2025 started as it ended, in a bit of a soggy state. The start of the year began with a coaching session. A messy affair due to the rain over the winter which made Harbourbridge look more like a mud wrestling pit than it did a fishery. Balletic shapes were thrown by flailing arms, as feet moved at 300-miles-an-hour just trying to stay upright on the slick clawing mud. Even the merest though of movement would induce a trouser tightening episode. The most animated of anyone was

I knew I was in trouble when we started the weigh in. The Christmas match always gets to me because I’m crap at saying goodbye to people, even if it is for only a few weeks. But there was a definite finality to this one. The pressure increased as we circled around the lake and by the time I got to Jack on the last peg, I knew I was fit to burst. I decided to make an announcement about the fact that Jack is the last of the original juniors and he would be my last official weig

I pulled back the curtains on another dawn, and another chance to spend some time with ‘my other family’ in my happy place with the juniors. I’m sure people will understand but, the enthusiasm over the last few weeks has been difficult to find. It’s there, it just needs more encouragement these days. My departure from the committee was swift to say the least. Even though I requested it to happen, it has still left me a little numb and deflated. I know a lot of you are concern

I waxed lyrical last week about the artistic skies over Puddletown and the surrounding areas to the east. This week, however, as I made my way towards Yeovil the skies looked similar only with less colour seeing as I was heading North-west this time. All this would change later on. I really love Somerset. Even the name of the county makes you feel warm and fuzzy. The landscape reminds me a lot of Bedfordshire where I grew up with rolling hills flattening out into vales, plain

The thing I like most about driving to Whitemoor is that it is east from Dorchester. You drive into the dawn of a new day, and a new day can hold a million possibilities. The pale blue sky was tinged honey yellow behind the blue-grey clouds. The whole sky looked like an unfinished painting on an artist’s canvas in the semi-monotone light. Only the pink highlights in one section of the sky gave evidence of the autumn sun that would later bathe the landscape in the colours of t