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peterpoffles.bsky.social
Peter
@peterpoffles.bsky.social
35 followers 17 following 52 posts
Radio stuntman and sand juggler
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peterpoffles.bsky.social
For all-on-the-line drama and gritted intensity, Australia vs USA last night in soggy York was the pool game of the Women’s Rugby World Cup so far. It was tighter than the front rows’ heads in a scrum and ended 31-all. Ilona Maher was a powerhouse. She says hi #WRWC #USA #Australia
Action photo of Australia and USA women’s rugby teams spread across the full width of the pitch in the York Community Stadium, where the skies are leaden grey, the floodlights are on and the stands are full of spectators In a pitchside selfie after the match, a waving, smiling Ilona Maher stands behind some old bloke
August 31, 2025 at 8:40 AM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Tempted to go to a Women’s Rugby World Cup match? Do, if you can. Carnival atmos at New Zealand vs Spain today and an ace match. (If there was a cup for the most enthusiastic fans Spain would win it.) And you never know who you might meet. Look who I bumped into
#wrwc #BlackFerns

Photo by Ruby Tui
New Zealand international and 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup winner Ruby Tui with some old bloke
August 24, 2025 at 10:54 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Potent, germane haka (about women uniting for strength to overcome challenges) by the New Zealand team at the start of their match against Spain in the Women’s Rugby World Cup in York today.
#wrwc #BlackFerns
August 24, 2025 at 10:35 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
At the Rugby World Cup in Sunderland last night.
Pre-match: buzzing fanzone; Anne-Marie show.
Match: breathtaking technical skill, strength, athleticism, intensity.
Post-match: chats with USA captain Zachary and Maher; selfies with #RedRoses Kildunne, Breach, Dow if I’d wanted; fireworks. Wow. #wrwc
The England and USA women’s rugby teams leave the tunnel and walk on to the pitch at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland for the national anthems as flame throwers and fireworks go off, as viewed from the crowd in the stands, with large English and USA flags and Rugby World Cup logo laid out on the pitch England’s Red Roses scoring their first try of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup and starting to celebrate, as viewed from the crowd in the stands. In the foreground, a spectator raises his arms in celebration
August 23, 2025 at 3:46 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Is it wrong that at the end of the England vs Sweden Euros game last night and having seen this sign, I started a group singalong of The Winner Takes it All? #Lionesses
Swedish fans, with one holding up a sign that says ‘ABBA greater than Beatles’, at the England vs Sweden Euros match
July 18, 2025 at 8:17 AM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Anyone know what Queen’s Brian May is doing inside a chimney pot?
A white chimney pot housing a plant with an abundant display of small white flowers that trail almost to the floor in a shape that resembles the hairstyle of Brian May viewed from the rear
June 10, 2025 at 2:44 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Forward planning dept: got this printed in readiness for the women’s Rugby World Cup. Scarborough’s own Zoe Aldcroft, England Red Roses captain, used to go to my rowing club when she lived here. So maybe I’ll be the Red Roses’ captain one day too
The back of a white England rugby shirt with the word ‘ALDCROFT’ and the number ‘6’ printed in black on it
June 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
What makes the British British? Things like this: random people crocheting whimsical cosies for public postboxes purely for the fun of it. It’s UK-wide. This one depicts Scarborough, where it resides – hence the castle, colourful beach huts, herring gull and Thor the sea lion. By @hookedwithholly
Close-up of a colourful crocheted cover for the top of a British red public postbox on a street. The cover depicts Scarborough, with the sea, beach, starfish, crab, sea lion, herring gull, multicoloured beach huts and castle on the clifftops all visible A red British public postbox at the side of the pavement, next to the road, with a colourful crocheted cover placed over its top, like a cosy. The cover depicts Scarborough, with the sea, beach, starfish, crab, sea lion, herring gull, multicoloured beach huts and castle on the clifftops all visible
June 1, 2025 at 10:28 AM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
There’s gig racing in Whitby each evening until Thurs, conditions permitting. Spectators welcome; free to watch. Did my first ever race last night (see vid; we’re yellow) and finished second behind a strong WFARC crew. Fab atmos with Whitby’s Friendship and Fishermans clubs and mine, Scarborough
