Category Archives: football

Saturday 7th March 2015 – THE EXPERIMENT …

… of leaving the fridge running through the night worked just fine. The voltage in the batteries dropped to a minimum of 12.47 volts, which is quite acceptable and so it will have another run-out tonight.

As I said yesterday, leaving it running for 24 hours per day is something that I do from about mid-May to mid-October. I’ve never had it running 24 hours so early in the year.

It was nice to have freezing cold orange juice, soya milk and soya yoghurt for breakfast. That was well-worth waiting for. And after breakfast I cracked on with the scripts for Radio Anglais. I’ve ended up doing 5 weeks for our recording session at the end of the month because, believe it or not, my services as a long-term live-in carer for the sick might once more be in demand, if an e-mail that I’ve received recently is anything to go by.

I also found time to tidy up in here and on the ground floor a little, and to empty and clean out the beichstuhl. Such exciting jobs that I have to do these days.

Cecile rang up too. Apparently she’s coming back on Thursday for a couple of days, so on Thursday I’ll be spending the afternoon away from here warming up her house for her.

And the football season has restarted after the winter break. Pionsat’s 2nd XI were playing Charensat and ran out 4-1 winners. And that despite playing with just 10 men. Yann, who has been out injured for about three years and has just made two or three 10-minute cameo appearances during that time, played a full match. Clearly not yet match-fit, still nevertheless it was good to see him play the full 90 minutes.

There was a new player too. Almost as old as I am and … errr … somewhat larger than I am. I was told that he had played for the club years ago but had come out of retirement to have another run-round. And despite his lack of match-fitness, it was quite evident from some of his touches that he had played at a much higher level than the Puy-de-Dome league Division 4. He’ll be an asset to the club when he finds his feet again.

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Sunday 14th December 2014 – GRRRR!!!!

Guess who forgot to turn off the alarm this morning?

And serve me right too.

Mind you, a quick visit to the beichstuhl and then back to bed and back right into my travels at exactly the point where I had left off. That’s twice this week.

I’d been talking to David Cameron about his plans to leave the EU. I was driving a lorry with tonnes of EU papers for filing. He argued that none of that would be needed – it’s just a waste of space – and so I invited him to go into the lorry and throw out any papers that he considered unnecessary. he said that he was more than willing to do so but that he didn’t have the time – and spent an hour or so saying it.

I then ended up in a coastal town in the USA back in the 1880s. This town was on a promontory of a wide river estuary and on the other side of the river was untamed Indian country. However, a huge railway tunnel had been built under the estuary, and my response was that it was a superb avenue into the town for a marauding band of Indians. First through it though was a wagon train, pulled byn would you believe, reindeer, and they had a difficult time in passing through the tunnel as their antlers were too wide. We then spent a lengthy time discussing how to defend the tunnel against Indians. And do you remember that woman and her daughter who appeared the other night? They were back again too.

So after all of the excitement, I was up and about by 10:15 and had a very leisurely morning doing not very much at all.

This afternoon, FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI were playing Haut Combraille. Somewhat short-staffed, Pionsat ended up playing Michael in goal. he was formerly the 2nd XI’s goalkeeper but broke his shoulder four years ago and has been forbidden to play in goal. Still, he bravely volunteered and showed everyone just what the club has been missing since those days.

This was a top-of-the-table clash and rightly so – Haut Combraille were the best team that I have seen in Division 4. They relied very much on speed against an ageing Pionsat defence and I really did have to run, rather than walk, the line this afternoon. So much for my cleanliness after my shower of Saturday.

Yes – running! I was linesman again!

Pionsat won 4-3 and quite rightly so. Anthony finally broke his duck with a brave and strong run through the right wing, and Florian, the young lad about whom I spoke the other week, scored another goal – again running on to a loose ball in defence like I’ve been telling him to do. Julien and Gregory scored the other two.

So a good weekend, finished off by my having to search out for some events to broadcast on Radio Tartasse tomorrow as, once more, they’ve forgotten to send us any.

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Sunday 30th November 2014 – GRRRR!!!

It was a lovely bright sunny day today and seeing as this is the last good day of autumn (the high winds of the other day tell us that the weather is changing for the worse and there will be snow here by midweek) I took advantage of the bright weather for a leisurely drive down to Chamalieres and Pionsat’s 1st XI away.

