Tag Archives: fcpsh

Sunday 13th April 2014 – I HAVE JUST SEEN THE BEST…

…ever goal that I have seen in my lifetime.

And no wonder that the Nord Combraille goalkeeper is sitting there looking disconsolate. If you think that blond Frederic’s goal against the Chimps last night was totally unexpected and out of the blue, then Matthieu Malnar’s goal against the Miners this afternoon was ten times better than that.

The Miners are in Division 4 because their second team can’t win promotion from Division 3 so they can’t be promoted, yet they are streets ahead of everyone else in that Division.

A glance at a few of their results will tell you that – 12-0, 10-0, 6-0, 5-0, 6-2, 4-1. Putting Pionsat in that pool is most unfair because their relegation due to league reorganisation was bad enough, but now they are blocked for promotion too with Nord Combraille ahead of them.

However, Pionsat lost today as expected, but just by 2-1, which is a moral victory against the Miners.

And our two goals conceded have a familiar ring about them
First one was from the Pionsat midfield trying to play the ball out of trouble instead of whacking the ball out of play or upfield – or anywhere, really.

Losing possession is the inevitable result against a big skilful side such as this, and the Miners didn’t need too many chances to punish this kind of Pionsat play.

If I had a quid for each time Pionsat had done this I would be in the Bahamas, not the Auvergne, and Pionsat wouldn’t be in the basement of the Puy-de-Dome league either if they cut out all of this.

The second goal was scored with just seconds to go on the clock. Pionsat won a free kick and so everyone from Pionsat pushed up from the defence into the Miners’ half.

The free kick was cleared with a huge kick out of the Miners’ defence and with no defenders in position to intercept it, it was a race brtween a Pionsat full-back, Christophe in the Pionsat goal, and a midfielder from Nord-Combraille.

And that was how they finished, but in reverse order.

Matthieu had already threatened to do something earlier in this game.

Slowly easing himself back into the game after his couple of years out with injury and short of match fitness (which is no surprise – you can’t do any training with what he’s had) he found himself in a bit of space as a ball was hoisted over the Nord Combraille defence.

His snap shot found the keeper struggling and that was ohh so close to a goal there

But then we have this moment of magic.

Pionsat go to kick off after conceding the second goal, with probably not five seconds remaining on the clock. Michael takes the kick-off and lays the ball off to Matthieu.

Matthieu looks up, sees the keeper standing round about the penalty spot, and exactly from the halfway line, launches an outrageous lob on the half-volley. it sails over the keeper’s head into the net and that, my friends, was that.

He can probably try that another 100 times and I bet he won’t even get close to what he did just then.

This morning it was 07:29 when I woke up. On a Sunday too! Mind you, it was about 09:30 when I finally crawled out of bed. And I spent the morning on the website too. After all, it IS Sunday.

And after the footy, with having water at 68°C and the temperature in the verandah at 42°C I had another nice hot shower so I’m all clean again.

And that is that. What a lazy Sunday!

But I’ll be talking about Matthieu’s goal for the rest of my life I think.

-4

Saturday 12th April 2014 – SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY …

… is the Pionsat 1st XI’s habitual method of play. But just for a change this evening, they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. And if they had played for 90 minutes of every match with the same fire and spirit that they played the final 10 minutes of today’s match, they wouldn’t be anything like staring relegation in the face.

They won 4-3 with two goals coming in the final 10 minutes, and it’s just as well that they did, because being rlegated by losing to the Chimps of all people would have been more than any man could bear.

But the story of the three goals conceded sums up Pionsat’s season-

Pionsat concede penalty fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot montel villosanges 12 avril 2014 puy de dome ligue division 1 france

A moment’s inattention and hesitation lets in a Chimps attacker. A beautiful sliding tackle from a Pionsat defender wins the ball and the attacker goes down over the defender’s outstretched leg. How the referee could award a penalty for that is something that totally mystified me.
But then, had the defence been awake and attentive, the defender would not have got that far.
Unmarked attacker at the far post heads in a superb cross past Frederic who is once more standing in for Michael who has been standing in for Matthieu. It was indeed a superb cross, taking every totally by surprise, but there shouldn’t ever be anyone unmarked and onside in the penalty area.
It’s true that a more experienced keeper would probably come out for the cross, because as long as he got a fingertip to the ball, he could have flattened the attacker without fear of conceding a penalty, but you can’t blame a stand-in keeper for that, and it would have been worse if he had hesitated and been caught in no-man’s
land

And in any case, Frederic kept his team well in the game with a spectacular full-length diving save from a free kick halfway through the second half. Any regular keeper would have been proud of that effort
A loose ball in a crowded penalty area. Frederic runs out for it, shouting “leave it” to his defence. Instead, one of his defenders passes it back to him.
With a defender touching it last, Frederic can’t pick it up and so has to kick. Surrounded by three Chimps, the result is inevitable

So from 2-1 up, they are now 3-2 down and with just minutes to go. Pionsat win a couple of corners and from one of them, Vianney rises highest and heads onto a post and bounces into the net for the equaliser, past the keeper’s outstretched fingertips.

But a point isn’t enough to keep their slim hopes alive -they need all three and there are just seconds left.

And then we have a most astonishing thing.

Pionsat win a free kick just inside the Chimps half, right out on the far touchline probably 50 yards from goal. Blond Frederic takes it and swings it high into the penalty area. The ball sails over everyone’s head right into the keeper’s hands … and right through the keeper’s hands into the net.

Stunned silence in the crowd and I’m not sure who was the most surprised – the keeper or blond Frederic. But a goal is a goal is a goal, and Pionsat finally manage to win after several weeks of lack of success.

