Volume 3, Issue 5

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End of an Era

Costas Theodorou our hard-working beloved Mukhtar after nineteen years sterling work for the village retires in December and we all wish him a happy contented retirement with his wife and family. He will be succeeded by one of the following, bank manager Mimis Neocleous and farmers Neoclis Socratous, Timothis Michael and Doros Panayiotou. The election for this position will take place on Sunday 16th December and we understand that only those with Cypriot citizenship can vote. On the same day the Village Committee of six will be elected and there are eleven nominations.

Over the period 2nd to 4th November we celebrated 100 years of St. George’s Church starting with a parade on the Friday by the police band and marching soldiers in full gear watched by Minister Koshis, Bishop of Kitium and Bishop of Kykkos, together with District Officers, Members of Parliament and Presidents and Committee members of surrounding villages. Part of the bones of St. George were brought from Kykkos Monastery and paraded through the village and displayed in the Church. There was also a display of photographs showing the history of the Church, dancing at the Youth Club and many stalls situated in the Church grounds selling their wares. After the celebrations a splendid meal was produced for over two hundred people at Lemonokipos Tavern. On the 27th October many from the village were invited by the Co-operative Bank on a coach trip to Paphos, described interestingly inside, by Marion and Derek Jordan, sadly only four ex-patriots were spotted. We have a contribution from another resident this month, John Cochrane, an enlightening article on “Concorde”. Also we have a new series called “Peck’s Boy”, further articles by Alison South and Jane Langford, plus our usual Roger “Quiz” and “Village at Work” and a Questionnaire, which please answer and return to me the Editor, David Bryant at “Med Breeze”, 63 Grigori Afxentiou Street or put in the boxes provided at the Co-operative Bank, Agricultural Shop or the Supermarket. Depending on your replies a decision will be made as to whether we continue this newsletter. Those not replying will be taken as a “NO”.

Costas Theodorou came to the “throne” in 1982, born in December 1922, at the age of sixty this must have been a wonderful appointment for somebody nearing retirement age. He had come from a large family of eleven brothers and four sisters.

On the 25th July 1948 he married his delightful wife, Kika and as well as playing in goal for the local football team, which he still supports with great enthusiasm, he managed to find time producing three sons and two daughters. He opened his coffee shop in 1960 and also started a bus service to Larnaca in 1970, no wonder he sat at the front of the coach on the village outing to Paphos last month !! He has seen many changes during his nineteen years as Senior Citizen for his beloved village. At the beginning there was no football or youth club, nursery and the cemetery had not been extended. The population was about 300 compared with the current 1000 including ex-pats, of which there were none except possibly Lord Coleridge and Roger Wilde. At that time there were very few asphalted roads or mains water supplies to the fields, nor a proper road along the sea front. We now have two main roads to the sea, mains water from Kalavasos, reclamation of land with each plot having access and water and named roads and numbered houses. There is paving in many areas, building zones extended and including properties encouraging tourism.

There is a separate area putting all farms together away from the residential area, a new administration office, two village parks, a magnificent football stadium and a village postman. The village bank was situated in Chris’s shop in the centre of the village and in 1988 moved across the road and now is in the new complex with the agricultural store and supermarket. Yes, much has changed most for the better.

On 27th October began, what we hope will be a successful season for Maroni Football Club at the magnificent stadium in the village. Why not come and enjoy ninety minutes of fun in the fresh air, the next two fixtures are away Dec 2 Ayios Theodoros and home Dec 8 Kalavasos.

Results have been away Oct 27 Anafotia WON 2-1, home Nov 3 Tersephanou LOST 1-0 (an unbiased spectator considered we were playing against the referee as well!!), away Nov 10 Pirga DREW 1-1, away Nov 18 Psevdas WON 2-0, home Nov 24 Kalo Chorio LOST 5-0 !

In these days of hurry-hurry-hurry-what a delight to find a haven of peace, where no one will feel rushed. In fact no one should be in a rush because our hosts, Pauline and Achilleas are so laid back, that a simple Sunday lunch becomes a time warp of forgotten delights. Where customers are treated as friends and have time to chat and reminisce.

