London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

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What form should the Challenge take?

Poll ended at 15 Jan 2008, 22:31

Everyone should complete the challenge in one large group
10
71%
The challenge should be done in teams of at least 3 people
1
7%
The challenge can be done by individuals (or larger teams)
2
14%
I don't care, I wont be taking pary!
1
7%
 
Total votes: 14

palkanetoijala31

Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

Well its the day after and a good time had by all even though i couldnt do Watford time constraints but did Wembley to make up for it have uploaded some pics of the day highlights were getting on the pitch at Chelsea,Tottenham,Charlton nice ground the valley and Dagenham and redbridge
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Soup Dragon »

Thanks to all that took part in the Sport Relief challenge.
It was a very enjoyable day albeit an extremely tiring one.

We started as planned at Barnet with a team 11 strong plus camerman!
Matt Scrivin (Blackburn Utd.)
Steeevooo (Dagenham & Redbridge)
Andi (Liverpool)
Kevin B (West Ham & Ashford Town)
Jamie B (Portsmouth)
Ryan B (Chelsea)
Phillip B (Watford)
Antony B (Arsenal)
Matt Nunn (Gillingham)
Bob (Kevs mate) (England)
Martin Hazel (Spurs)
Steven Karahan

We started our keepie uppies at Barnet around 07:20 and it quickly became apparent that we were going to be in for a long day :)
Next it was on to Arsenal, we arrived as scheduled and had a fairly long kick about, the superb Emirates stadium indspired us to perform slightly better than we did at Barnet.
From here it was on to Spurs and we arrived at White Hart Lane on schedule at 0900. Initially it appeared that the security guard was not aware of our arrival and that we wouldnt get inside the ground, however after waiting 5 minutes another chap turned up and let us in (he might have been the groundsman). He made a joke about the Emirates being shapped like a toilet seat because all you see in the middle is shit :shock: I had to laugh even though I did'nt find it that funny! In return I sat in Jaunde Ramos' seat and left the Spurs manager a little gift. :lol: on the way out of the ground we stopped to look at the Carling Cup.
Next was Leyton Orient, we arrived 15 minutes late and very nearly lost our ball here. We were playing outside a garage at the side of the ground and the automatic garage door opened to let a car out, as we continued to play our ball rolled into the gararge just as the door was starting to lower. Matt Nunn dashed inside to rescue the ball before the door closed down.

Next stop on out tour was Dagenham & Redbridge, where thanks to Steeevooo we managed to get pitch side and watched the start of a game which I think was between The Academy and The Reserves, within a couple of minutes a goal was scored but I'm not sure which team scored it! We then had a quick pint in the Daggers club house before having a kick about in the car park (the pint didnt help to improve our football skills). We ventured back to Dagenham East at which point Steveeeooo & Steven said their goodbyes and we continued the challenge with 10 people. A few stops to Upton Park and we arrived at West Ham to be greeted by some very strange looks from the Hammer's fans in our assortment of shirts. We could not resist the smell of fried onions coming from the snack wagons outside the ground so several team members purchased burgers at this point. After visiting West Ham we made a slight change to the plans and took a bus to Canning Town instead of getting back on the District line. At North Greenwich we didn't have to wait long for a bus to Charlton.

At Charlton a very nice security guard allowed us to take a quick look pitch side and most of us sat in the dugout. I think we were all quite impressed with The Valley. After our kick about we headed to Charlton station for London Bridge and then onto South Bermondsey. As Millwall was our next ground several of the team decided to change shirts or cover up at this point. On arrival at South Bermondsey there was quite a strong Police presence and I'm sure we would not have had a problem wearing our array of shirts. We headed down an alleyway with the away fans (Leyton Orient) for a very quick kick about before heading back to the station, the Police looked very surprised to see us again and asked what we were doing.