If only they had done this a few weeks ago.

So this morning, another early start. And I was in Crewe during the night at my old taxi office in Wistaston Road (but a different one at the back of another car sales place). And I was to audition for another rock group and needed some equipment and so went to the music shop just down the road (that isn’t there of course) where I bumped into Zero and her father.

But after breakfast I cracked on with my website work and then at lunchtime went round to Cecile’s to see how things were and to pick up some mail seeing as how her redirection has finished – and taking advantage of her washing machine too.

Then into St Eloy to shop (where I bought some seeds that I needed) and to pay a huge pile of money to someone in a shop there. Yes, I’m going to be having a new toy – more of which anon.

After picking up my washing (and thinking that maybe I ought to mow Cecile’s lawn sometime soon) I came back here – and crashed out for 2 hours. And a deep sleep it was too for just a crash. I was back in Crewe again at a house that bore more than just a mere passing resemblance to the one in Davenport Avenue where I lived with my parents.

And so then the footy. I’ve had a busy day today.

But watch these pages over the course of the next few days.

-6

Sunday 6th April 2014 – WE’RE UP AGAINST IT NOW!

The 1st Xi’s match at St Priest was one that Pionsat needed to win today to keep their survival hopes alive, but they went down 2=0. They are now sucked deep into a relegation battle and have lost their advantage.

But to be fair, it’s not entirely their fault. It’s true that they’ve conceded silly goals at times, but their attack has usually made up for that. But the big issue is that in Division 1, there have been 6 regional pools, giving a total of 60 teams. A mid-table performance is what Pionsat usually manage to do.

However, the Football Association here decided that Division 4 needed bolstering, and so instead of relegating 2 teams at the nd of last season, relegated three from each pool in Division 3. That was what caused Pionsat’s 2nd XI to be demoted when we all thought that they were safe.

This cascaded down through the pyramid and at the top level, Division 1, they simply reduced the level to 4 pools, or 40 clubs. Now, what was a mid-table performance last year is a relegation struggle.

Add to that the fact that with Matthieu injured and Francois retired, there’s no goalkeeper. Michael Bucaud has performed better than anyone could have hoped and has certainly done the team proud, but it isn’t the same.

I was also told that the trainer walked out on the club just before the start of the season and took three players with him to his new club. How true this is, I really don’t know and it’s not my place to pass comment, but all of this sums up Pionsat’s struggle.

Michael, who was injured in goal last week, was unable to play and so young Frederic took over again for today.

He certainly didn’t let the side down either – in fact he looked pretty useful and made a couple of really good stops, including a brave save with his feet, going the wrong way, in a one-on-one with a St Priest attacker.

It was the first goal that was a killer and we hadn’t had even 2 minutes of play. They surged forward from the kickoff and hit the bar with a blistering shot from about 15 yards out.

That ballooned up into the air and the follow-up shot – St Priest being the quicker to react – likewise smacked against the bar and bounced down and away. However the linesman (the home linesman, it has to be said) signalled that the ball had crossed the line.

The second goal was also something of a sucker punch too. Pionsat were too busy disputing a decision to respond to a quickly-taken free kick, and that let in a St Priest attacker.

Not much that Frederic could do about that, but then as we know, the Pionsat defence does have a habit of switching off at vital moments. It’s not the first time.

Strangely enough, this was one of Pionsat’s better defensive displays. St Priest had a player, the n°10, who was streets ahead of everyone else on the field, and it showed when he managed to wriggle free and find some space. However, for most of the match Vianney and Alex were clinging to him like a limpet.

And Alex’s performance in the centre of the defence was the best I’ve seen for quite a while from anyone. He’s played like this a few times and he’s be my first name on the team sheet every week if he could keep going like this. Apart from the two efforts that led to goals, St Priest didn’t have much of a look-in and it was a dour struggle in midfield for much of the game.

Pionsat’s attack looked tired, though, and it seems as if the fire has gone out in a couple of the players. They need to find some way of kindling some enthusiasm because they play so much better when they are enjoying themselves.

And so what else?

Well, shock, horrow, there I was, lying in bed this morning for quite a while, thinking to myself that it must be late and I ought to get up, only to find when I finally did leave my pit that it was all of 08:35. I don’t think that I’ve ever been awake that early on a Sunday morning.

I’d had a busy night too. I’d been to a street concert given by Mark Knopfler, featuring songs off his Golden Heart album. We were having to stand round the side of the stage and the camera was filming around the corner, almost as if it were a bootleg recording and we weren’t supposed to be there.

As the xoncert continued, I found myself in a bed, right in front of tha stage. A girl who had slept in it earlier expressed surprise that I could sleep there like that, to which I replied that I had a lot to do when the concert was over and so I needed to be fresh.

She wondered how on earth I could sleep through all of the noise, to which my answer was that it comes with necessity and practice.

After breakfast I tidied up a little, and I can now see the floor in places up here. That is progress. But when I became fed up with doing that, I carried on with the web pages.

After returning from the footy, I completely jigged them around to make a proper circular tour (in fact, it’s a figure-of-8 tour of Quebec now) and they are all on line. This link is for the Chemin du Roy and this link is for the walking tour of Quebec.

Have a good read, and I hope that you enjoy that as much as I enjoyed writing it all.

Let me know if any of the links are bad.

-3

Saturday 5th April 2014 – WELL DONE PIONSAT!

Yes, for once, a competent and workman-like display from Pionsat’s 2nd XI this evening saw them deal effectively with a St Maurice side that, it has to be said, would have been good enough for most teams in Division 4.

The team was reinforced this week by Julien and Gregory, and it was really nice to see Matthieu back on the field after an absence of two years due to injury.

