Travels with Dinno Yorkshire Cup edition: Hull Ionians

Apologies for the delay in posting this week but things to do places to be in my ever exciting life.  Last Sunday morning Dinno took on Hull Ionians in the first round of the U13 Yorkshire Cup.  The draw for the cup was intriguing as there were seventeen ties so at some point  there has to be a play off between two teams to get the numbers down. However, since that is a logical way to do things it is unlikely to happen.

The boy had not been picked in the first team but on my insistence had got his kit ready and was going up to support his teammates.  I then turned my mobile phone on at about 8.30 to see a flood of texts and voicemails from the coach. I rang back and spoke to Tracey who is Dave's wife and she said that two players had been injured the day before and would Thomas be able to play. I got Tom to change into his match gear and we set off on a bright autumnal morning heading towards Hull.

The traffic was light and we arrived in good time. This time we actually managed to find the club by using the directions rather than using the force which we did the last time we went there a couple of years ago with Huddersfield.  The ground is set in rolling countryside and the clubhouse at Brantingham Park includes a fitness centre.

After the usual pleasantries I went with my namesake, Jonathan and a guy named Phil to go and sample the delights of the cuisine on offer in the clubhouse. I had my usual, bacon sandwich and hot chocolate.

The bacon was OK but could have done with being cooked a bit more. The hot chocolate came with optional marshmallows. You will be very proud to hear that I resisted this temptation.

We returned to the pitch for the start of the game. Just as we reached the pitch the Hull team all trooped off to the changing rooms. As our coach put it 'Mind games won't help them.' The referee appeared and called the teams in. Unfortunately Hull had not reappeared at the appointed time. There were some anxious looks from the Hull contingent and the referee kept glancing at his watch. At one point there was a possibility that Hull could have lost there own home fixture because they weren't ready on time.  Hull eventually appeared and the game started.

Dinno have a tendency of not playing for 80 minutes. They will sometimes have a very strong first half or a strong second half but rarely both. This is partly down to making substitutions which affects the flow but which is also necessary for the development of the squad.  We got out of the traps very quickly. After a strong passage of play our winger Adam cut inside and went over for a try. Ben then converted the kick. a few moments later Rupert, a flanker burst through and went over for a second try. The conversion did not follow but within ten minutes we were 12-0 up. After some good defensive work from a lineout the ball got into the backs and the ball came out to Jacob who went over for a try which was converted 19-0. That was the half time score.

At the start of the second half we won a penalty. Rupert sold a dummy  and ran in under the sticks 26-0. Hull came back through their number 7 with a try and a conversion 26-7. From a scrum our scrum half Kai drove over the line. By this time we had lost our kicker Ben to injury and so the score moved to 31-7. The Hull team then came back with two tries but I am still not sure if they even attempted conversions or not. The match finished 31-17.

The boy was disappointed because he was on for 10 minutes hardly saw the ball and was substituted.

In the next round we face Morley. It will be a tough match but if we can neutralise their star player we should make it.  Next week we are at home in a 4 team something or other with Ashfield, Wath and Barnsley.

TV Books and films of the week

I haven't updated this article for a couple of weeks. Since I last wrote to of my favourite programmes have returned to the screen. Both feature intelligent, good looking women with attitude. The first is Only Connect. The program is an intellectual quiz and shows on BBC Four. This channel is worth the licence fee alone. It is presented by the delightful Victoria Coren. The format is fairly simple. There are four rounds:- The connections round, what is the last in the sequence, the wall and the missing vowels round. This is no average quiz. The winners are usually capable of beating mastermind champions, University Challenge winning teams. It requires the ability to think laterally and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Those who know me will be able to tell you that in relation to the kitchen I do have other gods before me. I enjoy cooking when I am in the mood and tend towards using the force. I don't measure stuff. I was taught this by my parents who were taught it by their parents.  I am definitely a cook not a chef. Whilst I enjoy Masterchef I think it is all a bit poncy. I like to have a plate of food and to be full after eating. I do not like plate decoration. My other gods or in fact goddesses are called Delia and Nigella. However, my allegiance is to Nigella. A friend once described her programs as 'food porn' and she has even been impersonated along those lines by a number of heretic comedians. What is it I like about Nigella? She is intelligent. She is gorgeous, curvy and the way she licks her lips or licks her fingers after eating is frankly indecent. The bottom line though is the food and it is gorgeous. I have all her books and they are well thumbed tomes. I am looking forward to when I get my hands on her...new book.

