Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

Thanks for a potentially interesting thread, Mr P. I am intrigued by your use of 'obviously' in respect of Leeds' current blue and amber. When I first saw them play, in the mid-60s at Leigh, I think the amber was more of a pale fawn or brown, possibly described as 'walnut'. I also suspect the blue was not as vivid as is the norm nowadays. Is my memory playing tricks? Quite possible! Unlike you, I don't find it strange that the clubs from one location playing different sports have different colours. Nor that their colours are necessarily unrelated to the locality's official colours, however that is determined. Come to that, how many British places have official colours? There is currently a notable exception to that, of course; Les Dracs' opt to use the traditional Catalan regional colours

It's not quite clear how far (or not) from Hebden Bridge you have in mind, Bob8. Very close are those bits of Lancashire just over the hill, if you take the road north-west out of Hebden Bridge past Widdop. Trawden is attractive, and you can come back into the Worth Valley via Wycoller, which is even better. As others have said, the main part of the Dales is nearby, though arguably it hardly classifies as 'off the beaten track'. That said, Langstrothdale is a delight and not as well known as it probably should be.

Glad it's not just me who thought that, Bleep!

You mean Keighley has a better part? Only kidding; I like the place. My wife is less enthusiastic, but then she is from Skipton.... I am reminded of that spoof, Art Deco railway poster, with the caption "Keighley. That scary place on the way to the Dales"!

Brimstones seem to be the first ones around here (ie South Wiltshire) yesterday, I too saw a peacock. I see reports today of the first swallows in Hampshire - a couple of solitary birds.

In many ways, the high profile villains are, to state the obvious, easy to spot. I suspect that there may be some lower profile ones too. I pay a set amount each month for a dental plan. Today, the dentist phoned to say that my next routine check up has been postponed for the time being. I understand; I don't have a problem with that. I had to phone my home care scheme at the weekend as I had a slight leak in a tap on the outside wall of the house (so costing me a bit in water and wasting water too) When I honestly described the problem, I was told that, because of the current situation, nobody could attend; it wasn't a major emergency, they said, which is true. I also took the chance to double check on my annual gas boiler service; no, sorry, they were in abeyance too. Again, I have no problem with any of this. However, when it comes to next month's regular payment, how much will each of these contractors expect? Serious answers only, please...!

For those of us who read the Asterix stories in English, much credit must go to Anthea Bell, who translated them, with great thoughtfulness and wit, from the French. She died about fifteen months ago. Her brother was Martin Bell, the 'man in the white suit' who famously became the independent MP for Tatton. Her son was Oliver Kamm, a leader writer and columnist for The Times, who also takes a much more relaxed approach to both written and spoken English than many, explained in his Accidence will happen.

My first phase of watching our sport - live in the mid-1960s, Central Park one week and Hilton Park the next - never involved anything else but standing! However, I understand what the thread title means. The players who got me really excited were Billy Boston for Wigan and Alex Murphy for their mortal enemies, the Saints. Nowadays, as an almost exclusively armchair viewer, I enjoy seeing those players who display a somewhat maverick streak, precisely because they do that. in the recent past, there is Lee Briers, and currently, Tony Gigot and Hakim Miloudi at Toronto. My last game attended live was les Dracs' Wembley success. What was really exciting was to see very early on that Gigot was up for it, and willing to try things; whether they were in the McNamara playbook or not, who knows! Enough of them worked for him to rightly be given the Lance Todd Trophy. Briers was often very good and Gigot can be sometimes. Miloudi, well, not yet! But this thread is not, of course, necessarily about quality.

I have just taken our dog for a walk along one of the country lanes out of our village. I had the pleasure of the added company of a peacock butterfly for about a hundred yards, as it kept flitting along in short bursts beside us. This is the first of that species I have seen on the wing this year, though brimstones are getting more common day by day. In the garden, the bullfinches were very vociferous yesterday; we had at least three calling simultaneously. For such a boldly and brightly coloured bird, their call - though distinctive and hence easily recognisable when you have taught yourself it - is really very thin and insipid.

The sand martin reports certainly are true, LW. Today's reports from Hampshire include about 60 over the lakes just north of Romsey and about 100 just inland from the Solent. To be honest, I think this is about right, time-wise, for them. Remember, they are the first of the four hirundine species to arrive in the spring. House martins will be next, and indeed, the first are also being reported in Hampshire, albeit in penny numbers so far. After that, it will be swallows, and then finally swifts at about the beginning of May.

I recall the Wigan pack of the mid-'60s being pretty useful, with the likes of Colin Clarke at hooker, Roy Evans and Brian McTeague, and with Laurie Gilfedder at loose forward; Gilfedder was also a good goalkicker. It was Evans who ran a lovely line to burst through the Saints defence and score the only try of the game in Wigan's 7-2 cup success on the way to Wembley victory over Hunslet. All that said, those were my formative years of watching the sport (and being a cherry-and-whites' fan), so I cannot honestly say that my judgement is necessarily reliable!

A sad pavan for these distracted times, written by Thomas Tomkins, 1649.

Good points, Padge, and sorry if I am being too serious for a Saturday evening. I have just played a piece of instrumental music on YouTube - Thomas Tomkins' A sad pavan for these distracted times - maybe not a good idea!!

I wholly agree with the spirit and sentiment of your suggestion, Padge. My worry is that the laws of the game and what is deemed acceptable in contemporary practice are curiously at odds with one another in key areas of the game. Take the PTB, for instance. Here is a scenario. Running with the ball, I am tackled by an opponent. As I rise to my feet, my momentum takes me a step or two forward. I drop the ball to the ground in front of my foremost foot. I step over it, albeit making a heeling movement with my foot as I do, but there is no contact and the bounce of the ball takes it backwards. In contemporary, British play, I think the only thing that I would be penalised for is dropping the ball to the ground, for which a scrum, with put-in to the other side would be awarded. However, in fact, dropping the ball to the ground is the only legal bit of the process I have described! So, what you might get, Padge, is silence from the erstwhile whingers, but moans from new ones (eg me!), who - alarmingly - might now actually know what we are talking about!

I know it in the sense that I have walked and driven along Crane Street often enough, but never been in. What I didn't realise, until I just looked at their website, is that it does takeaway food; I think I had presumed it was eat-in only. I think we will give it a try. Thanks for reminding me of it!