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The toughest day of my tour so far

At Stoke and Port Vale. Two VERY different stadiums and after a couple of tough days I could really have done without this challenge! If Rome is built on seven hills, then Stoke is built on six! I must say that I have driven around Stoke off and on for 30 years but have never thought of it as a hilly city (like Bradford or Sheffiled) Wrong! I really struggled today.

It started well enough with a little trip from an overnight stay in quaint Wem, to a bank in Whitchurch it was truly exciting to see a “Cheshire” sign. Cheshire? Yes, the north of England and the home to Crewe Alexander. I have been to the famous Gresty Road stadium many times over the years and have always enjoyed my visits. Today was the first time I had arrived by bike. As you can see, I gatecrashed a wedding but nobody seemed to mind.

So, ground 15. (Almost one sixth of the ninety two!)

Things went downhill from there (or more accurately uphill) as I struggled with poor directions and steep climbs to the Brittania Stadium to the east of Stoke. It was definitely worth the frustration and sweat. It was the first time I had seen the new stadium and I have to say that I was MOST impressed. The photos probably do not do it justice but like Shrewsbury, Stoke City have abandoned an inner city ground that was showing signs of neglect for a great spanking-new and state-of-the-art stadium on the outskirts. They also have a new hotel on site and my tired legs were begging me to book in after I had completed ground 16. Sadly there was no room at the inn and with no manger either I continued to Port Vale’s stadium which like so much in the Potteries is at the top of a mountain hill. To be fair, it was very late and I was tired, hungry, thirsty and aching. My lack of excitement may well have had as much to do with that as with the fact that it was not one of the more impressive grounds I had seen. Nevertheless, number 17 is chalked up.

So, all I then had to was find a bed. Huge mistake! I spent nearly two hours cycling on towards Macclesfield where I eventually crawled into the Egerton Arms near Congleton. The owner showed me the room and he commented that I could hardly climb the stairs. He was right. I think he took pity on me though as he gave me a great offer and I clambered into bed without having to worry about busting the budget. Thanks, Allen. I will return and check the gourmet menu when I have completed the 92.

Today it was Shrewsbury.

A lot of miles for a very lukewarm reception. An early start from an overpriced “hotel” got me to Telford United’s ground. It’s not one of the 92 and despite waiting 15 minutes in an open office, I found nobody to talk to. It’s a VERY impressive new stadium with a full-service hotel built into the main stand and an example for other clubs.

From there it was on to the new Shrewsbury ground. I have to say it is a superb facility. It’s an out of town stadium purpose built with full conferencing facilites, a huge car-park and with an adjacent 6-a-side centre. It is also at the top of several hills. My brief explanation of the project to a bored-looking receptionist got me nowhere. My enquiry as to whether there was somewhere to get a drink, was even less successful. I was advised there was a Starbucks 2 miles down the road! Oh well, after Wolves every ground was going to be something of an anti-climax. Shrewsbury Town most certainly was! (Interestingly they appointed a new manager today, Graham Turner from Hereford. I mused as to whether he got a warmer reception LOL)

Anyway, I realised I needed to put in another 2 or 3 hours to ensure I got to a bank on Saturday morning, so I turned the bike right round and ventured from whence I came! 10 hours cycling for less than 10 minutes at the stadium. NEXT!!!!(which incidentlly was to be Crewe Alexander, then Stoke City and Port Vale.

A GREAT DAY FOR THE PROJECT

It is invidious to single out one day or one club but Day 22 was the absolute highlight of the tour. A chance introduction to a friend of Mel Eves quickly led to an invitation to visit the Wolves (and Gillingham) legend at the Molyneux! What an opportunity!

First, I had a great BNI meeting in Moseley where Steve Wall presented a Villa shirt, John Harris from Blackstar Tax Specialists presented a WBA shirt and Nic Beales kindly donated 500 printed business cards to the project. Thanks to all.

I popped in to see Sean at OneCall again where he proudly presented a company T-shirt that I wore immediately as it was very welcome in the chill wind!

I also had a timed appointment at Walsall but their press officer was not there, had left no message nor apology and has not called since. I’ll look forward to enjoying their defeats next season! Anyway, I did a small shoot with their pitch announcer so added Walsall as club 12.

Then it was a fast shoot across the West Midlands to arrive at the Molyneux with 2 minutes to spare. One more hill would have scuppered that!

