In memoriam - Brian RIcher

CPiB is saddened to report the recent passing of former Glemsford resident and Angel frequenter Brian Richer.

Prior to upping sticks for Spalding he lived in Glemsford for many years becoming known as an enthusiastic participant in community activities, being a member of the parish council and secretary for the cribbage league for many years, to name but two activities, a keen conversationalist and man of great tolerance(he lived next door to Grandad Porter for a ludicrously long time, that's good enough for me) he will be sadly missed. I'll tell you this boy, I'm sure wherever he is now, he'll be on the committee.

The Angel: Officially the best beer in Glemsford.

Angel drinkers know that they enjoy a fine standard of drink at their choice of local.
Most discerning Glemsfordians also acknowledge the quality of the Angel's pints.

But now it's offical.

For the first time in its history, beardy jumper fetishists CAMRA have noticed this too.
You can find the Angel, proudly nestling in the pages of the 2009 edition of The Good Beer Guide., noting in particular the roaring open fire in The Eyrie and the 'welcoming and friendly atmosphere'. So there.

Not to be outdone, the Man From Guiness has also been and declared the Genuinely Brewed In Ireland Honest black Stuff to be of an equally high standard.

Paula and Kevin, are quite justifiably, proud.

Overheard last night

As heard by Lorna, on emerging from the Ladies during The Fallen's set of 21/11/09.

"I'm soooo going to go down on him when we're walking home."

Told you they have strange sexy powers

The Fallen: Rock 'n' Roll you can set your watch by.

Saturday the 21st saw the final visit of the year to The Angel from The Fallen. Once again without bass-thing Ben, who is currently off on tour with the Illegal Eagles to glamorous spots like Blackburn, Croydon and Dartford).
This time round's substitute, a very tall young man who's name I didn't catch filled in ably as the band charged through the setlist of all the usual favourites and party tricks from the clever lead-in to Iron Maiden's 'The Trooper' by preceding it with UFO's 'Doctor, Doctor' to Adam's teasing playing of the intro to Slayer's MAGNIFICENT 'Raining Blood'(CPiB heartily recommends the album 'Reign In Blood' it will make your life so much better when it finishes) to crowd-pleasers 'Boys Of Summer', 'Waiting For An Alibi' and 'Livin' On A Prayer', to the guarantee-of-payment that is 'Freebird' to the customary finish on Zeppelin's 'Rock And Roll'. Despite some technical problems in the second half of the show(namely a glass of red wine administered to the mixing desk), a typical polished and well-drilled Fallen show. What chance some new songs in the new year though please lads?

As always, good noisy fun.

On a side note, it appears that the Fallen appear to be an unlikely aphrodisiac in the West Suffolk region with young(and not so young things) clambering all over each other(literally) to paw, snuggle and snog.

I'll be studying childbirth patterns in Glemsford very closely from now on.
What price for The Fallen to play The Angel on Valentine's night? The increased cost in child benefit to Suffolk County council could be disastrous.

Poor excuses for going to the pub.

"You'd better get that bowl back off of Paula if you want trifle this week."
"I'd best head down and pick it up then.

Devils In The Angel - 31/10/09 - Exigent And The Great Hallowe'en party.

Once again, on the night of All Hallows the air around Egremont Street was rent with frightening visions, strange eldrich sounds, tortured screams and horrific cackles. But let's not dwell on the condition that Paula returned home from Newmarket races and talk about the Hallowe'en bash instead.

Favourite band of The Fallen, Exigent played and well and truly got into the spirit(you see what I did there) of things by dressing up in their best spooky get-up. An excellent set as always followed from the lads as they tore-up a number of rock classics and current pop songs in their usual slick fashion. Once again, kudos goes to Julius, the Filipino Hendix for his dazzling fretwork and good-natured response to the the 'JULIUS!' call-outs in reponse to the intro to 'Whole Lotta Rose', to the solid rhythm section of Thommo and The Lad On The Drums(sorry, terrible memory), Eddie on guitar and of course ever-smiling singer Nick, backed up by lovely wife Lisa, on mixing desk and tambourine.

Here's some photos, taken and sent in by Steve Plumb and ChrisandElaine, many thanks to you folks, my camera's broken.

This actually took her less time to do than her regular 'going out' makeup.

Jenny, Lovely Fiona and BeetleJos. Jos hasn't been seen out since Jill saw these pictures.

The provider of many of these snaps, and friend.

Rosemary accompany the most sinister costume of them all.

The band fragrantly flaunted the smoking ban.

Elaine, the photoshop queen

Steve tripped over a barbecue and got a piece of charcoal stuck to his chin :(

Typical of scruffy bugger Thommo. Too bloody lazy to shave for his public.

Kevin isn't wearing make-up. This is his facial reaction to discovering how many f**e drinks a 'happy' Paula had given away.

Singing along to the band tends to make one horse.

Poor excuses for going to the pub.

An occasional series.

I think my watch is running slow, so I'm going to check it against the one behind the bar

(Pork)Scratching around for stories.

A few short Angel-related tales that I've had knocking around for a while.

First up, regular readers will be aware of the hug donation made by Clive Coleman, on behalf of his metal detecting chums, to Glemsford Angels. What may not be quite so well known is the rare find made by one their number.

Details of it can be found Here

Also, inevitably late for Remembrance Sunday(I'm blaming an outbreak of night shifts and swine flu in the Elm Grove area) is and addition to Steve Clark's excellent website about Glemsford, this time concerning Steve's researches into the names on Glemsford's War Memorial. what's he's learnt puts flesh on the bones of these me.