Chamalieres have a very good footballing side and Pionsat’s team was the weakest that I have ever seen. Yet they took the lead with a good free kick into the area from Cedric, headed across from almost out of the keeper’s hands, right across to the far post and a simple nod in.

Pionsat only had 11 players today and apart from Cedric, the rest of the defence was all 2nd XI players. Didier, the 2nd XI right winger, was playing at right back and he was carried off after 20 minutes with a knee injury, leaving the team with just 10 men. Chamalieres scored twice later in the first half, and yet Anthony had the ball in the net from a corner (which was disallowed for handball but which will nevertheless do his confidence the world of good) – and then the fun began.

Chamalieres’ ground is situated in a bowl that was an old quarry, in the forest high above the town, and just before half-time a deep, thick cloud rolled in. No-one could see a thing and after waiting for half an hour to see what was going to happen, the game was abandoned.

And so we all had to go home. And not half a mile away from the ground, the weather dramatically improved and we went home again in bright sunlight. Mind you, this might fo Pionsat a favour as when the match is replayed, Pionsat might have a stronger team out.

And I didn’t sleep through the alarms yesterday. They simply didn’t ring.

And how do I know this?

Well, at 0è:30 the perishing alarms went off here. it seems that somehow the date on the telephone has advanced one day so yesterday was, according to the phone, Sunday (hence the absence of alarm) and today was Monday (hence the alarm).

So after the early start, I wrote another radio show for Radio Anglais, to match the Christmas Special that I wrote earlier in the week.

That’s the radio programmes for the month of January now completed, except for the rock programme, and that’s next weekend’s work. I’ll crack this yet!

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Saturday 29th November 2014 – WHAT A PLEASANT DAY.

We were invited round to Clotilde’s for lunch today. It’s been ages since I’ve seen her so I was quite looking forward to it.

I had a little lie in this morning (slept through the alarms again – whoops!) and then had a nice relaxing morning catching up on a few things that I’ve let go while I was doing this Christmas Special

At 11:30 I cleared off down to Clotilde’s for lunch, and was delighted to see not only Clotilde, Liz, Terry and Rosemary, but also Ingrid who I haven’t seen for years. There was also another couple there who I had never met before.

Clotilde had cooked a really nice vegan lunch, which was very thoughtful of her and then seeing as how the weather was quite reasonable, we went for a walk.

st priest les champs combrailles puy de sancy puy de dome franceFrom Clotilde’s house there’s a good walk through the old quarries of the Gré de lapeize, the stone with which much of St Gervais and St Priest was built.

From the top of the hill at the back, near to where Arno lives, there’s a magnificent view of the town of St Priest les Champs across the valley in the distance, with the Puy de Sancy in the distance.

puy de dome franceFrom there we went round the corner and up to the top of the next hill, and from there was a lovely view of the Puy de Dome in the distance.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of it. And I’m glad that we are in late autumn because the absence of leaves on the trees at this time of the year add some different kind of dimension to the photo.

This evening I was down at Pionsat for the football. Pionsat’s 2nd XI were playing Teilhet. And despite the strength of the team that Pionsat put out (and there won’t be a stronger team than this on the field for the 2nd XI), they really struggled and the attack offered absolutely nothing at all. And that’s a surprise considering the fact that in the 8 games to date, they’ve scored 31 goals. An utterly impotent offering.

They ended up beating the Goatslayers 1-0, with the goal coming from a corner. The ball was headed out but only as far as blond Frederic on the edge of the area who put everything into it that he had, including the kitchen sink.

Still, a win is a win, as anyone will tell you, and the top 4 clubs, including Piosat, have now broken well clear of the pack.

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Sunday 23rd November 2014 – I HATE HUNTERS

But that of course is quite a usual state of affairs isn’t it? However, after today I hate them even more.

I’d had a coffee last night at the footy, hadn’t I? And so at 04:00 I was still not in bed. I eventually crawled into my stinking pit ready for my Sunday lie-in when at 09:30 the hunters came down the lane. B@$t@rd$. Hounds baying, dogs barking, horns nlowing and firearms discharging. I hate every last one of them.

