92 Clubs By Public Transport Alphabetically in a Calendar Month – Day 3
This could be one of those days, where I visit four clubs; Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool and Bolton. It could just be five if all things go well and I can finish off at Bournemouth.
However after checking the train times. it would appear that to get to Bournemouth is impossible, so it’ll be a return to London and my bed.
I think, I’ll have to assume I’m starting from Barnsley or Birmingham city centre, as it doesn’t look like that on Day 2, I can get home easily.
92 Clubs By Public Transport Alphabetically in a Calendar Month – Day 2
This is not an easy day, as Aston Villa, Barnet and Barnsley are all within easy walks of train stations, but I do have to go up to Aston Villa and then up to Barnsley, with a short detour from Euston to High Barnet in between.
I should be back from Aston Villa before 15:00 and so should be ready to leave St. Pancras by 16:00.
I think I’ll have to go to Birmingham to start Day 3.
Proposed Schedule
London Witton
08:50/11:26 09:50/12:26
Witton London
12:17/14:17 13:17/15:17
Euston High Barnet St. Pancras
60 mins
London Barnsley
16:25/19:37
Barnsley Birmingham
20:12/22:08
Is It Time To Get Even? – 92 Clubs By Public Transport Alphabetically in a Calendar Month
There’s an old saying about not getting mad, but getting even.
I’ve had a basketful of bad luck over the last few years, what with losing my wife of forty years and son to cancer and then suffering a couple of strokes. So perhaps now is the time to do something to wipe the slate clean and see if I can buy off the Devil who is bugging me. I had thought about perhaps doing something like riding my bicycle to Moscow, like Carol Thatcher did, but she is a lot braver and fitter than I am.
I’d much prefer to do something to raise money that for most of the time had me sitting in a comfortable chair and that at night allowed me to sleep most nights in my own bed.
The task, if I will accept it, is to visit all the 92 Premier and Football League grounds in alphabetical order in one calendar month, using only trains, trams, buses and Shanks’s pony. I thought about adding allowing bicycles and hitch-hiking, but I’m probably not up to the former yet and nobody ever does the second these days. Taxis are definitely out, except in an emergency.
I have created a spreadsheet of all the teams and it looks like it will be possible to do it in a 31-day month.
October, this year would be a good choice as on the 1st, Aldershot, who are second alphabetically, play Accrington Stanley who are first. So hopefully, I could visit the match and then get a lift back to Aldershot on a supporters coach, just in time to get a train back to London and do Arsenal on the way home.
On the other hand there are some interesting days, where several clubs are close to each other both in alphabetic order and geographically or easier to get between. There are.
- 3rd – Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool and Bolton
- 15th – Liverpool, Macclesfield, Manchester City, Manchester United and then on to Middlesbrough
- 17th – Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Notts County, Nottingham Forest and then on to Oldham
- 21st – Rotherham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday and then on to Shrewbury
- 23rd – Swansea, Swindon, Torquay and then back to Tottenham.
Other than the Accrington-Aldershot match, there would appear to be games on the 15th at Macclesfield, the 22nd at Stevenage and perhaps it will all end on the 29th at Yeovil.
Obviously any money I raise will go to Liverpool University to help with research into pancreatic cancer. I will be setting up a page on Just Giving soon. Hopefully there are people who might like to sponsor the odd day.
At a first glance there are a few difficult teams.
- Bournemouth
- Bradford
- Colchester
- Coventry
- Crawley Town
- Doncaster
- Oxford United
- Plymouth
- Port Vale
- Shrewsbury
- Stoke
- Swindon
- Torquay
- Yeovil
Any help on buses or walking routes for these would be appreciated. Lifts, although I’m grateful for the thought, are not allowed.
The irony is that I don’t think this would have been possible for me, until this year, as now Marks and Spencer’s now have stagetically placed pit-stops in many stations, where I can get wholesome gluten-free sandwiches to speed me on my way.
Here is a provisional schedule.
- 1st – Accrington, Aldershot and Arsenal
- 2nd – Aston Villa, Barnet and Barnsley
- 3rd – Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool and Bolton
- 4th – Bournemouth and Bradford
- 5th – Brentford, Brighton, Bristol City and Bristol Rovers
- 6th – Burnley, Burton Albion and Bury
- 7th – Cardiff and Carlisle
- 8th – Charlton, Chelsea, Cheltenham and Chesterfield
- 9th – Colchester, Coventry and Crawley Town
- 10th – Crewe, Crystal Palace and Dagenham and Redbridge
- 11th – Derby, Doncaster, Everton and Exeter
- 12th – Fulham, Gillingham, and Hartlepool
- 13th – Hereford, Huddersfield and Hull
- 14th – Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester and Leyton Orient
- 15th – Liverpool, Macclesfield, Manchester City, Manchester United
- 16th – Middlesbrough, Millwall and Milton Keynes
- 17th – Morecambe and Newcastle
- 18th – Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham Forest and Notts County
- 19th – Oldham, Oxford United and Peterborough
- 20th – Plymouth and Port Vale
- 21st – Portsmouth and Preston
- 22nd – QPR, Reading, Rochdale and Rotherham
- 23rd – Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday and Shrewsbury
- 24th – Southampton, Southend, Stevenage and Stoke
- 25th – Sunderland and Swansea
- 26th – Swindon, Torquay and Tottenham
- 27th – Tranmere, Walsall, Watford, West Brom and West Ham
- 28th – Wigan, AFC Wimbledon, Wolverhampton and Wycombe
- 29th – Yeovil
Two Pieces from the Zopa Newsletter
The monthly Zopa newsletter is always worth a read. There are some older ones here.