Now add to this, a menu which is wide ranging in taste but not confusing in length - old favourites with a dash of originality. On my table of four, the choices ranged from Jamaican Cocktail with more than a dash of Rum, White Fish Pate and Kofta Meat Balls for starters. Via a very hot Vindaloo Curry and large oven cooked Pork Chops, all served with a good selection and plentiful supply of vegetables. Finally came the difficult choice of home cooked sweets from a Roulade of Kiwi Fruit, so light it almost floated from the plate, to a very tart Plum Pie. With back-ground music from the 30/40/50’s, traditional Cypriot hospitality, blended with good Yorkshire sense, becomes an experience to talk about. Take my advice and try to make a reservation for this once a week event. Epicurian Yours, Pecks Boy.

1) --Four different numbers add up to 72. These numbers may be obtained by using one number, X, in the following sums.

What is X and what are the missing numbers ?

2)-- Rearrange the following letters to make just one word:- UTSOODWRENJ.

Answer to poser in the July issue Nobody seems to know the answer, guesses we have received are bull, goat or unicorn.

It is now over fifteen months since the last commercial flight by the British Airways Concorde fleet following the accident at Gonesse near Paris on July 25 2000, ultimately leading to the grounding of both Air France and BA Concordes by the civil aviation authorities in both countries. My wife and I flew Concorde to New York on the day after the fatal crash, returning on August 9 which was almost the last Concorde flight by BA before the grounding. Air France did not operate Concorde again after the fatal accident on July 25. Has its absence from the transatlantic Blue Riband routes been missed ? The answer is most certainly an affirmative on the British side, both by the business passengers and by the airlines who have carried out a complicated and costly series of modifications, mainly to the fuel tanks, but also to the landing gear, hydraulic systems and the tyres.

Concorde is immensely popular with the business world, and showbiz personalities, as well as the rich and famous, or those who just fancy the experience of flight beyond the speed of a rifle bullet. It is also the great earner for BA, who make more money from the Concorde fleet than any other, as well as the kudos of having a supersonic transport as its flagship. November 7 saw Air France restart its New York service, followed by two flights by BA, one to take Tony Blair to Washington, and the other, taking a full passenger load to New York. The British Airways Concorde crews are desperate to get back into the air - Air France perhaps a little less so, in view of the tragic events last year. Neither airline can afford to be squeamish about the aeroplane - it just makes too much money for them to delay the return to service a minute longer than necessary.

Despite the cramped nature of the fight deck, it presents a totally integrated three-crew operation, with all three working hard to keep up with the twenty-mile per minute cruise speed. The handling qualities resemble more the single-seat fighter than the conventional civil airliner, and it is loved by all who have experienced flying it - the difference is somewhat similar to that between driving the village bus, and a Formula 1 racing car. There is no sensation of speed at Mach two ( twice the speed of sound), but the curvature of the Earth is clearly discernible at the cruise altitudes between fifty and sixty thousand feet, well above the Atlantic weather patterns. The outer skin of the plane reaches temperatures of up to 127 degrees Celsius, during cruise, due to the friction of the air over the aluminium skin, but inside it remains cool and comfortable, and the flight deck quieter than most other civil aircraft. For the passenger, the simple elegance of the cabin furnishings, the gourmet food, and the immaculate cabin service distinguishes it from the subsonic fleets. The transatlantic flight is compressed into three and a half hours, or less, and everyone feels much less fatigued than after a subsonic crossing.

Why was Concorde grounded in the first place? It is almost unheard of for a fatal accident on one aircraft to result in the entire fleet being removed from service. There is a strong body of opinion, shared by both myself and my ex-boss, the late Brian Trubshaw, that the grounding of the British Airways Concordes was precipitate and unnecessary, in the light of the full circumstances of the Charles de Gaulle crash. It smacked of a knee-jerk response by the British CAA to pressure from the French , who were, at the time, both traumatised and diplomatically embarrassed by the first loss of a Concorde with attendant heavy loss of life. All attention was focused on the tyre casting its tread upwards and forwards into the fuel tank under-surface, and the fire which then resulted from the spilled fuel igniting as it reached the engine exhaust area with afterburners in use. Insufficient consideration was given to other, very significant factors which combined to turn a survivable incident into a catastrophic accident.