After my rude awakening I had something of a leisurely morning and then set off to Miremont, making a mental note to bring in the washing when I come home as the weather was clouding over.

Pionsat’s 2nd XI were playing at Miremont and just for a change not only did they have a full team but even a substitute too. And they won at a canter, 6-2, without even breaking sweat. One of the goals was probably the best that I have ever seen at this level – a telling, curling cross into the penalty area and a full-length diving header right across the penalty area from Frederic and he met the ball perfectly with his forehead.

Pionsat also had a new player out, a young lad who was playing his first match. He was nominally a striker and was on the bench at first and he admitted that he had never played at this level before. I gave him the benefit of my advice, such as it is, and the most important thing was, in my opinion, that if he was playing up front, to run after the ball every time that it was kicked into the area because at this level of football, anything is possible in the defence.

And so that was what he did and, sure enough, eventually it paid off. The keeper could only parry a fierce shot and this young lad, running in, reached it first before the keeper could recover, and smashed it into the net. He was delighted, and so was I. It’s not every day that anyone takes any notice of me.

But it was tough on the keeper. He was the best that I have ever seen in Division 4 and ought to be playing in Division One at least. He made half a dozen desperate saves and without him, Pionsat could have had double figures quite easily.

I went round to Liz and Terry’s afterwards to rehearse the radio programmes for tomorrrow, and Liz made a nice spinach, mushroom and chick pea curry. Not only that, I even had a doggy bag of the leftovers, which was really nice.

But two wins out of two for Pionsat this weekend. It’s been a long time since this has happened.

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Saturday 22nd November 2014 – IT WAS ANOTHER LOVELY DAY …

… today. This weather is totally crazy.

Mind you, I missed quite a lot of it. I actually managed to have a good lie-in and it was after 10:30 this morning when I crawled out of bed. And quite right too. I’ve not had a decent lie-in for quite a while.

After a leisurely breakfast, I attacked the radio programmes and now that’s all finished and ready for tomorrow’s rehearsal. And the weather was still holding out too, and that made up my mind for me. I’ve not done any washing since I came back from Canada and there was a huge mound of it lying about. I therefore made some butties and went down to Pionsat where I stuck the lot (the washing, not the butties) into the large 18kg washing machine. And while that was doing, I ate my butties.

I put the lot into the drier for 20 minutes afterwards, and while that lot was drying I went and took Calibutn for a really good wash and (just for a change) bought another pile of grapes. They are really nice and I’m sure that they do me good.

Tonight we had the footy of course and Pionsat need to put their train back on the rails as they’ll drop off the bottom on the table. However, tonight’s opponents, Blanzat, look like a tough proposition.

Much to my surprise, Pionsat fielded one of the strongest sides that they’ve been able to field this season. Cedric was back from injury and playing in defence again, with Julien and Jerome up front.

Even more surprisingly, Blanzat offered nothing whatever up front. I can’t think of a weaker attack than the one that was out there today. Their goal was direct from a free kick, but in reply, Pionsat scored two. A real screamer on the volley from Michael from about 25 yards out, right into the top corner. The second one was one of these ping-pong efforts from close range – three Pionsat players had a go at getting the ball into the net before it finally crossed the line.

So a valuable win for Pionsat, one that keeps them in touch with the pack down in the basement. But it was marred by a fight on the pitch after the final whistle – one that looked like it meant business too. Two players were involved, both of them from Blanzat. It’s rare to see two players from the same team having a go at each other like this. And I’ve no idea what had caused it either.

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Sunday 9th November 2014 – I DIDN’T WANT TO …

… haul myself out of my stinking pit this morning. But that was just the point – my pit wasn’t stinking at all. In fact it was nice, clean and comfortable in there and I was rather enjoying it.

Once I was up and had breakfasted, I spent an hour or so on the laptop and then set off to Sayat for the footy – kick-off 13:00. And it occurred to me as I was driving towards Manzat that when I saw a sign for St Angel, that it’s twice now that I’ve run (or, rather, walked) the line for Pionsat. Last night against St Angel, and a couple of years ago when Pionsat were playing away at … St Angel.

