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
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.
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.
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
). 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.