Not playing in goal but in the outfield and though clearly unfit (which is no surprise after what he suffered), he was out there doing his bit.

He scored a screamer of a goal from a free-kick which went through the wall and right through the keeper’s hands, and probably would have gone through the net and the hedge at the back too had it not hit the stanchion in the corner. A superb effort.

The other two goals were scored by Gregory who was playing on the left side of the attack – and he had the ball in the net a third time too but was disallowed for a foul on the keeper.

He’s small and quick and holds onto the ball well, and Pionsat’s tactics were to lift the ball over the defence into space down the inside-left channel for him to run on to – and it worked like a charm.

It can also be said that for the first time for years, Pionsat’s defence held up really well. Didier dropping back as an extra full-back whenever Pionsat lost possession, but the highlight has to be Julien, who played in the centre of defence
(he’s a winger for the first team) and didn’t put a foot wrong throughout the match.

St Maurice hit the bar and the post, and Christophe tipped a shot over the bar, but while they had plenty of possession, it all broke down in the final suarter of the field thanks to Pionsat’s good defending tonight.

So well done them. Let’s hope that they can keep it up.

So what else has happened today?

With no pressure on me to do any gardening or any radio work, I had a quiet morning on the website. And at lunchtime I went to St Eloy to do a little shopping.

But what I encountered there may well mean that I shall set a world-record for a Saturday shopping trip, depending upon the result of a phone call that I will have to make on Monday morning. And if I receive a positive response, you won’t be hearing much from me for a while as I will be recovering from the shock.

I carried on with the website again when I returned, and then seeing as it was warm in the verandah and I had plenty of hot water, I had a shower, a shave and some clean clothes.

I’ll change the bedding over too (I forgot the other day) and have a nice long lie-in tomorrow morning. After my exertions this last few weeks I deserve it.

-3

Sunday 30th March 2014 – THAT’S MUCH BETTER …

… from Pionsat today. the 2nd XI went down the road to play Le Quartier’s 2nd XI and won 3-1 without really breaking into a sweat either. And Apart from the three goals, they also missed a penalty and had countless shots cleared off the line too.

The irony of it all was that they were playing without an attack either. Up front were Michael the Ist XI reserve centre-half who was available today because he didn’t play last night, and Michael who played in goal for the 2nd XI until he broke his shoulder three or four years ago.

I don’t remember about the first goal now, but the second goal was a driven cross by Michael the 1st XI centre-half that hit Jerome on the knee and went straight in the goal without anyone being aware of what had happened.

The third goal was a peach. Michael the 1st XI centre-half again, this time laying off a ball about 25 yards out to Bertrand who was rushing in like a steam train. He hit it plumb on the volley and normally these go into the field behind the goal, or else into the garden at the side of the pitch, but this one, just for a change, kept low and hard right into the far corner with the keeper a very distant second.

Talking of the keeper however, a more-miserable bad-tempered keeper I have never seen. He started at the first attack, throwing the ball into the back of Michael the 1st XI centre-half. Of course Pionsat were playing away and it’s the home side that supplies the referee in Division 4, so we didn’t even have a penalty, let alone a sending-off. And then every time there was a 50-50 ball the goalkeeper would physically threaten the opposing player, and the referee would intervene to punish the attacker.

Home-town referee, as you can guess. This kind of thing is totally shameful and does no credit to Le Quartier’s football club.

But of course Pionsat’s players are far too naive for even this level of football. They need to learn more about the judicious use of the elbow during high balls into the area from corners. That would have kept the goalkeeper under control.

As for Pionsat’s defence, they were up to their usual antics but Le Quartier had nothing to offer up front. Nevertheless they scored a goal near the end when a sleeping Pionsat defence allowed an attacker through and he scored a goal with a delightful lob over the advancing Christophe.

Apart from that, the change to Summer Time didn’t bother me at all. I was up and about as usual by about 10:15 new time. And I spent a few hours writing up more for the web site.

After the football (which had a 13:00 kick-off) I emptied Caliburn as we have a furniture removal to do this week, and then wrote a pile of stuff for the Radio Anglais programmes.

A chat to Cecile and her mum rounded off the day and that was that.

Back to work tomorrow.

-4

Saturday 29th March 2014 – JUST HOW UNLUCKY CAN YOU BE?

Jerome Brunet has the ball about 15 yards out and whacks the ball goalwards with everything that he has got. It hits the knee of a defender, cannons right out of the area and back all the way over the halfway line to where a lone Beauregard l’Eveque forward is standing. And he has the simplest of tasks with a one-on-one with Michael, while everyone in the stadium looks on, open-mouthed.

Back in the early 70s I once saw Albert Kinsey, playing for Crewe Alexandra, hit the bar with such force that the rebound cleared the halfway line before it bounced, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

So FC Pionsat St Hilaire lost again, 5-3 this time, to this goal and two of the most controversial offside decisions that I have ever seen, each one of which resulted in a Beauregard goal. And Pionsat should have had this team dead and buried. Hit the bar, hit the post twice, kicked off the line three times, and in the dying minutes they had 6 consecutive corners to add to the 25 that they had had during the rest of the match. But to lose a game in this fashion leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Add to that the fact that Michael bravely took his place in goal after his bad injury two weeks ago, but lasted just 45 minutes. Young Frédéric took ovee for the second half and looked the part, but he let two goals in and you really can’t do much about that. Everyone was doing his best today.

But it does have to be said – that breakaway goal, no matter how unlucky, wouldn’t have been scored had Pionsat’s defence been concentrating. Those two offsides – how many times do I have to spell it out – you don’t hang around with your hand up waiting for the referee’s whistle, no matter how clear-cut it might be. You play the ball and let the whistle take care of itself.

