Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

Do those of you mentioning handball mean the team game of that name, popular throughout much of continental Europe, or the Irish alley/court game?

As an ornithologist, can I ask whether 'root' also means 'cormorant'? Just asking!

I've a horrible feeling you could be right, Ivans82. I suppose waxwings are a species that come here in very variable numbers from one winter to the next; I believe it is called an irruption when they migrate across here or elsewhere in continental Europe in very large numbers, but I am not aware that bramblings are equally erratic. And, as I say, the lack of fieldfares and redwings is really strange. I suppose the positive for them is that they have not faced the challenge of a long migration flight. When I lived in a village called Embsay, on the southern edge of the Dales, I remember coming across a dead redwing once on a narrow lane out of the village where I was walking the dog. It was very early for the species for the species to have got here - about the second week of September. I thought how ironic it was that it had managed the perils of a flight across land and sea, only, I presume, to be hit by a passing car in a Dales country lane.

I'm still looking out for any large flocks of fieldfares and redwings in and around the New Forest. I cannot recall seeing more than about a dozen of either species at the same time. I suppose this could be good news; they have not required to come here to find the right temperatures and food. I'm just not sure.

Thanks, BP.

Barrow 18, Oldham 22, I believe. I didn't get a chance to watch this, bit it sounds to have been good. Well done, Barrow RLFC, and thanks for flagging it up, the man.

Hurling Ice hockey Rugby league Shinty Gaelic football The caveats are (I) this is sports to watch (nowadays I'm too old to play anything but table tennis!) and (ii) this is when all these sports are played at their best, so, for instance, a really good rugby league game beats a poor hurling match.

To be honest, Trojan, I have never heard it before, but I like it. The reference to scrums having push and test rugby being, from an Aussie perspective, the pinnacle of the game seem curiously nostalgic! It seems to have come off the same conveyor belt of simple, unpretentious sporting songs as two other good Australian examples and an equally good North American one, namely Mike Brady's, Aussie Rules' Up there, Cazaley and One day in September and Stompin' Tom Connors' The Hockey Song ('Good old hockey game'). These are all great songs; try not singing along when you have heard them a time or two! By contrast, if you haven't heard it, try Warren Zevon's Hit somebody! (The hockey song) Happily, it seems rather anachronistic now; cutting out much gratuitous violence has made the game much better in my opinion, especially at the level of skill on display routinely in the NHL. Bob Hope's wonderful one-liner, "I went to a fight last night and a hockey match broke out", almost seems hard to understand nowadays. Sorry, I have drifted off topic. Thanks for the video, Trojan; as I say, a good song.

John, there is an excellent version of Gaudete by The Sixteen, on YouTube. If you don't know it, try it; an interesting contrast to the Erasure version, which I didn't know but enjoyed (for which, thanks)

Thanks for an excellent post, Trojan. I didn't know about the alleged origin of the Ilkley Moor words, though I have been in Dick Hudson's a time or two, as I have friends in Eldwick. Thanks for the name of the Maddy Prior tune and for the clip of Lyngham, which I have heard mentioned before, but never heard the tune. You (and others) might well enjoy Andrew Gant's very readable paperback Christmas Carols if you haven't already come across it. It has an entire chapter on While shepherds watched, which is maybe not surprising, given that it was the only legally permitted Christmas music text for church use for much of the 18th century!

Tapadh leat, a Mhanxman, agus Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur dhutsa!

And to you, Robin.

To answer your question, MD - no, not really, we are creatures of habit. So, on Christmas Day itself, I will go to the village church where I sing in, and direct, the choir, for the Christmas morning service (hardly seems worth going home after the midnight mass a few hours before!) Meanwhile, some others in the family (who are my wife, our son and his girlfriend, who both live here with us, and our daughter, who I fetched from Winchester, where she lives and works earlier today) will take the dog for a walk. When I get home, it is present exchanging and - yes - unwrapping, accompanied by home-made sausage rolls and something cold and soothing to drink. Early afternoon is devoted to preparing the main meal - or at least what hasn't been done before. My wife leads on this; we assist as requested. She comes from a catering background, which I am sure helps; her mum owned and single-handedly ran, a café in Skipton (it's where my wife and I met; truly, the way to a man's heart is, indeed, through his stomach, despite what medical textbooks might say!). After eating the efforts of all that labour, the rest of the day gently subsides, as we each read newly acquired books or watch new DVDs, play new computer games, or watch some television, delighting in Morecambe & Wise (especially its political incorrectness!) and wondering why nothing half as good has come along since! Then, to quote Mt Pepys, "And so to bed!" - at least I think it was him!

Thanks, THG. You have just made a perfect case for retention and use of the apostrophe!

I seemed to miss this thread in 2017, so belated thanks for these two versions of While shepherds watched. I haven't heard the Maddy Prior tune before You might like to know that attendees at the annual village carol service in the village of Whiteparish near Salisbury (tomorrow - Sunday, 22nd - at 6pm) will hear this text sung to the tune used by the Stamford Bridge Singers. To be honest, it has nothing to do with Yorkshire, other than subsequent use of the tune for the song, Ilkley Moor. The words are by Nahum Tate, a Dubliner who settled in London, and the tune is a hymn tune used for this and other texts, from the pen of Thomas Clark, a Canterbury boot and shoe maker. He gave the tune the title Cranbrook, which is a village a few miles east of Tunbridge Wells, and so still in Kent, I'm afraid! At one time, when these matters were tightly regulated by the established church authorities, While shepherds watched was the only, Christmas-related text which could be set to music. This explains why so many tunes have been noted in use with this text. There is an outstandingly good, Yorkshire one. It was written by John Foster (d 1822) of High Green, Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, who was a keen amateur musician, but a coroner by profession. The Taverner Choir & Players give a very spirited performance of it on YouTube.