We only had to wait a few minutes for a train to Thornton Heath as we headed to the next ground. Matt Scrivin said goodbye at Streatham as the remaining 9 teams members headed to Crystal Palace. It was a long walk from the station to the ground (1165 yds I think) and as we arrived at Selhurst Park the game had just kicked off. At this stage we were only 10 minutes behind schedule. We played keepie uppies for a few minutes trying to avoid all the cars in the car park before heading back to Thornton Heath for a train to Clapham Junction. When we arrived at Clapham we changed our plans and decided to take a bus to Fulham Broadway rather than wait 20 minutes for a train, this would have probably worked out ok but in error we got off the bus too soon and then had a bit of a walk to Chelsea. On arrival at Stamford Bridge we asked inside the shop if we could get access to the pitch and they were able to help us, a chap who does the ground tours was able to escort us through the museum to the pitchside. By the time we had left Chelsea it was starting to drizzle. We headed down to Putney Bridge for the longish walk through Bishop's Park to Fulham. In terms of football this was our best performance as all remaining 9 people managed to complete a round of Keepie Uppies. :D

Back through the park and a bus from Putney Bridge to Putney and train to Brentford. On arrival Brentford Kevin said we needed to cross over the bridge at the station to get to the ground, what Kevin forgot was that we approached the station westbound whereas in the past he always came to the station eastbound, so basically our walk to the ground was longer than it should have been. In terms of grounds Brentford was the most disappointing as it was now very dark and we couldn't see much of the ground but the pubs on each corner of the ground did look very inviting and we did discuss stopping for a pint and watching the end of the Arsenal game. We put it too the vote and decided it was best to push on, we then waited forever for a bus to Ealing Broadway to arrive, and buses being buses two turned up at once. For a bit of fun we decided to split into two groups, with Andi, Kevin, Jamie & Phillip opting to get take the 2nd bus. The 2nd bus soon started to drop behind so Andi, Jamie & Phillip made a dash for the 1st bus leaving Kevin behind, the three of them made it successfully. Kevin was left all alone and to add insult to injury the bus then terminted short of Ealing Broadway and Kevin had to make a mad dash to catch up with the rest of the group.

A few stops on the Central line to White City and then a walk to Loftus Road. We found a security guard at QPR who was just locking up, had we arrived 30 minutes earlier we would have been able to go pitchside. Close to the ground was an astroturf pitch on which we played the crossbar challenge, I think Matt Nunn came closest to hitting the crossbar. From here it was a bus to Willesden Jct for London Overground to Watford High St. Watford was the last ground to visit and probably the most difficult to get to (who said Watford is a London club :x ). Andi left us enroute and decided to make a visit to Wembley instead. The remaining team of 7 arrived at a drizzly Watford for the 3/4 mile walk to Vicarage Road to and completed the challenge in a time of 13 hours 30 minutes.
Last edited by Soup Dragon on 17 Mar 2008, 22:10, edited 2 times in total.
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al
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by al »

Soup Dragon wrote:A few stops on the Central line to White City and then a walk to Selhurst Park.
I do believe you mean the mighty Loftus Road!

Well done on acheiving the full house, though.
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Soup Dragon »

al wrote:
Soup Dragon wrote:A few stops on the Central line to White City and then a walk to Selhurst Park.
I do believe you mean the mighty Loftus Road!

Well done on acheiving the full house, though.
Ooops! trying to do to many things at once this afternoon... well spotted!
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Root »

I had just assumed it was a very, very long walk...
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Going Underground »

Well this really was an awesome day but very, very tiring..... Most of us felt just as knackered as on a GWR attempt and I would guess that over 10 miles was covered on foot and a few different muscles used on the attempted keepie-uppies..... :shock:

It was nice to get pitchside at 4 of the grounds with bonus visits as Charlton and Chelsea.....
We should have asked at Arsenal and possibly West Ham, maybe next time..... :)

Walking from Upton Park station to West Ham's goround at 12:30 it was already fairly busy for the 3pm kick off with a lot of people around. Depsite our array of different shirts and colours everyone we passed only seemed to notice K9's luminous yellow Chelsea top and there were quite a few "Effing Chelsea" comments, no one paid any attention to the Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Gills & Pompey shirts etc..... :lol:

Breakfast al Leyton High Road saw an interesting choice, my mate Rob and Dudey went for bacon sarnies in a cafe, Soup Dragon grabbed a coffee and muffin at the wild bean cafe
but the gourmet award of the day goes to Mr Finland for his purchase of a whole chocolate swiss roll and with no knife he just broke this into half to eat and waved it at passers by and passengers on the train when it came in..... :lol:

We were getting very tired by the time we did the long walk to Craven Cottage and back although as Soup Dragon mentioned a hugh cheer rang out when we at last showed some football skills.... :D