Two pieces from the current August one, I received yesterday are worthy of note.
This is the first.
And fresh off the press today, there is an interesting column in today’s Evening Standard, which states that (and we quote) “maybe a banker-free future will be with us sooner than we think”
I’ve been saying that about banks for a long time. Alternative methods will keep cropping up for their key services. On Tuesday, I went into Nationwide at Islington to use their cash machine and comfy chairs and the place had all the excitement of a morgue.
The second piece is about the people who work for Zopa.
Last but not least, we are very excited in the office as we launch NEED:LESS, our new fundraiser, and we’d love you to join us on our mission! Starting on Friday, 9th September, the Zopa team will be living on just £5 a day, for a week. This will have to cover all food, fun and extras, while the remaining amount that we would normally spend will be donated to DEC in support of the East Africa crisis.
How many of the fat cat bankers would know how to live on five pounds a day? Five pounds a minute perhaps!
How About An Electronic Message Badge?
There are certain things that really annoy me as I walk around London and other places. I usually just want to get about my business in the quickest way possible.
- Perhaps the biggest annoyance, especially at the Angel is chuggers or charity muggers. I support various charities, but I won’t support one that uses chuggers. Many incidentally are ones, that C or myself have supported in the past. I don’t support them now! I can’t be the only person who feels this way and I do wonder whether using chuggers has proved unprofitable for some charities.
- And then there are shops, like W H Smith,that constantly offer me offers I don’t want. Most seem to be for chocolate based snacks or fast food, that I can’t eat as I’m a coeliac. Some assistants are so persistent, I only seem to be able to shut them up by being rude.
- The real annoyance are obese smokers, who block the pavement with their vile habit, thus forcing me into the road.
It strikes me that I coud have an electronic display on my shoulder perhaps controlled by a simple device in my pocket. It would display an appropriate message. For the three examples I have given, the message might be.
- I never give any money to anybody who approaches me on the street.
- I am a coeliac. Please don’t offer me foods that will make me ill.
- My son died of a smoking related cancer. Your behaviour disgusts me.
Obviously, you would make sure that the messages were not offensive or preached violence.
But it could be also be used for advertising or information such as.
- I am an electrician with good references. Contact me on 07xx-xxxxxx.
- Next week is Victoria Park Carnival. A free day for all the family.
- I’m getting off this train at Scunthorpe. I must be mad.
- We are sorry your train was delayed. There was a suicide at Finsbury Park.
The last comment illustrates how the display could be used in crowds to impart information and give answers. I was at Portman Road to see Ipswich Town today, and I feel information badges would be of use in crowd control. Today for instance, there were a lot of messages over the PA, asking supporters in some blocks of the stadium to take a different route out after the match. Stewards badges could have displayed the message.
Obviously as the messages would be under control of the wearer or their employer, either through wi-fi, Bluetooth, SMS or directly, appropriate messages could be displayed quickly as required.
Save The Children and NSPCC Strike Themselves Off My Charity List
Last week Save the Children were chugging at the Angel.
Today it was the NSPCC.
Both charities are too arrogant to have an e-mail address on their web site, to where I can voice my disgust at their behaviour.
I’m Going Off The Angel
I don’t know why it is, but it seems to be getting impossible to go past the Angel these days without getting accosted by a chugger.
One day last week, it was a group wanting me to save the tiger. Of course, I want to save the tiger, but the way to do this is to put pressure on various countries that use tiger parts in quack medicine. So where are the protests in places like Beijing and Hong Kong? Annoying me, doesn’t help this at all.
Today it was more chuggers and a protest about saving the NHS. I was accosted by an obese man smoking a cigarette. When I said I don’t support protestors who smoke, I giot a mouthful of abuse. So I just walked on. The protest was also using the only dry place in the rain as a shelter, so we had to get very wet to get past. So not intent of just breathing smoke on us, they were trying to give us pneumonia.
The trouble is that to get across the road from the station to Waitrose, M & S, Chapel Market, the other main shops and the cinema, is that there is only one crossing, so you have to run the gauntlet of chuggers and protestors every time you do it.
How To Dispose of a Silly Hat
Princess Beatrice was criticised for her hat at the Royal Wedding.
Now according to reports, she has put it on eBay, with the proceeds going to charity.
Good for her! Let’s hope it raises as much money as Myleene Klass’ bikini did!
Bad News for Chuggers
The Sunday Times is also carrying a story that Just Giving has developed a system with Vodafone to collect donations by SMS text message. A hundred percent of the charge will go to the charity.
They predict it will cut down the number of chuggers on our streets.
Amnesty International Strikes Itself Off My Charity List!
You can;t walk down Upper Street in Islington, without getting accosted by one of the numerous Big Issue salesmen or chuggers.
Today, I got stopped by someone trying to sell me Amnesty International.
These charities would be better off publicising their donate by SMS message numbers.
It is a charity that I follow and have donated to in the past.
But I won’t be supporting them in the future, as I don’t support charities who chug.
I should say that another charity that approached me in the traditional way with a bucket held my a lady earlier, got my loose change. As I always do though, I refused the sticker.
The Anonymous Widower 