The fourth goal – the defence being out of place when the team loses possession and the midfield slowly ambling back instead of having any sense of urgency at all. Consequently the defence is caught short-handed.

And the fifth goal – Pionsat messing about in defence again – failing to clear the ball upfield or out for a throw-in but showing off on the edge of the penalty area and losing possession.

It’s all simple schoolboy errors, this is, and it’s been the same ever since I’ve been following the club, and probably before as well. The problem is that there is no leadership out there in the team – no-one who can take command.

So apart from that, having had a day off yesterday, I worked today. Until 12;00 I was working on the laptop – not on the website but writing the notes for the rock music programmes that we do on Radio Anglais.

Later, I went out and dug over another raised bed. This is the one where the shuttering has collapsed and so I used those red bricks that I was telling you about. However it hasn’t worked – that isn’t going to be very successful unfortunately as the bricks are too low and so I can’t dig them in properly. In fact it looks something of a mess. I shall need to think again.

I did manage a bit of work on the website once I had finished the raised bed. It is Saturday after all and there’s no point in killing myself by starting on another one.

And we had another day of high winds. More wind energy today than we have had in the last three or four weeks combined. I wish that it was like this every day.

-4

Sunday 16th March 2014 – THAT’S THE LAST TIME …

… that I shall ever have a cup of coffee made by Matthieu. Here I was, at 05:00 this morning, and still not tired enough to go to bed. Good job that I didn’t put any sugar in it – I would have bent the spoon trying to stir it. Yes, just a little strong.

And during the night (or maybe I ought to say “morning”) was back on the buses again and this time on my particular school run I had the daughter of the ruler of the world as a passenger. “This is my big chance to do myself some good!”

Instead, I woke up and contented myself with spending the morning editing a pile of photos that I had left outstanding since last August.

I had a nice drive down to Ménétrol through the gorgeous weather this afternoon, as Pionsat’s 1st XI were playing the local side.
Menetrol were a big, powerful side who a couple of seasons ago were playing two or three divisions higher up the pyramid, and they showed a lot of skill on the ball today.

They ran out quite comfortable victors 4-1, but that really only tells you half a story of the match – and probably not even that.

As usual, Pionsat were short-handed. No goalkeeper of course with Matthieu still being out injured and François having retired, but Michael Bucaud does his best and I’ve seen many worse than him, make no mistake about that.

And I counted at least seven regular first-teamers still with the club who were not out there today. Just one substitute, young Vincent.

Here’s Michael making an excellent reflex save from a Ménétrol forward, having initially dived the wrong way.

But Michael’s match ended shortly after this. he was injured making another save and although he carried on at first, 5 minutes later he limped off the field and blond Frederic took over.

He’s no goalkeeper either but you have to do what you can with what you’ve got. And while he let in two goals, there wasn’t really all that much than any regular keeper could have done to stop them. As I said, Ménétrol are a good side.

But by this time Pionsat were down to 10 men. The other Michael had been injured just before half-time and he didn’t make a reappearance for the second half. So it was always going to be tough.

Pionsat pull a goal back right at the end of the match. One of the Pionsat forwards, on a strong run through Ménétrol’s defence, goes down under a heavy challenge. The referee awards a penalty, which is very strongly contested by the home team as
it wasn’t a foul
it was outside the area
but the referee is the man with the whistle and he says that it is. Cedric makes no mistake from the spot, sending the keeper the wrong way

Back home, I cleaned Caliburn’s windows and checked the oil and water. And there’s a headlight out too. Of course, it’s the one that’s hard to get at so I spent about three quarters of an hour looking at the easy one seeing if I could work out how to change it.

Then of course the light goes on inside the brain and 30 seconds later the bad bulb is changed and all is working happily just like it should.

Yes, two torx-drive bolts are all that hold the headlight in on a new Ford Transit, and once you undo them, the rest is, as they say, easy.

And remember yesterday when I said that I thought that the ref had blown for full-time 10 minutes early.I’m not alone in that thought. Several people I talked to today said the same.

-4

Saturday 15th March 2014 – ONLY THIS MORNING I WAS PONDERING …

… about how I’m going to extract all of this dust and the like from the house as it is getting on my nerves. And I was still pondering when I entered LIDL this afternoon.

But not now, anyway. In LIDL today they were selling some 500-watt fireplace cleaners. I had a good look at one and from what I saw, with a few small modifications here and there, it will make quite a useful cylinder vacuum cleaner.

And 500 watts will run fine off my system for 10 minutes here and there, you know. So at just €26:00 it had to be worth a gamble.

Thatwasn’t all the exciting stuff in the shops at St Eloy this afternoon. Carrefour had something of a plant sale. Most of the stuff was rubbish but I managed to make up a tray of lettuce and a tray of green cabbage. I need to put the potager into order and this will hopefully help me make a start. I did nothing last year as you know and baby lettuce plants seem to do fine here.

This morning I dashed off 2500 words for Radio Anglais. It started off on something about the communes of France but it now seems to be something of a geography/history/politics lesson, and there’s plenty more to come as well. A real pot-boiler you might say.

At the football tonight … well … I was going to say that I’m speechless but I’ve seen this happen so many times that I ought to be used to it by now.

Pionsat had only 10 players out there tonight but of those 10, 4 of them were 1st Xi players and another one or two had featured for the 1st XI too.

By half-time that had a comfortable 2-0 lead and looked like they were getting ready to run out of sight. I’d lost count of the number of shots on goal that they had had. But then they simply switched off.

St Angel pulled one back out of a defensive error from nothing, something that took me by no surprise at all given the previous 10 minutes, and I had this uneasy feeling running down the back of my spine that I’ve had so many times before.

