England & Brighton Home & Away

Saturday, 1 December 2012

Charity Gig Sunday 17th Feb

Charity gig for The Martlets and the Rockinghorse appeal

Bob McGarrigle is running the London Marathon for the Rockinghores, I am running it for the Martlets. To riase money (we need to raise a minimum of £1,500 each!) we have arranged a Charity Gig

The Green Door Store Brighton 4-10.30pm Tickets £10 Availble on the night or in advance from HERE Over 18's (if aged 14-18 please contact Bob here re restrictions)

The day will be hosted by Steve North (Londons Burning, Fever Pitch plus loads of Theatre shows and Mark Brailsford (The Treason Show) and of course perfomer in Brighton Til I Die

4-4.30pm Bella May Spinks

4.45-5.15pm 900 Spaces

Sponsored Hair Shave and Raffle

6-7pm 'Paul and Swill from The Men They Couldn't Hang plus guest Naomi Bedford

and more from Swill!

7-8pm Alligator Smiles

8-9pm The Piranhas

or try this

9-10pm Gross Magic

Thanks Mark & Bob

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

A v Sweden 14.11.2012

Tuesday 13th November
So after the short day trip to Poland that lasted 2 days, I headed to Stockholm for a couple of days but with just one night booked in a hotel due to a late kick off and an early morning flight home.

I left Gatwick around 1pm on the Norwegian flight to Stockholm, arriving around 5pm with the 1 hour time difference. I was going to get the fast train to the city centre but at 490 Kroner (about £49) for a 20 minute journey I decided to get the cheap stopping coach instead for about £20 return. It took about an hour and half to crawl into central Stockholm due to road works and the rush hour traffic.

The coach terminated at central station, so I dug out my map and soon found my underground hotel, yes underground hotel for my expensive night in a tiny room with NO windows, but yes it was nice and warm and en-suite so I was happy.

I was out on my own for this one as Liz is busy studying and Kev, Fiona and Michael would not be in Stockholm until the next day. The hotel had WIFI so I went on line and soon saw that Scott Shaw and his mates were in a bar about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, so I soon headed that way.

I met up with Scott and also bumped into Jonothan Greig and as the beer was only
around 59 Kroner a pint not too bad. Bumped into a few Southampton lads who
settled in for an evenings drinking. After a few beers we headed down the street to another late night bar and carried on drinking until the early hours.

Wednesday 14th November
I woke up reasonably late and after a quick shower headed out from the underground rooms to grab a breakfast roll and coffee for just a fiver, bargain in this city. I then decided for a stroll around old town.

After having the worlds most expensive coffee and mid morning snack (a bit of Rhubarb pie and cream) for just a mere £14, I decided to move back to the pub I had started in the night before.

I met up with Michael in this bar and after a home made burger and beers at 49 Kroner as it was happy hour (that lasted 6 hours!). I was drinking the local bre Three Towns which went down very nicely. Kev and Fiona arrived about 5pm into central station so we headed that way.

The Match
We stopped at the station before the stadium and met up with a mate Tony Simmo a Brighton lad who now lives out in Sweden. After another couple of beers it was time to catch the train to the impressive new looking ground

So now it was time to go into the ground, luckily this time the roof was on(as it was raining rather hard) as was the heating for a nice warm 20C. In fact it was a little too warm after only being about 3/4C outside. Shorts would have been more suitable than several layers of clothing.

Poland please learn - poring rain = roof on = game on

So after the official opening of the stadium it was on to the match. The horses and the flag wavers and the very annoying tannoy announcer left the picth and it was soon time for kick off.

Thursday 15th November
I woke up on the reasonably comfy airport bench about 4.30am, and at 5am we headed through passport control and the security checks. The Norwegian flight left pretty much on time, but arrived slightly late into Gatwick due to strong headwinds. I rushed through as I was interviewing that day at 11am, luckily there was a train within minutes to Brighton and one straight to Falmer, so within 50 minutes of landing at 9am I was in my office.Phew!

So thats it for 2012 and England away. Next stop San Marino and Montenegro double header with Sports Options.

Mark R

Other Pictures

The Local Trolls

The Very impressive new ground

2-1 up and looking good

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

A v Poland 16th errm no now 17th October 2012

The Old Town - Sunny Wednesday not the rainy Tuesday!

Blogger have changed the templates - so may take me a while to get this formatted correctly!

