Celebrity spotting - Prince William in Barum....

Prince William charts his way to the Marshals Public House

Now there's a funny thing I was in the Marshals the other evening enjoying a game of Euchre with Ian Stokey when coming back to the table after a toilet break I saw this bloke at the bar who looked like the spitting image of Prince William, our future King. I got back down to the cards but I couldn't put me mind to 'em as I find being in the presence of royalty a bit distracting.  I told the lads not to turn round too quickly but I thought that it was HRH at the bar. They thought I was mazed and was trying to get one on them trying to steal a quick peak at their hands. It wasn't long before I had to show me hand and once I was out of the game I went up to the bar cap in hand and made myself known to the young gentleman. I told him what an honor he was doing the Marshals and that how they would be pleased to put a Royal warrant up outside facing the bus stop. I also told him what a wonderful woman I thought his mother was. He told me that he often came down to these parts training with the RAF down at Chivenor and also he came down from time to time with his brother Harry for a bit of r & r with James Cracknell, that rower who's always getting pulled out of the water round Baggy. We had a right laff about that. I told Wills, as be now we was on first name terms, that old Crackers should give him plenty of practice for his future search and rescue missions.  He also told me that him and his mates wanted to get something to eat and asked me if I knew of anywhere they could get a bite at that time of night. I'm sure if the microwave in the Marshals hadn't been broken they would have heated him up the leftover soup of the day as I was at a bit of a loss as to what to suggest. Where else in Barum did they serve food fit for a king? I suggested the fish and chip shop next door as they could always bring it back in with them and eat it sitting down with a fresh pint but one of his mates wasn't up for a fish supper as they'd had one down at Squires' in Braunton the night before. I had to sum up a number of options I was going to say Zenas or Lilicos but they might have been too busy so in the end I told them they could get something fairly decent down at Claytons. The Prince seemed happy with this and included me in a round of shorts he got in before they hit the road.
I got back to the euchre game and old Stokey looked amazed at my large one. Bleddy 'ell bey he says you made of money. I told him that it was the Prince who'd been so gracious as to reward me for my in depth local culinary knowledge by getting it in for me. He wasn't having any of it as though he saw Wills leaving he thought it was one of his customers boys from West Buckland. Still he's a bleddy fool although it has to be said he knows his euchre.