There were roadworks on the road to Volvic and the diversion took me miles out of my way, but I managed to arrive in time for the kick-off. I needn’t have bothered because the least said about the match the better. It was not good.

On the way back, I noticd that there was snow on the peaks of the Puy de Sancy already. It’s getting cold now – temperature down to 13.4°C in here – close to the temperature where I allow myself to light the fire up here. Winter is on its way, sure enough. It was only two weeks ago that it was over 20°C up here.

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Saturday 8th November 2014 – I HAVE HAD …

… the best shower that I have ever had today. And I really mean it too.

Feeling rather filthy after all of my exertions, I resolved to go to the swiming baths today, especially as it was a nice warm day for the time of year. So after spending the morning writing more stuff for Radio Anglais, I headed off to Commentry for the shopping.

Having done that, I set off towards Neris-les-Bains for the swimming but, being rather early, I went for a detour to see if I could find the swimming baths that have recently opened in Commentry. Sure enough, there they were, all nice and modern. And not only that, they were open.

It was more expensive than the swimming at Neris but the saving in fuel was more than enough to cover the distance. The pool is small and the water is freezing, but I had a good work-out in there. There’s also a small pool where the water is quite warm and there are pressure jets that are as good as any of the hydro-massages that I had at that health spa in March.

And then we had the shower.

There are two enclosed showers and so I used one of them, so that I could have a really good soak. The water temperature is able to be changed and so I had it on full, and almost scalded myself. Once I’d found the best setting I had a good 15 minutes in there and it was wonderful.

To cap it all off, there’s even a coffee machine there, something that they don’t have in Neris.

Yes, I can see myself going back to the baths at Commentry.

This evening FC Pionsat St Hilaire beat St Angel 6-2 in something of a canter. And as there were no officials present from the home side, I ended up having to walk the line.

Notice the phrase – walking the line. Not running it as I’m rather past that, but I did my best and didn’t cause any controversy.

Tonight, seeing that I’m nice and clean, I’m going to change the bedding and have really clean sheets and quilt covers for tonight. I’m looking forward to this.

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Sunday 26th October 2014 – GRRRRRR!

Yes, I asked last night at the footy where the 2nd XI would be playing today. “St Maurice” was the answer, “but don’t forget that the kick-off is at 13:00”. So at 12:50, there I was at the football ground at St maurice, and I was there all on my own.

At 14:00 someone finally turned up, and it was then that I discovered that the kick-off was actually 15:00. It seems that I had been misinformed. But it wasn’t necessarily a waste of time, for I had brought my laptop with me. So I had sat in Caliburn and done another radio programme while I was waiting.

Pionsat’s 2nd XI lost 3-1, which was no surprise seeing as how they only had 8 players there. Nevertheless, at one stage they were 1-0 up. What changed the match was one of the outfield players being injured just before half time and so in the second half he went in goal and the keeper ended up playing up front (and he was the one who scored the goal, strange as it might seem).

But there was something good that came out of the doom and gloom nevertheless – and that was with Didier (the right-winger) and Vincent (the centre-forward) playong together as a completely impromptu central defensive pairing. And until they tired late in the game (which was hardlly surprising given the circumstances) they never put a foot wrong for 80 minutes and no-one was ever going to get past them. It was a revelation as far as I was concerned and they can both take a bow for their performance.

This morning though I finished off the rdio programmes that we will be presenting tomorrow morning and then after the footy I went round to Liz and Terry’s for rehearsals. Liz had made a vegetable crumble and while it might sound rather bizarre, it tasted really good. That’s something else that I will be adding to my repertoire when (if ever) I work on my kitchen.

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Saturday 25th October 2014 – A GAME OF TWO HALVES

I’ve just come back from the footy at Pionsat where the home side has been defeated by one of the teams from the suburbs of Clermont Ferrand, Clermont Biblioteque.

And if ever there was a game of two halves, then this was it, that’s to be sure. Clermont were a big, quick, powerful team and they were sprinting through FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s makeshift defence almost at will.

4-0 up at half-time without even breaking sweat, although I do have to say that a penalty that they were awarded was not ever in a million years a penalty – the keeper clearly pushed the ball away from the Clermont player and that latter fell over the outstretched keeper’s leg after the ball had gone. Not only that, the fourth goal was the last kick of the first half and had the referee blown his whistle 2 seonds earlier this goal wouldn’t have counted anyway.

