a blog by howard jameson @ gatheringgrace.org

Golf balls

Story in one of the village newsletters from a lady whose car was hit by a golf ball whilst driving past one of the local clubs - damaged windscreen and jangled nerves.

It reminded me of the story of my old friend Chris. He was playing golf and took a tee shot one a par three (fairly short hole). Sadly he hooked the ball and it swung way to the left as it flew off. The ball landed on a piece of tarmac, and so bounced the same height again, carrying on its wayward trajectory. The ball then came down in the club car park with a loud clunk and the sound of somebody's car alarm going off. Chris had had the presence of mind to already be retaking his tee shot, so for all the world appeared innocent.

If you Jag was damaged a couple of years back in a golf club car park somewhere in Hampshire then please drop me a mail and I'll forward them to the great man himself.

We still laugh regularly about E and I watching a man on a practice green at my Dad's golf club - he took a swing oblivious to a chicken which was pecking its way across the practice area. Cue cartoonesque scene of chicken jumping in the air and feathers flying. The man turned round sheepishly to see if anybody had noticed by which time E and I were having to run to sit in the car to avoid laughing out loud.

Watch a winning game: take 2

Bit gutted to have seen Bournemouth go down 2-0 at home last Sunday, so our second attempt is to see London Irish against Newcastle Falcons at the Madejski Stadium in Reading.

Come on Bournemouth!

Christmas is now a couple of sleeps ago so a lovely cold day to catch some soccer.

Come on you Reds!

I don't understand genetics...

Sometimes our children do something which we see as a reflection of ourselves, and we can be either proud or cross depending on whether we like that thing about ourselves. At other times we see them do something which seems to have sprung from the genes of the next generation back...

And then at other times they do things of bewildering brilliance which don't seem to have come from anybody!

"Obviously you're not a golfer..."

So says the Dude...

...so I was fairly quick to decline an invitation (kind and well meant, no doubt) to make up a regular Clergy grouping on the links (or whatever they play on round here).

Come on you reds!

Its great to finally see Bournemouth well up in one table at least. (Not sure what they are celebrating in the photo on the web site front page)

Sadly its the amount of money owed to the Inland Revenue.

Still, one more win will put us on +1 points for the season so far!

Gold in the pool!

Well done to the two British swimmers who claimed Gold and Bronze in the women's 400m freestyle. Watch it at 5:50 for the look on the American swimmer's face. Priceless.

I used to swim in the pool next door to the tower block named after Anita Lonsbrough, the last British woman to get a Gold in the pool, so I feel like I almost knew her.

Euro 2008

News in the last few days that there is going to be a legal challenge against the Governments classifying the European Championships as one of the sporting Crown Jewels which have to be shown free to view on TV. I refuse to pay money to Murdoch and his evil Babylon of an operation and will refuse to do so in the future, so no Sky TV for us I'm afraid.

I did catch the boys out this morning by saying that they could stay up late to watch all England's games in Euro 2008.

(For non-football literate LIKE MY MOTHER!!!!!* there aren't any as we didn't qualify).

*Reference to my Mother due to oft repeated moment when England played Germany in the semis of Euro '96. First she asked who was playing and then, as it all went belly up over penalties, said the immortal words "Its only a game"............................sorry, words still fail.

You may not have noticed amidst all the fuss...

...but Bournemouth have been sustaining one of the all time fights back in the last month or so.

Having 10 points deducted by going into receivership they have won their last six games on the trot, so if they win tomorrow and one of the two teams above them doesn't then they will have avoided relegation!

Not only that but if they are successful it will shut up a local Aldershot fan who is already convinced we will be meeting next season in League Two.

Make some noise for the boys!

A funny thing, loyalty

I have used our support of AFC Bournemouth several times recently as a metaphor for Christian hope. Most Christians in history and in the world today, my parallel goes, are more like Bournemouth fans than Manchester United or Chelsea fans. Most Christians in history and in the world today do not expect to win every week, but they look forward to a special moment when they win a game in such an unlikely manner that it lives with them for the rest of their days. That, to me at least in part, is what real hope is.

So I was gutted and miserable all day yesterday to read that Bournemouth had gone into administration thereby causing 10 valuable points to be immediately deducted and placing them fairly and squarely at the bottom of League One. They were even lower than Port Vale and they are a team that isn't even a place!

We could take the easy route and switch allegiance. Cheltenham are doing quite well it seems. Huddersfield (the place of my birth) is another option. But I will always know that I had changed teams because supporting Bournemouth was causing too much sadness. Ho hum.

Today Bournemouth are winning 4-1 (as I write) away from home, so tonight they may be off the bottom, but still have an enormous way to go to avoid relegation.

So Bournemouth I apologise if my flippant illustration has brought about this disaster, but avoiding relegation is something to hope for...and won't it be worth the hoping if it comes off!