ended 2-2. It’s the first point that they have won in an age, and considering that Loubeyrat are second in the table this is a good result for Pionsat.

This morning though I was working up here – preparing for a radio programme or four. Doing the gardening bit and also the French expressions.

Tomorrow I have to do the main part of the programme – the information.

We’re running out of stuff to present but I collared Max at the football tonight. He’s the part-time secretary at a couple of mairies and he did promise me to let me have copies of the arretes prefectorials – the local by-laws.

But he keeps forgetting.

And so I have to keep on reminding him.

And seeing as it was so nice today not only did I have a solar shower (35.5°C and with a saucepan of hot water from the dump load thrown in to warm it up even more) I did a load of washing.

“Up-to-date” I hear you say, and it’s true that everything that was hanging around, as well as what needed washing from this last week has now been attended to, but of course I found some more stuff lying around that I had overlooked and so the pile hasn’t diminished any.

What was nice about the wash was that the temperature of the water was well over 70°C. What I did was to run part of the clothes through the wash at 70°C and then left them to soak while I went off to do a quick bit of shopping at St Eloy les Mines.

When I came back the water had of course cooled down and so I put the woolly jumpers in from winter and gave them a run round in the machine. That will have sorted them out.

But what with one thing or another there seems to be plenty of surplus energy around. I think that I’m going to have to switch the fridge on for 24 hours every day so that the batteries can run down a little overnight.

If it’s a miserable grey day I can always unplug it in the morning.

-3

Sunday 18th March 2012 – WELL, WE COULDN’T MAKE IT …

… 3rd time lucky today.

fcpsh pc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot es le quartier puy de dome franceFC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI were away at Le Quartier this afternoon, just down the road from me, in a match that they really needed to win. And it looked quite optimistic on paper too because they had a strong line-up today.

However, it all started to go pear-shaped early in the 1st half when Le Quartier took the lead thanks to yet another load of Pionsat powder-puff defending. But luckily Pionsat held them at bay for the rest of that half.

fcpsh pc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot es le quartier puy de dome franceThe second-half started in a most astonishing fashion. Le Quartier took the kickoff, Pionsat intercepted, went upfield and a substitute who had come on after the interval, scored with his first kick.

And direcly from the restart, one of the Pionsat players intercepted the ball, went four paces upfield and blasted a rocket into the Le Quartier net off the inside of the post

fcpsh pc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot es le quartier puy de dome franceIt wasn’t to last though. Le Quartier were going forward relentlessly and Pionsat were careless with the ball in possession in defence. François performed heroics in goal, the woodwork came to Pionsat’s rescue on several occasions, and the Le Quartier attack was way off target on many occasions.

But nevertheless, two more balls found their way into Pionsat’s net, one of them cruelly in stoppage time.

For years I’ve been complaining about the FC Pionsat St Hilaire 2nd XI’s defence. They now have a good goalkeeper in François but that’s about it, really.

And with the exception of Gaëtan who wasn’t there today, this was the strongest team that they could possibly put out.

But with yet another defeat against mediocre opposition I am really fearing the worst. 

And winter is back too. When I checked earlier, it was a mere 1.4°C. Quite a far cry from the 12°C night-time temperatures of just recently.

-1

Saturday 17th March 2012 – I HAD ANOTHER …

… bad night’s sleep last night.

But I was still up and about at 08:30 in time to go to Montlucon.

The trouble is though that after only about 3 hours sleep I’m never in a good mood, I can’t concentrate and I can’t think straight. I couldn’t remember what it was that I needed from Brico Depot and when I did find some things I wasn’t able to summon up the energy to load them up onto Caliburn’s roof rack.

In fact, for several reasons I wasted my time in going.

It didn’t help in that the Auchan only had early seed potatoes. No onions, no garlic, no shallots, no maincrop seed potatoes and so that was a washout. In the end, I went to Mr Bricolage to see if they had anything exciting.

Nothing at all, as it happened but firstly I bumped into Rob and Nicolette from down the road and we had a good chat;

And then who else should turn up but Liz and Terry. We all had a good chat and then Liz, Terry and I went down the road to Jardiland. They had everything that I needed in the vegetable line, but at quite a price.

Never mind though, Liz and I went halves on most things and so it wasn’t too bad.

After a coffee together my early start ended up being one of the latest returns from Montlucon that I had ever had and I almost missed the start of the footy matches back at Pionsat.

There were two tonight – the 3rd XI of Pionsat St Hilaire against Biollet-St Maurice and the Ist XI against Malauzat.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot biollet st maurice puy de dome franceIn the away match at Biollet St Maurice the 3rd XI had led for much of the game but faded away at the end to lose. But today, with a full team out (but no goalkeeper) they looked the business.