In terms of books I am in the middle of reading Bernard Cornwell's Alfred series following the exploits of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. Cornwell is easy to read. I don't like having to work to get my pleasure when reading and I think literary fiction to be as bad as the Turner Prize. I have never read one of these sort of books and been satisfied. I am currently in book three, The Lords of the North. In and amongst finishing The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman I also read the novel on which the film Let The Right One In was based. The cover proclaimed that the novel was worthy of Stephen King. Maybe during the phase when he wrote The Tommyknockers. Whilst I was initially interested in the story I found myself gradually being left with a sense of disappointment. I no longer cared about who lived or died. I was also unsure of who all the characters were. It was all a bit unsatisfactory.

In terms of films I have been watching some have been good, some have been interesting and some have been so bad they were good. Last weekend I watched The Fifth Element and Serenity. I also watched Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Fantastic Four Rise was an improvement on the original FF film. Well that is not a particularly hard task. It is a diverting film but no more than that. Chris Evans, who plays the Human Torch, has since gone on to play Captain America. The Fifth Element is Luc Besson's Sci Fi film. Besson seems to be a bit like the late Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick made genre films such as The Shining and 2001. Once he had ticked off a genre he went onto something new. Besson is similar. He made Leon which was a work of brilliance. The Fifth Element is his sci-fi film. It features Mila Jovovich, Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. The plot is a little weird but show me a sci fi film where it isn't. Oldman gives an incredible performance as the slightly deranged arms dealing servant of the dark powers. The supporting cast is brilliant apart from Chris Rock who is even more irritating than normal.  The other film was Serenity. A western in space. This film is an underrated masterpiece. Joss Whedon did a reverse Buffy with this one. When he made the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer it bombed so he made a series. The series went on too long in my opinion. the last series of Buffy featured Nathan Fillion. Whedon cast him in his new series Firefly which was cancelled by the network so Whedon made Serenity. The film has good and evil but they are blurred. The action sequences are stunning and Chiwetel Ejiofor as a government assassin is brilliant. The ideas in the film are intriguing and interesting and this film along with The Fifth Element comes with a high recommendation.

In the last couple of days I have started something of a Clint Eastwood fest. It started with Firefox. Not one of his greatest performances and not a particularly good film. Lots of British actors doing fairly ropey Russian accents. The special effects which in the 1980s were quite good do not stand up well against today's effects. The book on which it is based is by Craig Thomas and is well worth a read.  I have just started into the Dollar Western Trilogy - A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good The Bad and The Ugly. All are worth watching but the best by some distance is The Good The Bad and The Ugly.

Eastwood is at his best in these films and laid the groundwork for his later masterpieces The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven. The score is memorable and with able support from Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonte and Eli Wallach these are amongst the best westerns ever made.

Happy media watching I feel some cheesecake coming on.

Being Goosed ... Or should that be Fleeced in Nottingham

A couple of weeks ago we started to see flyers advertising the annual Goose Fair. This is a fair which was established around 1284 so it can be said to be well established in the calendar.  In its history it has been cancelled due to bubonic plague, war (WW1 and II to be precise) and their have been deaths at the fair in fairly recent history due to gang violence. The fair only appears to be missing Famine and then it will be associated with all four horsemen apocalypse.

I grew up in Mansfield about 14 miles from the fair and managed to never go. I am not sure why this was exactly but I don't recall ever having a huge desire to go anyway. There were very good reasons why I couldn't go. All this is by the by. My daughter expressed a desire to go. She has never been to a fair that I can recall and so why not start at the biggest one going.

We took the train from Worksop to Nottingham. Passing through such hotspots as Langwith-Whaley Thorns and Shirebrook along the way. You probably just had to be there. We hopped on to a tram at Nottingham station and went to The Forest which is where the fair has been held since 1928. Prior to this it was held in the Old Market Square. The trams are excellent and quick and efficient. In recent months I have been using trams in Sheffield on most days to get to work and it makes you wonder why some idiot got rid of them in the first place.

The fair is an explosion of gaudy flashing lights, unhealthy food and gullible idiots paying over the odds for tat.  It is possibly a microcosm for today's society packed into one small area.  My daughter got some candy floss and we walked around trying to decide where we would consent to get fleeced. We eventually found a bungee trampoline which my daughter thoroughly enjoyed.

I then said something which I deeply regret. 'Jenni would you like to go on the big wheel?' I though it would be OK it is not fast, it doesn't have flashing lights how bad could it be? We got into our metal cage and set off rising above the Nottingham skyline. The view might well be wonderful but I was in the process of crushing the metal bars in sheer terror.