The Air France Concorde, Flight 4590 departed overweight, with the centre of gravity outside the rear limits, and a component missing from the very landing gear that sustained damage during the take-off from a lump of Continental Airlines aeroplane left lying on the active runway. The fact that Air France used re-tread tyres, and the front right tyre on the left main gear which impacted the piece of titanium metal on the runway surface had made forty-two landings, whereas BA policy is to scrap tyres at twenty-five landings, was also a contributing factor and was indicative of the difference between the two airlines policy and operations.

Immediately after the tyre burst, Captain Marty was unable to prevent the Concorde from drifting off the left side of the runway due to the asymmetry caused by the deflated tyre, the loss of thrust from the engine nearest to the fuel leak, and the skewing effect caused by a missing distance-piece on the left main gear, which had undergone overhaul shortly before the date of the accident. The aircraft speed was above V1, the maximum at which an aborted take off could be made, and in order to avoid the left hand wheels going onto the grass, he lifted the Concorde into the air about eleven knots before the calculated unstick speed, collecting a runway light in the process.

Despite the fact that Captain Marty was airborne well below the calculated safety speed (V2), it was still possible to climb and accelerate the Concorde towards a safe height of about one thousand feet with an emergency landing at Le Bourget in mind, until, for reasons unknown, and in contrary to all training in emergency drills, the Flight Engineer shut down the other engine on the left side, which was, at that time, developing full power. This action alone sealed the fate of all on board, and Captain Marty had no chance whatever of saving his crew and passengers. The Concorde was firmly ‘on the back of the drag curve’, meaning that it had insufficient power left to accelerate to a safe speed, and that every knot of airspeed lost increased the aerodynamic drag, bringing the aircraft slower and lower with every second, leading to the inevitable crash on the hotel at Gonesse. You may find the technical explanation a bit tedious, but it is vital that the full circumstances of the Air France tragedy are understood if one is to see a continued future for the world’s only supersonic transport. The accident at Charles de Gaulle airport on 25 July last year was a freak of the cruellest kind, in which all sorts of (relatively) minor faults and factors combined in a ninety second chain of events which brought Air France Concorde Flight 4590 to disaster. This is scant comfort to those passengers, crew, and bystanders who perished, but it should be viewed in the proper light of the immense care and effort that has produced Concorde and seen it through twenty five years of (hitherto) unblemished service with Air France and British Airways. Long may it continue to thrill everyone who flies in it, and whomsoever watches it depart or arrive on its daily flights across the Atlantic - It is , and will remain for the foreseeable future, the greatest aircraft ever built.

We met Makis a few days after the high winds had hit Maroni, which is a major problem with local farmers. In two hours his green beans had been destroyed at a loss of approximately £4000, with no government grant or insurance to cover this devastation.

From his demeanour, it was obvious it would take considerably more suffering before this hard working farmer would give in to the elements. Another problem all farmers have is the competition from “amateurs” and he feels that farmers should be registered, only about twelve per cent being authentic, and the markets should only accept produce from those registered. Not enough produce is exported and when the prices are high there is competition with imported goods. Makis was born in Maroni and his parents and one of his brothers still live in the village.

His father, now 82, still works and like his father before him was also a farmer. Makis has one other brother, who lives in England and two sisters, one of whom helps him on the fields, live in Larnaca. He went to the local Elementary school and the American Academy until 1977, when he went into the army. After that he was an accountant at the Vassiliko Cement works for three years and in 1982 married his wife, Andria. It was at this time he commenced farming full-time, although as a youngster he had helped his father. They have two children, a daughter, Rebecca aged eighteen and a son, Demetris aged fifteen. He grows all kinds of vegetables on a number of plots of land around the village and has greenhouses near the “old wreck” along the Zygi sea front. At the present time he is picking olives to sell the oil wholesale and his vegetables he sells to the local Maroni Farming Co-operative along the old Limassol-Nicosia road near the Tochni turning. He realises there is a problem with disposing of the plastic sheeting used for the green houses and thinks it a good idea for the Government to supply re-cycling bins for this sheeting. More than thirty per cent of farmers have to have second jobs to support their families and in Makis’s case he buys and sells land.