Tuesday 16th October
Due to a lack of holiday I opted to go on the Sports Options day trip from Gatwick. I met up with Garry and Terry at the airport and soon headed into the Weatherspoons air side with another Brighton lad Mark once we had checked in etc etc.

Our flight was 7.30am so the 6.30am beers went down suprisingly well. We had a traditional breakfast to help! It was soon time to board our Thomas Cook plane for the 2 1/2 flight to Warsaw. The first thing we got was another cooked breakfast :-))

So with the 1 hour time difference, waiting for the arrival of the Manchester flight it was about 12.30pm by the time we were dropped at the Marriott hotel, the ticket collection or englandfans sign in point.

We met up with Kev and Fiona and it was time for beers and vodka! We started in the expensive Sport Bar next to the hotel, but soon moved on. Michael another mate soon phoned and we met up in a small turkick restaurant bar. The Tykske (sp?) was a bit rough so moved on to the Lech which was nicer! The weather was starting to deteriate and we decided to jump in a cab to the old town.

We soon arrived and you get a fantastic view of the stadium from the main square - well you would have without the driving rain and mist! We settled down in the first bar under the nice big umbrellas, but even they struggled to cope with the rain and regularly dumped water onto unsuspecting people! We soon moved on to the next square and time for some food. It was great stuff and the local dark beer rather excellent! When we told them it was Terrys birthday they turned up at the end of the meal with a round of raspberry vodka shots and a birthday cake (it was Terrys birthday the next day but close enough!). We then moved onto a different bar and had a couple more beers before moving on again to a underground bar. Thats were it went downhill, one it was full of Palace fans and 2 they sold cheap shots of lemon vodka! After 1 or 2 or possibly 3 we moved back to the bar we had been in before and trapsed through the puddles and driving rain! Time for some "Christmas" vodka as we called it - think it was an orange flavoour variety reccommended by the bar man!

By now we decided we better head to the ground as kick off (mmmm) was only an 1 1/2 away. We jumped into some cabs and were soon splashing our way to the away end. Showing tickets for the ticket check and then to get in through the gates left it one big soggy mess in my pocket. We finally got into the away section to be greeted with a flooded pitch and the ****ing roof still open - what a joke. We knew then the game was off. We waited around getting more info from people at home than in the ground.

At 9.45pm (local time) when it was finally called off (after watching the fnal pitch inspection which saw the ref drop the ball into a big puddle and walk off) we headed back to the airport for those of us on the day trip and back to the hotel fro Kev and Fiona. The game was confirmed at 5pm (local time the next day) but that was no good to many people.

Oh really, pitch now a small lake, just call it off so we can get out of the ground!

A bit wet - heavy rain so lets leave the roof open!

So back to the airport and a ray of hope as Sport Opts asked for those that wanted to stay to gather. About 80 of us did but when they said they could get Jet2 back the next day but only to Manchester (then a coach to Gatwick) about half dropped out. This left 39 of us (probably the 39 who had drunk the most Vodka!), but hats off to Sports Opts as they said **** it we will do it, see you all at 9.30pm after the game tomorrow - £150 for the new flight! Done. Mark and I jumped into a cab with some other lads, we met his mates in a bar and we crashed on there hotel room floor.

Wednesday 17th October
Yuk, I woke up feeling not great, in a room with lads I didnt know, in a hotel that I had no idea where! Excellent stuff, bit like the old days of sleeping on the floor and massive hangover!

I thanked the lads for the room and walked the 5km back into town, the outskirts of Warsaw is very green and actually really nice. I soon met up with Kev and Fiona who had ditched there 4pm flights and they had also booked the Sports Opts flight back (in the end 99 returned on the flight so hopefully Sport Opts covered the cash they had risked!)

So this time it was a 5pm kick off and and still a glorious day so headed to the ground pretty confident it would happen this time. I think they said around 800 had remained out for the game (from about 2,500 the previous day), so 800 mainly badly hungover Engand fans watched us struggle to a 1-1 draw. Rooney put us 1up but Poland pressure paid off and Harts error gifted them the draw. The Match

The passionate home support

So final after the game we headed back to Kev and Fionas hotel, picked up there bags and we jumped into a cab to the airport. We were soon on the 9.30pm Jet2 flight to Manchester.

If only this just above Gatwick - at least its closer to home than Warsaw, well just !

As soon as we landed a coach was waiting and in the driving rain we headed towards Gatwick, We dropped various people incl Kev and Fiona on the junction nearest to Luton airport, next we dropped people at Scratchwood services and at about 4am arrived back at Gatwick!