I don't like heights but out of a parental wish to make my child happy I put myself through the terror. There is a self help book called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. The author is an idiot. I spent five minutes of terror whilst my daughter smiled, laughed and tried to get me to look around. Then to cap it all off somebody stopped the cage at the top. We were hanging there forever and there was a breeze rocking the cage. It was then that my eye was drawn to the signs of wear and tear and to the natural sense of panic to which I feel I am perfectly entitled.

Will I go back? Probably not. It is very much a case of been there done that. The Goose Fair is just a steroid pumped version of smaller fairs.

Travels with Dinno - Dinnington

On a glorious warm summer morning with the sun breaking through the clouds we set off for our first home match of the season. Most of the team's matches are away this year so it is nice to have a home game.  As I write this I am sitting on a bench looking across the first team pitch. I have just eaten a very tasty bacon sandwich and am sipping at my hot chocolate.  There are clouds of water vapour rising from cooling towers in the distance and there are farmers at work in the fields surrounding the club.

The more observant amongst you will notice that the accompanying picture is not of today's glorious scene. The reason for this is that my camera broke yesterday and I can't get the photos from my phone because I do not have the right type of memory card and so I am improvising. Hopefully you get the picture anyway.  So back to the glorious day that has enfolded before my eyes.

Today's visitors are Selby. They have a strong reputation. The last time we, Tom and I, came across them was in the Under 7s where they beat us in the final of our own tournament at Huddersfield.  Nobody was under any illusions that this would be a tough test ahead of our Yorkshire Cup match against Hull Ionians next week.

The match started and Dinno got the bounce of the ball and it came back to them from the kick off. They attacked but were taken into touch. Selby were penalised for not throwing a straight lineout and we took a scrum. Our scrum half, Kai, is something of a magician. He moved the ball out from the base of the scrum and the forwards advanced. The ball was popped up to Kai who dived over for a try. Then came the conversion. Ben struck the ball confidently and everything seemed to be going well until the ball hit the right hand upright. 5-0 Dinno.

Unfortunately the team went to sleep and Selby went straight up the other end and under the posts. Dinno 5 - Selby 7.  That was how the score stayed. Both teams were well matched and the general assessment from both sets of supporters  was that it was an excellent game of rugby and will help both teams for the struggles ahead. The boy came on as a second half sub and had an OK game.

The only downside was the attack of the flying spiders.  Dinnington is a nice little rugby club and we have been made to feel welcome from day one. So if you are ever down here call in and say hello.

Next week Travels with Dinno goes to Hull and back.

Travels with Dinno - Goole

Following our family's move to the Costa Del Worksop we needed to find a new rugby club for my son. He had played at Huddersfield RUFC since the age of 5. We had a number of club choices in the 'greater' Worksop area. Worksop has a rugby club but not one that plays age group rugby. So the choices were Mansfield, Sheffield and Dinnington. We were invited to the end of season festival at Dinnington and were given a very warm welcome.

So that is where we started the season. The coaches seemed to like Tom and were excited that he could play in a few positions. First match of the season was against Market Rasen. This was a team which we had never played before.  When I was just a parent standing on the sidelines I used to judge a club by its bacon rolls and hot food. Market Rasen served very good bacon rolls and hot chocolate.

Tom started his first match at blindside flanker. He performed reasonably well and did the job he was asked to do. Unfortunately the team lost 31-25. It was a game of two halves with the development team starting the first and showing promise. The first team came on and scored 5 unanswered tries.

The club's next game was a local derby against Sheffield. The last time Tom visited this club he had to play without boots. the last time he played against them he was on a losing team. Two matches were played. The first team played the first game. After a slow start the first team absolutely dominated and came out 31-12. The second team won their match 15 - 13. This was a display of forward power. Two tries were drive over tries and one was a piece of individual brilliance by our beast of a flanker who is henceforth known as Rupert. The boy played on the wing and had a reasonably good game again. Since joining Dinno his tackling has improved somewhat

The food was very good but the parking was lousy.

Today we visited Goole another new club for us. So what did I learn today? That Google Maps has no idea about how to get somewhere. The food was pretty good. Bacon and brie rolls and very good hot chocolate. Only one minor criticism. When you are serving a customer don't tell your helper to give the customer a smaller mug for his hot chocolate.

The rugby was good. The squad was smaller than usual (a mere 24 players). The stars were new boy Jake and the beast that is Rupert. The club has a definite first team and a number of the players in the 'development' team are good enough to be in the first team. The coaches have made a point of telling the whole squad this. The boy started on the wing and made some good drives and some good tackles. At half time the game was comfortable. Changes were then made and the team switched off and then Goole got back into the match. However, the team kept the scoreboard ticking over and ended up winning 36 - 26. The boy had another solid performance and just needs to get the ball in space and he will start to do some serious damage.

