When death does stalk the barren land,

When death does stalk the barren land,

The stench of rotting carcases rises

Through the pale watery light

Of the dying sun

 

All around is the decay of a dying civilisation.

Hypocrisy rules as leaders wallow

In their own self importance

Waffle rules where once reason reigned

 

Oh Locke where have you gone?

Has that beacon of light been snuffed out?

Are we forever destined to learn nothing?

Hobbes is gone, forgotten, his legacy spent

 

We are left in the land of the blind

Where the one eyed man is king

Sadly floundering in the mire of his own making

His lifeblood slowly ebbing away.

Like a stag caught in the cars headlights

He stood bewildered frozen to the spot

While the inevitable came hurtling towards him.

 

He now lies fatally wounded

While the carrion crow circle around

Waiting, wondering when to strike

While the populace wait; watching the ship of state

Drift aimlessly along.

 

 

Barry Mellish

July 2009

 

General Election 2024 - Time to change the voting system?

 Well, the election is done and dusted and with only a handful results to be declared a few things are patently obvious, to me at least:

1.     The Tories were routed with only 24% of the vote. 

2.     Labour have a stonking majority with 411 (so far) seats they have an overall majority of 177, at the time of writing, so much for my prediction of 55-65!

3.     LibDems had a fantastic evening returning at least 71MPs (up from 8.)

4.     4 Green MPs (sadly not Hélèna)

But looking beyond the numbers of seats it is clear that there was not a massive swing of support to Labour, rather it is a massive swing away from the Tories. Labour only polled 35% of the popular vote whilst returning 63% of MPs. Our antiquated electoral system of first past the post means that a swing of a few votes in a number of seats can result in massive swings numbers of MPs returned for each party.

 We desperately need some form of proportional representation – but which? I like the concept of constituency MPs, someone that we can write and ask to help resolve local issues. It also enables people locally to return an MP that they want; be it Jeremy Corbyn, Shockat Adam, Iqbal Hussain Mohamed etc etc. If we had a pure proportional system there would not be room for these “oddball” candidates and politics would be the poorer. I for one am fed up with hegemony of the “big parties”. 

Having been returned with his massive majority and relatively low share of the popular vote compared to previous governments, I cannot see electoral reform being high on Sir Keir’s agenda. One can but hope, but I do not see the pigs on the runway ready for take-off – turkeys do usually vote for Christmas!

Why We play the game

 When the battle scars have faded

And the truth becomes a lie
And the weekend smell of liniment
Could almost make you cry.

When the last rucks well behind you
And the man that ran now walks
It doesn’t matter who you are
The mirror sometimes talks

Have a good hard look old son!
The melons not that great
The snoz that takes a sharp turn sideways
Used to be dead straight

You’re an advert for arthritis
You’re a thoroughbred gone lame
Then you ask yourself the question
Why the hell you played the game?

Was there logic in the head knocks?
In the corks and in the cuts?
Did common sense get pushed aside?
By manliness and guts?

Do you sometimes sit and wonder
Why your time would often pass
In a tangled mess of bodies
With your head up someone’s……?

With a thumb hooked up your nostril
Scratching gently on your brain
And an overgrown Neanderthal
Rejoicing in your pain!

Mate – you must recall the jersey
That was shredded into rags
Then the soothing sting of Dettol
On a back engraved with tags!

It’s almost worth admitting
Though with some degree of shame
That your wife was right in asking
Why the hell you played the game?

Why you’d always rock home legless
Like a cow on roller skates
After drinking at the clubhouse
With your low down drunken mates

Then you’d wake up – check your wallet
Not a solitary coin
Drink Berocca by the bucket
Throw an ice pack on your groin

Copping Sunday morning sermons
About boozers being losers
While you limped like Quasimodo
With a half a thousand bruises!

Yes – an urge to hug the porcelain
And curse Sambuca’s name
Would always pose the question
Why the hell you played the game!

And yet with every wound re-opened
As you grimly reminisce it
Comes the most compelling feeling yet
God, you bloody miss it!