When Clermont scored their 5th goal straight from the kick-off, all sorts of horror stories were running through my head. And then a most astonishing thing happened.

Nico found the ball in plenty of space about 30 yards out, looked up to see the keeper about 15 yards off his line, and lobbed the ball right over him into the net.

10 minutes later, Pionsat won a corner and the ball broke out to blond Frederic who was about 25 yards out on the left-hand side of the penalty area. He launched it low and hard back into the area and, unbelievably, it sailed right through the crowds and into the far corner of the net.

If that wasn’t enough, about 10 minutes after that, Anthony lobbed a beautiful ball over the defence into space and Nico, beating the offside trap cleverly, beat the keeper comrotably to score a third.

Clermont launched a couple of huge waves of attack and only some desperate defending by Pionsat kept them out. And if they had defended like that earlier in the game they wouldn’t have been in all of these problems. It really was magnificent stuff.

The match ended with FC Pionsat St Hilaire back on the attack, camped in the opposition half trying to claw their way back into the game. It was a shame that a couple of Clermont’s early goals had counted.

Apart from that, I’ve been radioing today – writing a couple of programmes and a rock show for Radio Anglais in my comfortable abode up here. And I crashed out for a couple of hours too – I can’t think why. It’s not as if I’ve been overworking just now.

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Sunday 19th October 2014 – SUNDAY IS A DAY OF REST OF COURSE …

… and so I was in no hurry to leave my comfy, clean bed. In fact I was on my travels. I was in Stoke on Trent at the home of someone whom I knew, and he, Zero who was also there and I were discussing the stuff that I was taking with me to Canada. I had three or four bottles in my suitcase, each with liquid inside them and I passed them to my friend so that he could see how heavy they were – much heavier than they seemed. While some of the stuff was useful, I couldn’t understand why I was taking two bottled of water with me when I could obtain water over there.

So this morning I carried on with some more radio stuff after breakfast, and after lunch I went to Villosanges to watch Pionsat’s 1st XI play the Chimps.

Pionsat needed to win this game but with just 11 players out on the field, no recognised goalkeeper (here we go again) and no substitutes, it as an uphill struggle. Once Cedric was carried off with torn ligaments after half an hour, the team just folded up and were easily beaten by a team that they should have had dead and buried. It’s a sad reflection of the club that this sort of thing still happens. I’ve no idea what is going on out there right now.

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Saturday 18th October 2014 – GUESS WHAT …

… I’ve been doing this morning!

You’re right.

It was a bright, breezy morning with not a cloud in the sky and so straight after breakfast I went into Pionsat with the cover off the bed-settee. An hour later I was back, with the cleanest bed settee cover that I have ever had. That 18kg machine at the Intermarché works a treat, especially at €8:00 a time including soap.

Of course, you have to wait on the car park while the machine is working and you would be amazed at the number of people who go into the Intermarche in just that time. It’s quite a little goldmine there, especially as the woman who owns it has really done her research, with the amount of British and Dutch produce that’s on sale there.

I even ended up talking to Marianne, whom I haven’t seen since February. She was there doing her shopping too.

This afternoon I started work on the radio programmes for the next month and then later on tonight went back to Pionsat to watch FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI play Montfermy.

That was an exciting match too, with a couple of new players this season including a real goalkeeper who had a good game. Pionsat won 2-0 without really breaking sweat. Kevin scored the first following a good ball across the defence that beat the offside trap, and a short corner from Vincent to Matthieu caught the entire Montfermy team asleep and Matthieu had a simple volley into the net.

FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI are now top of the table for the moment, and well-worth it too because they really did look like it tonight, and about time too.

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Sunday 25th May 2014 – THIS BLASTED WEATHER!

When I finally awoke this morning (at … errr … 12:37 this afternoon – I must have been tired) it was absolutely beautiful. But I didn’t have much chance to enjoy it as I had a lot to do (much of which didn’t get done).

I left early for the football (as Pionsat were playing the Goatslayers at Teilhet) as I went via Cecile’s to check her mail, check on the house and do a load of waxhing. and the lawn is completely overgrown – I’ll have to cut that again pretty soon.

