Down in the Valley

Next game on the London football tour was Charlton vs Sheffield Wednesday at the Valley in South East London - a Championship encounter (the old Division 2).

Set off from home with plenty of time in hand, and did I need it! Managed to get what must have been the only train from Waterloo that didn’t stop at my stop and ended up practically in Kent! It was so rural that a fox was trotting along next to the train. Some other footie goers made the same mistake, so we all headed sheepishly back to London for a second shot at it. Got talking to one of them, he was a season ticket holder who lived in the Isle of Wight, so he gets a ½ hour ferry to the mainland, then an hour long train into London. He’s planning to go to a game in London on Tuesday night so he thinks he will get home at 4am! Great dedication.

Off the train and it was a short walk back to the ground. Having recently been in the Premiership, Charlton has a relatively large supporter base. This makes the pre- and post-game atmosphere that much more busy and exciting. With over 20,000 people at the game it had a big game atmosphere. The club shop was well laid out with a wide range of Charlton gear, even a Charlton themed air-freshener. Food options looked pretty good as well, a little sparse in options – I only spotted burgers (vege and chicken options as well) and fries, but the burger I had was pretty nice.

The ground is 75% of the way to being totally encircled, and planning permission already exists for the remaining stand-alone grandstand to be demolished and the rest of the stands to be combined into an all-in-one stadium. An ambitious plan, and one that would require the club to return to the Premiership to pay for it.

Game wise, the players’ skill level was a step-up from the League 1 game I last saw. However, the combinations weren’t as good and there was a fair bit of long ball footy played. Charlton went 1-0 up, and then Sheffield Wednesday scored twice, in their only two chances of the game, in 3 minutes to lead 2-1 at half time. After the break not much action, but Charlton had all the possession without really threatening to score. End of the game saw boos ring out around the ground.

After the game the ground cleared, and I was surprised to see the two sets of fans mixing freely. A reasonable police presence with a fair number of horse mounted officers. Everyone wanted to catch the train back into London, and so 3 or 4 trains went past before I could get on one. At least the queue was a classical orderly English one, and the station was kept safe by restricting access to the platforms. A quick 30 minutes later and I was safely back home.

Unfortunately a lack of planning led to the camera battery failing on start-up – so no photos!

As a side note, since I saw Millwall win, they have won their last 4 games. I hope I won’t give Charlton the same consistency!

Millwall and Charlton down so the list remaining is Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Leyton Orient, Barnet, Brentford, Dagenham & Redbridge.

Lou's trip to Copenhagen

With Dean off to the grand prix with the boys Lou arranged to meet her sister Helen, who lives in Geneva, for a long weekend in Copenhagen. The girls had a lovely time in the Danish capital, seeing the sights including the famous Little Mermaid statue, visiting Tivoli gardens, and generally soaking up the atmosphere. All in all a good location for a girly catch up - plenty of good food, booze, shopping and chatter!


By the statue of The Little Mermaid in the harbour. The statue was created to commemorate the fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

Tivoli gardens by night - Tivoli is a famous amusement park and garden. It opened in 1843 and retains much of its old charm, despite the addition of a couple of newer rides and candyfloss! We can vouch for the icecream and waffles.

The sisters in Copenhagen.

The Belgium Grand Prix

Belgium, home of beer, Herge (the creator of Tintin), and moules frites. Surely, you think there should be more, but as a colleague of mine who lived in Brussels for 4 years said, it is a hole, but I'm sure that was just a comment on Brussels, not Belugim on the whole.

Having always wanted to get to a Grand Prix at some stage, and knowing my friend Zac (the Zac) to be a huge F1 fan as well, we decided to travel somewhere to see a GP. For a variety of long forgotten reasons Belgium was chosen and Scott joined to make the team a trio for the trek to Spa-Francochamps.

We took the Eurostar across to Brussels - it is the way to go if it serves your destination rather than flying. Scott started how he meant to continue and had a kip on board. Friday night was the Belgium Beer Festival in the main square. We partook in a number of different beers, including a Chimay Brunne and a Tremens (supposedly the best beer in the world). However an early start was required the next morning so we turned in just after midnight.

Early start with a 7.30am bus to the track, Scott and Zac caught up on some sleep. We caught the tail end of the Porsche Super Cup, and then our first taste of the power and noise of the F1 cars for the final practice. The noise was incredible, so much so that my ears were still sore on the Monday after the Grand Prix, despite the ear plugs. Our seats were pretty good, we could see the exit from the first corner, all the way through some S-bends (taken flat out) and up the hill. The speed of the cars is amazing as in the distance of about 800m they go from near 50km/h to around 300 km/h. Just incredible.

