Liverpool Get A Good Kicking from the Cobblers
There is nothing better than to see one of the big four teams of the Premier League get their come uppance from a lower league team in the Cup.
Northampton Town, a.k.a. The Cobblers, did just that yesterday when they beat Liverpool on penalties in the Carling Cup. I just wish I could think of a better headline for this post. I also hope that Liverpool’s American owners were there to see the match!
Liverpool were not alone either, in that they were joined in their failure by Everton, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Blackburn, Bolton and Sunderland and Fulham
Thoughts on Transport to the Den
As I can’t drive, I rely heavily on three things, trains, buses and good old-fashioned walking.
On Tuesday night, I went to Canary Wharf for supper and for many places it is a good place to start an evening trip in London. The parking may be a bit expensive, but you can always get a couple of hours free, if you spend over £10 in one of the shops there. I used to buy something I needed like wine in Waitrose to get the token. Incidentally, is there a more up-market supermarket anywhere in the UK, than this one?
The first step to your evening entertainment, after a meal in one of the many restaurants, is to take the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf Station, that makes all other Metro stations in the world, look ordinary. I once took a C into the station on the escalator from the surface and asked her to close her eyes, once she was safely on the moving staircase. I then told her to open her eyes a few metres down. The look on her face summed it all up.
As I was going to the Den on Tuesday, I just took one station on the Jubilee Line to Canada Water. From upstairs, I took a P12 bus, which stopped outside the ground. what could have been simpler?
One of the problems at the Den, is that it is an area with very few pubs, restaurants and cafes. My mate, Ian, chose to drive and he had quite a bit of difficulty parking and then finding anything to eat. I got the better deal by going to Canary Wharf.
There are plans to build a new station at Surrey Canal Road on the new East London Line extension to Clapham Junction.
This will make travelling to the Den easier, but it will probably do nothing for the quality of the hostelries in the area! I’m afraid at my age and with my medical conditions, greasy burgers, fish and chips and pints of gassy lager are not for me!
But it will give you more choices of getting to the ground, as it will then be directly connected to many other areas with lots of easily accessible places to eat and drink. For example, Ipswich fans coming in to Liverpool Street, might use the Spitalfields or Brick Lane areas, before going to the match from Shoreditch High Street.
Obviously Canary Wharf makes a good starting point for anything in the West End of London, but with just one simple interchange at Canada Water or Shadwell, it is also a good place to start for anything in South London, if you live north of the river. Crystal Palace, which used to be one of the more difficult grounds to reach is now a lot easier. It’s just a pity that the interchange at Shadwell from the Docklands Light Railway to the East London Line isn’t better.
Into the Lion’s Den
Millwall used to play at the Cold Blow Lane, which like Portsmouth was an Archibald Leitch-designed stadium, but moved to the New Den in 1993. I never went to the old ground and this was my first visit to the new one.
The New Den
I arrived at the ground on a P12 bus from Canada Water after having an early supper at Carluccio’s in Canary Wharf. It was an easy way to get to the ground.
Millwall supporters have in the past not been noted for giving a warm reception to their visitors, but I found eveverybody friendly, even if you can see from the photograph, tha the crowd was a bit sparse.
The game wasn’t the best in terms of football, but the result was right, in that Ipswich won.
It was a struggle afterwards to get back to Liverpool Street for my train home, as I took the train to London Bridge and then used the Underground. But I made my desired train with a few minutes to spare.
Calcium and Vitamin D
Yesterday afternoon, I chewed a calcium tablet and took a small one for vitamin D, after a chat with my doctor about the results of the blood tests.
I hadn’t expected a quick effect, but did I get one last night, as I felt a lot better in the evening, with a lot less pain in my mouth and arm. I went to bed at half-ten and slept well until six in the morning, which is usually my time to start the day.
Typing seems a bit better this morning, so who knows if the pills have had an affect. I can’t believe one of each can bring an improvement. It could be just psychological, in that I now know there’s nothing wrong!
Here’s hoping that they did.
Today, I’m off to London to see Ipswich play at Millwall. I shall be exploring hidden parts of London for this blog. So let’s see how my body holds up today!
If nothing though, I would argue that everybody needs a full set of blood tests at about forty to see if they have any underlying problems. If I had it earlier, they might have picked up my coeliac disease, but reading about calcium deficiency and its symptoms, I may have suffered from that too at times. I have always tended to have pins and needles in my left hand and even saw the doctor about it once. We put it down to the break in the arm caused by the bully at school. But could it have been a calcium deficiency?
Also, as I feel used to feel that all gluten-free bread was made from cardboard, I didn’t eat it. so was I getting my recommended dose of cslcium, as by law bread in the UK has to have added calcium?
