Tag Archives: linesman

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 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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