From the first time that you laced a boot
And tightened every stud
That virus known as rugby
Has been living in your blood

When you dreamt it when you played it
All the rest took second fiddle
Now you’re standing on the sideline
But your hearts still in the middle

And no matter where you travel
You can take it as expected
There will always be a breed of people
Hopelessly infected

If there’s a teammate, then you’ll find him
Like a gravitating force
With a common understanding
And a beer or three, of course

And as you stand there telling lies
Like it was yesterday old friend
You’ll know that if you had the chance
You’d do it all again

You see – that’s the thing with rugby
It will always be the same
And that, I guarantee
Is why the hell you played the game!

One Hundred Years of the Mellish Family and Westcombe Park RFC

It is May 2024 and it was about a 100 years ago that the Mellish family first became involved with ‘Combe. Nobody quite knows when three brothers Tom, John and Bill Mellish first joined and started playing for the club. As there is a first team photo 1925-26 with John Mellish in it, the probability is that he must have joined a season or two beforehand to learn the game if nothing else. Rugby would not have been played at any school that the sons of a dockworker would have gone to. In all probability they joined the club in 1924-25 or earlier. Their slightly younger cousin, Richard James Mellish, aka Dick Mellish, my dad (born 1907), joined a couple of years later and I have a photo of dad in the 1930-31 “A” XV photo.

Tom Mellish captained the club in the 1929-30 and I know, that his brother Bill captained the “A” XV for at least one season – date unknown. Tom, John and Bill appear to have left the club in the early thirties. Tom became a referee and stayed involved with the game for a number of years. John Mellish, a policeman, was also a keen boxer and was the European Police Welter Weight Champion for 1931. My dad also boxed and was the Sussex Scout light-weight boxing champion in 1922. Whether dad and John ever used their boxing prowess on the rugger field is unknown!

Dad stayed on playing for ‘Combe and was club captain in 1936 -37 and again in 1946-47. Dad “officially” stopped playing rugby at the end of the ‘46-47 season. I was due in the October and because of my mum’s badly damaged legs (She was caught in an air-raid in 1940) they were expecting problems. I do recall that dad would always take his kit along and if one of the lower teams was short of a player, he would join in for them. He always said “don’t tell your mother”; but she always knew. Apart from the dirty kit dad would be stiff and sore on Sunday morning, a feeling that I got to know well over the years!

Dad became involved with the admin side of the game and was Team Secretary for a number of years. These were the days when you had to post a card to each member of every team telling them which team they were in and where they had to be the following Saturday. Dad was Hon. Treasurer from 1964-68 and President from 1966-68.

His youngest brother John, born 1921, played for ‘Combe after the war. He was a No 8 and played for the 1st XV for a number of seasons. John stopped playing relatively young and became a referee. John then became heavily involved with training and vetting of referees. He carried on with this when he left the UK and took his family and settled in Richmond, Virginia, USA. I recall being at Heathrow in the early nineties waiting to catch a flight to San Francisco. In the crowd milling about the terminal, I spotted a number of people wearing track suits with the words “California Rugby Referees on Tour”. I spoke to one of them and mentioned that my uncle was a referee in the States, but that he lived on the East Coast. He asked me his name and I said John Mellish, he then yelled “Guys we have John Mellish’s nephew on the flight with us”. It appeared John was well known in referring circles in the States and had worked tirelessly in helping set-up the organisational structure – he was rewarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Rugby in America.

Dad was the eldest of five brothers and although only John played, two of his other brothers, George and Gordan were involved backstage as it were helping run the club, serving behind the bar etc. The ladies were also involved; my mum, Grace (Gordon’s wife) and Jean (John’s wife) helping prepare the sandwiches and cups of tea for the players after the game. This was long before the advent of professional staff and hot meals after the game.

Gordon’s son “young Gordon” played for the club in the late fifties and early sixties. I started playing for the colts and twenties in about 1962/3. I went off to college in 1966 and on finishing moved to Canterbury and played rugby there. Moving to Bromley in 1977 I re-joined ‘Combe and played for the “A” XV. alongside Robin Taylor in the front-row. I then started coaching min-rugby when my sons started to want to play.

My middle-son Andrew now graces the field for ‘Combe (starting playing for the club aged 45). My two grand-children Henry and Georgia, although both keen on rugby, live in the West Midlands and play mini-rugby there. So, it looks as if the tradition of the Mellish Family playing for ‘Combe may be drawing to a close – but who knows what the future may bring.

