A Stupid Football Supporter
Is this message for the most stupid and bone-headed football supporter, who happened to be at Leeds United on Tuesday night?
He had parked his Chevroler Spark, LT12 FNE, in the wrong place and despite umpteen public address calls to move it, he obviously ignored them, as they put this message on the big screen.
A Stupid Football Supporter
The message stayed there for quite a time, so draw your own conclusions.
The fact that Leeds United could program the screen like this, is impressive. I wouldn’t have been so polite.
An Open Letter To GreaterAnglia
As I have been travelling up and down to Ipswich from London since probably about 1963, when I used to put my bicycle in the guard’s van and have it hauled by a Britannia between my parent’s main and retirement homes, it was inevitable, that one day I’d end up in the sort of incident that I did last night.
I should say, that after the death of my wife and son to cancer, and a serious stroke, I retired to London from Newmarket, and as I’m still a season ticket holder at Portman Road, I come up for every Ipswich Town home match.
Yesterday incidentally, was the first day, when my chosen train up (down in your terminology) to Ipswich, the 13:30 from Liverpool Street hasn’t been within a minute of its scheduled arrival time of 14:43 and I missed the first few minutes of the match. Luckily, Ipswich left the excitement for later. As I’ve taken this train, perhaps fifty times in the last three years, that is probably not a bad record.
I usually go home on the 17:09, so that I can experience the comfort of First in a Mark 3 coach. Yesterday though, we were advised to take the Football Special and in common with everybody else, I ended up on Colchester station. At least the buffet was open, and I was able to get a decent cup of hot chocolate, as from my knowledge of railway electrification, I knew from the fact that all the lines for London, were blocked by fallen trees, we could be in for a long wait.
But Ipswich fans tend to be fairly stoic and resourceful, especially after the troubles of the last few years. I thought and hoped, that my mate, Ian, who lives in Kent and had also been at the match, might be in the area, and as luck would have it for me, but not I suspect for him, he was visiting his father in Colchester Hospital.
So unlike others, just after 18:30, I was sitting comfortably on my way south. Ian lives near Ebbsfleet, so he was able to drop me at the station there, to get the High Speed service to Statford, which is an Overground ride away from where I live in Hackney.
I was starting to get hungry, but as I’m a coeliac, getting food at Stratford and the nearby Eastfield shopping centre is difficult, as not even Marks and Spencer, has anything like a gluten-free sandwich and there is no restaurant that I trust to serve a meal without gluten.
So instead of getting home at about seven, I was home just before nine, which given the circumstances and probably the experiences of other passengers, wasn’t too bad.
It is interesting to compare the trip[, with one I took on Deutsche Bahn in similarly awful weather, where I was abandoned at Osnabruck on a trip from Hamburg to Amsterdam, and left to my own devices. With incidentally no offer of compensation.
Obviously, you will always have problems with trees by the line, if we continue to get this awful weather. And obviously now, unlike in the 1950s and 1960s, there are no Britannias to periodically clear the trees, by setting fire to them.
In some ways, you suffered from one of the problems of an all-electric railway, which is obviously vulnerable to an event as last night. It would of course have helped if the line from Ipswich to Cambridge had been electrified, as it would have enabled the ferrying of Ipswich passengers for London to Cambridge, for onward travel. But that infill won’t happen for some years, if it ever does.
I think that the only solution, that might help, would be if you had a couple of Class 88 engines to run direct services to Yarmouth, as their go-anywhere capability would have allowed a shuttle via Cambridge. But then the first of these is a few years away from being built.
I think, under the circumstances, you did as well as could be expected. But probably the fact, that Ipswich had won, meant most fans were in a good mood. But you can’t please everybody!
Certainly though, your performance in times of smaller troubles over the last few years, has in my experience, been a lot better than some other companies I could name.
The Elephant In The Stand
Watching the arguments about the performance of Manchester United this season, gives me a very much a sense of deja vu.
The talk is just the same as it was, when Wilf McGuinness succeeded Matt Busby, except that with social media it is in more places.
When a manager retires, who had a tremendous effect on a club, company or organisation, inevitably the one who follows suffers from the presence of his predecessor. You could argue that Tesco, post-Leahy has similarly suffered.
