The last of the pool matches was at Twickenham against Wales. This was a key match up as both of us had beaten England so this was for the top of the pool decider and "easier" route in the QFs. Helen was particularly looking forward to seeing the Welsh kicker Biggar given his amazingly twitchy routine. (Eventually she found it too distracting to watch.) (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ql8wyiDt6s). Pretty effective though...
It was a wonderfully close encounter with the lead changing several times and one period where Australia defended for 20 minutes much of it with only 13 men. Australia 33 Wales 28.
As
we were close to Oxford a visit was essential. We were somewhat overwhelmed by
the number of colleges. One of the larger ones is Christ College.
This
is opposite the Radcliffe Camera (Cam means room in Latin) which houses the
Radcliffe Science Library. Behind this is the Bodlean Library (of which more in
a later blog).
Just
50 metres away is Oxford’s Bridge of Sighs which (as with the Cambridge bridge)
is modelled on the famous Venice bridge.
There
are also some beautiful gardens. This is the Christ Church War Memorial garden.
Which
was just up the hill from the river where we succumbed to a quick boat trip as K,
B and A had been good to tolerate all the sightseeing.
Cats
Abbey is surrounded by numerous picturesque villages. One of the popular ones
is Bibury where we had a bit of lunch.
It
straddles the River Coln and as well as being photogenic
had a large trout farm
You
could fish for free but then had to pay for what you caught. Each of the
children caught a fish
Which
were quite large
However,
these then need to be cleaned. Dad gave a demonstration.
The
following evening we cooked the fish with some lemon and shared it amongst the
Cats Abbey residents. The meal was very well received. This was pretty much the
last supper with the Michael et al as they had to head off back to Australia
and contribute a little more to the tax man.
Meanwhile
Helen and I had tickets for both QFs and headed off for a weekend based near
Twickenham (well actually very close to Heathrow). The first match was a very
close encounter between South Africa and Wales. The lead changed several times
before SA prevailed 31 v 30. We found ourselves on the edge of our seats
notwithstanding we were ambivalent about the outcome. The SA supporters next to
us decided they were looking forward to Sundays Australia v Scotland match so
that they could relax and enjoy the rugby.
The village we stayed at was sandwiched between Heathrow and the M4 but was surprisingly quiet. It will be decimated if the third Heathrow runway is approved. It has many historically significant buildings such as this Tythe barn.
We
went for a small walk and came across another surprise. This plaque was in
front of a fenced off series of overgrown concrete roads. It is where they
built models to test the WW2 bouncing bomb which destroyed German dams.
Sunday
we all looked relaxed as most anticipated that the match with Scotland should
be one of the easier ones. Were we ever wrong. Another match with the lead changing
several times and Australia winning in the 79th minute with a
penalty 35 to 34. Apart from some of the best rugby I have seen the other
factor that the weekend proved was that there is nothing wrong with our hearts given
the substantial stress test they went through.
The players did a tour of the field after the encounter well pleased to be in the SF.
On
a more relaxed note we went for a tour exploring some villages to the South of
Cats Abbey. We came across Minchinhampton Common. There were plenty of signs to
warn us of the free roaming cows. They seem quite at home with traffic and look
left, right and then left again before crossing the road.
Some
of the older members even enjoy watching golf although the youngsters did not
find this putting display quite so captivating.
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