{"id":417,"date":"2019-11-21T23:06:51","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T23:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=417"},"modified":"2019-11-21T23:06:51","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T23:06:51","slug":"bournemouth-and-boscombe-athletic-1947","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=417","title":{"rendered":"Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, 1948"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As soon as I left the vestibule, with its intricately sculpted cherubim and seraphim, and stepped through the Gothic arch into the Great Hall, where a huge dining table was lit by torches and a hanging chandelier, I knew this was no ordinary sandcastle \u2013 at least, not one of Black Country design. Yes, Reg Cabot could tend at times toward the baroque, but the wall of skulls beyond the decorative water feature was a bit much even for him. For that matter, I even had to admit that the detailing appeared of greater skill than Reg\u2019s or even Les Bryant\u2019s best work. As I approached it to get a closer look I soon saw why: this magnum momento mori was fashioned not in silicon but in calcium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s against the rules!\u201d cried Madge Dudley’s brother Trevor, pointing indignantly at the crania. Nothing else registered in his eyes. He was still wearing a sun hat he\u2019d folded out of my Daily Herald, though the early morning brightness had long left the sky and we\u2019d been wandering the corridors, labyrinths and chambers of this castle for well over an hour now. I wasn\u2019t comfortable with the way his big day out was shaping up, but was glad that, as yet, he seemed to feel all right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wall of skulls is\nnot a very encouraging location for a door, but the only other way\nout was back the way we had come, and I didn\u2019t fancy negotiating\nthat labyrinth again. The doorway led immediately to a set of spiral\nsteps, dimly lit by occasional shafts of daylight fed by mirrors and\nstrange engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the foot of the\nstairs was a long chamber, lined by figures of sand, mostly seated,\nsome supine, and a few standing ready at arms. They were life-sized\nand unnervingly real in the gloom. We followed flickering firelight\nthrough another doorway and looked all around us: no exit was\nvisible. I looked up to gauge the height of the ceiling only to see\na terrible sight: thousands of crabs falling towards us. They landed\nand started to chase us, snipping at our ankles. We had no choice\nbut to turn and flee but as we did so we noticed that the opening\nthrough which we\u2019d come was now blocked of with thick wooden\nboards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s against\nthe rules!\u201d cried Trevor, pointing indignantly. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crabs snapped\nmercilessly at our ankles for over half an hour, and it felt like\nthis would be our terrible fate, but fortunately nature had another\nidea. With a mighty crack, thunder heralded a downpour, and within\nseconds the walls of this once impenetrable fortress were washed\naway, leaving nothing but the stone figures who, washed clean,\nrevealed themselves to be Reg Cabot and Les Bryant, along with some\nother members of the Horseley Fields and Wednesfield Castling and\nSandsculpting Club. They told us the strange story of their\nabduction, paralysis and petrification as we walked out of the ruins\ninto the murky day, where there was no longer any sign of rain. Two\nother sandcastles had been built under a temporary roof (\u201cThat\u2019s\nagainst the rules!\u201d cried Trevor), but I decided that there was no\ntime for any more beach activities as we only had an hour until\nkick-off and the escape from mortal danger had made me rather\nthirsty. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This did not go down\nwell with the little \u2018un.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou promised Aunty Madge!\u201d he kept saying, dragging me by the hand to the next castle. Eventually I gave up, slipped him half a crown for ice cream and chips and left him to explore the remaining fortresses alone, while Reg, Les, the Castlers and myself saw the Wanderers turn over Bournemouth and Boscombe and advance to the Fourth Round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trevor met me on the sea-front at half-past five, looking pale and rather shaken. He said nothing about his experiences then or at any time in the future, allowing me a welcome kip on the train back home. Come on you Wolves!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sandcastle competition. What could be more terrifying?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}