Moyes will probably go and Manchester United won’t do anything until Sir Alex stops being seen at the club.
Lost In Millwall
I usually like going to the New Den to see a football match, as to get from Dalston Junction station to the ground is simple and it is a stadium with good viewing.
I knew that going yesterday wasn’t going to be easy, as South Bermondsey station, which is connected to the ground by a walkway was closed due to engineering works.
So I went the way I usually go, which is to take the Overground to Canada Water station and then get one of the single-decker buses to a stop named Millwall FC.
The bus was full, but the usually-friendly Millwall supporters were not bothering me. Sometimes, I think that their reputation is worse than the reality. But I arrived at the ground, as I intended, a few minutes before kick-off.
It should be said, that London’s talking buses make it easy to find your way in strange parts of London. Other cities should follow the example.
The match was probably Ipswich’s worst display of the season, with the spark of the previous Championship encounter against QPR completely missing. The only positive thing to say, is that Millwall played well enough to stay up, so that should be another easy away game to get to, next season.
After the match, my normal route home via South Bermondsey and London Bridge stations was not on, so I decided to walk to TfL’s recommended alternative of Surrey Quays station.
I got lost, as there were no maps in this part of London. Where I live in Hackney, there are liths and maps all over the place.
So in the end I got to the station by walking in a great circle.
As I suspect the works at South Bermondsey will be going for some time, something needs to be done.
Brazil World Cup Doesn’t Seem Much Better
Under their report on Sochi and its troubles, there is an article with this heading.
World Cup protest threat as corruption bill hits £32bn
Given all of the other well reported troubles in Brazil, it does seem that watching sport on television in 2014, is going to be an interesting experience to say the least.
How To Lose Money Bank of Scotland Style
If we thought Fred the Shred and his crew of comedians were a wunch of bankers, this story from the Herald in Scotland is up there with his worst.
The Bank of Scotland loaned £11.2 million to an ex-banker to fund a new stadium for his football club; Dunfermline Athletic. Everybody then went bust leaving Lloyds Bank holding the baby with the gold-plated nappies. Here’s what the article says about the final outcome.
Despite being valued at £11.2m in 2011, the East End Park stadium was sold by administrators KPMG to a fan-led buyout team for just £700,000.
It strikes me, that there has been a bit of hanky-panky here. After all why would a club with average gates of a few thousand want a stadium that holds over eleven thousand? I wonder if Gordon Brown has any links to Dunfermline and its football club!
Tan And Ollie
The BBC commentator on the Cardiff match at Arsenal on Match of the Day last night deliberately referred to Vincent Tan and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as Tan and Ollie.
I was amused, but was the Cardiff City owner?
A Day Of Lots Of Misses And Rain
Yesterday was one of those days. I went to Portman Road to see Ipswich play Charlton.
I got there on time, but only just, as the journey to Liverpool Street was a succession of misses, buses and Underground trains. I had to skip lunch, as my usual pit-stop at Carluccio’s at Spitalfields was closed for New Year’s Day. The alternative of sandwiches from Marks and Spencer was also not on, as they were closed.
No Sandwiches
Luckily, I was able to get a couple of EatNakd bars from Boots, although after I’d bought them, I found that the Camden Food company had a bigger selection.
I was soaked, by the time I got to my seat and the rain was so bad, they’d had to move some spectators to a drier part of the stadium.
To say the match was ruined by the rain, would be an understatement. That makes it three out of the last four matches that I’ve seen, have been ruined by the weather.
To add to the misses, David McGoldrick missed a penalty, so the match was only drawn.
Coming back, I wasn’t as fast as normal to the station and as the match finished late, I missed the train and had to wait for forty minutes in the cold.
And then coming back from Liverpool Street, I decided to take the dry route to Barbican station to get a 56 bus. And as i walked to the stop, the bus I wanted roared past. So I had to take a 153 and then a 38!
It was not the best of days! It probably summed up my miserable Christmas. But speaking to others at the match, mine seemed to have just about this year’s norm. Next year, I won’t be here!
The Anonymous Widower 