Scunthorpe 1 – Ipswich 1
It was not a good match and who’s to say it wasn’t down to the cold.
Glanford Park
Interestingly, Glanford Park istill a ground with a standing terrace and they are getting a campaign together to save it. In my view, they need completely closed terraces with some form of heating.
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.
Towards the Match
I was mainly gpoing to London to see Ipswich play at Millwall.
I didn’t take a direct route, as I had time to spare and wanted to do one or two things before the match.
So from Tottenham Hale, I took a couple of stops on the Victoria Line to Highbury and Islington, where I took the North London Line to Canonbury.
A house I am interested in, lies betwwen there and Dalston Junction and I wanted to see which was the nearest station. The first leg took eleven minutes and the second ten, so Dalston Junction is closer and will be a couple of minutes so, when they complete the station. It’s also downhill from Canonbury and flat to Dalston Junction, which means that it is an easy walk to Dalston to travel away and another easy one to get home from Canonbury. In some ways it won’t matter too much, as from May 2011, the two stations will just be two stops apart on the East London Line.
FRom Dalston Junction, I took the East London Line south to Rotherhithe, with the aim of seeing the Brunel Museum; which is one of the many museums on the line. I took this photo of the brickwork on the entrance to the station.
Brickwork at Rotherhithe Station
I’ve always liked good brickwork and in my life, I’ve designed and had built several important brick features including a traditional crinkle-crankle wall at Debach and my round office here. Are we training bricklayers to be able to do the difficult stuff? Ralph who did the wall, used to work in rubber gloves to save his hands and spent his holidays looking at buildig techniques all over the world. His colleagues used to laugh at him, but he certainly knew how to lay bricks.
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?
Ely to York via Scunthorpe
I’m going to see Ipswich at Scunthorpe on the 25th. I have been told by East Coast, that I’ll need to use two single tickets, as I can’t break my journey at Doncaster, like I did last week at Micheldever.
So I’ve booked the first leg from Ely to Scunthorpe and that has cost me £16.45 First Class. Not bad as it would probably cost about £50 for the diesel in the Jaguar!
But getting from Scunthorpe to York, doesn’t seem so easy to buy a ticket. All that seems to exist are Anytime Singles at £20 or £13.20 with my Railcard. Why are there no Off Peak Tickets?
In the end, Ibought the Anytime Single from East Coast at £13.20!
A Goalless Draw at Portsmouth
On my travels this season, Ipswich have won all of the games I have seen. They also have won the one game I didn’t!
So I was hopeful, that things would go well. But even if they didn’t, I would get to see one of the last remaning stands designed before the Second World War, by Archibald Leitch.
Fratton Park
Note that Archie’s signature criss-cross balustrades have been remved from the tront of the top deck of the stand to the left.
I spent a lot of my youth watching Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane and when I went to Liverpool University, I visited Goodison Park several times. Both were Leitch stadia and still had the criss-cross bracing, as did the old Twickenham and many other places.
But to return to yesterday at Fratton Park. It was a good game and a goalless draw was probably fair. But both teams could consider themselves unlucky.
Note that if you want to learn more about Archibald Leitch, a man who probably did more for the football spectator in the British Isles, than anybody else, read his biography by Simon Inglis called Engineering Archie. It should be compulsory reading for all football fans. I wonder how many fans, who troop to Craven Cottage realise that they are sitting in a Leitch stadium, that he designed around 1904. Thankfully, it is still pretty much intact and actually has Grade II listed status, which is fairly unique as sports grounds go. Brian Inglis sums up the chapter on Craven Cottage like this.
Had Letch slapped up one of his routine stands (of which he built many), had there been no corner pavilion; whether in a pleasant riverside spot or not, the ground would have succumbed to develpers years ago.
Such is the power of the place. Such is the aura of architecture.
There are countless football grounds bereft of character. But there is only one Craven Cottage.
And for much of that, the credit lies with Archibald Leitch.
Craven Cottage is on my list of must-see grounds.
A Pit-Stop at Micheldever
In Victorian times, rail journeys were often done in stages, as there was a need to change engines. For instance, the Great Western used to change engines at Swindon and everybody, including the King and Queen got off for refreshments in the station. Here’s a piece from the entry in Wikipedia for Swindon Station.
Swindon railway station opened in 1842 with construction of the Great Western Railway’s engineering works continuing. Until 1895 every train stopped here for at least 10 minutes to change locomotives. Swindon station hosted the first recorded railway refreshment rooms, divided according to class. Swindonians for a time were eminently proud that even the current King and Queen of the time had partaken of refreshments there.
