Some things never change - defeat again at Accrington

We have played Accrington Stanley six times since we made it back into the football league and I think we have only managed two draws against them in six matches and they were both draws at home.

Today we continued our good form against Stanley going down 3-2 in a one sided performance where we looked second best and not very interested. Stanley were worthy winners. This is disappointing as last weeks 3-0 drubbing at home to Morecambe and the lost of 3 points owing to the registration farce has brought the season to a very disappointing end. Thank god it's over and long may the summer last, I can't say I'm that keen on the football season returning.

A view from the Away End

We were one nil down after four minutes when Wil Antwi failed to take control of a very short pass by Bennett, the Stanley centre forward nipped in to slotted the ball past Ross Worner. Antwi had plenty of time to deal with the situation, in his defence he may not have known the Stanley striker was bearing down on him and calls into question communication on the field, who warned him  - no one me thinks.

This was doubly disappointing as we looked quite good for the first three minutes! On twenty minutes we found ourselves 2-0 down when the ball was headed in from a corner. We did not improve as the half proceeded.

The travelling AFC fans

The Away seating - not very much leg room!

The second half kicked off and we found ourselves 3-0, another header from a set piece, very poor. We pulled a couple back, a Midosn penalty and another goal which at the time of writing I have no idea who scored, in fact no one realised we had scored the linesman having given the goal. Maybe the football league show will show what happened but I won't be rushing to watch that! Kwesi Appiah in fact headed the goal from a Hylton cross.

A good turnout of Dons supporters given last weeks farce, no direct trains and our record away against Stanley P3 L3 F3 A9. So we end up fourth bottom thanks to the 3 point deduction and a lot of poor performances especially at home, awful attacking play, some crass personal defending errors and some poor tactically decisions by the Manager, and I know these things because I'm a football supporter and I've been to all the games!

Now what was that I was saying about seasons end, Tuesday's the London Senior Cup final!

Post-script I travelled to Thames Ditton to see the London Senior Cup against Met Police. Nice ground, nice bar, nice facilities and a good performance by the youngsters all under 21 apart from Chris Arthur and Seb Brown. A 2-1 win, but an awful trip home only one train a hour I finally arrived home at midnight.

Imber Court - London Senior Cup Final

Plymouth Awaydays - Sunday & Monday 20/21 April 2014

Easter Sunday

It's Easter and AFC are away at Plymouth, sounds like an extended Awayday to Devon!

So at about 09:15 on Sunday 20 April we set off, the weathermans forecast was for rain to commence at 10:00, and right on key it came and it duly rained all the way to Devon and beyond.


Rain on the M3

Beverley had made a packed lunch so on route we stopped off at Barrington Court, a National Trust property in Somerset, apparently one of the first they acquired in 1907. Apparently I t was a bit of a wreck, but they leased it to the Lyle family (of Tate and Lyle fame) who did it up and spent lots of money on it as their family home, laying out the gardens and installing bathrooms etc. The National Trust now present the property as if it was ready for sale, so no furniture, it's just like walking through a vacant property and deciding if you want to put in a bid.

Barrington Court



Strode Hall

Next to Barrington Court and joined by a corridor is Strode House, former occupants, and
formerly a stable block but now houses the Restaurant and living accommodation on the first floor.
The gardens were delightful even in the rain!

Next stop was Chagford, a pleasant former stannery town on the edge of Dartmoor. Apart from the cafés, bistros and restaurants everywhere else was closed. The primary objective for going to Chagford was to visit the Pepperpot Art Gallery where we regularly (well twice) purchase watercolours of the local area which have been painted by not so well known artists from the late 19th and early 20th Century, and over the last year we've become quite friendly with Richard the proprietor, however as previously mentioned it was closed, oh well that's saved me a few quid.



Chagford town centre

However, the Birdcage was open, this is a very charming bistro / cafe which we have visited before. Nicely decorated and with a good menu. Today we treated ourselves to a Cream Tea, Yummy very tasty, and the first cup of tea was a delight, the water is so much better than in London, straight off the moor!

We were actually staying near Okehampton at Sourton, last year we stayed at the Mill End Hotel near Moretonhampstead, this year we slummed it in the Travelodge!

