Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

No, and it predates summer rugby. For instance, in the 1962-63 season, Wigan lost to Saints at Central Park on Good Friday before a crowd of almost 41,000, their second defeat in this derby fixture that season. The Knowsley Road clash had eventually been played at 5pm on Tuesday, 26th March, with 21,000 in attendance. It had been due to be played on Boxing Day, but that match became the first of eleven, consecutive matches to fall victim to the great freeze that winter. The consequence of the extreme weather was that from Thursday, 7th March, until Wednesday, 29th May, Wigan played 23 competitive, first team fixtures - about one very four days, if my mental arithmetic is correct!

OK. I go for three-toed sloth.

Elite 2 final 13-12 to Baho at half time. Bit of a fracas developed as players left the field. Villegailhenc-Aragon have the Andersons (Vinnie and Louie) and Patrick Ah Van in their line-up

I think you hit the Guinness a bit too early and enthusiastically, fairfolly! Kerry would never play in red and white; their colours are green and gold. I suspect you may be referring to the 1993 All Ireland Final when Derry's opponents were Kerry's next door neighbours, Cork. One of the good thing about gaelic football and hurling county teams is how loyal they are to their colours. This also minimises confusion. So, Derry play in shirts that are white with a red hoop; Cork play in red shirts. In the '93 final, Derry wore red shorts, Cork white. So, no confusion...until the Guinness kicks in!

Be careful what you wish for, Clogiron; this was Lerwick Harbour at 2.40am this morning!

Suddenly - if, I suppose, predictably - our garden seems to be absolutely teeming with birds, much more so than usual. I think the explanation is that a number of nesting birds have fledged their youngsters at more or less the same time. So, various titmouse species, house sparrows, dunnocks, blackbirds and song thrushes are all in abundance. Also, there are more nuthatches and bullfinches than usual, so I think our year-round regulars of these species have successfully bred too. Happily, not too many magpie or sparrowhawk visits to cause momentary mayhem and death for some. The jackdaws tend to take over at times, but the other birds don't feel threatened by them, as far as I can see. Conversely, there are a few species that we see at other times, but less so, or not at all, just now, so I assume they go elsewhere to breed; these include chaffinches and goldfinches (which surprises me a bit) and siskins (which doesn't) An adult great spotted woodpecker is coming more frequently than usual, so may be feeding young in the nest.

It might be argued that the stand-up comedy and juggling elements are already part of his day job!

Oh for heavens sake, DP! "that you speak of" - no, no, no, "of which you speak?"

I'm very envious, Ullman, one of the great bird sights!

Thanks, everyone, for an excellent thread, encouraging many memories and anecdotes. I seem to recall once reading that, many, many moons ago, the head of the Taylor brewing family in Keighley was, at one time, also a magistrate and got himself on the licensing panel - so no conflict of interest there then! I don't know if this is true, I should add. I enjoyed the reference to Hartley's of Ulverston. The Morcambe Bay area really lost out with the demise of that brewery and the two, traditional Lancaster ones - Yates & Jackson and Mitchell's. When my wife and I got married, in a village near Settle where I was then living, we had a DIY reception in the village hall. I went across to Lancaster, by arrangement, to pick up a wooden pin of Hartley's XB Bitter from the pub they had down on the riverside (was it called The Waggon & Horses, perhaps?), and a second wooden pin of Y&J. The latter I picked up from the brewery, who happily let me take it away on the assumption I would be honest enough to drive round to their offices, which were elsewhere in the city centre, and pay, which I was and did! I am glad Black Sheep beers have developed a following. My wife and I (celebrating our Ruby wedding anniversary!) had a holiday in the Dales last month and called in to the visitor centre there is nowadays at the Black Sheep brewery in Masham. This was quite nostalgic for me, as the last time that I was there was as an official guest on the day that the brewery was opened, 25 years ago, by Nicholas Soames, MP, who was a junior minister at DEFRA, or whatever it was called in those days. He had a reputation as a lover of good food and drink (I think Private Eye used to call him 'Fatty' Soames) and his eyes must have lit up when he saw his official duties for that week! Tetley's used to do a good, well flavoured, dark mild draught beer, and as somebody else has mentioned, Taylor's do one. I also think of dark milds as being a Midlands drink. I was sorry to hear of bad Everard's experiences; I have always found their beers to be OK, if not truly memorable. Two other Midlands brewers were Shipstone's and Hardy's & Hanson's (t/a Kimberley Ales). A friend once told me that he had heard that a local saying about the former was Shipstone's Shippos makes you sh*t like hippos!" No idea if this was a fair comment! I think they closed about 30 years ago. The latter, who ceased brewing in about 2005, had a very simple, but catchy slogan - "Stop with the hop!" Amen to that!

What I can, admittedly a bit pedantically, tell you, Dave, is that this is tautology. My Gaelic vocabulary is not extensive, but I am pretty sure that 'fraoch' means 'heather'!

As others (eg Wiltshire Rhino) have pointed out, this isn't a north -v- south linguistic issue; it is London and the Home Counties -v- the provinces. In all probability, 'twas ever thus! The composer, Thomas Ravenscroft, in his 1614 publication, A Briefe Dsicourse, includes twenty four-part songs to demonstrate the theories and practices about which he has written earlier in the book. One of them, Hodge Trillindle to his zweethort Malkyn, leaves no stone unturned in making fun of west country, 'Mummerset' accents and dialects. Even the voice parts such as 'treble' and 'tenor' are described as 'dreble' and 'denor', and a note at the end of the first part of the piece, which is in sections, says that the 'zegund bart vollowes.' Dialects are not inferior to standard English; just a different, but equally valid, way of expressing things. Some years ago, when I used to make a few gallons of cider each year, I asked the son of my, by then ailing, regular farm supplier of real cider apples, in a village out on the Somerset Levels, how his father was keeping: he shook his head and said, "He do need a lot of looking after these days". Classic use of the present active tense in Somerset - different from standard English, but not wrong at all! If the Guardian article writer is concerned about the encroachment of Estuary English into Yorkshire dialect, she might just be looking out for the wrong invader. (Indeed, I suspect that, to an extent at least, she is using the issue of dialects and accents to have pop more generally at the middle and upper classes in the south, at least as she perceives them!) I would have thought Americanisms are more of an issue for all parts of the country: I regularly see reference to 'programs'; my daughter routinely calls the toilet the bathroom, even, for instance, in pubs where no bath will be present; for a medical appointment at a clinic in Salisbury on Monday, I received an email (from, it transpires, a locally born and raised person) with directions telling me to 'take a left', whereas I would just say 'turn left'.

I have had to do the Wiltshire to Yorkshire (and vice versa) run for work and personal reasons umpteen times over the years. There are some great options, Steve, almost all of them not involving the M6. If you want some, just ask!

The RSPB website also has comprehensive plans on building bat boxes and good locations for them.

What size was the crowd at York today?