It was a true delight to meet Mel who was the absolute perfect host. He had arranged the local media to be present and sure enough they were. Soon it was “lights, camera, action” as the Wolverhampton Star interviewed us both. I expected that to be the end of it but NO. Mel was keen to feed and water me so we strolled into the City Centre where we enjoyed first a coffee and then on to a Chinese buffet for what was the best Chinese I have eaten in years. We talked for more than three hours on all things “football” and the excitement of talking to a man who is so interesting and yet humble helped me forget my aches ….and the rain!

Mel was a legend at Wolves and he chatted about the great years there when he was a regular for 9 seasons. Then it was on to Sheffield United before winding down at my beloved Gillingham. Sadly time beat us but before we went our own ways, he ensured that I had a tour of the Molyneux. This was just the perfect end to a perfect day. Needless to say, Wolves will now be one of the clubs I look out for from now on.

Thanks, Mel. As one of the worst weeks of my life came to an end, you helped me get back on track and reminded me that there is always sunshine after the rain.

Wolves are club 13 and my “favourite” so far!

Nice Jaffa Cakes

Graham Perry (centre) organised a great day

Day 21 cannot be as good as Day 20 …. or can it?

It starts off with a telephone call from a hero of mine from the Priestfield, Mel Eves. Mel was a prolific goalscorer and a soccer legend with his home-town Wolverhampton Wanderers before he went on to Sheffield United and then my beloved Gillingham. He is now a partner of Geoff Hinsley who I met yesterday in a sports management company. He’s keen to meet, has a shirt and will make calls for me to his other contacts in the game. TOP GUY.

Shortly afterwards an email confirms meetings at both Wolves and Walsall. Fantastic.

A few minutes later Graham Perry is on. He has a contact at Birmingham City so although I have already been I’m off there again. TOP GUY

Whilst this is happening my great friend Dave Selwood from Spain is on Skype to organise accommodation in Bognor and to say he has shirts to send from Spain. He runs the best bar on the coast (my words, he is too modest) and has got all his customers to sign a FCTorrevieja Dot Co Dot UK shirt over the past few weeks and now it has to go off to South Africa to join the hundreds of other ones there. TOP GUY

Life is sweetl. All I need now is for Ana Obregón to say she she wants to swap shirts with me BEFORE the game!! Ana is the object of all true hot-blooded Spaniards’ lust and is even my avatar on some soccer forums! As you can imagine my interest in her is purely pedagogic – she was a marine bioligist before she became Spain’s hottest property! Check her on YouTube – fantastic mimic of Posh Spice after Ana’s supposed affair with David Beckham. Hilarious. TOP, TOP GUY.

Yes, it got better! Olivia from Orbit Office Supplies and Graham Perry /Steve Wall (sic) from Thei2igroup got me in with “the right people” at both Birmingham and Villa and sent out a huge number of emails and made numerous calls on my behalf. So off we went to meet Debbie Hayles (nice Jaffa Cakes) and John Healy the community coach who presented a City shirt duly signed. This was arranged by Birmingham’s football in the community officer, Dean Holtham who was himself an ex-pro. Yes, a shirt from City and flags at Villa ……. as well as a tour of the ground. Cool or what? Pitch is looking good and they are hopeful of a BIG season after last season’s success. Especial thanks to the guys in the security office who looked after us.

Later in the day I got a call from Sean at One Call He said he has a shirt for me and he invited me down to his office for a presentation. Thanks, Sean. (Pictured below with West Brom pennant)

I was also interviewed on BBC Radio to end a perfect day. Paul Franks had me as a guest on his “drive-time” and that is a busy spot listened to by hundreds of thousands.

Before I started Bjørn warned me to expect massive highs and lows. As a Gillingham fan I am used to that! Seriously, waking in a noisy dormitory with this for a view and with rain absolutely lashing down was not a great start but by 9am Ikhlaq was on the phone to say he had a signed shirt!

What a man! Yesterday he called to say that he could not meet but today he admitted why. He had been chasing around Birmingham getting signatures on his Team United FC shirt. Sadly he had to shoot off but he did say that he has also got signatures from their women’s team as well as Richard Sneekes. He is a Dutch player who was at WBA with great success and is now coaching in non-league football. Ikhlaq was kind enough to go to his home to get it signed. Ikhlaq, you are a star! Huge thanks. The sun is now shining on my day ……if not in the black Birmingham sky!

As I write this, Jim Peacock has just sent me the photo from my meeting with Gavin Shuker from Luton. Gavin is the youngest MP in the House of Commons and just one month ago was elected to represent Luton South. He is a local boy made good who even had Esther Rantzen lose her deposit. We met at the Icon Hotel where he is pictured with the hotel’s operations’ manager James Terzeon and Jim Peacock from TheBestOfLuton. He listened to me attentively for 20 minutes, accepted a Forget Me Not badge on behalf of the project and promised to follow Bjørn and I. So now we have football stars, pop stars, presidents and MPs! Most importantly, we have YOU! You make the hard yards softer! Thanks.

