Sunday, March 12, 2006

Come on you BISON!!!!!

That's what you're supposed to shout! I didn't, but Jerry did. Nicky and I tried to look like we didn't know him....

Anyway, the reason he shouted it was that we were at the Ice Hockey at Basingstoke. "Are you home or away?" asked the woman in the ticket booth. "Well, it's the first time we've been," we explained, "so we had better be home."

So, there we were at the ice rink...



(This is what it looked like before the players came on, and is the only photo which isn't blurred...)

...suddenly fans of the Basingstoke Bison. (Not Bisons, for some reason...)

It's a bit difficult to sum up our first experience, but here are a few important things to point out for when you go...
  • There is blood. Some bloke on our team got the puck full in the face after about a minute and needed "medical attention"
  • It's very fast. It takes about 3 seconds for the action to move from one end of the rink to the other.
  • There are loads more players than they need. About 20 per team, but only 6 on the ice at once, meaning lots of people skating off and others leaping over the barriers to replace them. Constantly. Average time on the ice before coming off seemed to be about 45 seconds.
  • If the puck comes over the side, you can keep it. If you are conscious.
  • It's quite violent. Lots of shoving the opposing team members into the side or legging them over. Even if they don't have the puck.
  • There is a DJ. Who plays amusing sound clips denigrating the referees (who are sponsored by SpecSavers) or crowd-rousing mega-anthems - "We Will Rock You", "Holding Out for a Hero", "Let Me Entertain You" and at one point "I'm The Leader of the Gang, I Am", although he obviously thought better of that and took it off quickly.
  • You can't take flash photos. Which means they all come out like this:


You can see that a player in white and a player in red are just about to have a minor, but nontheless very high-speed, disagreement...

You can get a much better idea of what's going on from these photos from the mobile phone...




(Quite why the cheap, inbuilt camera on a Nokia phone can take better action photos than a Canon Digital IXUS costing considerably more I don't know. Technology continues to baffle.)

For £12 a ticket you really get your money's worth. Especially when they argue about the state of the ice for 20 minutes and then still have to play extra time. We got there at 6 and left just before 10 so it's a full evening. And they make you stand up while they play the national anthem. (National anthems, in fact, as they were playing Cardiff...)

If you don't want to know who won, look away now...

It was a draw 4-4.

And if you want the blow by bloody-blow account, you can read the match report. And if you want to go too, it's off season till September so you're out of luck. But we'll be going back then, so you can come with us if you want... (Paul!)

Friday, March 10, 2006

"Special Subject: The Bleedin' Obvious..."

Seen at Barton Peveril on Wednesday evening...



Barton Peveril now officially twinned with here...

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Happy 70th Birthday!

The world and his war veteran were lining the Waterside earlier on today to see the formation fly-past of five Spitfires.

Even I managed to get a good view, despite the fact that three local councils had conspired to shut off the best vantage point...



Now, you will agree that this is not the best photo of them...



...but they are there somewhere hiding amongst the pixels. The 11x zoom feature on the camera makes for very blurry photos, but confirmed once and for all that Weston Shore is actually home to Balamory...



...something which I had previously only suspected.

So, I thought I had missed them until, like in all the good war films, they looped round and tipped their wings at me (and everyone else)...



...I hope none of them lands to find out his dog has been run over. (Can't remember what film that was. Probably not a Spitfire one. Someone will tell me.)



Anyway, jolly good show all round, chaps!

Oh Lord...

BBC NEWS - Entertainment - Dance track wins Eurovision vote



Do we never learn? Altogether now, "Royaume Uni, nul points!"

But hang on, isn't this kind of thing just what passes for high art in most of Central Europe? Maybe we have pulled off a winning masterstroke...?

... or just maybe, something with big ethnic drums sung by a woman wearing (not much) rabbit fur will win, like it normally does these days.