11 February 2010
The Ashes come to ..... Kemble?
228 years after England lost a cricket match to Australia on home soil, the two countries are still battling annually for ‘The Ashes’. Now, two skittle teams at The Tavern at Kemble are hoping to do the same with their own ‘Ashes’ tournament, although perhaps without quite the same international media coverage.
This year the two Tavern pub skittle teams, The Taverners and The Evergreen Oaks will be battling for the Tavern Ashes, the remains of the old alley which was demolished last year after pub owners Arkell’s built a brand new skittle alley for the pub.
Landlady Margaret Wixey, explains: “Our old skittle alley was an old billet hut from Kemble Airfield donated to Arkell’s after the war in 1946 and which the landlord put to good use. It’s stood in the car park for the 64 years since and certainly served its purpose. When Arkell’s offered to build on a new skittle alley on pub, the old hut was redundant and the only thing we could do was to burn it down.
“The night it happened, I was watching coverage of last year’s Ashes cricket tournament on the TV and remembered the embers of the old alley still aglow outside. I thought ‘we can have our own Ashes tournament’, so I rushed outside to collect up some of the remains.”
Margaret has bought an urn for the ashes and it now has pride of place in the new skittle alley.
The battle of the Tavern Ashes will be fought at the end of the skittles season, in June and this week both teams celebrated the launch of ‘The Kemble Ashes’.
“It’s a great idea and we’re looking forward to the first tournament,” said Alan Timbrell, a farmer from Pool Keynes and captain of The Taverners Skittle Team.
Nicky Godding Communications
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The Street
Daglingworth
Cirencester
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Monday 8 February 2010
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