His findings can be read Here.

Poor excuses for going to the pub.

Part one in an occasional series.

I should probably go down the pub tonight. I think I was quite rude to Paula last night after I spilt my pint, I best go down and apologise.

Angel Golf Society Outing

I suppose that as I told Neil that I would post a report here about the Angel Golf Society trip to Dunston Hall, I'd better do so. Particularly as he's told everyone in an earlier posting that I'd do it.

After much organisation by Kevin and Steve Laz, the Dunston Hall weekend finally happened the other weekend. A cracking deal had been struck - 18 holes of golf on Sunday, followed by an evening meal, a nights B&B accommodation and then 18 holes on Monday morning all for a very reasonable rate. A single room was slightly more money, so after a chat with genial landlord Kevin, we decided to bunk down together. More of that later.

Dunston Hall is a very nice hotel up in Norfolk (you can't have everything) with a golf centre on site. We arrived there late on Sunday morning, well in time for our first tee time of 1-15pm. The Byford boys, Bill and David, were already there and had somehow managed to check in and get into their rooms. The rest of us had to wait until after we had finished the round.

And so the first group teed off, amidst murmers of approval at some of the fine shots played down the first fairway. I was in the second last group away, my partners being Bill "Bad Manners" Byford, Dave "Harley" Watts and Scott the Australian, who was enjoying his first outing with the Angels. Dave Watts seemed to be playing much better than his allocated 29 handicap and Bill was playing some lovely strokes Things didn't go too bad for me on the front nine, but the back 7 was a dismal affair. I say the back 7 because, as a few of us suspected, we never managed to get round due to the darkness closing in. And the fact that there was another society of about 40 blokes in front of us. Scott the Australian was, like me, struggling at times, but at least we kept each other company looking for lost balls. Behind us was Kevin, Laz and Will Green, who is always noted for his speed around the course. They didn't even finish the 16th hole.

After a quick shower, I left Kevin brushing his locks and went down to the bar. As you would expect from a bar in Scum County, there was no sign of any Greene King on offer, but they did have another of my favourites on tap, namely the splendid Adnams Bitter and a very nice pint it was too. A few of the boys took full advantage of the draught Magners. We had been allocated a long table to seat all of us in the carvery restaurant and I have to say that although I am not a fan of carvery's the food was very good. I think we all had more than our fair share. After dinner we again retired to the bar where unfortunately we were unable to all sit together. It will come as no surprise that Messers Green, Searle and Co. set up a Poker game which went on into the small hours. I retired at about 1.00am as Neil ordered another Magners with a Brandy chaser.

Which is where we come back to the sleeping arrangements. When Kevin originally suggested that we share, I warned him of the fact that I tend to snore a little. This, he said, was no problem, as he reckoned that he would have enough to drink to not hear me. He had retired about an hour earlier than me and upon entering the boudoir I was greeted with the sight of him with one leg out of the bed and his tattooed shoulder on display. Such was the alluring vision, I thought about taking a picture, but a thought in my mind of him peeing in my IPA back at the pub prevented me from doing so. However, one thing was certain. Kevin snores as well. BIG time. I was awake for most of the night thinking that someone was outside the bedroom window revving up a Norton Commando. I did manage to drop off a couple of times but sleep was scarce.

When the alarm went off in the morning at 6.45am, Kevin stirred and promptly said "No wonder Cindy looks so Haggard the way you snore!" (Look out when she next comes in the pub Kev.) So it would seem that I managed to keep him awake almost as much as he had me. I pity anyone in the rooms either side of us!!

Teeing off at 8.15am, we assembled for breakfast at 7.15. (Some of us were a little later) We then got the guy from the golf shop to take a group picture of all of us resplendent in our commemorative Angel Golf Society polo shirts, especially made for the occasion. Here we all are. Handsome lot, aren't we?

The Angel Golf Society line-up

The less said about my second day round the better. Dismal doesn't begin to come close. Unluckily for them, I was grouped with Steve Laz, Mark Ruane and Nigel, who's surname escapes me. We did manage to finish before nightfall, but not before my game had capitulated.

Steve had the most interesting shot of the day when he had to be careful not to stand on a hedgehog who had decided to walk onto the fairway, sniff his ball (oo-err missus) and then sit about a yard from it, refusing to move. I lent Steve the camera so he could take a snap whilst I attempted to hack my way out of some trees. Here is the cheeky little chap.

Just to prove I wasn't the only prick on the golf course.

Back at the Angel, after sandwiches and hot nibbles, the prizegiving commenced. It had not gone unnoticed that Harley riding Dave Watts had played better on the second day than he did on the first, notching up two birdies in the process and was duly told that his handicap would suffer as a result. Dave finished second overall. Congratulations go to outright winner and Buster Bloodvessel impersonater Bill Byford. Scott the Australian cleaned up in the wager department, having drawn Bill in the sweep and winning other amounts of cash. I believe that he only spent about a tenner more than he won buying the round! Scott was such a good sport that not only did he not mind me mentioning the Ashes, he also didn't mention the one day series results.

The raffle then took place with everyone winning a prize of some sort. Whilst most prizes are unsurprisingly golf orientated, I managed to win a wooden case labelled "Eddies Evil Brew", which Steve Laz tells me is a very drinkable Merlot and not the famous Iron Maiden effigy's urine.

And so the grand outing came to a close and I staggered home looking forward to the next Angel Society golfing extravaganza. On behalf of everybody, I'd like to thank Kevin and Steve for organising the trip. It was very enjoyable and Kevin promises that next time we will tee off earlier on the first day and later on the second!!