Saturday, May 17, 2008
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AN EMPTY SEAR AT THE BAR

By Keith Newbery - Friday, May 9, 2008
THIS ISLAND LIFE
BACK in the 70s and early 80s no sport on the Island was more fiercely competitive than village cricket.
When the likes of Arreton, Havenstreet, Godshill, Brading and Westover Park did battle, bails and words flew in all directions.
As a member of the Havenstreet side I provided my share of the aggravation and enjoyed every second of it.
One of our prime adversaries in those days was an Arreton opening batsman, who had a Wyatt Earp moustache and a floppy sun hat barely visible atop a head of unfeasibly bushy hair. The overall impression was of somebody staring at you from behind a burst sofa but there was no point saying as much because Roly Ringer was unflappable. We spent many summer days in lively combat back then but as time moved on we settled into one of those affable relationships which often evolve when old antagonists realise the things they have in common are far more interesting and amusing than inconsequential spats of years long past.
Roly went on to give back far more to Island cricket than he ever took out of it and when he died last week he was manager of the Island over-50s. This is a team once memorably (and accurately) described by John Hilsum, the doyen of Island cricket, as ‘no bloody good when they were 20 so they’re not going to be much use now are they?’
Roly, of course, took perverse pleasure from the fact his team had yet to win a single match, despite years of creaking effort.
“We’re a social side,” he said. “As long as we enjoy it, that’s the most important thing.”
He was quite right, of course. I saw some of their ‘competitive’ opponents from the mainland last season and there is nothing quite as sad as watching old men trying to summon the combative juices of their youth.
Roly was taken ill just after Christmas, when he returned from Portugal with a severe dose of salmonella. This developed into typhoid fever and then he had a heart attack while in hospital.
My observation it was probably the first hat-trick he had ever achieved was met with the familiar amused snort.
Then he revealed his delight at having been designated an official IW health hazard.
“Apparently,” he chuckled, “when you’ve had salmonella they have to inform the environmental health people and some woman phoned up and said I had become a possible health hazard.”
He would, I assured him, be made to suffer for that piece of information when the over-50s mob decamped to the West Country next month to enjoy a happy few days away while fulfilling their destiny of losing to Cornwall and Devon.
“I shall look forward to it,” he said. There will now be an empty seat at the bar in Sidmouth but glasses will be raised to the memory of a splendid companion and a dear old friend to so many.

HOW TO DISCOVER THE PRECISE LEVEL OF LEAF WETNESS
A FEW weeks ago I mentioned some cine-film clips of the Island in the 50s to be found on YouTube.
A little altercation then developed between the chap who had placed them on the internet and some bloke from the outfit who claimed copyright.
He sent me a snotty little note suggesting I drag myself away from the computer screen and get out more. That was before he suggested I look at his company’s website …
But, undeterred by insinuations of nerdiness, I persevered and this week came up with a website for your delectation called Wroxall Weather.
It is an extraordinary piece of work and tells you all you wanted to know — and everything you didn’t realise you didn’t know — about weather on the IW.
Eager to learn the precise (and I mean precise) wind speed and direction as it wafts across the Island?
Want to discover the ‘dew point’ (whatever that is), the soil temperature, humidity and the amount of rainfall over the past 31 days? Look no further.
You can even find out the precise level of ‘leaf wetness’ if the absence of such knowledge causes you to sleep fitfully. And every fact contained within this remarkable site is not just up to the minute, it is up to the second.
Take yourself off to www.wroxall-weather.co.uk and prepare to be impressed.