If anybody is interested in land transactions then please call him on 24-332170 or 99-403780.

Among the more unusual finds from the British Museum’s excavations of Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 B.C.) tombs at Maroni-Tsaroukas (see Maroni News Vol..1 No. 6) are two ceramic models of ships. These are important examples of a very rare type of object; indeed, only one other definitely Late Bronze Age ship model from Cyprus is known, a quite similar ship from a tomb at Kazaphani near the north coast. However, their presence at Maroni is not surprising, considering the location of the site right on the coast, the recent discovery of ancient stone anchors and Bronze Age pottery underwater (see Maroni News Vol. 3 no. 3), and the international connections demonstrated by many of the finds. Perhaps sailors who had voyaged around the East Mediterranean were buried in the two tombs where these models were found.

The larger of the two Maroni ship models is 58.7cm long, 21.5cm wide and 14cm high amidships, made of fired clay with traces of white paint on the surface. It is canoe-shaped, rising towards the stems, with 18 small holes, presumably for oars, on each side below the gunwales. One stem ends in a fork-like shape, probably to hold the steering oar. Inside the hull near the stem, there is a transverse beam or thwart. Amidships on each side is a projection with a hole in the middle, possibly indicating a support for the mast thwart. The other model is slightly smaller (32cm long, 15cm wide, 10cm high) and similar to the first, also having 18 holes on each side, and a mast socket in the centre; both stems are broken. This one also has two larger holes, one on each side, which may have been used to hang the model for display or as an offering in a shrine, a prayer for a safe voyage. When found, it was full of knucklebones (probably of sheep or goat, although this was not recorded); knucklebones were used for throwing as a game, and have sometimes been found in ancient tombs (for example, we found many in a Late Bronze Age child’s tomb at Kalavasos). The Maroni ship models may not look terribly exciting (though they may originally have had oars, masts, sails etc. added in perishable materials), but their bulgy shape, mast sockets, and provision for numerous oars and a steering oar, show that they were probably intended to represent sizeable cargo ships, propelled by both sail and oars, and well capable of international voyages.

Considerable evidence survives about the construction of such ancient ships. Actual ships, as well as many ancient models and representations of ship-building, have been found in Egypt, and two Late Bronze Age shipwrecks, contemporary with the Maroni sites, have been excavated off the south coast of Turkey. At this time, wooden ships were built shell-first, with the frames added later after all the planks of the hull had been joined. The hull planks were not overlapping, but joined edge to edge with tenons, pegs and mortises. Stone anchors, often rectangular or trapezoidal in shape with one or more holes, were used, and many of these have been found offshore at the Tsaroukas site at Maroni. One of the ships excavated at Uluburun off the south coast of Turkey in the 1980s is a superb example of the kind of vessel which may have called at Maroni to pick up Cypriot produce. Complete excavation of the remains, at a depth of 40-60 metres, required 22,413 dives (6,613 hours of bottom time). Large parts of the hull survived (estimated at 16-15m long), built of edge-joined cedar planks with oak tenons and pegs; no evidence for frames was found. By far the most spectacular part of the cargo was about 10 tons of Cypriot copper, in the form of 354 ox-hide shaped ingots, stacked in the hold in rows. Other commodities included tin, glass, gold and silver jewellery, ivory, ebony, cedar, ostrich eggs, and terebinth resin. At least 135 Cypriot pots were on board, many packed inside huge storage jars, also Cypriot. The ship and its crew may well have been Cypriot, and certainly much of the cargo was from Cyprus. The enormous quantity of copper - an appalling loss for its owners when the ship sank while sailing west about 1316 B.C. - suggests that this was a very special shipment, perhaps even a royal mission, similar to those mentioned on 14th century B.C. clay tablets found in Egypt with correspondence between the king of Alashia (probably Cyprus) and the Pharaoh of Egypt. Unfortunately, no shipwrecks of such an early period have yet been discovered around the coasts of Cyprus. An important 12th century B.C. shipwreck, with much Cypriot pottery, was excavated in the 1990s off Cape Iria in southern Greece. Note that the famous Kyrenia ancient ship, excavated underwater off the north coast of Cyprus in the 1960s, dates to the much more recent Hellenistic period; it was built about 398 B.C. and sank a little before 300 B.C. It was also built shell-first, of Aleppo pine, with edge-joined planks, and was 14m long. About 75% of the original hull was recovered, preserved and reconstructed in Kyrenia castle, where sadly most of us cannot go to see it.

