Day 27 - Castles and Ashes
Today was spent looking at castles and attempting to win back the ashes. Northumberland is well known for it's multitude of castles one of which was made famous by the Harry Potter movies as the location for Hogwarts Magic School. This castle is located at Alnwick (pronounced Annick) an is home to the Duke of Northumberland and is called Alnwick Castle. All of the footage of the scrimmage games on Harry Potter were filmed at the castle whereas the other indoor scenes were within stage sets. The first known historical record of the castle dates back to 1089 AD which means that parts of the castle are most likely older than that.
It was pretty cool to stand at the base of the castle knowing the age of the building and that the images of the castle were easily recognisable from the Harry Potter movies. The second castle that we visited was at Bamburgh (pronounced bambra) which is situated on the North Sea coast and was massive. It would have been 1.5 times bigger than the Alnwick Castle and was built directly on top of the rocky outcrops. Again this was an extremely impressive building and to think that someone designed and built this huge building is mind boggling. After taking in the historical significance of the castles of Northern England we made our way back home via the coastal route which wound it's way through many small villages and towns. All of which contained cobblestone streets and old stone buildings. It was great to get the chance to experience "old" England.
After returning back to Morpeth it was time to pack the gold clubs into the car and renew the golf ashes rivalry which was to take place on English soil for the first time. The Australians looked resplendent in their matching Australian polo shirts and caps whilst our English counterparts were clearly more focussed on the golf than their fashion.
I even decided to bring along a caddy with high credentials to assist me with my shot selection: Zac did a fantastic job all day. Unfortunately, neither the resplendent outfits nor the utilisation of a caddy assisted us with the "Poms" (Stephen Dawes and Martin Hunter) retaining the ashes with a 7 and 6 victory. It was fair to say that we were clearly outplayed on the day and the English were ready (with unsubstantiated rumours of 1,000's of practice balls being hit over the past 6 months) to take us on. Stephen and Martin jumped out to a 5 hole lead after the first 5 holes which made the task of winning back the ashes a huge challenge. A small comeback was made with the Aussies winning the 6th hole however a string of halved holes when the charge was on soon placed a halt to any comeback and Stephen and Martin then sealed the match by the 13th hole. The game was played with minimal sledging and in great spirits as you would expect.
It was a fantastic day with no rain, light cloud cover and a small breeze. The course was in fantastic condition and very enjoyable to play. It was reasonably open however if you hit off line then you were in trouble as the rough was quite long. Given the promise was to have the next golf ashes game in the UK, it was extremely satisfying to be able to fulfil that promise and to play the game at a course in Dawesy's home town and at a course that he is a member of.
Tomorrow will be a slow morning before heading to St James park to watch Newcastle United versus Aston Villa so that will also be a great thrill.
It was pretty cool to stand at the base of the castle knowing the age of the building and that the images of the castle were easily recognisable from the Harry Potter movies. The second castle that we visited was at Bamburgh (pronounced bambra) which is situated on the North Sea coast and was massive. It would have been 1.5 times bigger than the Alnwick Castle and was built directly on top of the rocky outcrops. Again this was an extremely impressive building and to think that someone designed and built this huge building is mind boggling. After taking in the historical significance of the castles of Northern England we made our way back home via the coastal route which wound it's way through many small villages and towns. All of which contained cobblestone streets and old stone buildings. It was great to get the chance to experience "old" England.
After returning back to Morpeth it was time to pack the gold clubs into the car and renew the golf ashes rivalry which was to take place on English soil for the first time. The Australians looked resplendent in their matching Australian polo shirts and caps whilst our English counterparts were clearly more focussed on the golf than their fashion.
I even decided to bring along a caddy with high credentials to assist me with my shot selection: Zac did a fantastic job all day. Unfortunately, neither the resplendent outfits nor the utilisation of a caddy assisted us with the "Poms" (Stephen Dawes and Martin Hunter) retaining the ashes with a 7 and 6 victory. It was fair to say that we were clearly outplayed on the day and the English were ready (with unsubstantiated rumours of 1,000's of practice balls being hit over the past 6 months) to take us on. Stephen and Martin jumped out to a 5 hole lead after the first 5 holes which made the task of winning back the ashes a huge challenge. A small comeback was made with the Aussies winning the 6th hole however a string of halved holes when the charge was on soon placed a halt to any comeback and Stephen and Martin then sealed the match by the 13th hole. The game was played with minimal sledging and in great spirits as you would expect.
It was a fantastic day with no rain, light cloud cover and a small breeze. The course was in fantastic condition and very enjoyable to play. It was reasonably open however if you hit off line then you were in trouble as the rough was quite long. Given the promise was to have the next golf ashes game in the UK, it was extremely satisfying to be able to fulfil that promise and to play the game at a course in Dawesy's home town and at a course that he is a member of.
Tomorrow will be a slow morning before heading to St James park to watch Newcastle United versus Aston Villa so that will also be a great thrill.
