Packwood House and Rotherham (Away)

15^th March

Had bangers an’ mash (sausage and mashed potato) for dinner yesterday. Bit slovenly, eating them of a tray on my lap, while watching TV (the mysterious disappearance and no-traces found of a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane).

Bangers ‘n’ mash needs pepper right?

So fetched the pepper mill off the dining table and left it on top of a pack of playing cards by my left elbow. Coming downstairs at around 6.30 to get a cup of tea I realised the portentous error. Rotherham (a.k.a the Millers (pepper mill get it) and the pack of playing cards is one from a sponsored match (thanks I.C.A.D.) at Bescot. An omen ?

Still not travelling to the game today so decided to go to National Trust’s Packwood House, about forty minutes pleasant drive away. Last time we headed to Packwood it was closed and we went, instead to nearby Baddesley Clinton (very charming with some humorous scarecrows).

The banks of the roads are alive with brilliant yellow daffodils. Hedges neatly trimmed and in one case well laid, looking pristine in the powerful, warm spring sunlight. A bit windy too.

Arrived, parked, membership (oh yes indeed!) cards scanned and a brief walk around the ornamental gardens; verdict being they will probably look good in summer. Outside introduction to the house given by a volunteer wit h a Scots accent. Very informative, great history. In a way quintessentially English. A farm leased after the Reformation, Bought and improved, passed through the ever-expanding family. Heirless neglect. Bought by a rich industrialist for his fifteen year old son, Graham Baron Ash, who re-invented it (and massively added to it) as a “Tudor manor”. The cow barn converted into a great hall and a “Tudor long gallery” built between it and the house proper in faithful-to-the–period style, with authentic furniture “saved/rescued/salvaged” from other properties during the Depression.

            

The kitchen walled garden brought back memories for me of Little Wyrley Halls’ walled garden, though was nowhere near as grand. The one at Little Wyrley hall has been turned over to grass – and, last thing I knew was a paddock for a pony. A well-spent morning, not thinking about the game: away at Rotherham, who are well in the promotion/play off place hunt.

Set out on the return journey with BBC Radio WM on in the car. Commentary of the Swansea v West Bromwich Albion game on. But every now and then the “goal horn” going off when scores came in from other games. Nineteen minutes (or so) Rotherham nil, Walsall 1 came in. Lalkovic scoring his “sixth goal of the season” and the – somehow desperate statistic that “in the last fourteen games Walsall have never lost a game they have been winning”. Can you believe the research that goes in to these things? I have been impressed by Milan Lalkovic since the first game of the season: he’s energetic, skilful and hard to knock off the ball. His Chelsea contract runs out at the end of the season, and, good as he is, I don’t imagine Chelsea will keep him. he has made loyal noises about coming to Walsall, but my guess is he will go to a Championship team – and our chances of that are running out.

Back home, unpacked the car. Radio on upstairs. I’m checking Facebook, getting the bulletins. With seventeen minutes to go, our defender, Ben Purkiss gets sent off … and some seconds before the final whistle, Rotherham equalise.

Down at mom’s half an hour later, the TV news is bringing the latest latest about the Malaysian airliner MH370 and the Russian delegate vetoed the U.N resolution that would have had tomorrow’s referendum in Crimea registered as unlawful.

Watched, as promised in an earlier post, some of the winter Olympics ice sledge hockey: the final between the U.S.A. and Russia. The two main protagonists in the Crimea/Ukraine scenario. Actually, while it takes a lot of skill (naturally), energy and guts to compete it wasn’t actually as brutal as the trailer seemed to suggest. Less so than the standard ice hockey where there’s further to fall and body slams into the wall are common and bruising. The U.S. triumphed … and in Sochi, Russia too.

Meanwhile, closer to home the Express and Star meanwhile is bewailing the fact that Walsall could do with bigger crowds. No joking? But it’s often the Express and Star that, in spreading rumours and refusing to give us fair publicity, banjaxes our potential. To whit the over-egging of the “racist” stuff during the Wolves game, giving former Wolves goalie Matt Murray a platform to report his feelings as fact, and making it seem as if Bescot is a dangerous place to go.

Now I realise that the E and S is printed in Wolverhampton, but we could ask for a little more positive coverage couldn’t we?

Also coming to bear, of course is the expense. This is an expensive month to be a Saddler’s fan, with the Football League adding the Coventry away game to our fixture list.

A small point too: why oh why can only season ticket holders go into the bar in the main stand? The story given that it is to stop those eating in the restaurant is too, too feeble. The corporate bunches – come and gone – are separated and have their own dedicated bar.