Cheesebob population explosion!

[Mickey]

Hi All,

Is anyone else experiencing a serious influx of woodlice (just in case you don't call them Cheesebobs)? I am sure it wasn't this bad in previous years, of course I don't harm them and actually think they are fascinating little creatures much as I did when I was a child, the spiders are having a field day mind you and there are dead bodies everywhere. It also worries me that things are damp when I thought things were drying out, I associate them with damp but maybe this is wrong? Maybe it's just one of those things and some years there are just more of them?

Mickey

 

[noj]

Not come across that name - either woodpigs or baby armadillos for me...

But found this:
http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/09/many-names-brits-woodlice/

Think positively: they're visible now because their previous lairs are drying to the extent that they're being driven out in search of soggier pastures new...

 

[Carol]

Where do you come from Mickey? Wood lice were always cheesy bobs to me in my Surrey childhood but when I began a teaching career in the West Country, children thought I was bonkers when I called them that! And yes, there do seem to be more this year.

Did you play stool ball? (Surrey and Sussex only I think!)

 

[Mickey]

Hi Carol,

Yes indeed West Sussex born and bred and I played stoolball of course, both on the village green and at school. People have also looked at me as if I am slightly bonkers when I try to explain stoolball! Now living in Cornwall but parents are still in beautiful West Sussex, I do miss it although of course Cornwall is amazing....when it's not raining sideways and overrun with cheesebobs

Where abouts did you grow up?

Cheers
Mickey

 

[Carol]

Am a Guildford girl, which I am slightly embarrassed to admit, mother still up there but could never go back! Lived in Dorset, Somerset and now Wiltshire for last thirty years.
I wonder if Surrey and Sussex children still play stool ball?

 

[Mickey]

Ah Guildford know it well, still the shopping destination of choice for my Mother and I, we've spent many hours traipsing up and down those cobbles and who could forget Cinderellas nightclub as far as I know they are still playing stool ball at my school but for definite they still pay in the summer on our village green. Do you remember the amazing Olympic swimming pool they used to have in the centre of Guildford, they pulled it down, I could never muster the courage to go off that top board!

 

[Zebra]

I wonder if Surrey and Sussex children still play stool ball?

I wonder. Is that a game for the X-Box, or do you play it on an I-Pad?

 

[Carol]

Two teams, two round bats (shaped like table tennis ones but larger), two wickets with a board at head height and rules a bit like cricket. Bowler stands in centre and bowls at each batter, runs between the boards to score! Ah, memories of primary school long summers!

Did anyone else play?

 

[Zebra]

Always hated games with balls. Couldn't resist the tempatation to run away whenever one was coming towards me. That old fight-or-flight response, I'm afraid it's flight every time with me.