Pionsat lost 2-1 at the Goatslayers which is hardly a suprise as they only had 9 players out. Christophe, Julien and Jerome are injured and Kevin was unavailable, and after the maximum effort last night no-one was available from the 1st XI. But the weather broke. We had a thunderstorm and torrential, driving rain enought to chill anyone’s ardour.

I was round at Liz and Terry’s later to rehearse our radio shows, and Liz cooked a vegan lasagne which was excellent as usual. And then I made my way home, picking up the washing on the way back.

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Saturday 24th May 2014 – PHEW! THAT WAS CLOSE!

Pionsat are not totally safe from relegation but this evening’s result means that St Priest must win tomorrow by 13 clear goals if they are going to escape.

A desperate struggle on the field against the runaway champions this evening. In the opening 20 minutes, Lempdes missed two absolute sitters in from of goal and immediately afterwards, Pionsat stormed up the field and took the lead. A long clearance by Matthieu was misheaded across the defence by one of the central defenders. It fell on the feet of a fellow defender but Nico was by far the quickest, whippingit off the defender’s feet and smashing it in past the unprepared goalkeeper.

Lemdes pulled one back near to the end when Pionsat were caught stranded upfield when they lost possession, and in the closing seconds, had two goals disallowed for offside much to their dismay. Pionsat were dug in on the edge of their own penalty area for the last 10 minutes or so, and when the final whistle was blown, an audible sigh of relief could be heard all around the ground.

This all looked most unlikely three matches ago. Pionsat’s final 3 games were – team 2nd, away; team 3rd in the table, away; champions at home. You couldn’t have a final three games much tougher than this and yet we had a draw, a very unlikely win and then a draw – 5 points out of 9.

All of Pionsat’s goals in those matches have been goals of sheer opportunism and we have had some desperate last-ditch defending with balls being kicked upfield or out of play without any ceremony at all, with the team captain bellowing out orders to his team-mates.

This is just how football at this level should be played and the irony of it all is that if Pionsat had played like this for the rest of the season, they would have been challenging for promotion, never mind battling desperately against relegation.

Apart from that, I’ve spent the morning and some of the afternoon writing stuff for Radio Anglais, been to the shops in St Eloy where I bought a vine to plant at the front of the house, and then crashed out for an hour this afternoon.

And Thursday, so I’ve found out, is a Bank Holiday. I’m going to have an unexpected day off work.

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Sunday 18th May 2014 – WHAT ON EARTH WAS I DOING …

… being awake at 07:35 this morning? And a Sunday too? This kind of thing is unheard-of.

And not only that, I’d had a late night too and I’d been on my travels during the night (don’t ask me where – I fogot as soon as I woke up) as well. So I dunno what was going on.

Anyway, I had the whole morning on the computer with Audacity and it now does what I want it to do. Having seen (and heard) the shambolic mixing that Radio Tartasse does of my live concert rock shows, I’m now going to be doing my own. I had a fiddle around with the next one and I now have 58 minutes of perfect continuous sound stream with no interruptions or pauses or clicks. It’s properly balanced too.

Not only that, I’ve found on the internet a couple of websites that have classic radio shows so I’ve been downloading a few streams of programmes and editing out some suitable soundbites to use on the radio. I always like to have special guests on my programmes and have little conversations with them.

The football wasn’t quite as successful this afternoon. Having given it maximum effort last night, it was a very thin team that went out this afternoon – no substitutes available and in the heat, a couple of players wilted and the team ended with just 9 players.

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire as charensat puy de dome ligue division 4 france dimanche 18 mai 2014Charensat had packed their team with a couple of first-teamers (not that anyone can complain – Pionsat would have done the same in similar circumstances) and in the end the score was 2-2. Kevin was in goal and played a blinder, making a couple of excellent saves at vital moments and I really don’t understand why he won’t play in goal more often.

Matthieu was hurt in a tackle and limped from the field in the final minute and from the free kick, his brother Vincent, from 45 yards out emulated his brother by blasting the ball through the wall and through the keeper into the net for the equaliser.

So this evening I did a little tidying up with the green boxes that I bought from IKEA in Brussels. However, I can’t see the difference and I dunno why.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow.

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