May 27, 2025 at 1:21 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Back-of-the-net kinda day has left me giddy like a teenager. Chatting with a Euro-winning Lioness over breakfast, watching my team win 5:2 and a selfie with football royalty Viv Miedema. And this was sweet, from the club to supporters, featuring each season ticket holder’s name. (Can you spot mine?)
Manchester City Women FC stand behind a blue banner that says THANK YOU, unfurled on the Joie Stadium pitch after the final game of the 2024/25 season. Each of the letters on the banner is made up of the names of the season ticket holders The Netherlands and WSL top scorer Viv Miedema takes a selfie with some bloke from Bluesky called Peter
May 10, 2025 at 6:48 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
How fab to see so many of Manchester City Women’s players back from injury and on the pitch – and especially to see Hempo and Greenwood in the starting line-up #wsl #manchesterderby #manchestercity
Stadium-wide shot of Manchester City and Manchester United WSL teams warming up before today’s match at Old Trafford, with Man City Women in the foreground
May 4, 2025 at 10:47 AM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
I took part in a music video today, mainly for the glamour of standing a car park at 7am with a gold dinosaur before filming on the beach. The song: Be Right Here by the fab Em Louise; out 9 May. It’s an anthem backed by men’s suicide prevention charity #AndysManClub, who do such tremendous work
A person in a gold-coloured inflatable T-Rex costume and roughly 15 other people in black tops standing in a car park, with buildings along Scarborough South Bay seafront in the background Em Louise performing on stage, holding a mic to her mouth and with her saxophone slung across her front. The image is a screen grab of the kycker.ffm.to page where you can pre-order/pre-add her track called Be Right Here
April 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Public art by Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller and Coralie Turpin unveiled at new Scarborough sea-watching station yesterday. It’s a ‘Roman’ mosaic. I really enjoyed the event and chatting to Jeremy but the benefit of seeing it today instead is that there won’t be loads of people standing on it…
Lots of people standing in small groups on a Roman-style mosaic that’s intended to look as though it is partially excavated, with the ‘visible’ sections depicting sea life and references to Scarborough’s history. The North Sea can be seen in the background A detail from the Roman-style mosaic: a corner section depicting a wind god exhaling. It may be Aeolus although he’s blowing a mostly northerly wind so could be Aquilo
April 27, 2025 at 12:40 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Saltmarsh surreality in Mundon on the Dengie peninsula. These bleached skeletal forms are 900yo (yes 900) oak trees transformed by Blackwater salt. You can google the facts but you’ll need the mesmeric The Wild Places by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social to know what it feels like to be there #trees #oak
A black and white photo of 10 dead 900-year-old oak trees, with twisted bare branches reminiscent of contorted limbs, dotted around like standing stones on flat featureless saltmarsh ground in Mundon, Essex
April 16, 2025 at 7:32 AM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
This was my Sunday morning: with Scarborough Amateur Rowing Club mates, coastal sculling with a top coach. Tempted? Membership is £10 a month. All abilities and backgrounds welcome. We row most days (gigs/sculls), weather permitting. Details: Facebook or ask me. #boatrace

Pic by Dave Raine
Two people on a calm sea in a coastal sculling boat, with Scarborough lighthouse and harbour behind them, all silhouetted by the morning sun, which shines above a scanty layer of white clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky. It’s a boat-to-boat photo and the blade of the photographer’s boat is visible in the very foreground
April 13, 2025 at 12:05 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Besides, gold would clash so horribly with the swimming medals I’ve received in the past couple of weeks
Two silver-coloured swimming medals on a wooden table
April 10, 2025 at 11:07 AM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
And yes, I’ve got the T-shirt. Good luck to Lucy and all our Lionesses tonight!
Me sitting at a table with a bottle of 0.0% beer in hand and wearing a Lucy Bronze England T-shirt
April 4, 2025 at 6:43 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
First evening session of the season with the gigs. After a long, dark winter of circuit training and ergs (indoor rowing machines) three nights a week every week, this made me feel how I imagine a bud of cherry blossom feels when it first opens its petals in Japan.