Sourton Travelodge

You can't fault a Travelodge, you know what your going to get, and in this case a large room, a very comfey bed, bathroom, TV, tea making facilities and half an hours free wi-fi!  Given its close proximity to the A38 it was remarkably quite. The building it's self is rather unsympathetic with the surroundings, almost modern brutalist, sharing a plot with the obligatory Little Chef, however the Prewley Moor Arms was just across the road offering real ale and home cooked food.

That's the Pub across the A38, you can just make out the route people take under the broken fence

Unfortunately the road was a duel carriageway, the A38, and even if we choose to walk the 'long way round' there were no paths or pavements. The Pub is situated at the end of a road where the new A38 was driven through cutting the road off so it now leads to nowhere, must have done a lot for business. There's a small Caravan / Camping site next to the pub and the granite way runs behind, which is the route of the old LSWR mainline to the West via Exeter, Okehampton, Tavistock to Plymouth. Lots of talk of re-opening this line following the storms early in the year and the cutting off of the railway at Dawlish.

Anyway back to Prewley Moor Arms and the need for us to drive to the pub! We enjoyed a couple of pints of local brew, Dartmoor Ale and Legand from the Dartmoor Brewery based in Princetown. The food is all locally sourced produce, apparently we had to wait awhile for our food but to be honest I did not really notice. I had gammon, chips, salad and egg, the thickest piece of gammon I've ever had, a good 1 1/4 cm thick, whilst Beverley had beef lasagne. Very enjoyable. I think the meal, coffee and five drinks cost £40 (this really should be posted on Tip Advisor shouldn't it!).

Suitably fed and watered we returned to the Tavelodge, and it was still raining.

Good night dear see you tomorrow.

Easter Monday

After a marvellous nights sleep, we were up early and down to Meldon reservoir (I was quite surprised to night that the reservoir was not as full as I expected it to be) for a brisk walk down to quarry across the impressive viaduct that used to carry the railway and back to the car and a drive into Chagford for breakfast at the Birdcage, Full English, toast and black coffee.

Meldon Viaduct

Meldon Dam

Then next door to visit Richard at the Pepperpot, Beverley examined the paintings while I chatted to Richard, it turns out we both used to work for NatWest although Richard started with the National Provincial.

So much for saving a few quid we left Richard promising to return later in the summer, our wallets empty but clutching a couple of paintings by Frederick Parr

A few weeks ago Beverley had been where she shouldn't have been in eldest daughter's bedroom and unfortunately knocked over a butterfly tee-light which shattered into a number of small pieces and even my skill with the glue failed to repair it. So with the promise of a replacement we visited the Marble Factory at Bovey Tracey as this is where Eldest had originally purchased it, unfortunately we were unsuccessful, but we were reward with a Mini Cooper Rally!

Mini Cooper Rally at Bovey Tracey

I Don't generally drive to football preferring to travel by train, indeed I had originally booked a Travelodge in Plymouth City centre with this in mind, however with the prohibitive cost of the trains, even three months in advance and then the cutting off of railway I changed my plans. Whilst this has given us more flexibility I'm currently writing this on the A303 in a traffic jam approaching Stonehenge and still a good two hours drive to go, it doesn't seem quite a good idea now!

Anyway back to the Football, as I said I don't drive to many games and when I do I try to avoid the club car park on two scores, one they charge and two you can't get out after the game. So I parked up a little street twenty minutes walk from the ground next to a park, which I guess is also known as Home Park the home of Plymouth Argyle.

Home Park is modern and ancient, three sides are Cantilever continuous seating and very impressive too, whilst the remaining side is the original stand, with a huge empty unused expanse of terracing in front.

The Ancient

The Modern

AFC, despite what a number of our supporters would be believe are on quite a good little run, I think it's now only two defeats in eleven games and we are in the top seven or eight of the from league. Today was a well deserved 2-1 victory after once again going 1-0 down to a wonder strike from 25 yards by Conor Hourihane after seven minutes, but cancelled out by the ever popular Jack Midson after great work by Kwesi Appiah. We got the winner midway though the second half following a good move and for once one of our players winning a one on one with the Keeper, the scorer being Kwesi Appiah.

It was a great all round performance, so much better than the first half on Good Friday, we never really looked in trouble even when Argyle threw on two six foot plus strikers and when they did break through Ross Worner, our keeper, made some top notch saves.