At one stage they were 3-0 up but faded away at the end and hung on grimly for a 4-3 win. And if Biollet St Maurice hadn’t have missed a penalty earlier in the game it would have been a different story again.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot biollet st maurice puy de dome franceBut a win is a win, and it’s a rare enough event for the 3rd XI so they are quite right to celebrate it.

The big difference in the team today was that Simon, who used to play for the 1st XI, was out there playing at centre-forward. He now lives in Switzerland but luckily the club has retains his French football registration.

He he had come back this weekend to visit his family and one of his friends from the football club had talked him into playing.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot biollet st maurice puy de dome franceIt was his irst match for over a year, he told me after the match and to be honest, it looked like it too,

But there was no denying his skill and ball control, and he and Stéphane Gomet, playing on the left wing, spent most of the match tearing the Biollet St Maurice defence to shreds.

It’s a shame that they can’t find a decent goalkeeper for the team because that really is the difference.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot esv malauzat puy de dome franceFC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st XI were playing ESV Malauzat in the second match and they also won their match.

2-0 the final score was, and they never ever at any moment looked under any pressure. I don’t recall Matthieu having much to do in the FC Pionsat St Hilaire goal.

However ESV Malauzat’s keeper was working overtime and if it wasn’t for him we would have had a cricket score this evening.

The weather broke too at about 22:00 and now it’s pouring down. And I’m off to bed because I’m really whacked.

-2

Sunday 11th March 2012 – CONTINUING ON …

… with the saga of weird football matches, I went to Terjat this afternoon to watch AS Terjat play a team from Montlucon – Bien Assis I think – seeing as how there was no Pionsat team in action this afternoon.

The trainer for Terjat, with whom I struck up some kind of conversation last time I was there and which carried on this afternoon, told me that in the league tables Turgid were well ahead of their opponents, and that they needed to win (which everyone was expecting) to keep up some kind of reasonable pretensions for promotion.

He was right about the “well ahead of their opponents” bit, because a more one-sided game you would not wish to see.

However from the first attack of the game one of the Bien Assis forwards had a weak shot on goal, well covered by the keeper and which would have been comfortably saved had the ball not taken a wicked deflection off the needlessly-outstretched foot of a Turgid defender and rolled into the far corner of the net.

For the remaining 89 minutes AS Terjat were camped in the opposition half with their keeper being merely an interested spectator.

And the final score?

Yes, you guessed it. 1-0 for Bien Assis.

As an aside, the Turgid keeper had one of the most powerful kicks I have ever seen and his clearances upfield were outpacing his attackers every time. And one of the Turgid central defenders was the best header of the ball that I have ever seen at this level of football.

In fact this game was quite a decent match for aerial prowess. I’ve not seen another match quite like this one for that kind of thing.

But the referee came out onto the field of play having left his cards in the dressing room.

At least that’s the only reason I can think of as to how we managed to reach the end of 90 minutes of this match without a single card being shown, despite the kind of goings-on that we had during the game.

“Hard-fought” is probably quite an apt description.

In other news, I had something of a lie-in today. In fact, 11:29 was when I crawled out of my stinking pit. About time I had a good lie-in.

We are also having a record day for wind power. I’ve had the power meter connected up for about 10 days or so, and we’ve had more wind today than the cumulative figure over the other 9 days.

It really is quite impressive. 

-2

Saturday 10th March 2012 – BRAIN OF A DUCK, YOU KNOW!

Yes, Brain of Britain drove all of the way to Commentry to do his shopping this afternoon, only to find when he arrived there that he had forgotten his money, his wallet and his bank cards.

And so all the way back to here to fetch them and then go all the way back again.

That meant that I didn’t have time to do much shopping and so I just did the bare essentials – and then only some because I forgot quite a lot, I reckon.

And after that, a nip to the swimming baths at Neris-les-Bains.

It was freezing in there this afternoon and I wasn’t sorry to come out after an hour or so.

But I did have an amusing time watching a group of kids in there. All aged between 6 and 8 I reckon and all came in individually with parents, but after a while I noticed that they were all playing together in a corner of the shallow end.

It never ceases to amaze me how unself-conscious kids of that age are, and how quickly they all seem to integrate.

puy de dome franceFC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 3rd XI were playing Sauret this evening at football down at the bottom of Division 4 of the Puy de Dome District league in Pionsat.

For once they had a full side out with a couple of new players as well as a few decent players who have featured for the second XI. And so they spent most of the match peppering the Sauret goal whereas the opposition just contented themselves with a few breakaways.

And such is the perversity of modern football that Sauret won the encounter by 2-1.

This was another match that Pionsat threw away. They really do need to win encounters like this if they want to crawl away from the basement.

-2

Sunday 4th March 2012 – IT WAS SUNDAY TODAY …

… and despite me having another one of these “04:30 in the morning” sessions, it was 10:25 when I was up and about.

Just as well, though, because I had to have an early start.

FC Pionsat Sy Hilaire’s 1st XI was playing Clermont Fontaine du Bac’s 2nd XI today and that necessitated a drive almost to Aubière – and the kick-off was at 13:00. That meant an 11:30 start from here.

Finding the stadium was easy. Finding the entrance was something else. Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, I stumbled upon it – in the … errr …”rue du Fontaine du Bac”.

D’ohhhh!!!!

fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot clermnt fontaine du bac puy de dome franceThe opponents were a good strong attacking side, and Pionsat’s team was … errr … somewhat makeshift, especially in defence. Not one of the four established full-backs was out there today.

And Jerome, who usually tears up opposition defences, was on the bench (the only substitute as well) and Franck resisted all temptation to put him on the field in place of the one or two attacking midfielders who were clearly only there in body this afternoon.

He managed a brief 15-minute cameo when Cedric was forced to hobble off. It was no surprise that Pionsat lost 3-1, and it was something of a disappointment.

On the way back I stopped to fuel up at the Auchan at Clermont-Ferrand – and €1.42 per litre for the diesel. It’s ridiculous the cost of fuel right now, and it’s not going to let up.

It’s also raining – the first time for 8 days – and the wind has shifted direction and is blowing from the north-west. We’ve been promised snow again on Tuesday and by the looks of things it may well be here before that.

-1

Saturday 3rd March 2012 – THE WEATHER …

… wasn’t quite as nice today.

Based upon the scheme of description that I use, we had “scattered clouds” this morning followed by “clouds” this afternoon. That’s rather a change from the “glorious” of the last couple of days.

I was up quite early this morning and had something of a lazy half-day doing nothing in particular.

From there it was off to Commentry, just for a change, to do a round of the shops there. But there was nothing extraordinary at all on offer about the place today and I didn’t buy anything special at all

I did make it to the swimming baths at Neris-les-bBains though, for the first time in ages, and I’m all clean now.

fcpsh football club pionsat st hilaire puy de dome franceI finally managed to watch a football match tonight – the first time for what feels like several years.

Down in Pionsat, FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI were playing Menetrol so I went along to lend them my support. And despite playing a little better than they have done just recently, they still managed to lose again.

They are now struggling near the foot of the table with relegation starting to stare them in the face and it’s all looking quite ominous.

-3

Sunday 26th February 2012 – ONE THING …

… that I can never understand is how it is that it can be 4:30 in the morning and I’m wide awake and I only go to bed because it’s force of habit – and yet next morning I wake up, don’t move for ages, slowly come round, eventually make sure that I’m wide awake and then get up because there’s no point in lying in any longer, and it’s only 09:20.

I don’t understand that at all.

And so despite it being yet another day of rest, I did the script for the new radio show, more of which anon, and then went off toi watch the football at Pionsat as the season has restarted.

I was spoilt for choice – FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st XI were at home to Chanat or the 2nd XI were away at Lapeyrouse?

Now I’ve never been to Lapeyrouse for a match, believe it or not, but the 1st XI match sounded much more interesting and so I waited until 14:50 and went down to the ground, only to find the game postponed.

GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

If only someone had let me know!

Mind you, it’s probably as well that I didn’t go, because the 2nd XI were soundly spanked by the opposition.

But what was remarkable today is that I had to cook my tea downstairs in the verandah on the gas stove. Reason – I’ve not had the fire lit all day. When I woke up it was 17°C and it’s currently 15.5°C.

Isn’t this all a big change from two weeks ago?

-3

Sunday 29th January 2012 – IT’S BEEN SUNDAY TODAY …

TERJAT ALLIER marcillat allier virlet puy de dome france… and so I had a nice drive out in the countryside in the freezing (and I do mean “freezing” weather. In fact as far as Terjat, where the home team was playing Target in the Allier League 3rd Division.

It’s a beautiful setting up there at Terjat, and you can see right across the valley to the snow-covered hills in the background. It’s over there somewhere in those hills, at the back of Montaigut where I live.

Another thing about Sunday is that there’s no alarm clock and so with no-one ringing me up at some stupid time of the day, I can lie in until 10:24 without the least pang of guilt, in clean sheets and bedding the bed in its “double-bed” position, back in its old place by the little window.

Luxury!

The temperature in here was 13.2°C and that’s another thing that I like about this new fire that I’ve bought. With the old one, there wasn’t enough residual heat to keep the room warm once the fire went out and the temperature would often drop into single figures overnight.

But this fire keeps warm for ages and it’s maintaining a reasonable heat (up to now, anyway). and first thing that I did, even before breakfast, was to light the fire again. And I’ve been warm all day, which is really impressive and just what the doctor ordered.

In the warmth and comfort of my attic I’m well on the way towards the end of my presentation of the Trans-Labrador Highway – one or two more days and it will be done, I hope.

