XV forward to the fray on an otherwise empty day

 It is another day where the beauty of the landscape will have to make do as there are no wayside cafes or nail bars to distract us.


I vaguely thought of writing a book on Spain once.  I mention this only because the key point about it is that I don’t really understand the place on the level of a local.  This is excellent news for the traveller.  At home I may be dismayed by the appalling slackness of this Authority or that Corporation but here, it really doesn’t affect me for long.  I don’t see the pot holes and think, they’ve been there for years like the way I would in Blighty and what may be regarded as an eyesore of a small Council, building can be delighted in, given the fact they seem to have actually got some people who aren’t in some fortress in some distant urban centre and who may be helpful.  



The same applies to stuff.  To the casual Iberian a supermarket is a supermarket.  To the Northern traveller a cavern of excitement with real bread, beans of all the nation and several kinds of olive.  I always think we should visit British cities with the eyes we use for Spanish ones, delighting in odd pieces of ironwork and interesting and barely economic shops.

I need a justification to do things.  I could have just streetviewed my way through to Santiago but the need to record and amuse has made it fell slightly less indulgent.  It is sharing the discovery that people will review almost any landmark, house of ill fame or motorway bridge.  These are my people and they call to me.  I think the same came as far as Spanish History. Having married into a Spanish family I feel I can have more than a casual interest.



I feel I must put some Spanish content in and not just wander down memory lane.  Let’s talk Rugby Union.  Looking at the Basques as a people I had always wondered why they were ripping up the Seven Nations and assumed Rugby had not crossed the Pyrenees - how wrong I was.



Apparently it was Brit, Stuart Nicholson, a resident of Bilbao, who recorded the first game in 1901. It appears the game migrated from southern France in the 1920s and Federation was set up in 1923. The first international game was played at Montjuic during Expo 1929, where Spain beat Italy 9-0.



The Civil War held back the development of the sport - another thing Franco is responsible for.  The sport has grown since then and in 2019 there were over 37,000 registered players in 332 clubs.  The top division has 12 clubs, including one in Seville.  I wonder how much the ground is watered.   The Second level as three regional groups, including C - which includes Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Madrid.  It must be said no Canarian team has qualified for league.  They do exist and apparently are 90% Spanish.  https://distantrugby.wordpress.com/category/canary-islands-rugby/ 




Tomorrow, a village.

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