Ride a White Horse to Banbury Cross! By Alfred N.Muggins Part 2

Part 2

    Daventry had been preparing for the evening’s Big Game, but the Mugginses had already seen Daventry, and had a lovely meal there, in a pub. It was time to get on the road and see more on their great Tour of the Midlands of England, the heart of the country! They decided they had time to drive to Banbury, which they had not graced with a visit yet. They would not ride a horse (of course Alfred and his wife, and her son, who lived with them, did not possess one, and could not have got there together on one horse anyway. Although both Alfred and his wife had taken to riding horses surprisingly well during their period of Time Travel to good old King Henry’s time! Back in their own time they had magically forgotten how to do it, and their confidence had gone! However their great stallion of a car ‘the Tank’ would surely impress the locals well enough, and get them there quite quickly, and in much greater comfort!)

    Mrs Muggins’ son was particularly keen to see the match, not wanting to miss a second of it if possible. Mrs Muggins and Alfred, who had seen some of England’s efforts in this week of their Midlands holiday would like to see at least part of it, but were still quite focused upon exploring the Midlands. They arrived in Banbury in the light rain, finding a suitable car park right next to the canal, which was very appropriate as they were staying on a narrowboat, in a marina, even though they were not allowed to sail it anywhere (rather thankfully in Alfred’s opinion, due to the noted clumsiness of all in the Muggins family!)

    It was just the right time to find somewhere to watch the match, with some time to spare. Mrs Muggins’ son was already protesting that they should have found somewhere to watch in Daventry, worried about missing the start! The other concern was that , as they were still in the period of social distancing for the Covid Epidemic (Plague!!) there were only limited places indoors, at segregated tables, and numbers indoors were still limited by pubs and eating establishments. Thankfully by now, people were able to eat , and drink, and watch football matches in communal places indoors, but establishments still collected names and phone numbers, in case of the Covid contagion spreading, or used the Covid App to place their attendance!

    The pub they ate at in Daventry was completely booked for watching the match, given the Covid rule limitations, so they would not have been able to view the match there. They were aware they might struggle to find seats indoors to view the Big Match in Banbury too, but the Mugginses’ natural sense of confidence suggested that surely Banbury, with its seemingly plentiful pubs, would surely kindly welcome strangers and travelers, and enable them to view the match, even if they did have to stand up or look through a window, or see it from a distance. After all they had managed to see the recent match against the Danes quite easily in a pub, with virtually a whole small room to themselves, in Kenilworth earlier in the week, after viewing the Castle!

     They walked up the main street of Banbury looking for a place where they might view the important match so they could keep Mrs Muggins’ son happy and quieten his deepening sense of concern as the match was now beginning. Alfred and Mrs Muggins were both very impressed with what they were seeing of Banbury. To Alfred it looked almost medieval, with its historic looking buildings, which in Alfred’s book was a great compliment for any town. He and Mrs Muggins could easily imagine being here in Henry VIII’s time!

     They found a public House where they could see there were TVs for watching the match. Bouncers on the door however said the pub was full. Only so many people were allowed in per table and places were prebooked. The inn was full. Given the continuing Covid restrictions, which, despite diminishing in severity, were still in place. They could see through the windows that the match was on now, but there was no way Mrs Muggins would uncomfortably stand at a window to glimpse the match on a distant screen!

     Another pub seemed empty. They went inside to see if the match was being viewed here, and whether there was space for them, but they were told the pub was now shutting so the staff could be off to view the match at home or elsewhere.

   At the top of the road there was a lovely quaint looking pub, which Mrs Muggins would have loved to sit in, but their tables too were full, according to Covid rules, and all prebooked. They were told there would be unlikely to be anywhere they could watch the match here in Banbury now.

    Mrs Muggins’ normally fairly contented son, was feeling desperate and upset now. “We should have stayed in Daventry!” he continually repeated, becoming angrier by the minute, even though Alfred said they hadn’t got a booked seat even for Daventry. Although they would have all loved to stay in Banbury for the duration of the match, it had become quite clear to all of them that there was definitely no room at the Inn in Banbury. Even Joseph and Mary would have failed to find a pub to watch the match in quaint and lively Banbury! There were no stables here!

     “We are going to have to return to our narrowboat,” declared Alfred. We aren’t finding anywhere here and I don’t think we’ll get a seat in Daventry either, they’re all booked. We have been overconfident! Everybody in England is trying to watch this match!” He felt a bit guilty. He had not worried about the football match. It was only a football match after all. But he and Mrs Muggins had been too complacent. They should have settled somewhere earlier to find a place to watch. He saw clearly that if they travelled quickly back on the road they had come on they would be back in time for the second half to watch the TV on their narrowboat. Mrs Muggins’ son complained bitterly. He wanted to watch the match in a pub, not on the narrowboat!

     “Well that appears to be our only option now,” explained Alfred sensibly, and Mrs Muggins had to concur with him. “Quick,” he said, “We must cut our losses and go back in time to see the second half!”

   So they hastily retreated from the beautiful semi medieval town, down the street, back to the car (tank!) and back across God’s Own Country (England!), the only people in the whole of England missing the all important match!