However Jerome, who I haven’t seen for ages at the club, roared back up the field and scored a third goal before anyone had drawn breath so it was ok, I suppose. But then, the whole team went back to sleep.

And in two ridiculous moments of madness the team gave away two of the silliest goals that I have ever seen. I couldn’t believe it, and neither did anyone else.

But if that’s not bad enough, just as the team galvanised itself into action and laid siege to the St Angel goal, the referee blew for full time – by my reckoning a good 10 minutes short. Yes, we kicked off at 20:00 on the dot, played 45 minutes of fist half (plus stoppages), had a 15 minute break at half-time, and then played another 45 minutes (plus stoppages) and I was back in Caliburn at 21:38 on the clock. No, that doesn’t add up at all.

But then it shouldn’t really have mattered. Pionsat should have been down the road and out of sight, having fielded the strongest side that they’ll ever field for a hundred years.

-4

Sunday 23rd February 2014 – PHEW!

No wonder I’m so flaming tired all the time, if last night is anything to go by.

There I was in South-West London, renting a room in a house and to reach the area of London where the house was, there was a zig-zag climb up to a plateau rather like the way in to Marcillat from the Montlucon road only, of course, all built-up and urbanised.

I was talking to a girl who was something to do with a business, down at the business premises at the foot of the climb, talking about the house in which I was living, and she was expressing her astonishment that here in the inner suburbs of London there was a house that had three wind turbines powering all of the electricity (I do actually have three wind turbines here).

The conversation was interrupted as I needed to go to Brussels in Belgium. There, I met Anne-Marie in a café half-way up the Boulevard Léopold II near to the Simonis transport hub. She was wanting to see more of the parts of Brussels that she didn’t know, and the area of Molenbeek and Koekelberg (served by the Simonis hub) is an area that I know quite well.

But Anne-Marie. She joined the EU at about the same time that I did and was part of this little group of us that went around together. I had quite a soft spot for her and we went on a couple of skiing trips together. She would have been a good partner for me, I always reckoned, as she had a knack of bringing my feet back firmly to the floor whenever I went off on one of my regular flights of fancy. But as is usual, though, I would have been far too much hard work for someone “normal” and so nothing ever happened. Another “one that got away”, the lucky girl.

But let’s return to the issue at hand. Despite all of the contemporary stuff that was going on in the Boulevard Leopold II, it was in fact early 1914 and the eve of World War I. Some German notable, von Something zu Somewhat, was there trying to negotiate something with some Belgian politicians and my task, if I chose to accept it, was to find out who he was and what he was doing and who he was negotiating with and why. On the eve of World War I, everyone in Europe was nervous.

So once I had ascertained his name, I contacted MI6 to see if he was “known” to the British authorities. I didn’t receive a reply but it turned out that the principal reason why he was there was that he (only a young guy) had made a young girl pregnant because he needed a child in order to inherit something. But this girl was not ready to have herself “announced” to all the world. Therefore there was some machination about producing the baby, with a spurious mother, and producing the real mother at a later date.

I suggested that he should have produced a spurious baby as well and saved all of this pantomime, but this didn’t go down too well at all.

After all of that running around Northern Europe for 100 years when I should have been sleeping, I didn’t feel too bad about staying in bed until 10:10 this morning. And after breakfast I just mooched around for a while.

There should have been some footy this afternoon – I had a choice of the 1st XI at Lempdes – about a 90-minute drive away – or the 2nd XI at home against the Goatslayers, both kick-offs at 13:00. Of course, I chose the Goatslayers at home, and so of course the match was postponed, as I found out when I arrived at the ground.

But with the glorious summer weather today (180.1 amp-hours of surplus solar energy, 66°C in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load), firstly I aired all of the bedding that I use in Caliburn – it’s been in its suitcase in the barn since early November, and secondly, I had a look at Caliburn’s auxilliary electrical circuits.

The solar panel on Caliburn’s roof rack hasn’t been charging up the second battery for a while and neither has the split-charging relay that works off the main battery. It turns out that the cheap charge controller that I bought years ago in the UK has burnt itself out. Luckily, in one of these solar briefcase kits that I bought years ago and which broke when it fell off the LDV’s roof, there was a charge controller that was now sitting around doing nothing. Consequently, that’s now wired in the circuit and seems to be working.

As for the split charger, after much furkling arouns and bad temper and cursing, I found that there was a poor earth connection. Once that was all cleaned up and greased and sanded, that now works as it should.

But with having almost dismantled the auxilliary electric circuit, I decided to tidy it all up. It really was such a mess. Now it’s all shipshape and Bristol-fashion, bolted to the bulkhead as it should be, and out of the way of where I’m likely to trip over it. But I’m still not all that happy – I can do much better than this and I will do too.

But me? Working on a Sunday? Things are getting to me, aren’t they?

And this evening, no pizza. Not that I can’t make one, but that the temperature up here is 18.4°C, and that’s with no heating on either. If I light the fire I’d be melted out long before the pizza would be cooked.

This winter is thoroughly crazy.

-6

Sunday 2nd February 2014 – THE FOOTY RESTARTED TODAY

Well, it shouldn’t have done, but there are so many matches in arrears that Pionsat’s 1st XI hastily rearranged a postponed match against Lapeyrouse.

And hasty was the word too, so hasty in fact that Pionsat were short of five or six regular players and they had to pad the team with players from the 2nd XI who play 3 divisions lower down the pyramid.

Of course, Pionsat lost, and by 2-0 too, but then you can’t expect half-a-dozen players from Division 4 of the District league pyramid to compete against a team that last year was playing in the Elite pyramid.