The 65 bus from Brentford to Ealing Broadway crawled along upto Popes Lane and the other 3 guys decided to run a stop ahead and easily overtook the other 65 that the rest of the guys were on..... So I am left alone my bus falling further behind and they are now out of sight... It then decides to change terminating destination and stops at Bond Street in the middle of Ealing....... Great I now had to run about 4 times further than if I had run a stop ahead :evil:

The great should we or shouldn't we go to Wembley debate rumbled on as we went up to Watford and back and the weather was now wet and miserable... :(

Coming out of Watford High Street station we were greeted with a sign to Vicarage Road being 3/4 of a mile...... :cry:

Heading back Soup Dragon very kindly got everyone 2 big boxes of much needed chips and Dr Who, Rob and myself were still considering Wembley despite being wet through and the spin of a coin came down tails about 6 times on the trot :shock: We did best of 3 best of 5 etc....

So back into Euston, Northern to High Barnet another wet walk to the car and home to bed.....

All in all a most enjoyable day and thanks to everyone that came along :D
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Soup Dragon »

And not to forget we were doing this for Sport Relief, so if anyone can spare a couple of quid please get online and sponsor the team! Many thanks.

http://www.mysportrelief.com/TeamPage.a ... Pref=en-CA
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by dudey »

Ah thanks for reposting that link Antony, I've managed to get together some donations from friends and family after limping around a bit from the knee injury i managed to pick up on the day. It made them see how much of a challenge the whole thing was!

Also, as I said to the group left near the end, I think it would be a good idea for us all to upload all of our photos of the day to http://www.flickr.com and then everyone can have a look through and we can also share our better quality pics! I'm just uploading mine right now, and when that's done i'll arrange it so we can all post ours into one big set....[/pretending to know how flickr works]
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by dudey »

Right, I think i've figured it out. Once you've signed up to flickr (doesn't take a mo and it's linked in with yahoo if you're already signed up with them), upload your photos, click the link below to the flickr group i've created, join the group and then you'll be able to add your photos to the group pool! It's not as complicated as i've just made it sound, honest!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/londonfoot ... challenge/

As for everyone who wasn't there, feel free to join the group and have a look at our pics!
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Dr Who »

Well I’ve Signed Up!
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Steeevooo »

Enjoyed the morning session that I participated in with you guys, I really should have stayed on for the rest of the day with you all in hindsight!
Glad that the quality of keepy-uppy improved, although, to be fair, it couldn't get much worse than our attempts at Barnet!
Just for clarification, the game was between our reserve side (featuring a few first team players) and our academy side, and the goal was scored by Paul Benson, the top scorer in the Conference last season.
Benno has also scored the best goal that I have ever seen live, away to Kidderminster on a Tuesday night last season, there's a video of his goal here: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... ID=6479888
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Going Underground »

Steeevooo wrote:Enjoyed the morning session that I participated in with you guys, I really should have stayed on for the rest of the day with you all in hindsight!
Glad that the quality of keepy-uppy improved, although, to be fair, it couldn't get much worse than our attempts at Barnet!
Just for clarification, the game was between our reserve side (featuring a few first team players) and our academy side, and the goal was scored by Paul Benson, the top scorer in the Conference last season.
Benno has also scored the best goal that I have ever seen live, away to Kidderminster on a Tuesday night last season, there's a video of his goal here: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... ID=6479888
Blimey how did he find the target from out there :shock:
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by Root »

He was clearly crossing the ball!
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by ping pon »

dudey wrote:Right, I think i've figured it out. Once you've signed up to flickr (doesn't take a mo and it's linked in with yahoo if you're already signed up with them), upload your photos, click the link below to the flickr group i've created, join the group and then you'll be able to add your photos to the group pool! It's not as complicated as i've just made it sound, honest!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/londonfoot ... challenge/

As for everyone who wasn't there, feel free to join the group and have a look at our pics!

I have signed up and uploaded some of my photos from the day :wink:
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Re: London Football Ground Challenge - for Sport Relief

Post by tangy »

It was a very enjoyable day and even though we fell severly behind schedule it was good to go pitchside at the grounds, a rare opportunity to do so.

Apologies for the slight mess up with the 295 bus, I hadn't been in that area for a few months thus didn't quite know where I was!!!

As for that NLL interchange at Willesden Junction, It pulled away just i got to the top of stairs! I subsequently dug out my timetable and found that it would of missed a Gospel Oak- Barking train by three minutes, thus wouldn't of made no difference!!!!

Agood day had by all, will upload my photos later today.
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