Otley v Baildon
Saturday, 28th April
Adjudicators: JK, PL
Timing: 10:30 and 11:30
Prices: 1.30 and 1.20
Both teams were without a win, and had promised team changes, in a bid to turn their season around.
And the new-look Otley started very strongly……..with a nicely glazed, warm pie, a decent meat content, nicely seasoned and well textured, with some still juicy jelly. It was immediately clear the Baildon would need to produce something special, to avoid another defeat.
The Adjudicators took their half-time drinks in the Bowling Green……..an interesting establishment, which appeared to have been split into two halves linked by a glass-roofed cobbled courtyard. Outside, one Adjudicator noticed a two horse drawn carriage go through red traffic lights…….but shrugged it off…..as being the result of the different spectrum of the Equine eye. The other adjudicator took this with a pinch of salt….but post-match research suggests that this was no joke……. horses naturally see the blue and green colors of the spectrum and the color variations based upon them, but cannot distinguish red.
As the Adjudicators drove out of Otley…….they were hopeful that Baildon would rise to the occasion and introduce some precocious new talent………but it was not to be. The Pie was cold…….but that was the least of its problems. The pastry felt over soft, in a gloppy sort of way. The Pie seemed wider and shorter than usual….though it is possible that it’s lack of height, deceptively made it look wider. The meat content was also correspondingly thin…….and whilst not unpleasant….lacked any qualities which might have made it noteworthy. The Adjudicators had no hesitation in awarding the points to Otley.
Post match drinks were taken in the Ring O’Bells, on the border of Saltaire and Shipley……..a fine pub, which still offers pie and mushy peas, with mint sauce, at the modest price of £3.20, where the Adjudicators mused over what could have been if Otley had found this form earlier in the season. As for Baildon……….if they do not come up with a decent performance soon, their days in The Pie League are probably numbered.