The first goal was quite avoidable though and Pionsat’s defence should be pretty depressed with that. All the defenders drawn to the near post and then the ball driven across the goal to a couple of Lapeyrouse players standing unmarked at the far post.

The second goal from Lapeyrouse was a peach, though, and worth the price of the admission … "it’s free!" – ed. A free kick about 35 yards out played to an attacker standing about 15 yards from goal and he hits the ball on the volley. It’s one of those shots that could have gone anywhere – the stand, the school playground, the cemetery, the abandoned railway line, but this one chooses to go into the far top corner of the net despite a despairing dive from Michaël.

Pionsat had their moments too and they were desperately unlucky on a couple of occasions.

We had a moment where a confusion between the centre-half and the keeper saw the former back-head the ball over the outstretched arms of his keeper. The ball hit the cossbar and in a desperate tangle on the line, neither the Lapeyrouse keeper nor Frédéric could make contact with the ball and the Lapeyrouse n°14 hacks it away before Cedric can get to the ball.

In another moment of desperation in the Lapeyrouse defence, a really good corner from Pionsat is won in the air by one of the Pionsat forwards and the other Frédéric just can’t make a contact with the ball to force it into the net.

Nevertheless, with most of the Lapeyrouse defence paralysed, the defender covering the far post (the near post in this photo) manages to hack the ball off the line at the very last moment to avoid a certain goal.

Pionsat also had a clear penalty denied when Nico was blatantly pushed off balance as he went for a loose ball in the area, and there was another incident in the Lapeyrouse area that some referees might have punished with a penalty for Pionsat for holding.

But then again, to be honest, I don’t really remember either goalkeeper having a proper save to make. Pionsat’s attack looked well below par today.

But the weather was quite impressive this morning. We had clear skies for a few hours until early afternoon, not like winter at all today in fact. I think that when winter does finally come, it will come in spades.

-2

Saturday 1st February 2014 – CALIBURN STARTED …

… first turn of the key this morning. But then again, the temperature was much warmer and, after the glorious, magnificent day yesterday when I had 134.4 amps of surplus solar energy, it was overcast and pouring down with rain.

And I didn’t even stop for breakfast either but straight off to Montlucon just like young Janet going to the fair at Carterhaugh in Tam Lin – “as fast as go can me”

First stop was the Auchan where I hadn’t been for ages, and I bought the things that I couldn’t buy yesterday. but hasn’t the Auchan changed? Store enlarged and everything moved around, but fairly deserted. You can see where the new LeClerc has found its customers.

Second stop was Brico Depot where I spent a staggering €450. But then, I need about 85 m² of insulation to do all of the walls downstairs and when you see this space-blanket insulation on special offer – 23-layer thickness for just €3:80 per m², which is far, far less than half-price, well, you have to go for it.

I also bought the paint (and I’m still recovering from the shock of course) and the tongue-and-grooving for the ceiling out here, as well as a huge pile of staples for the percussion stapler seeing as how I’m running low.

And that, dear reader, was that. Not even 12:00 and I was well on my way home. So much so that it wasn’t until I arrived home that I realised that I hadn’t bought the big water filter kit that was on offer at just €59:00 and which I also desperately needed.

GRRRRRRRRR!

On the way back through the side streets of Montlucon I pass by the fire station and there’s always some exciting stuff going on there.

Today they were stretching the extended ladder and the young apprentice firemen … "firePERSONS" – ed … werepractising running up and down the ladder. I had a good look at them and then left them to it. Far too tiring for me, even just looking at it.

This afternoon we were having the annual village get-together at the village hall in Virlet. M Le Maire gave his little speech, and I spent most of the time chatting to Pete Marsh and his lady-friend and also Rob and Nicolette from up the road here.

I didn’t stay long because I don’t “do” social events, but I did stay long enough to receive my village Xmas prezzy (an LED pencil-torch) and also a copy of the photo that they took of me for the village year-book.

So now I’m home and I’m staying home. No footy tonight but the season restarts tomorrow with Pionsat’s 1st XI home to Lapeyrouse.

-6

Sunday 8th December 2013 – JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… I saw Pionsat’s 2nd XI go a goal down early in a game (that’s not really a change), but come back strongly and score three times in the second half to win 3-1 to get their show back on the road.

But never mind that for a moment – this morning started as I meant to go on, by dropping my breakfast tray and all its contents all over the floor downstairs. I’d had a nice sleep too – an early night, a lie-in until 10:30 without any inerruption through the night, a good dream, and then the bright burning sun shining in through the windows. And then of course the breakfast all over the floor.

I managed an hour or two catching up on some recording that I needed to do, and then in the glorious sunshine off to Charensat to see the footy at 13:00.

Pionsat had 11 players, but no more, and it was a fair team too, and as I said, they ran out winners 3-1 after being down 1-0 for a long period in the game.

It was particularly important for young Vincent. He came up from the juniors last year and he’s finding it something of a big step up, but he’s doing what he can and he showed that if you have a genuine striker’s instinct, then nothing much else really matters all that much.

Here, a high ball into the area had the keeper stretching and … he dropped it. It’s not easy hanging on to a ball in this cold weather with the sun streaming into your eyes.

And there was Vincent, following the ball in like every good striker should, whether he thinks he’s going to get it or not, and when the keeper fumbles the ball, it lands right at Vincent’s feet and that was 3-1 to Pionsat.

Back here, I finished off the recording and then watched the Packers against the Falcons. The Packers came back to scrape a dour win, having fallen behind to the most bizarre touchdown that I have ever seen. The Pachers’ quarterback overthrows, a Falcons defender sticks out a hopeful foot, and kicks it right into the hands of a colleague wide open on the left wing, who, totally unmarked, runs it back 72 yards for a touchdown. The Falcons won’t ever do that again, that’s for sure.

