Welling up

I had no idea that there were two Well Lane addresses within less than a mile of each other on the Wirral. It was in one such address I was due to have my golf captain photograph taken today. The poor man in Tranmere had no idea what I was talking about when I went knocking on his door. I just find it hard to imagine that I am the only person ever to make the same mistake. No, there was no ' you want the Well Lane up the road, mate' just a 'what photographs have you come to take' query. As Fiona Richmond would say, I made my excuses and left.

The correct Well Lane address when I found it was a house tucked away in Higher Beddington and is home to Colin Beringham, professional photographer. On entering the property one is greeted by a huge picture of Bruce Grobbelaar, the ex-Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper, in a very swish DJ. On the stairs is a portrait of Ken Dodd and a three quarter length John Major adorns the parlour. Colin was very welcoming and had taken the precaution of caging his dogs prior to our arrival. Good move.

After the usual preliminary discussions I was ushered into the changing room to first get ready for the blazer shots. These have been traditionally used by the Club for press release and other such routine matters, although their use does seem to have been somewhat reduced in recent years, maybe this year will see an upturn. I decided on two versions, one with the Club tie and another with the Senior section tie. It's their decision whether they take, one or both, or neither.

We then moved onto the main event of the day, the red coat shot. In the studio Colin has a range of chairs, stools, tables, half desks and other props with which to frame the perfect shot. we must have taken twenty shots for consideration but probably fifty all together.

Finally he took a three quarter of me in the style of John Major which I shall keep for my own records.

Once I was changed back into civi's we went through the selection process, aided by the current Captain who had accompanyed me there as is the tradition. I found a quick and slick process to be the best and we soon had our four portraits selected and they are now to go under the Photoshop process to make me even more good looking than I naturally am. All will be revealed after the Annual General Meeting at the end of March when my portrait will hang proudly in the foyer of the Club.

As long  as people don't think it's Jack Rowell we should be OK!!

2d back on the bottle

What a strange weekend just gone. It always seems to be not quite right when the rugby international matches are played on a Sunday, but we embrace the home games anyway. Paris is a dead loss as the whole City seems to shut down on Sundays and as the rugby federation are only tenants in the Stade Francais, they get to play at the ridiculous times the landlords dictate. Rome is a bit better so we have been known to go over there for a Sunday game, but the other venues, forget it. That said we don't go to Cardiff these days fullstop!!

So Twickenham weekend was shifted a day, and numbers were down considerably. Just two of us for the Saturday night pre-match drinks and five for the game itself. I was amazed to read how positiive the reports of the England performance were. Ireland were dreadful  and like Scotland before, they exectuted schoolboy errors to gift England a substancial lead. So in my mind England have played three games and discounting the two pieces of magic from Jonny May late in the game against France, England have created nothing through thier own imagination or ingenuilty. I can't help thinking that The All Blacks would have put 50 points on both sides easily.

Tuilangi disappeared after about 30 minutes, Farrell has no imagination or flair and both scrum halves are on borrowed time. I fear the Welsh will find us out.

The apres match was a very good craic and I have returned home in one piece, but recieved an interesting e-mail from one of our S-Club members who has just had 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. He and his wife have decided to instigate a self imposed 3 week isolation period as they have been near to countries which are part of the Corona virus outbreak. This means he will not be with us for the Wales game for fear of being a carrier. It's a very noble gesture and gets them out of baby sitting duty for a while, so we might try that one ourselves.

So we are now long on wales tickets and hotel rooms, somethoing which has never been heard of before.

Gilets jaunes

A series of weekends away see me today in Hamburg for number 2 son's stag celebration. There are 16 of us and I am oldest by a good 25 years. Consequently I need to pace myself. Yesterday was random drinking with a visit to a mega beer kellar with stein after stein on offer. I seemed to drink them for hours with no visible reduction in the amount of beer in the glass!!

Today we have been curling and then had a bar all to ourselves for what are called the Proll Olympics. This consists of a series of pub games unlike any you could imagine. Popping balloons with staple guns, flipping pencils like you would beer mats and stopping spinning coins are mixed in with giant jenga, giant pick-a-stick and spoof. To add continuity there was also table curling to play.

Sadly the stag missed most of this as he had a quiet few hours in bed after becoming tired and emotional earlier in the afternoon.

Last weekend we had our traditional 6 Nations trip away. Normally we take in France or Italy but the France game was on a Sunday, when Paris is closed, and Italy fishes with my mother-in-law 80th birthday. We,therefore, decided to go to Bordeaux to watch Scotland v England and Ireland v Wales in a bar. It all worked really well except for the yellow vests deciding to have a mini riot on the Saturday. We were in the old town which they avoided for fear of getting hemmed in by the police, but the damage we saw on the way home must have been heart breaking for the businesses affected. The glaziers had a good revenue stream though.

We also visited St Emilion, another World Heritage site to add to our list and touched a bottle of 1948 Petrus Pomerol listed at €9000. Maybe another time!!!

Proper 6 Nations next weekend lets hope for some better weather!

Beauty Parade

It used to be said that you had travelled well North of London if you passed a Morrison's supermarket. It's not so these days, but I felt something similar about Liverpool as I travelled through Norris Green with SWMBO last night.

We were going to Huyton and Prescott golf club for the new captains introduction as part of our inauguration into the Liverpool Society of Golf Club Captains. There are 27 clubs in the society and each new captain was accompanied by their current (2019) captain and their lady.

We had pre-order drinks, a pre-match handshake and then a team photo, one for the men and one for their ladies. We then sat down for a three course dinner and a couple of speeches after which each couple was announced and stood to take plaudits of their peers.

That was the easy part. After dinner the ladies were shepherded into one room and the gents into another. We had to appoint a secretary and treasurer, a name for the year group and a first informal meeting date. Those that know me will not be surprised that I was appointed secretary, and as 2020 captains, being called the visionaries should not be a surprise either. The optics got a few votes in second place. We will all convene as a group informally in Childwall towards the end of April. Childwall incidentally used the same clubhouse refurb company as Wallasey have engaged, and were very happy with the results.

The whole evening was funded by the 2019 captains, called The Eagles, to whom we were very grateful. The golf club staff were excellent and the clubhouse was a hidden gem, being the manor house of the old Hurst Estate owned and occupied by the Atherton family. I look forward to returning to play the course during my year in office.

So it now feels like the year has begun and I can see clearly now the way ahead!!!

The next time I see many of my year group will be at the Spring dinner when 6 or 7 captains are invited to attend as our guests. For most it will be the first time they will be wearing their red coats for which I had a fitting this morning. As a precursor to that dinner I look forward to an informal round of golf with the incoming captain of Royal Liverpool, who will be the visiting guest speaker on the night.