In the Brigg equivalent of the Relief of Mafeking, a consignment of Perlenbacher lager has finally reached our Lidl store.
Probably the best-selling bottled beer in Brigg, it has been absent from the shelves for days and folk have been returning home disappointed and empty-handed.
It's an excellent German brew and very reasonably priced. "Perly B" comes highly recommended.
These days you can buy it by the bottle in Lidl, rather than having to shell out for a full pack.
Many Brigg people will have seen the current Lidl advert on TV, featuring a group of diners who enjoy a meal in a pub/restaurant and are asked to pay what they think the food and drink is worth. They are amazed by the low price of the red wine. It's a shame none of the actors called for a pint of "Perly B."
So you were scouting Brigg for ale, eh, Nige... Talking about scouting, the big cheese in the Relief of Mafeking was Colonel Baden-Powell - the same guy who went onto create the Scouting Movement..
ReplyDeleteHe used novel tactical methods to defeat the Boers: BP sent an armoured train out of Mafeking and the British troops shot-up the Boers' encampments....then the train chugged back again and annoyed the Boers a second time.
Baden-Powell got some soldiers to dress as women to confuse the enemy.....and thus, for example, to keep the garrison supplied with buckets of fresh water.
The Boers didn't have the nous to destroy the telephone lines which led out of garrison, so BP was able to regularly chat to his supporting troops who eventually blocked the Boers escape and supply routes......
Part 2
ReplyDeleteDuring the siege, BP was as cunning as Baldrick..he got his men to pretend to dig and then put tin plates about the town.
He then ordered his soldiers to move about as if Mafeking's boundary had trapping barb-wire.
..Consequently, the Boers thought the garrison was surrounded by minefields and if they rushed the town they would get caught in obstacles. Another ploy was to enlist teenagers into a Cadet Force..and members could act as runners and orderlies - thus releasing soldiers for fighting....this was the impetus of BP's sprouts.
One significant reason why Mafeking was so newsworthy was that just before the siege, journalists were having a gathering in the town. They also became trapped, but were able to smuggle reports back to Britain..
At home, the reports read like a real adventure, with some reporters even exposing BT' s cunning strategies - fortunately, such reports didn't back to the Boers who were losing men about 4:1 in favour of the Brits...