-4

Sunday 17th November 2013 – NO FOOTY … GRRRRRR!

And I checked before setting out, too. I rang up Fabien who has now taken over the running of FC Pionsat St Hilaire from Bernard, so I am given to understand, and he said at first that today’s 2nd XI match at Charensat was on. But shortly afterwards, he rang back to say that following a mid-morning pitch inspection, the game was off.

Seeing as it was Sunday, I wasn’t feeling too much like a 13:00 start anyway, especially as I didn’t crawl out of bed until abou 10:30. So that was the cue for a leisurely morning.

The afternoon gave me several possibilities – I could see if there were any clubs in the vicinity (Le Quartier, the Goatslayers, St Maurice etc) were playing, or whether Terjat or St Marcel’s matches were on, or else I could stay in and do the rock programmes for Radio Anglais. Common sense and logic suggested that I did the radio programmes and so for once, I took my own best advice (not like me, I know) and dashed out January’s rock music. So that’s out of the way.

This evening I was summoned to appear chez Liz and Terry so that Liz and I could do the rehearsals for our recordings on Friday, and I could have a quick glance at the Fiat Punto that has ground to a shuddering halt (might possibly be that a big end cap has come off, although it’s significant that it started to go wrong after a local garage changed the water punp – has someone dropped a bolt or a spanner down a waterway?)

Liz also sprung a surprise on me – could I help her translate some technical information about the work that is done in a casting foundry. That 18 months I spent in an in-depth study of the evidence of the Tay Bridge disaster, during which about 100 pages was spent in discussing foundry practice and principles, stood me in good stead here, that’s for sure. And I’m not really complaining because Liz also sprung on me an apple crumble and vegan custard together with a doggy bag to take home, as well as another supply of vegan cheese from the UK.

On the way there though, I noticed rather ominously that the sides of the Puy-de-Dome, the Mont Dore and the Puy de Sancy are well-covered in snow. Winter is drawing inexorably closer with every day.

I’m also having a little change of procedure about the bateries in the barn right now. As you know, the charge controller has packed up in there (the second in as many years) so I’m by-passing the charge controller with a flying lead with crocodile clips on each end. Anyway, the battery that I’m using is fully-charged and I don’t want to overcharge it by leaving it coupled up all day, but before all of these charge control issues there were three batteries that were, well, not too bad, and they gradually lost their charge in the absence of a charge conroller.

What I’m doing then is to charge up for just half an hour the battery that’s there, and then swap over the charge to the three precious ones. If we have a good week or so of decent weather it might actually put some charge in them. Who knows? But it’s worth a try.

-13

Saturday 9th November 2013 – DUNNO IF YOU REMEMBER …

… a couple of years ago and I posted a photo of the local village shop in Ronnet which had caught fire and burnt out.

The owners moved to other premises in the village with their shop and opened a little café-restaurant there too. But that’s not lasted too long, because this was what I discovered when I went through Ronnet at midday today.

We’ve had another fire and all of this seems to have gone for a Burton too. Even more importantly, when the first place caught fire they had a tarpaulin up and over it almost as soon as the flames were extinguished. Here though after the fire at their second premises, they seem to have abandoned everything to its fate and that seems to be that.

Yes, I was in Ronnet today, on my way to Commentry for shopping, and rather later than intended too. I’d heard the alarm go off but I decided that, seeing as how I’m still recovering from my exertions, I was going to have another morning of rest.

But what a beautiful morning it was though, not a cloud in the sky and the batteries were fully-charged by 10:45. I emptied some more stuff out of Caliburn and tidied up some more in here, slinging some filled rubbish bags into the van and then went off to Commentry, via Ronnet.

Christmas isn’t too far off and so I’ve started buying Christmas nibbles today. And nothing else of note or excitement, except that at Centrakor I picked up a couple of small pepper mills on special offer, to use for grinding my cardamon seeds and so on, and also some waxed table cloth. That was what I wanted, because I don’t want to ruin this new table when I use it as my kitchen worktop up here.

As the weather deteriorated, clouded over and started to rain, Neris was next, and the swimming baths. Ages since I’ve been there and it was freezing in the building. About 25 of us poor souls braving the extremes, but at least I’m clean for once.

So now that I’m back home I can return to my usual haunts and habits, FC Pionsat St Hilaire being one of them, and tonight the Ist XI were taking on Chatelguyon.

I had to get dressed for it too as it was freezing outside, although the rain had stopped. And it’s as well that I did for nothing that happened on the pitch served to warm me up at all.

PIonsat started the stronger and were peppering the Chatelguyon goalmouth and it was no surprise that they took the lead. A beautiful cross across the goalmouth from Nico and Pavel, this new Polish striker, volleying in a superb shot at the far post.

In that opening spell wre had shots kicked off the line, shots pounded into the woodwork and shots put wide when it would have been easier to score and I can’t think how it was that they missed. Pionsat were threatening to run riot.

They were however living dangerously at the back and it was no surprise to anyone that Chatelguyon equalised – with just a few minutes to go before half-time.

A break down the left wing saw a Chatelguyon forward clean on with the ball and although Michael managed to get down and stop the shot he couldn’t hold on and as the ball ran free from his grasp, another Chatelguyon forward following up had a pretty simple tap-in and that, dear readers, was that.

The second half started just like the first half. Pionsat came out of the trap like a rocket and for the first five minutes had Chatelguyon pegged right back in their own half and under something of the cosh.

We had the Pionsat missed chances, the woodwork peppered with shots, the Chatelguyon keeper making some excellent saves, and then the unbelievable happened.