I knew that there was something wrong, as I lay in hospital and wanted them to do a full blood test because I felt it was a coeliac problem. Should all of those recovering from a stroke, be given a full set of blood tests, to make sure they don’t have any underlying problems that are hindering their recovery?
They Weren’t Pansies in the 1950s and 1960s
Bobby Smith was one of those real hard bustling centre-forwards of the 1950s and 1960s. I saw him play many times for Spurs at the time, and when he was on song he was very good, striking fear into opponents. But he was skillful too and in addition to scoring a lot of goals, he made many for those players around him. Sadly he has died at the age of 77.
This extract from the obituary in The Times today, sums up Smith’s style and attitude.
His bustling style came in for particular treatment from foreign players in European matches such as Spurs’ 5-1 win in the 1963 Uefa Cup Final against Athletico Madrid.
Smith recalled: “Bill Nick told me that their centre half would come up and hit me hard the first time. And he did. The second time he tried it, I elbowed him in the gut. The ref came up to me and said ‘Well done!’ ”
The tale typified Smith’s willingness to take punishment for the team from opposing centre halfs, which made him so popular with the fans and team-mates. His battles with players such as Leeds’s Jack Charlton freed up space for players such as Jimmy Greaves and created marvellous theatre for the fans as he and his marker traded blows, at varying degrees of legality, usually mixed in with plenty of banter and all tolerated by the referee who would often volunteer a few humorous remarks of his own.
But he was not alone in taking and giving punishment. Nat Lofthouse, Stan Mortensen and others could be equally abrasive in those days, when referees were far less strict and goalkeepers were fair game for a hard shoulder charge.
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow is an actress I’ve never come across before, but then I’ve never seen any episode of Friends. However, I’ve just seen her trace her family history on the American version of Who Do You Think You Are?
Lisa is Jewish and many of her ancestors were murdered by the Nazis in Belarus. It was a moving story, but it did have a happy ending, when she was reunited with a Polish man, who had met her father years before.
I have been to Belarus to see England play football and it is a country with a lot of sorrows. It lost about a third of its population in the Second World War and it wasn’t until about thirty years ago, that it recovered to its pre-war level. I showed some of the pictures, I took in this post.
I also wrote a piece for the East Anglian Daily Times about the trip. It is in two parts.
Both these files are in a PDF format.
One day, I hope I’ll be able to Belarus again.
Jimmy “No Bellies” Gardner
Today one of the competitors in the Great North Run is Paul Gascoigne’s old drinking mate Jimmy “Five Bellies” Gardner.
Except that he’s slimmed from twenty-one stone to thirteen and now goes by the nickname of “No Bellies” according to The Sun.
Let’s hope he keeps to his new lifestyle!
A Steve Hillel Special
Steve was a friend from Minchenden Grammar School. I think he was in the party on at least one occasion, when we went to see some of the latest bands at the Regal Edmonton. I can remember seeing The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Nashville Teens, Chuck Berry, Adam Faith and Joe Brown in a long gone venue, that is now a supermarket. He may have actually got the tickets, but it is now nearly fifty years ago.
But Steve’s other claim to fame, was that he was a rather eccentric right back in the school football team, with a penchant for scoring own goals.
Ipswich’s first goal today was one that was straight out of his manual. Sorry Steve, if you read this, but Adam Matthews’ own goal was one of the most spectacular I’ve seen. His header never gave the goalkeeper any chance.
Saatchi in Ipswich
I was surprised to see a sign as the coach arrived in Ipswich, advertising the parking for a Saatchi exhibition. I had not heard anything about it.
So as I had a hour before the match, I walked into the town and asked in the Corn Exchange about the exhibition. I was told it is in the old Art School just to the north of the town centre. Here is the web site.
Yet again something worth seeing has been badly publicised and Ipswich is doing nothing to attract visitors to the town to see the exhibition. Next time, I go to the football, I’ll go early specifically to see the exhibition. It’s free and is open from ten until five from Tuesday to Saturday.
By Coach to the Football at Ipswich
Tuesday’s match against QPR is best forgotten and I did think about abandoning my trip to see Ipswich host Cardiff today. But in the end I took the Supporter’s Club coach from Haverhill. And very comfortable and sociable it was too!
The only problem was crossing to Tesco’s in Haverhill after being dropped at the bus station, so that I could get my supper. You just had to brave the traffic as the crossing was in the wrong place. But then supermarkets aren’t designed to be accessed on foot, as the average person can’t carry much!
But I did come quickly in a taxi!
The Anonymous Widower 