The players meal was, according to the boy, the best he has ever had. For the record it was some kind of stew inside a huge Yorkshire pudding.

Throughout the season I will be reporting on our travels around the country to points north, south, east and west.

Come on Dinno!!!!

TV books and film of the week

Well what have I been watching of late.

Since my last post last year the current Mrs K and I have got into a few programmes.  Each week we both watch This Week. For those not in the UK this a political discussion programme hosted by Andrew Neil and featuring Michael Portillo and various other luminaries from the worlds of politics, journalism and entertainment.  The discussions are relaxed and at the same time challenging on the issues of the week.

We also started to watch Once Upon A Time. The premise here is that all your favourite fairytale characters have been dragged into our world and are living in some sort of bubble. The series started out and looked promising but like Flashforward it never managed to sustain our interest to the extent that we recorded it for weeks and eventually gave up watching it.  The series has been recommissioned but I am not sure where they can go with it to be honest. After a while we stopped caring about the characters and decided to move on.

Our new favourite TV series is Person of Interest. The lead is Jim Caviezel who went from playing Christ and then to Number 6 in the remake of The Prisoner. He plays an ex CIA/black ops type who is recruited by an eccentric billionaire ( aren't they all!!!) to help prevent crimes. Featuring the talents of J J Abrams (Lost, Star Trek) and Jonathan Nolan (who helped to write Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight) the series is intelligent, action packed and leaves you wondering what is going to happen next. The series has been renewed for a second season. Think of it as a cross between The Equalizer, Enemy of the State and any other series featuring ex CIA agents.

In terms of reading I currently have a couple of books on the go. As you can see from the front page of the blog I am reading Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, the first part of his Alfred series. I am in fact re-reading it as part of a process to try and decide which books to keep and which to give to charity. One of my rules is never throw a book away.  I am also reading Steven Eriksson's Gardens of the Moon. Apart from the incomprehensible plot it is well written and I will definitely read the next book in the series. Recently I read The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Pratchett's non- Discworld stuff is variable in quality but this shows promise. I have also read two books based around the premise of stopping the assassination of JFK. Tim Kring's book Shift was decidedly unsatisfying. Stephen King's 11.22.63 was a much better book. The story is excellent and the ideas underlying are also strong. The weakness comes in the execution of it. The book is overlong. I have also recently read new James Bond stories. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks is very much written a la Ian Fleming and is set in the time of the original Bond's and is very good. Jeffrey Deaver's Carte Blanche is a different beast and is overlong. Fleming would have taken half the space to tell the same story.

I have been exploring my DVD collection in recent weeks. In the last few days I have watched Avengers Assemble. It was much hyped and in the hands of Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly and Serenity) it delivers. Of the films featuring the characters leading up to this only the Iron Man films have delivered. This is largely down to the fact that Robert Downey Jr is an excellent lead. This is not to say that the other films were bad. They weren't but they could have been better.

Plans are afoot for more films featuring the characters. The film is funny, dramatic and you get the impression that the actors had a ball making it. The best line for me is when Downey Jr challenged by Tom Hiddlestone's Loki claiming that he is a God says yes 'But we have a Hulk'. Hiddlestone is then smashed up later by said Hulk who calls him a 'puny God'.  I have also been watching the deliciously violent Desperado with Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek.

Happy viewing and reading.

Well hello again followers I am back in the blogging business.

Since my last post in August last year a lot has changed. I found work then left work when the family moved to a new town. I am now living back not far from where I grew up. My son is going to the same school I attended nearly a quarter of a century ago.

We have changed rugby clubs. My son now plays for Dinnington RUFC. Currently he is in their development team. This isn't a reflection on his ability more the fact that their first team is very strong and he has to learn the Dinno way and work his way into the first team. He made his debut last week in a 36 - 25 loss to Market Rasen.

Today we were at Sheffield RUFC. The A team beat Sheffield 31 - 12. The boy then came on to play in the B team match. He played at wing. Dinno won 15 - 12.  We have both been made welcome by the people at Dinnington and so the change has been made easier.

Apart from irritations caused by doctors the move has been a fantastic success. Since moving I have found work. The house we are renting is fabulous and we are trying to buy it. We have also seen other houses in case we can't. I am walking more because everything is so close that I don't need the car. We go out walking in the forest regularly and the bike is getting dusted down.

My job at University of Sheffield has been great. So all we need to do now is find our own house and get my wife a job nearer to home. There are plenty of jobs out there you just need to be flexible in your outlook and be picky about what you apply for.

Well in the coming weeks more travels with Dinno and other exciting things.