john6767

I would go for it being a PR stunt, I would say that most of the public will think white is a greener alternative to red, and I bet they talk about bio-diesel at the same time.

The pub at Sheperton is a “Vintage Inn” chain pub I think, but we had a decent enough meal there when we moored outside. I bet it does get busy when the weather is nice.

I remember her well, so sorry to hear of your loss

What CRT are not letting on about is why the close the whole North Stratford, if they Bridge at Hockley Heath is ker put then fine but why all this other malarkey, like locking off Shirley lift bridge.

The common travel area between the UK and Ireland predates the EU, so not sure what it has to do with them. But if Ireland is really shutting its borders then at lest those that were going to the match should be able to claim on their travel insurance, it 5he Irish will got allow Italians to travel there. I don’t think we will be so lucky I bet it is you either throw it away or go anyway.

Agreed, back there in the summer, I have even splashed out on a gold licence this year.

A free 14 days accommodation, your not selling it. It will be interesting how Ireland handle this, they are going to basically have to close their borders, as you would think given the money is spent many Italians are going to travel to Dublin anyway even if the cancel the match. And given they are in a common travel area with the UK, can they even do that. Interesting times.

It does not seem to be totally clear if Ireland Italy match has been cancelled, or that there is just a call that it should be. We are due to travel to Rome in a couple of weeks for the England Italy match, and it is looking as though we could possibly loose a couple of grand which is anoying, as I don't see any way the UK government is going to ban flights to Italy as they have not banned flights to China yet, so travel insurance is not going to payout if you cancel. If the match does not go ahead I assume we get the match ticket price back, but that will be all, we will still have to pay for the flights and hotel etc. A real bummer.

I have tried asking CRT on a Twitter what’s going on, but there are not explaining. There has to be more to this than the Hocley Heath bridge if they have locked out Shirley liftbridge. There a quite a few long term mooring between those two locations, and it seems they are all now trapped.

I would have driven by you about an hour ago! It’s a bit nuts, you would think that the stoppage notice would explain what is going on, as clearly it is more than the Hockley Heath bridge that is an issue. If you do end up reversing again to turn round watch out with the winding hole just past the railway, it looks massive, but you will probably ground the bow when it not that far in. I had less than 10ft to spare with the bow grounded (50ft boat) last time I used it.

But but you can’t do that, the canal is closed all the way to King Norton.

It may be possible but I doubt easy, I have used it quite a few times (50ft boat) but I doubt that winding hole sees much use at all and it is shallow and not overly large.

They way it was, was that Wigrams was all live aboards and Ventnor was strictly on living aboard. We once shared Calcutt locks with a couple who had been thrown out of Ventnor for staying on the boat in the marina while they had building work done at home. They do seem to like their rules at Ventnor, I seem to remember something about needing to move the boat onto the towpath to do work, but don’t remember the details.

I think you have missed the point of some of the charges at Calcutt. They don’t charge moorers for elsan and rubish that is the charge for passing boats at the wharf. We have been at Calcutt for 10 years, it works well for us, very helpful staff, all the parts you want on site and they can do any repairs if that’s what you want. We looked at Ventnor and Wigrams as well. They were more expensive then than Calcutt, even compared to Meadows marina at Calcutt which is the most expensive of their two basins.

The notice does not say there is a fault with the stop lock, only the lift bridge. Even it there is an issue with the stop lock, there is 10 miles or so of canal between the two locations. There are many stoppages with a lot less distance than that between that the are shown as two distinct stoppages. As you say you can cruise along it between the two points, but if you obey that stoppage notice then you can move in that section.

Where in the Midlands are you wanting to get to?

That is the fail that I was referring too. So you are moored at the Wharf Inn, Hockney Heath and are heading into Birmingham, why are you being prevented from doing that by this stoppage if is just that lift bridge which is in the other direction. Sometimes they note the stoppage as between winding holes but that is in the case here in either direction. Confusing, as the stop lock is not functional if seems unlikely but not impossible that something has happened there. But that would be a separate stoppage to the lift bridge at Hockley Heath surely. You don’t just close a whole canal.

Ribble link is 10’6” I think, but I believe there is a stoppage notice at this time limiting it to narrow beam, due to them needing to dredge between the botton Lock and the sea lock, and the only dredger they have on the Lancaster is widebeam so they are waiting for a narrow beam dredger to come over. At least that was the story from the CRT guys on the link last Sept. Whatever, a 12 foot beam boat will only be able to get off the Lancaster on the back of a truck, unless it is capable of going to sea.

Not great I admit, but it was silent as it should be during the kicks, so but not really in the same league as Scotland’s behaviour. I don’t get why they would do that and the organisers need to start getting on top of that sort of poor behaviour.

It was another game of two halves today. First half England exerted a lot of pressure and got the rewards with an excellent 17-0 lead at half time, but then went on to loose the second half, and more importantly not securing the bonus point. So in the end a solid win over a very good Irish side, but falling short of what it could have been. Seems it could be all down to the result of the France v Ireland game, so the organisers got that one right.

There you go then!

I have been to many rugby clubs in both England and Wales as coach of a visiting side, and don’t seen any real difference. What I suspect is a difference in that inEngland many state scholls do not traditionally play rugby (they play some silly game with a round ball), although that is a trend that is changing I think. For a lot of kids in England club ruby is their only option, and I think there could be a case for more diverse backgrounds in England compared to Wales, where I suspect (but don’t know for certain) that many more state schools will play rugby. Anyway back to the rugby, thoughts on today’s match?

Yes, same thoughts here and have let the family Welsh contingent (ie my wife) know that they have let everyone down, they needed to win to keep it open to give England a chance! You never know tomorrow, a hard one to call. It may well be that the organisers got it right and that the last match on the last weekend will be the decider.

As I have an SUV nothing as far as I am concerned, but it’s a surprise that my diesel SUV is the same road tax as my wife’s petrol mini. Governments are not usually so generous. Now if they can just sort out council tax and income tax that would be nice.

It is now, but I don’t think it used to be. The point though is right now there is nothing to discourage the use of SUVs.