Match Eleven – Nottingham Forest 2 – Ipswich 2
After Hillsborough on Tuesday, it was good to be in a much better staium in Nottingham.
As is usual at Forest, there was a good turn-out of Ipswich supporters, in a total crowd of over 24,000.
Not A Spare Seat!
It was a pity in a way that Town couldn’t hold on to their lead in a hard fought match.
But I suspect most supporters are fairly pleased we got five points out of three tricky away matches at Wigan, Wednesday and Forest.
One plus side for me was that my two First Class tickets bought day before cost me just £34.35 in total. And I got a proper InterCity 125 rather than a dreaded Class 222, with free tea and coffee both ways.
Why Is It Not Planned To Take The Nottingham Tram To Trent Bridge?
From my limited knowledge of Nottingham, I find the Nottingham tram, a bit of a conundrum, in the way it doesn’t serve the football and cricket grounds.
England has four major cities; Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle and Nottingham, that use tram or light rail to move passengers around the city. In addition, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol have heavy rail networks that do a similar job.
Most major sports ground and arenas in larger cities are located on these networks. In fact, some clubs have the tram stop or train station named to connect it to the stadium or club.
There is Arsenal, Upton Park and White Hart Lane in London, St. James in Newcastle, Hawthorns in Birmingham and Hillsborough in Sheffield.
Nottingham has three stadia in the Trent Bridge area of the city; Trent Bridge cricket ground, Forest’s City Ground and County’s Meadow Lane, but surprisingly the Nottingham tram doesn’t go or isn’t even planned to go to the area.
However this lack of connection to the City Ground, didn’t stop the tram advertising in the stadium.
I am totally surprised that Nottingham are spending all these millions on constructing a tram system, that doesn’t go near the area, where a lot of visitors to the city want to go.
Today for instance, after arriving from London, I took the tram up the hill to a restaurant I like in King Street. After my lunch, it would have been so easy to walk to the tram line and then get a tram to the ground! I’d have also probably taken a tram back to the station. So instead of probably a day ticket for £3.70, I bought just one single ticket at £2.20.
And did a lot of walking!
Ovo Signs A Breakthrough Deal
It has been announced in This is Money, that Ovo has joined with Plymouth Council, so the council can be a low energy supplier.
Ovo Energy is set to unveil a ground-breaking deal that could pave the way for local councils across the country to become energy suppliers.
A tie-up with Plymouth council will be endorsed today by Energy Secretary Ed Davey when it is announced at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Glasgow.
I think we’ll be seeing a lot of these deals, as councils get more proactive in helping hard-pressed consumers. Come to think of it, the average council, like my one of Hackney, must be quite large purchasers of energy. So they could be getting a good deal too!
Does this deal also mean that councils are thinking more intelligently about energy issues?
After all my next-door council; Islington, has built the innovative Bunhill Energy Centre to provide district heating and electricity.
So some may well be!
But are we? So many people I talk to haven’t moved away from their large energy supplier.
They’re going to change at some time, so it is best to get the pain over now, as probably like my old supplier, they’ll muck up the change.
But once you have changed, you’ll have a piece of paper with all the relevant details of your supplies and meters, so a second change will be a lot easier.
The Anonymous Widower 