Well, it isn’t unbelievable if you have been following what I was writing about the matches three and four years ago. Back in those days Pionsat were struggling because they had a defence that had a tendency to switch off and gp to sleep at important moments, and this was exactly what we had here.

And it didn’t happen just once or even twice, but FOUR TIMES, would you believe, and what looked like a comfortable Pionsat victory turned into something of an absolute rout as they went on to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I felt sorry for Michael in the Pionsat goal. He’s not a goalkeeper but with injuries to everyone else he’s in there keeping goal and doing his best.

No one could fault him for any of the five goals that he conceded, but with two Pionsat centre-backs standing too far apart so that an attacker can go straight down though the middle for a one-on-one with him, what is he expected to do?

We had two of those, one after the other, and that was followed up by two balls over the top of the defence when the Pionsat defence was pushing too far forward and not quick enough to get back. For the fifth goal we had Michael on his own against three Chatelguyon attackers and no-one can do much about that.

Back home, I was skyped by an old friend of mine, telling me that he’s moved house. He has, but his wife hasn’t, meaning of course that their marriage of some considerable number of years has come to an end. That’s really sad news as between them they made quite an impressive couple with many qualities. But I suppose that it’s none of my business except to dole out the sympathy.

-5

Saturday 19th October 2013 – THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT …

… of changes around here – it’s amazing what cam happen when you’ve been away for as long as I have.

Steaming down the hill past the quarry at Montaigut on my way to the shops at St Eloy this afternoon and I came shuddering to a halt. That’s because a new road, and of course, a new road junction seem, to have miraculously appeared.

I’ve heard a great deal about this proposed new road – it’s something that’s been proposed for quite a while. For years, heavy lorries from the quarry have struggled through the medieval streets of Montaigut, snarling up the traffic and rattling the houses, and all of the local inhabitants are thoroughly fed up of it.

But not any more. While I was away, a new road has been consrtructed that by-passes the village and goes off to the N144 on the outskirts.

There, the traffic is not obliged to enter into the village at all and that will please everyone.

It will please me greatly too. I often need to take the N144 and then turn off for Montmarault and in order to do that I have to go down some quite narrow windy roads with, more often than not, the sun full in my face at the most inopportune of moments. Now I can just steam on down to here and then hang a left on the new road, and I’m there in no time.

There’s another part of the road that is in the throes of being built. That part will take you onto the road that leads to Pionsat, and that’s another piece of road that should have been built centuries ago to by-pass the village.

All the traffic on there, if it isn’t going to the village itself (which is highly unlikely as there is nothing in Montaigut tha Pionsat doesn’t have) is going to the motorway at Montmarault and so is being channelled through the village and as anyone will tell you, traffic in Montaigut can sometimes be impossible.

No, when they finish this, it should be a good thing.

However I am getting ahead of myself. This morning I was intending to go to Montlucon but I’d seen some interesting stuff that would do for the radio programme, so I wrote a couple of thousand words on the tax changes that took place in July.

After shopping, I went round to Marianne’s to catch up on all of the latest news, and then to Cecile’s to unload Caliburn of the stuff that Cecile had chosen from the other Marianne.

We had footy this evening too. Pionsat’s 2nd XI were relegated to the fourth Division at the end of last season and are doing fairly well here. Tonight they were playing the Miners of St Eloy but they would only muster a team of 10 and which was not a particularly strong team either, with several faces missing from the squad.

They started off brightly, with the Pionsat n°9 ( a guy called Fred, a new signing) playing a total blinder up front and looking as if he could take on the entire Nord Combraille side on his own.

It didn’t however work out like that as Pionsat couldn’t keep going, being short-handed like that.

The Miners gradually came back into the game and eventually the goal that they had been threatening to score for quite some time went into the back of the net, despite the best efforts of Christophe who seems to have taken over the goalkeeping jersey on a permanent basis, given the illness, injury and retirement of everyone else around the club. There have been quite a few changes over the last two seasons.

Nord Combrailles scored a second goal late in the game to put the issue beyond doubt.
But that wasn’t quite the end of the story, because this guy Fred, who had quite impressed me throughout all of the match, was still going at the final whistle.

Here he is bursting through the Miners’ defence right on the final whistle, shrugging off a few strong tackles, and putting a shot across the face of the goal beating the keeper easily. But it hits the post and bounces to safety – about the third or fourth time that he had hit the woodwork. He would have been my man-of-the-match on any day of the week in any team, that’s for sure.

Even more astonishing was the weather. We were all standing on the terraces in shirt sleeves. This was one of the nicest October nights that I can remember.

-9

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality

Tag Archives: fcpsh

Sunday 13th April 2014 – I HAVE JUST SEEN THE BEST…

Saturday 12th April 2014 – SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY …

Sunday 6th April 2014 – WE’RE UP AGAINST IT NOW!

Saturday 5th April 2014 – WELL DONE PIONSAT!

Sunday 30th March 2014 – THAT’S MUCH BETTER …

Saturday 29th March 2014 – JUST HOW UNLUCKY CAN YOU BE?

Sunday 16th March 2014 – THAT’S THE LAST TIME …

Saturday 15th March 2014 – ONLY THIS MORNING I WAS PONDERING …

Sunday 23rd February 2014 – PHEW!

Sunday 2nd February 2014 – THE FOOTY RESTARTED TODAY

Saturday 1st February 2014 – CALIBURN STARTED …

Sunday 8th December 2013 – JUST FOR A CHANGE …

Sunday 17th November 2013 – NO FOOTY … GRRRRRR!

Saturday 9th November 2013 – DUNNO IF YOU REMEMBER …

Saturday 19th October 2013 – THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT …

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