As we walked down to where we were going to pick up the coach, the road in the middle of the village was filled with excited, chattering people. “Kalimera” ! we said, “Paphos” ?. “Yes”, was the reply. There were 4 coaches waiting, with Mimis and his staff organising us all. At last we were all boarded and ready to move off, but not before we were given a drink and a snack. Our coach had several prominent village residents aboard, many whom we knew well, amongst them were Mimis’s mother and father, Michael from the Coffee Shop, Maria from the Bank and her colleague, Kika, Andreas from the Agricultural Store and when the jump seat on the coach was occupied by Costa, our Mukhtar, we knew we were in good hands.

We were all in good voice to accompany the radio as we journeyed to our first stop, a restaurant in Pissouri. Here we had a coffee stop, the plan had been for us all to go to Petra tou Romiou, but because we were so many, about 180, we split here into two groups. Joining together again, we made our way to the south eastern side of Paphos to visit a most impressive monastery above Paphos called Agios Neofitos. Here we saw some 12th century frescoes and icons. Following this visit, we then made our way back down to the coast road and then turned west following the coast road until we reached Peyia and the restaurant chosen for lunch. As there were so many of us, we wondered how the staff would be able to cope, but they were ready for us and an excellent Fish Mezze was served with lots of hilarity heard amongst our party. After lunch it was off again, this time to Paphos Harbour for a convenient stop and an ice-cream and a brisk stroll along the sea front. Before we got to the harbour, we stopped at a Go-Cart Park for the younger members of our party to have fun, by the look of the speed some of them were driving, I’m sure that they did.

As we left Paphos the rain started, but it did not affect the mood of our fellow passengers as the singing continued all the way back to Maroni. We thank Mimis, his staff and the Committee of the Co-operative Bank for the hard work that they put in to make it such an enjoyable day and to the people of Maroni village for making us so welcome.

Just a line to say I’m living that I’m not among the dead, though I’m getting more forgetful and mixed up in the head.

I got used to my arthritis, to my dentures I’m resigned ; I can manage my bifocals but God I miss my mind.

For sometimes I can’t remember when I stand at the foot of the stairs, if I must go up for something or have I just come down from there ?

And before the fridge so often my mind is filled with doubt, have I just put food away, or have I come to take some out ?

And there are times when it is dark with my night-cap on my head, I don’t know if I’m retiring, or just getting out of bed.

So, if it’s my turn to write to you there’s no need for getting sore, I may think I have written and don’t want to be a bore.

So, remember that I love you and wish that you were near, but now it’s nearly mail time, so must say goodbye, my dear.

There I stand beside the post-box with face so very red, instead of posting you my letter I had opened it instead.

As soon as the green of the landscape begins to fade, “IT” begins its insidious invasion and will stay with us all for about six months. “IT” will steal through your insect meshes without a murmur and gently settle on the curtains giving an unwanted yellow hue.

Your furniture, books, C.D.’s and tapes will be coated and no matter how hard you try to clear it, “IT” will be back again tomorrow or maybe in a few hours or seconds depending on the wind. Your spotlessly clean car will look like an old banger within minutes sporting a yellow windscreen helped, of course, by the morning dew, so that when you put on the wipers, you are left with a delightful sludge at either side. You sneeze, you cough and your hair needs washing twice a day. Your shoes are full of “IT” and your feet are permanently gritty. You pat your animals and clouds of “IT” erupt like Talcum Powder from their fur. Trees and plants develop a really sad air as they become more and more covered. Pick a lemon for your G. and T. in September and you end up with a grey face and filthy hands. And then comes the rain - 24th October this year and gradually the menace disappears and we can all breathe freely again.