Posts tagged 'Remembrance'

Much depends on what shape balls you have

Posted by on November 3rd 2016 in In the News
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Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie has confirmed the England players will wear poppies on their shirts for the autumn Test against South Africa at Twickenham on 12 November.

World governing body World Rugby has been "very supportive", according to Ritchie.

"We are commemorating and remembering all people who have died in conflict. This is not a partisan thing or a political statement," Ritchie told BBC Radio 5 live.

"This is something that is just right as an act of remembrance, and it is right to do it on the weekend when we play South Africa."

Wales' rugby team will also wear a commemorative poppy on their shirt in their Test against Argentina on the same day.

The above is from http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37853386

FIFA - not "Fifa", as the BBC (or perhaps that should be the Bbc) insist on reporting - could learn much by pulling its head out of its arse and looking around to see how others deal with such matters.

There's a petition at https://www.change.org/p/fifa-let-england-and-scotland-footballers-wear-their-poppies-with-pride

Lead us not into temptation.

Posted by on November 8th 2009 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes
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Afar in foreign graves they lie,
Not here where they could wish to be,
"Under the wide and starry sky,"
Upheld by British crag and scree.


And yet we felt their spirits dwell
Amidst the circumambient air,
Above the heights they loved so well,
Austere, enchanting, cloud-capped, bare.


For those who bravely die, 'twas said,
Their tomb is the wide earth's extent,
And Gable is for these, our dead,
Their playground, and their monument.

 

W. Snow.

 

 

Next weekend I'm off to Borrowdale YHA to sample the infamous high levels of precipitation again. In theory, this could be the first time I get to wear my Rab Corrie jacket in anger - for the last three years it's stayed in the bottom of the pack whatever the weather, relegated in favour of the Rab VR Climb and the Montane Featherlite Smock. I'd best check that it still fits me!

So far I've not figured out where I'm going to walk, I might just leave that decision until I'm there and can assess the weather first-hand. The obvious choices for me are the three Wainwright fells thereabouts that I've yet to visit properly. Of the three candidates only Ullscarf and Rosthwaite Fell are really in the frame, as a long time ago I decided to save Castle Crag for my "compleation" fell.

The problem is that Borrowdale's so near to the heart of Lakeland that a foray to the bigger fells will always be a temptation. The Scafells are probably beyond my range at the moment due to me not being at the pinnacle of human fitness, but there's always the draw of Great Gable which, by then, should be wearing its traditional red cap of Remembrance despite requests by the FRCC to not leave poppies or wreaths on the mountain. Maybe it's time to go back there again by a different route - such a fine place deserves yet another visit, and it's another chance to honour the fallen.

 

Remembrance

Posted by on November 11th 2008 in Rambling on...
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For a small village, the turnout for Sunday's Remembrance Day Service was impressive. The gathered parade participants marched with a mixture of pride and sorrow through the old centre of the village to the Memorial Garden, where a band played and the crowd gathered.

A local Minister gave a moving service which brought tears to many eyes, mine included. Remembered were not just the casualties and fatalities of the two World Wars and the many other conflicts since 1914, but also the broken lives of the families that lost loved ones, and the survivors, many of whom bore or will bear the physical and often mental scars of conflict to the ends of their days. All of the Services were remembered, military and civilian.

Looking around the many ex-Servicemen and ex-Servicewomen present, I lost count of the number of different insignia, but I noted a significant number of Paras, Royal Artillery, Royal Marines and at least one from the Special Air Service. Sobering stuff. Enough to make me think twice about the elderly folk I meet around the village in the course of a normal week.

I didn't take any pictures at the ceremony, as it would have been disrespectful, but I'll go back to the Memorial Garden in a few days to get a photo for Anna to remember the occasion. She did a fine job of bearing the Standard for her Brownie pack in the leading group of the parade. We are very proud of her.