I think I read in something like Rolt’s excellent biography of Brunel, that the tea was produced in an enormous urn and was virtually undrinkable. I also think that there was a contract which said that trains must all stop at Swindon.
On Saturday, I was intending to break my journey to the football at Portsmouth at a station called Micheldever, where I was going to have lunch with a friend and his family. After lunch, I intended to use the same ticket travel to Fratton.
It all worked well! The inpector on the leg to Micheldever from Waterloo, just looked at my ticket and made no mark on it. When I returned, there was no problems either, as I got on the train to complete the journey. I do worry that with these new barrier systems coming in, that this pit-stop ability may be lost. I did once a couple of years ago, want to break a journey at Reading and it took me a lot of persuation to achieve it. I also have the problem at Cambridge, when I want to use the Marks and Spencer’s in the station to get my supper, when I’m perhaps changing for Dullingham.
On Saturday, it certainly made for a better trip, as an exquisite Chinese meal home-cooked by my friend’s wife, was very much preferable to the food available in the region of Fratton Park. This was the first Chinese food, I’ve eaten since I had the stroke in Hong Kong.
I wonder how many people actually know of this split journey rule, which greatly improved my journey to Portsmouth. After all, many stations, Micheldever included, are very close to good pubs or restaurants, so are ideally placed to break a journey. For instance on the 25th of September, I’m going to see Ipswich play Scunthorpe and then I’m going on to York. Would it be easier to book an off-peak single to York from say Dullingham and break the trip at Doncaster, from where I’d get the train to Scunthorpe?
Off to Portsmouth
I know the match isn’t until Saturday, but soon, I’m off to London, where I’m spending two nights, before going to the match.
Apologies to South West Trains
in the post, where I outlined how I could get to Portsmouth on September 11th, I assumed that I would no longer be allowed to break my journey at Micheldever, as I have done many times in the past, due to the new barriers.
But after a reply from South West Trains, I now know that I was making the wrong assumption.
Here’s what they said.
I can confirm that a break of journey is valid on tickets for travel between London Waterloo and Fratton. Customers wishing to break their journey must ensure that they only travel to a station that is along a valid route for their ticket and that they only travel on times and dates that their ticket is valid for.
I can confirm that as Micheldever is between London Waterloo and Fratton, you will be able to break your journey at this station.
Customers may find at times that their ticket will not automatically let them through barriers at an intermediate station. If this happens, please show your ticket to the member of staff operating the barriers at the station in question so that they can let you through.
So it would appear that the old rules are still in place.
I shall now probably buy a Day Return from Whittlesford Parkway to Fratton. It looks like it’ll cost me £28.
Portsmouth on September the 11th
This will be my next match following Ipswich Town.
It might also need a bit of planning to get round the various ticketing regulations on the trains.
The easiest way would be to turn up at Whittlesford and buy a return ticket for Fratton, which is the nearest station to the ground. But this might be a problem as the ticket office there was unmanned yesterday and the automatic machine had been positioned so that the morning sunlight made it difficult to read.
Badly-Sited Ticket Machine at Whittlesford
These people were certainly having problems, so buying a ticket or collecting it from there might be a problem. I suppose I could get my ticket posted to my home.
So I think that I might take the train from Dullingham and go via Cambridge and King’s Cross, as I can buy a ticket from the conductor on the train. King’s Cross to Waterloo is also easier on the Underground than Tottenham Hale to Waterloo.
But the problem is that I can’t get a taxi at Dullingham, but I can pre-book one at Whittlesford.
But there is an additional complication. I want to have lunch with a friend at Micheldever, which is on the line to Fratton. So my journrey will actually be in three legs; Whittlesford to Micheldever, Micheldever to Fratton and Fratton to Whittlesford. It used to be that if you broke a journey and then continued on a later train in the same direction, that you could do this on the same ticket. I suspect this is now off the menu.
What is needed is a simple multiple ticket web site, where I enter the trains I want to travel on and then they post them to my house or I pick them up reliably at the first station.
I suspect that because of regulations though, I’ll need to buy a Whittlesford-Fratton return and buy an extra single ticket to get from Micheldever to Fratton.
And people think I’m getting paranoid!
Since I wrote that, I’ve found another problem. Not all trains to Fratton start from Waterloo and those of those that do not all go through Michedever, but the booking sites don’t seem to say which. It’s all very complicated. The Internet is supposed to make things simple not more difficult. Perhaps it would be easier to turn up and go at Waterloo and buy the tickets there. But that would mean I would have to leave earlier in the morning!
The Anonymous Widower 