The football promised to be a real struggle, in the cold (coldest day of the winter so far) and the wind. And with Turgid being 3rd from bottom of the lowest possible league in the Allier, and Target being one place below them, I’m not quite sure what I expected. But it wasn’t much.

But having been overly critical of the football in the Allier, I have to say in fairness that this was a good game. Turgid played quite well, helped by the fact that Target, while they weren’t “bad”, they were rather clueless and ran out of ideas whenever they had the ball.

In the Allier, where there is no official referee, it’s the away side that provides the referee. And so it was a Target referee in the middle today. And he disallowed no fewer than three Terjat goals (two for offside – on one occasion overruling the *home* linesman) and one for pushing in the box.

To be fair I have to say that I was in no position to make any judgement.

But despite the handicap, Turgid scored two more goals that were allowed by the ref, and should have had three or four more. Had those disallowed goals been given and had Turgid won 5-0, it would have been a fair reflection of the match. Third from bottom in the worst league in the area?

Not on this showing they aren’t. I’ll be keeping my eye on the fixture list for whenever Pionsat don’t have a Sunday match, and I’ll wander along here again.

And this evening, with a rip-roaring fire and 24°C on the thermometer in the attic, I carried out what is fast becoming a ritual on Sunday evenings, and cooked pizza and garlic bread and rice pudding in the oven bit of my stove.

At €270 or however much it was, this woodstove is proving to be something of a bargain.

-4

Sunday 22nd January 2012 – I’VE ALWAYS WANTED …

… to watch a 3rd Division football match in the Allier, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall.

This is the lowest tier in football in the Allier (the Puy-de-Dôme has four) but having seen matches higher up the pyramid and not been impressed at all, I wondered how bad an Allier 3rd Division match would be.

As luck would have it, with the Puy-de-Dome still being on the trève, or “winter break”, this afternoon Terjat (about 8 miles from here) were entertaining (if that is the right word to use) their near-neighbours Sainte Thérence in a cut-throat local derby down in the basement of the 3rd Division.

Obviously, with nothing better to do (there was no paint drying and no grass growing anywhere in the vicinity) a visit to Terjat was called for.

And I wasn’t disappointed either, for it was predictably awful.

There was only one player on the field who looked reasonably competent (I’m excluding the Sainte Thérence goalkeeper – what on earth was someone like him doing playing in a team as awful as his?) and that was the Terjat centre-half.

It was clear after the first five minutes that nothing was ever going to get past him as long as he was on the pitch, and it didn’t either.

The trainer of Sainte Thérence clearly had the same opinion as me, and the talk that he gave to his team at half-time was just so predictable.

30 seconds after the restart, with the Terjat centre-half taking off after a loose ball down the right flank, two Ste Thérence players came after him and put him firmly, fairly (well, the referee thought that it was fair – others might not) and squarely into the advertising hoardings with a thump that was heard all over the Allier.

That was his match over.

And so was AS Terjat’s, because the result was predictable after that.

Next stop was to Liz and Terry’s to rehearse our radio programmes for the next month and Liz very kindly cooked tea and made cake, some of which found its way in a doggy-bag back to my house, for which I am extremely grateful

So we are recording tomorrow morning, and then I have to crack on with the next outstanding task – my presentation on the Trans-Labrador Highway for the village discussion group.

It’s all go here.

-3

Saturday 21st January 2012 – AND A QUIET …

… day today.

Which, after the hectic weekend I had last weekend, is no surprise.

For most of the day I was writing the scripts for the next few months-worth of radio programmes.And Liz and I will be spending most of our time talking rubbish.

I know that that’s what we usually do, but this time we mean it.

I was at a loss as to what subject to choose, but then on Tuesday I received my Puy-de-Dôme en Mouvement magazine in which one of the topics was the Departement’s plan to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Then on Thursday I received my monthly magazine from the Bank, in which one of the topics was donating unwanted goods to charities and good homes. A subject therefore immediately suggested itself

What with my thesis for my Open University Diploma in Pollution Control where I wrote about waste and landfills, I’m perfectly qualified to talk rubbish and many people have suggested that I’ve had plenty of practice over the years, so that was that.

I had an interruption at midday on Saturday for a shopping expedition to St Eloy-les-Mines where I spent nothing exceptional and bought nothing exciting, but that was that.

Saturday night was football.

Not at Pionsat as the Puy-de-Dôme football leagues are on a winter break – and doesn’t this weather make a mockery of the idea of a winter break? Six weeks with no footy in the Puy-de-Dôme with some of the mildest weather I have ever had in winter, and when the season restarts next weekend – just you watch _ we’ll be snowed in for a month!

Instead, I was at Marcillat just across the border in the Allier where their 1st XI took on Chantelle. This was a match that is nominally in a division one step higher than FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st XI but the standard of football in the Allier is total rubbish and it was an appalling match.

I’m not sure why I bothered.

0