Barry Mellish 1st May 2024

Barry and Julia Christmas Letter 2023

We are all still the right side of the grass! As we get older this is sadly not always the case with our friends and family. Early in the year we travelled to Norfolk for the funeral of our cousin Barbara. Sadly she was not the only one we lost during the year. We pray for those we have lost and offer our love and prayers to their family and friends. As we get older, we are susceptible to aches and pains! Julia has been diagnosed with Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). She is having therapy for this and hopefully by the New Year there will be an improvement.

Our year continued much as always. Various trips to our lodge in Devon. Meetings with our friends from college days. A family lunch in Stratford–upon-Avon (more or less equidistant for all of us). Church was somewhat busier than usual as our parish priest was ill for several months which meant we all had more to do. Hopefully he is well on the road to recovery and will be back in harness before Christmas.

The ultimate event of the year was the surprise family gathering for Julia’s “21st” birthday celebration which we held on the last weekend of October. She knew that Lawrie, Emma and the grandchildren were coming down as it was Henry's and Georgia's half-term. What she did not know was that Hélèna and Sam were also coming down from Stockport, staying with Andrew and Gaew. Julia and I had celebrated the actual day with a few days away in Norfolk.

We all gathered at our place on the Friday. Then on Saturday/Sunday we had a family party, helped along by a large delivery of food and drink from Waitrose. The Monday saw some of us at Horniman's Museum at Forest Hill - well worth a visit if you have not been. The unexpected highlight of the trip was meeting the pest controller!! He had a Harris Hawk which was being used to keep the pigeons away. He was a lovely guy and let the children get close to the bird. Tuesday Lawrie and I took Henry and Georgia to Greenwich Park, the Maritime Museum and a walk under the Thames, a great day. This coming Christmas and New Year will be spent at “Mellish Mansions” along with the family for all or part of the time.

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy Christmas with Good Health and much happiness for 2024.

With all our love and prayers, Barry and Julia

The Boat People

 The news is full of stories relating to boat people, Rwanda, International Law, has Rishi done enough or has he gone too far? There is no doubt that there are lot of problems in the good ship the United Kingdom: There are not enough houses, the NHS is struggling with not enough beds and not enough staff. We are bursting at the seams and it is all the fault of the boat people!!

If we stop the boats we solve the problem, at least that is the narrative that is being portrayed.

The only trouble with this is that the migration figures do not stack up. The provisional estimate of total long-term immigration for year ending (YE) June 2023 was 1.2 million, while emigration was 508,000, meaning that net migration was 672,000; most people arriving to the UK in the YE June 2023 were non-EU nationals (968,000), followed by EU (129,000) and British (84,000).

Net migration for YE June 2023 was 672,000, which is slightly higher compared with YE June 2022 (607,000) but down on our updated estimate for YE December 2022 (745,000); while it is too early to say if this is the start of a new downward trend, these more recent estimates indicate a slowing of immigration coupled with increasing emigration.(Figures from the Office for National Statistics website).

So all the focus is on circa 50,000 boat people out of a total net migration number of 672,000. There is a lot that the politicians, of all parties, are not telling us. Blaming migration is an easy way to avoid confronting the reality that for years we have underfunded the NHS, that we have not built enough homes and that it is overlooking the fact that many in the caring porfessions are migrants.

Many of the systems in the UK need a complete overhaul, we need a long hard honest discussion about the type of country that we aspire to be - but it is so much easier to blame the foreigner!

Russel Brand

It appears that he is/was a loud obnoxious character who glorified in "bedding" as many woman as possible. We may think that his behaviour is reprehensible and that he should be avoided at all costs, particularly by women. But these are not criminal offences. I seriously wonder if it is possible for him to obtain a fair trial if criminal proceedings are brought against him. 

So far there are "allegations"  and these might well be true. But there are no official criminal charges. Yet in the "Court of Public Opinion" he is guilty! I do wonder why Channel 4 Despatches and the Sunday Times didn't go to the police, perhaps making a profit and creating a "buzz" was more important to them than justice and the criminal law.

It is also interesting that so many people are now saying, "I always knew he was a bad one"; "It was common knowledge in the industry how he behaved". Yet nobody did anything at the time. It would appear that when he was about thirty he was able to use BBC car to ferry a sixteen year old girl to and from his bed. Not illegal but why did the BBC go along with it?

We are living in amoral times.

PS - Where is Albert Pierrepoint when you need him?