Another little prick

 Everything seems to be moving on a pace now. The period between New Year and my birthday always seems to pass so quickly at the best of times. There is the clearing up after Christmas and the storage of all the decorations, then we fall straight into the 6 Nations rugby and usually attend a game or two and then before you know it the golf season is upon us and hope springs eternal.

This year things are suddenly different. The last time I went to a major sporting event was at Twickenham last March when England gave the Welsh a good seeing to. We had a last dinner out with friends Peter and Val, and then we were locked down the next day. we all know what the rest of 2020 was like.

Last week, however, i was fortunate enough to be called to Chester Racecourse for the first of my two Covid vaccinations. I was assured that if it went well I was entered for the 3:30 Novices Chase over 6 furlongs. It never got to that stage though as I had some interesting reactions which may have been related to an earlier cold I had, but as my GP said, we just don;t know all  the side effects at the moment. Mine were cold shivers through the night with a limited capacity to breath, and after the first night I thought that would be that but after a relatively normal Friday when alcohol was taken, I was wiped. out on Saturday and then confined to barracks on Sunday when my BP went through the floor. Still all seems to be back to normal now. Roll on Wales v England tomorrow.

As a present to myself I have purchased a new golf trolley. It is electric and it follows me all round the course unaided. I have called it Marvin.

Today was gloriously sunny so I took Marvin for a test drive over the Wallasey links. No golf was involved but I was pleased I gave Marvin a dry run in isolation as there were a few teething problems with the assembly and subsequent control of the trolley. All has been sorted and I can't wait to be back playing from 29th March. Only 32 sleeps to go!

Try, try again

Well the 6 Nations tournament did not start of in the style I had hoped. A very lack lustre England team were put to the sword by a rejuvinated Scotland side at Twickenham on Saturday. Many of the England side looked ring rusty which was no suprise as a few of them had hardly played a game since November. All credit to the Sweaties though as they capitalised on that fact to give England no chance of a sniff of a win.

I do feel a bit to blame to e honest. The last time Scotland won at Twickenham was in 1983, and  it is one of the few matches I have missed in 50 years. I was at a wedding and did manage to catch a bit of the game in a TV shop window in East Sheen as we walked from the church to the reception venue. Do you remember those Radio Rentals shops where you could rent a TV or radio as well as a wide range of white goods. Those were the days.  I recall Scotland scoring while we were watching. So, my enforced absence on Saturday meant that I have still never seen Scotland win at Twickenham.

The weekend could have been saved had Wales been beaten by a 14 man Ireland outfit, bu that didn't happen either. The valiant Irish we winning at half time, bu to me the turning point of the match was overlooked by the TV pundits. With Ireland still winning, they stole a  Wales line-out on their own 22 metre line, but the referre, Wayne Barnes, shouted, 'taken back' almost as the ball reached the Ireland fly half. That shout meant he could not kick directly to touch, which he did, so giving Wales anothe line-out closer to the Ireland line, from which they subsequently scored.

Although Barnes indicated on mic that he had said if Ireland stole the ball it would be taken back, but I doubt the Ireland half backs heard it. To me it was poor communication and ultimately cost Ireland the game.

The commentary team did, however, mention the death of ex-England captain John Pullen during the week. We all grew up with John Pullen as England hooker, and he is famous for one after dinner speech.  During the Troubles the teams in the 5 Nations were reticent to go to Dublin, but when it came to England,s turn, they duly turned up at Landsdowne Road and got badly beaten up. John Pullen started his post match speech by saying ' We may not be very good, but at least we turn up'. It received a standing ovation and to this day is still the reason that the Irish rugby public have a little bit of their heart reserved for the |English.

Next week England entertain Italy. We have never gone to Twickenham to see this match as it is in the year that England have three home matches. It is the least likely match to be 'a classic' and England remain the only 6 Nations team Italy have not beaten. Now that may change this time if the idiocracies of Covid play a part but lets hope not. We saved £300 this weekend which is about the only plus point, so a good run out against Italy will set us up for Wales, Ireland and France. All is not lost but it will take all Eddie Jones coaching and motivational skills to turn this one round. Allez Le Blanc

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!