After Ruining Horse Racing and Cricket Coverage, are Channel 4 Now Doing It With Athletics?
I have not watched any of Channel 4’s coverage of the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, and it seems according to this article in the Guardian, I’m not missing much, by listening on the radio.
They try too hard to make sure they get the advertisers, that they ruin the product. They did this with horseracing and now it has been dumbed down so much I don’t watch.
In the end, there is only two ways to show quality sport; either-free-to-air without advertising or by subscription. I know Sky has adverts and they can be irritating, but their presenters are generally professional. Comparing Sky coverage of the Champions League, with that of ITV, is much more than a matter of chalk and cheese.
We won’t have to worry for long though, as events like the Athletics World Championship will be available on a quality basis over the Internet in the near future for a fee. And hopefully for a fee that has two levels; one with advertising and one without.
We Thought That Ipswich Town Couldn’t Defend
After Ipswich Town’s fiascos against Southampton and Peterborough, I thought that things couldn’t get worse. Ipswich certainly improved against Leeds, but then today their defence was seriously out underperformed by both Spurs and Arsenal.
I think I’ll wear my Ipswich hat tomorrow.
Ipswich Beat Ten Man Leeds 2-1
They probably didn’t deserve it, but then Andy D’Urso did his best to make things difficult for Town until he rightly sent off Aidy White. Although, according to this report in The Telegraph, Simon Grayson, the Leeds United manager felt it harsh.
D’Urso is from Billericay in Essex, so should he officiating at a match in Suffolk?
On the other hand Leeds seem to be getting into practice to compete at the Olympics next year! In the diving!
A Plan For Tottenham Is Emerging
It would appear that Spurs are on the point of dropping their bid to take over the Olympic stadium according to the BBC.
I have looked at the plans for the new stadium and feel that the way it would be built is innovative and good project management, making the best use of all the resources.
A deal seems to be being working out with the Mayor and the Government about improving public transport in the area. As I said earlier, I believe this should be achieved by giving some or all of the Lea Valley lines to Transport for London and adding them to the Overground. The trains, track and power supplies are not the worst, but improving the stations with their dreadful access and especially the link at Hackney Downs to the North London line and to buses must be done. A point here, is that this access traps the locals in the area, whether they like football or not.
It would also help London and Tottenham Hotspur, if a large Park and Ride was built somewhere to the north of White Hart Lane station on the Cheshunt line by the M25. London and the City lacks a decent Park and Ride and parking at most stations to the north and east of London is inadequate and overpriced.
So in my view a proper modern railway run to the same reliability as the Overground would transform the whole area from Bethnal Green, through Hackney and Tottenham to Enfield and the M25.
Finally, it has always irked Spurs supporters that Arsenal have their own Underground station. So why shouldn’t White Hart Lane be renamed Spurs?
Only in Brighton
The Radio 5 commentators were complaining that at the new AMEX Community Stadium there are so many different teas, like camomile, nettle, ginger and mint, that they couldn’t find any proper tea.
Are they all Marxists in Brighton?
By the way they got chicken soup and fruit cake at half-time! Not very American! Although it’s probably quite quick to prepare and consume.
Planning for the August Bank Holiday
As I’ve said before, I hate bank holidays.
For next Monday though I have a plan. Whilst I was travelling in Tottenham, I saw on the map a building named as Markfield Beam Engine and Museum.
I shall be going as it is in steam on the Monday.
I could even go to the football in the evening at Ipswich!
But the aim is to enjoy myself and judging by the way they are playing at the moment, a team made up of eleven fit men in the North Stand could do better.
Return From White Hart Lane
I returned to central London, by taking the train from White Hart Lane station.
It is another station that has seen better days and it doesn’t seem to have improved much since I used it in the 1960s to go to see Spurs at White Hart Lane.
White Hart Lane Station
Note the stairs in the picture. In common with most stations on this line they are rather steep and given the numbers of people on match days at White Hart Lane, surely something better should be done.
The Class 315 trains were built in the early 1980s and despite being thirty years old aren’t that bad. They are certainly better than the slam door stock, that I used to use all those years ago.
The slam door stock did have the great advantage in that as you approached Enfield Town station, you could fold the door back, so that when the train had slowed to your running speed, you could jump and start running to be first in the queue for the old 107 bus for Oakwood. I never had an accident doing that and I won’t now, as sadly slam door trains are no more.
I can just about remember the old compartment stock used with the steam tank engines on that line and others out of King’s Cross. As the compartments on these trains were essentially private, one game played by many, but not me, was seeing if you could have it off between stations.
Along Tottenham High Road
As the cricket was called off today, I decided to go to IKEA today, as I needed to check out a few ideas.
The 341 bus, that I take goes along the Tottenham High Road, which was badly affected by the riots last week.
It looked to me, that apart from one or two notable exceptions, the damage wasn’t as bad as it had been painted by the media.
One of the pictures shows the entrance to the garage, where I used to bike for half-a-crown to see Spurs in the early 1960s. It doesn’t look to have been done up at all since.
The Tottenham area of Haringey was never the best, and as the pictures show, there are very few quality buildings except for White Hart Lane Stadium and that is too small and parts of it were built in the 1930s.
Spurs say they intend to build a new much larger stadium on the land north of the existing stadium, but whether they will is open to question. The stadium has always suffered from access problems, but then so has Chelsea and West Ham.