(Photo by SARC member Heidi)
Four rowers and a cox in a gig on the sea as the sun starts to drop behind the silhouetted buildings of Scarborough seafront in the background, with a yellow and black oar blade of a second gig in the foreground, from where the photo is taken
March 31, 2025 at 7:52 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Manchester today. Breakfast at Boxx2Boxx, Shelly and Jill Scott’s fab café. (Both so friendly and generous with their time.) Lunch – ie chips – at the Etihad before the match. Ah… the match. “Never mind,” said the person next to me at full-time. “We’ll just have to knock them out of Europe instead…”
In a gently elevated view of a football pitch seen from directly behind the goal, 19 of the 22 players are in frame as Manchester City Women FC attack the Chelsea goal, with the ball inside the penalty area, at the Etihad Stadium at today’s WSL match
March 23, 2025 at 8:32 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Break out the gig! Beautiful day to give one of my rowing club’s wooden gigs its first outing of the year. Plus a bonus seal sighting during my turn in it. We didn’t get worryingly wet in the showers. And the northerly wind was so breathy I barely needed my thermals. So like I said, beautiful day
A seascape, with a picture-wide slither of dark cliffs bisecting an overcast sky of grey and white clouds, and a sunlit silver and grey calm sea on which sit a dozen or so herring gulls in a line and a silhouetted rowing boat in the mid-distance
March 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
I’ve been in Derby today, singing to some of my favourite role models.

🎶 Number 21, scoring goals for fun, best centre forward in the land 🎶

For balance, I’ll sing to some other remarkable role models who were also there once they swap their Chelsea shirts for England ones in a couple of weeks.
Inside Pride Park stadium, a sea of blue Manchester City flags are propped up on empty seats, waiting for fans to arrive. In the background are arcing rows of empty seats and, above the flags, a large video screen Manchester City Women FC’s number 21 Bunny Shaw (centre frame) kicks the ball during pre-match warm-up with her team-mates, on the pitch with some of the goal in the frame, before the women’s FA League Cup final
March 15, 2025 at 6:08 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
After these photos were taken today, we had to keep an eye on a rolling swell but we managed to make it stop… by putting our boats back in the boathouse. The sea turned glassily smooth almost as soon as we’d done that, preserving a long-running rowing club tradition.

(Photos by top coach Dave)
A close-up silhouette of two people rowing in a scull on a sea that stretches unbroken to the horizon and glints with sun-shot diamonds A seascape with the last remnants of early morning mist clinging to cliffs situated on and near the horizon, with the stern of a scull rowing boat in the foreground, another scull in silhouette in the mid-distance and the sun directly ahead in an almost cloudless sky
March 9, 2025 at 5:44 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Breakfast seldom tastes as good as after an early Sunday morning row on the wibbly-wobbly sea. And seldom as insufficient in its quantity.

(Photo by ace coach Dave, Scarborough Amateur Rowing Club. Yes, that’s me on the left)
Two people rowing in a coastal sculling boat on a calm sea, partially shadowed by the backlighting of a strong, early morning sun, with a hint of mist behind and a sky with occasional long, skinny clouds
March 2, 2025 at 10:36 AM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Jonathan Livingston, I presume
A herring gull sitting on a railing post and looking quizzically directly at the camera, in front of an elevated view of a harbour, beach and sea, and an early evening sky
January 17, 2025 at 5:40 PM
peterpoffles.bsky.social
Still feels like Christmas on the beach
A mince pie and copper mug on the sand of a deserted beach, with a low-tide sea, a cliff promontory and blue sky dappled with white clouds all in the background
January 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM