The Gluten-Free Championship
i have been perhaps a bit hard on Barnsley, but how do all the other towns with clubs in the Championship stack up?
Here’s a list based on the current clubs in the Championship.
- Barnsley – I’ll post after Saturday, Not heard from the club about their executive catering. I’ve since found they do.
- Bristol City – Judging by the map, it would appear that there are many restaurants, including a Carluccio’s, within walking distance of the station and the ground.
- Burnley – I’ll be going on the second of March, so will report later.
- Cardiff –
- Crystal Palace – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way down
- Coventry – Nothing I can find except Pizza Express in the city centre. I must admit last time I went, Coventry was shut.
- Derby –
- Doncaster –
- Hull –
- Ipswich – Pizza Express, Loch Fyne and a couple of good Indians. Gluten-Free Meals Available in stadium restaurants
- Leeds –
- Leicester –
- Middlesbrough – Nothing I saw, but I ate with friends
- Millwall – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way down
- Norwich –
- Nottingham – I have found an excellent French bistro in the city.
- Portsmouth – There appeared to be nothing around the football club.
- Preston –
- QPR – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way over
- Reading –
- Scunthorpe – A gluten-free-free town
- Sheffield United – I’ve had a gluten-free meal before the match in a Greek cafe.
- Swansea –
- Watford –
I could add a few notes.
- I have eaten in football club restaurants before and like racecourse catering, they are expensive for what they are. I had one good meal in the main restaurant at Ipswich Town, but that was not football-related. So on balance, I will avoid them, unless I’m entertaining a friend or client.
- I’ve never yet found anything gluten-free in the normal catering outlets at a football ground, except perhaps Coca-Cola and coffee. It should be stated here, that Wembley is particularly unfriendly, which is a complete disgrace for England’s premier stadium.
- Carluccio’s is expanding and provides a gluten-free menu in all of their outlets. There are places too, with Pizza Express, where a gluten-free salad can usually be obtained.
- I should also add that some stadia like, Ipswich, Norwich, Burnley, Crystal Palace and others, are close to open spaces, rivers or canals, where you can sit and have a proper picnic.
But as you can see, the standard in some places just about scores zero out of ten.
What Do We Do With the Olympic Stadium?
The row about what to do with the Olympic Stadium in Stratford after the Olympics rumbles on apace.
The original plan to turn it into a smaller 25,000 seat stadium might be a wonderful legacy for athletics, but would it be the best use of it after the Olympics. There are perhaps a couple of meetings a year that could fill such a stadium, unless the World or European Championships are held in London. And knowing London and Londoners like I do, 25,000 seats would probably be too small. So we might have a white elephant that would require lots of continuing funding.
To have a dual-use stadium as West Ham propose may not be a good idea. Fans don’t like watching football over an athletics track and I can understand why. I watched Ipswich play in the old Olympic Stadium in Moscow and the view was atrocious. Especially, as I had forgotten my binoculars. I also went to Stamford Bridge, when it still had the dog track in place and that wasn’t good either. So I can understand the views of fans and Harry Redknapp, when they say football and athletics don’t mix.
But there is a more fundamental problem and that is that football (and cricket and rugby for that matter) rely heavily on providing a lot of corporate entertainment with boxes, restaurants and fast food bars. Athletics crowds are different, probably more knowledgeable and have different and conflicting needs. They also stay longer making a whole day of the trip.
There is probably only one mixed use stadium that works and that is the Stade de France in Paris. In some ways this illustrates the problems, in that the French stage football, rugby and athletics, whereas, in England, rugby has Twickenham and football has Wembley.
The question has also to be asked if athletics wants a spiritual home like football, rugby and cricket.
It probably does, but a 75,000 seater stadium would be a white elephant, costly to fund.
It could also be argued that it has a spiritual home at Crystal Palace, which has been the scene of some great days of athletics. But it needs to be knocked down and rebuilt, preferably to a size of 30,000 seats that could be temporarily expanded to stage World or European Championships. One of the other problems of the stadium, was that it didn’t have good transport links direct from North and East London. But this has been partly solved by the new East London Line.
In fact, it would be good for South London if the whole Crystal Palace site was properly developed as a sport and leisure park, to compliment Stratford. Very little has been done since the original palace burned down before the Second World War. And if Crystal Palace is properly redeveloped, why not do the same at Alexandra Palace? The famous race course is still there.
What we need is a proper strategy for London, that is properly thought through. In fact this is the main problem with the Olympic stadium in that it was built to a cost for a limited life, rather as part of a whole strategy.
I have just Karen Brady, the West Ham, Vice Chairman, on BBC Breakfast and she put a convincing case for their mixed-use plans, which would include cricket. So is this just one part of a strategy, which should include plans for North, South and West London as well.
And then there is the elephant in the room; Chelski. Arsenal have a 60,000 seat stadium and Tottenham will have one, whether they move to Stratford or not. They wouldn’t be able to develop at Stamford Bridge, but what about a new stadium, where HS2 connects to Heathrow at Old Oak Common?
So the problem is a lot bigger than just what you do with Stratford.
A 92% Day!
One doesn’t want to score it higher than that, as I might shilt myself.
But I’ve gone to football a lot in the last three years since C died and I’ve not had such a good day for some time.
I had decided that I would travel First Class as a treat and I’d already bought the tickets for £36.60 on Wednesday, so after I’d made my sandwiches, I took the 141 bus to Moorgate and walked through Finsbury Circus to Liverpool Street to catch the 12:58 to Ipswich. It meant, if I’d driven, which I can’t, it would probably have spent more and taken longer. I also wouldn’t have had a large table on which to lay my paper and eat my lunch.
The train was a couple of minutes late into Ipswich, but this didn’t matter, as I’d have preferred to sit in the soft seat in the train, rather than the hard seat in the Britannia Stand. But despite the delay, I was well in time for the start of the match.
The match itself was spoilt by the strong wind and is best summed up by the comments of the Ipswich manager; Paul Jewell.
Delighted with win. Wind was awful, so would have taken ugly 1-0 win. But played some good football second half. Connor great goal. Pleased for Luca.
I would add that Town could easily have scored five instead of three, especially as Tamas Priskin hit the post and Grant Leadbitter missed a penalty and also hit a spectacular effort, that was deflected wide.
We also had a double sending off when Sheffield United decided to try the self-destruction route.
So all-in-all it was first class entertainment.
I’ve just watched the match on The Football League Show on the BBC’s iPlayer. It’s about thirty minutes in. It’s worth searching for, just to see Connor Wickham’s goal, where he takes the ball in his own half , beats everybody and then draws the goalkeeper and puts the ball in the empty net. It will be a clip that will be shown and shown.
After the match I took the 17:09 train back to London and another 141 bus got me home by seven. I even had time to pick-up a chicken korma for supper in Marks at Liverpool Street Station.
It would be nice if watching football was always so stress free. But then most sides aren’t as co-operative as Sheffield United!
One slight blot on the day was that the rice with the chicken korma was rather crunchy.
The Tuesday Night Football Test
So I can’t go to Derby for the Ipswich match on Tuesday night, but how many of the Championship grounds are possible to visit for an evening fixture and get back to London at a reasonable hour?
Here’s a list based on the current clubs in the Championship.
- Barnsley – No return train
- Bristol City – Into London at 00:33
- Burnley – No return train
- Cardiff – Possible if you miss the last 30 minutes
- Crystal Palace – Not relevant
- Coventry – Into London at 00:04
- Derby – No return train
- Doncaster – Possible with a taxi
- Hull – No return train
- Ipswich – I’ve done it after the Arsenal match.
- Leeds – No return train
- Leicester – Possible if you miss the last 15 minutes
- Middlesbrough – No return train
- Millwall – Not relevant
- Norwich – Possible if you walk quickly
- Nottingham – No return train
- Portsmouth – Into London at 00:30
- Preston – No return train
- QPR – Not relevant
- Reading – Easily done
- Scunthorpe – No return train
- Sheffield United – No return train
- Swansea – Just a bit too far
- Watford – Easily done
It should be said that quite a few like Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham have very early trains, where if you were a real fan you could wait for perhaps four hours in the station or find a B & B. But I was never that enthusiastic!
I think though it shows the need for the matches to be planned better. Perhaps local matches like Ipswich against any London club should be the ones for Tuesday nights. Although it could be argued that Ipswich to Derby is an easy drive and many fans will go by coach.
Seeing Ipswich at Derby is Impossible.
As Ipswich aren’t playing this weekend, I thoght it would be nice to see them at Derby on the Tuesday.
But there is no return train, so I won’t be going! I don’t fancy waiting up until four in the morning to get a train back to London either.
Obviously, Derby County supporters don’t live in London and go to the match by train!
Walking to the Football
For the first time in my 63 years, I walked all the way from where I lived to a professional football match. I had cycled to Spurs a few times in my teens, but walking the couple of kilometres to The Emirates last night was unique.
It was a good match and Ipswich can’t complain too much about the result.
The match is best summed up by the Ipswich manager, Paul Jewell’s comments by text message.
Players were terrific. Great effort over two legs against a world class side.
Fans terrific as well, showed what a big club this is.
He seems to understand how to motivate. Did his predecessor?
At Last a Win
Ipswich finally got a win in the Championship today against Doncaster.
A lot of managers would have panicked after going in 1-0 done, but Paul Jewell seems to let the team he picked get on with it. The philosophy certainly worked today and he resisted the urge to waste time by using substitutes as the clock ticked down. After all shouldn’t substitutes be for when you have serious problems like injuries. The Doncaster manager, Sean O’Driscoll, made all his and you almost thought he was wasting time, to get more added minutes at the end. As it happened the fourth official still found three minutes from thin air.
And then after the match, Paul Jewell praised everybody including the crowd and criticised no-one. After a hard-fought victory like this, there is probably some criticism to be made, but it should be done next week in a calm, constructive and intelligent manner.
Let’s hope that Town can hold Arsenal on Tuesday.
The Anonymous Widower 