In between F1 practice and qualifying, we went and looked around the F1 paddock, with heaps of merchandising and competitions going on. A lot of the teams had some of their last year's cars displayed which was nice to see. We then went for a walk through the middle of the track and ended up in the General Admission area. As it was mainly perched on the side of a hill, when the rain started we were glad to be in a covered stand. With some time up our sleeves we continued up the hill to walk all the way round the track. It was a long way but really interesting to see all the different groups of fans and nationalities (our stand was mainly Ferrari fans with some McLaren's). Saw a camping site and it looked like a pretty rough experience, but fun at the same time.

Got back in time for qualifying and then caught the bus back to town. Sat night in Brussels was pretty average, with not much going on.

Sunday

An even earlier start for the main event, so more sleeping on the bus. Weather was variable with rain in the air. Plenty of frites consumed as the temperature was cold.

The race itself was very exciting, with the wet track creating plenty of fun, and it bucketed down in the last 5 laps, causing carnage and controversy. Lewis Hamilton won on the day, but was later demoted due to a dodgy passing manevoure.

At the chequered flag, we rushed down onto the track and ran around the hairpin and up the home straight in time to see the victory ceremony and all the crashed cars being towed back from their resting places. Super atmosphere on pit straight.

The bus back to town was really slow, taking twice as long as the previous day! That night we went out and had a great tasting tray of beers. But atmosphere was lacking a little late on a Sunday night in Brussels.

Monday
With the morning and early afternoon free, we did a bit of sightseeing and eating of waffles. Then back on the Eurostar to London. Overall a great experience, but next time I think that another F1 track/country might be in order!

Into the Lions Den

A Saturday afternoon was free after Louise had decided to go wedding dress shopping with Helen. At a bit of a loss with what to do, I decided to try to go see a football match. I focussed on the 'best available' game. So that ruled out the Premier League games at Arsenal and West Ham as they were sold out, all the Championship London teams were playing away. That brought Millwall of League One (the old Division 3) into pole position. Millwall was only about 40 mins train/tube/train from home, which made it reasonably convenient. I managed to convince Zac that it would be a good idea to come along. We met up at Waterloo and off we went into Bermondsey to the 'New Den' to see Millwall versus Huddersfield.

Despite the game being a way off the standards of the Premier League, the crowd attendance was 7,500. The away team brought some fans, maybe 3-500, and they were totally segregated with one stand to themselves, and all in the central area, however they managed to escape out of their central area to antagonise the Millwall supporters in the next door stand later in the game. However no real concerns as the sets of fans were just yelling at each other. The most interesting aspect of the day was the family that sat behind us. The main protagonist was Dad, a very rotund fella, who came out with the memorable call to the referee after a foul was given against Millwall - I hope your wife dies of AIDS, you c*. Of course his sub 10 year old son is getting involved gesturing and copying the words of Dad. As Zac put it, the poor child didn't stand a chance, the day he was born he was stuffed. Of course there were plenty of similar characters, with a good level of commitment to the cause, demonstrated by the Millwall FC club crest tattooed on their bodies.

For the match itself, it was a good game, helped by the hot and sunny weather. My first impression was that I probably could manage a side in the grade, as the predominant tactics seemed to be - lump it forward to the big striker. After the game settled down, the ball was played along the deck and it flowed quite well. Millwall went behind to a wonderful overhead bicycle kick. A great goal, but I didn't support it as much as I would have liked. A quiet comment to Zac - that was a good goal, was all that I could manage. Millwall then equalised just before halftime, scored by a player that we were describing as useless and unmotivated, a sentiment that was shared by the crowd we noticed. Mind you, if you score the you are everyone's best friend, at least for the next 15 minutes, as this fellow discovered later.

Millwall dominated the second half, and scored a go-ahead goal with about 15 to go, a well worked move. By this stage the Millwall fans were well worked up, and were charging through the stand to gesture and chant rude words at the away team supporters. Then controversy, with 5 minutes to go a very dubious penalty was awarded to Huddersfield, I thought the foul was well outside the box. Up steps David Unsworth, former England defender, and the goalkeeper pulls off a great save. Now the crowd goes truly mental. Some great chants - you're s t and it’s a long way home, 1-0 and you f'ed it up. Lots of Millwall etcetc. Pretty entertaining stuff.

Overall the game was pretty good, I was impressed by the central defenders for both sides as they dealt with the frequent attacks of the aerial game very well, and the attacking skills on the quick break were equally impressive.

One goal of mine, when I came over, was to try and get to each of the London clubs that play in the football leagues home games. So one down, 13 to go. The list remaining is Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham, West Ham, Charlton, Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Watford, Leyton Orient, Barnet, Brentford, Dagenham & Redbridge. Of course these won't be the only football games I get to!