But developing the football club and the surrounding area could be a stimulus to the whole area, especially, if the Lea Valley Lines were upgraded.
The Man In Seat 28
The title is a direct crib from that excellent train website, www.seat61.com. Use it if you want to find out how to get anywhere by train.
I did get my sandwiches, after failing at the Angel this morning, in Liverpool Street station, and here they are laid out on the table that I didn’t have to share, as I sat in Seat 28 in Standard Class.
Marks and Spencer's Gluten Free Sandwiches
I should say that Liverpool Street now has three Marks and Spencer food stores and I got my lunch from the one in the Broadgate or western entrance.
They are certainly going to make football a lot easier for me, as now I won’t have to worry about lunch or supper. Especially as until now, Ipswich was a virtual gluten free desert. The Marks there is listed as selling gluten-free sandwiches, but I haven’t checked yet.
Seat 28, also gave a very good view of the Olympic Park, as it was on the left side going towards Ipswich. The seat also has a full window.
The Olympic Park from Seat 28
Unfortunately, if you want the best view, you’ll have to be up front with the driver. I’ve done this once and it’s the only way to travel.
I should say that the jouney home wasn’t as pleasant. I had deliberately taken a later train and I took a table seat in an almost empty carriage. But then three obese middle-aged men joined me, hemmed me in by the window and proceeded to talk loudly amongst themselves all the way to London. They talked mainly about rugby and beer. I may have interest in the first, but I certainly have no interest in the sort of beer they droned on about. I also didn’t like the way they talked about their long-suffering wives.
In the end I decanted from the train at Stratford and took the North London Line home. Perhaps, next time I don’t want to be disturbed, I’ll book First.
Today’s trip and my last one to Plymouth and Bristol illustrate that train catering is getting more and more irrelevant for many people. I haven’t bought anything except coffee, Coke or perhaps a water for months now. I either take everything with me, buy something from Marks in the station or make sure I eat well before travelling. As for example there is a Carluccio’s either in or close to St. Pancras, King’s Cross and Liverpool Street, it can’t be long before most large stations have a sensible gluten-free cafe. Most stations too have a coffee shop at least up to Starbucks standard.
I suspect that train catering will disappear completely within a few years. At the Zoo Late, you could pre-order Gordon Ramsey picnics. How long before someone does luxury picnics, that you pre-order and pick up at the station before you travel? They could even be delivered to your seat in First Class!
If you are a food supplier, the great thing about train passengers, is you get at least two goes to sell them food. Obviously, I bought my picnic today before I got on the train and I could even have bought a glass of decent wine in a plastic glass at Marks. But suppose, I’d been going to Brighton to walk on the promenade, I might have brought my lunch when I arrived. And if you’re changing trains at say Liverpool Lime Street, you could buy your food between trains.
So if you run a dedicated train catering service, you’ve got real competition!
So I think that in a few years, the food available to rail travellers will be very good and probably lightly alcoholic if you want a drink. The catering will certainly be better than that on the roads, where everything is over-priced and over-curled.
I think that some of the new trains are even prepared for the revolution. The new trains, I used to get to Cambridge a couple of weeks ago, are built with trays for laptops and/or snacks. All it needs is to make sure the litter is either taken out by the passengers or cleaned up at the end of each leg!
A Saturday Morning Routine
There are two radio programmes, I like to listen to on Saturday morning; Danny Baker and the unsporting quiz, Fighting Talk, as they appeal to my unusual sense of humour.
The trouble is that if I’m going to football, as I am today, it doesn’t really leave much time for me to get to the shops, as I have to leave by about midday to get the train.
So this morning, I got to the Angel, by bus at just after 8:30. I actually took a seventy-free, as if you sit at the back and get out of the rearmost door, it’s much easier to walk to the four shops, Carluccio’s and the physio, that I visit at the Angel.
Today, it was just Boots for some rat poison, Marks and Spencer for some gluten-free sarnies for the train and a beef Stroganoff for tonight and Waitrose for two large carriers of heavy stuff like alcohol and Coke. I went to Waitrose first and found that if I shopped immediately, could get it delivered before the start of Fighting Talk at 11:00. I think I rather caught them on the hop, but hopefully it’ll come on time. But I do have two hours of total float in my critical path, so if they come by one I’m OK.
The only problem, was that Marks didn’t have the gluten-free sandwiches, but then I’ll pass three of their shops that stock them on the way to Liverpool Street. If they don’t have any, then I shall complain. If there aren’t any, it’s probably because they are too good and all those food fadists on a gluten-free kick have snaffled them!
I was back home listening to Danny Baker by ten o’clock.
It sounds like I’ll be repeating this on Saturdays in the future.
The routine could be even better, if Carluccio’s opened at 8:00 for breakfast on Saturday, as they do in the week.
Update at 11:20 – Waitrose have just delivered, so I have plenty of time to catch the train to Ipswich, after scouring Marks for some gluten-free sandwiches.
Thinking about this post. When C and I lived near Newmarket we would go shopping early, often visit one of our horses in traing and then we’d generally be back home around eleven.
I suppose, I’m only repeating what we did together by myself. In some ways, it was easier in Suffolk, as Waitrose opened earlier. But then I had to carry the shopping from the car to the hall. Here, that is all done by the van driver from Waitrose.
Who said manners and service are dead.
The Anonymous Widower 