We are now mathematically safe from regulation, but the division is so tight a couple of more victories would have put in with a shout of the play offs! So we can now enjoy the last couple of games of the season.

A very pleasant break, non stop for the two days, a lot achieved a lot of money spent, a couple of new paintings and three more points, shame about this damn traffic!

A Tornado to Southend - Saturday 12 April 2014

An early start today, up at 05:00 to catch the train to whisk me off to London Bridge on route to Kings Cross to catch up with the A1 Pacific Tornado which is on a charter trip 'The White Rose' to York. scheduled to leave at 07:48. My early start rewards me with a marvellous sunrise.

Sunrise over Falconwood Fields

My plan is to get close up to the engine at Kings Cross and then catch the 07:26 to Alexandra Palace where I can film the engine steaming through the station.

I visit one of the adjacent platforms so that I can get a good shot of the engine and coaches resplendent in Crimson and Cream, whilst the Tornado is lined out in a very catching Blue Colour, I expect it has a proper name! Behind me are a couple of East Coast Mainline Class 91's - 'The Power and the Glory' to use the title of a Eddie & the Hot Rods song.

I had time to visit the platform were the train was 'parked up', with the Class 67 at the back of the train where it had brought in the coaches meant that the Tornado was off platform so not ideal for photos but I managed a couple.

A1 Pacific Tornado at Kings Cross Station

I was quite surprised at how few people were there, maybe the early hour, mind you not many people had boarded the train at this time either. I've promised my wife a trip on one of these charter trip, First Class of course, one day dear, one day. Interesting to note that one of the Royal Train liveried Class 67's was on Thunderbird Duty

Ok off to platform 11 for the train to Alley Pally (Alexandra Palace) I arrive in plenty of time to find a good spot, there's a handful of 'enthusiasts' present, there 's a bit of sun haze but given the time 07:45 it's pleasantly warm. Whilst wandering up the platforms I spy a Class 08 in the East Coast depot adjacent to Platform 1, so I dash off to get some footage but end up going the wrong way and
by the time I get there it's disappeared, damn a missed opportunity, but I get my reward later in the day.

Tornado is scheduled at 08:01 but steams through ahead of schedule at about 07:59. The excitement is over in 38 seconds. See my video here.

12 minutes until my return trip to Kings Cross, film a couple of East Coast and Capital Connect trains and chat to an 'enthusiasts' who travelled down from Wellingborough at 05:15 this morning. He tells me Tornado was 8 minutes early passing Barnet, oh and he got some photos of the 08!

I arrived back home at about 09:30 ready to leave again at 11:15 for part two of my day - Southend
here I come!

AFC Wimbledon are away at Roots Hall home of Southend United, currently my least favourite ground. But first I need to meet Ron, we meet on the 11:37 at Falconwood make our way to London Bridge where I go into auto mode and end up going to the tube when in fact we want a bus!

First a couple of pints in the Merchant of Bishopsgate on Liverpool Street Station, quite a pricy pub but with my bite card I get 20% off which makes it cheaper than Kingsmeadow, sorry Cherry Red Stadium!

The Merchant of Bishopsgate, Liverpool Street Station

Then it's the 13:29 from Platform 14 to Prittlewell, ETA 14:30, after all I don't want to spend too much time in Southend. We meet up with Erik at Stratford. On route we pass the re-vamped Queen
Elizabeth Park aka the Olympic Park, apparently it's very impressive, so much so that Diamond 
Geezer has done almost a whole weeks worth of blogs!

The future home of West Ham United

As for the football, AFC gain a great 1-0 victory thanks to a Jack Midson penalty midway through the second half and we hold out for a very welcome victory in our fight to avoid relegation, although almost three quarters of the league are in the same position. The defeat puts a dent in Southend's play-off hopes. Even if they make the play-offs, which I expect they will, I don't think they will get promoted as they are not that good based on today's performance. So a return to Southend looks on the cards again, although Southend are hopeful of moving grounds. Already a number of buildings around the ground are bricked up in anticipation of re-development.

Jack Midson hits the back of the net - 1-0!

So it was a return to London on 17:32 a and I parted ways with Ron and Erik at Startford as I progressed to Liverpool Station Station