The afternoon and evening were equally exciting for the project. John Simpson in the WBA Media Department did us proud and West Bromwich will now be represented in South Africa. (Ground 11 ticked off…..81 to go)

In the evening, I was a guest at Warren Cass’ excellent Business Scene meeting at the Grosvenor Casino. Warren was kind enough to give me a speaking spot which was as welcome as it was unexpected. I met some excellent contacts with Warren promising to assist and after my presentation Lyndsay Gallagher (a top lady footballer) and Geoff Hinsley from Eleven Sports introduced themselves and promised to help. THANKS.

Then, a fellow Ecademist kindly drove all across town to meet and I had a very pleasant evening with the totally charming Lorna Allenwho was kind enough to record a video. Thanks!

To top an excellent day, a friend of mine called to ask whether I knew that a mutual friend had recently moved to Birmingham and whether I’d like Graham Perry’s number. “Of course, fantastic, thanks”. Minutes later Graham is on the phone and 30 minutes later he arrives with his partner Barbara and we put the world to rights, reminisce about our last meeting in Florida and generally have a good time. Graham has a video conferencing company in the city centre and is clearly well connected. He promised to assist and to bring others in to help too. If you want to know anything about video then I can recommend Graham. TOP GUY!

10 down, 82 to go!

The things one learns on a bike

Lesson One: Not everybody is fanatical about football. Strange as that may seem, it is clear that is a fact of life. The charming man in the Tourist Information had dreadful problems trying to locate Villa Park and St Andrews on a map of Birmingham. Strange as they are both Premeirship grounds where huge crowds descend every week. His directions were awful and I later found I had done double the distance I could have. I should have asked somebody with a Villa shirt on!

Lesson Two: Birmingham City’s St Andrews ground is at the top of a hill. I had never noticed that before! All previous visits to Birmingham have been in the comfort of a car or coach and so it came as a bit of a surprise to find how steep the approaches to the ground was! Never mind, it was good to get to the 10th league of the tour. Sadly, there was nobody there to welcome me but the photos below show that I made it to the summit and that (a) it rains in Birmingham and (b) I should not try to take photos without dismounting!

More good news for football fans. It looks as if a deal was done to save Crystal Palace today. Excellent. So let’s hope the action is ON the pitch next season. Always had a soft spot for Palace ….. even if their ground is at the top of a mountain!

Here you have photos of a locked up Palace training centre in Beckenham from last week, the two grounds in Birmingham and a rather snazzy Villa shop in the City Centre.

10 down, 82 to go!

I guess today could almost be seen as the beginning of the real cycling part of the journey.

As I packed this afternoon, I mused that the hard miles start here. I have to get from Birmingham to Manchester this week and as well as there being a pile of clubs to visit, there are also a lot of miles to cover. Unlike the first few weeks, I have few contacts in the area and so I am hoping that BNI continue to do me proud! I have no real base from hereonin and I guess this is where the “real” adventure starts.

Apart from visiting all the 92 grounds and 34 BNI regions, I must also visit all 136 Regus Offices in the UK and they will be my only base for the next 15 weeks. I take a Regus shirt from office to office. The staff sign it as I explain the project and then I have the opportunity to hot-desk, chill and have a coffee. I have been to a dozen so far and I have been treated extremely well at all the centres. Special mention though to Milton Keynes (Midsummer Boulevard) and Holborn Gate, London where this charming young lady welcomes you.

Today was a bit of a catch-up day and also a rest day for my aching legs! I started on the insurance claim but for the life of me could not remember every one of the hundreds of books that were in storage.

I also spent time thinking of all the many, many people who have helped me already. Some are very shy and some probably do not realise what their small act of kindness or their assistance to me meant. I will not forget them!

Firstly, a huge thanks to all who sent their commiserations and best wishes after the fire. It is appreciated. Please check me on Twitter and Facebook and you will see that many have been kind enough to drop me a line. Thanks all.

I also thought about BNI. They have been the bedrock of the journey so far. I have already visited 9 chapters and the support and encouragement has been immense from the smallest core groups starting in Kent to big chapters in Chiswick, St Albans and Banstead. My route takes me to 92 grounds and all 34 BNI regions where I have commited to visit at least one chapter in each region. In return the chapter offers me hospitality and sends me in the right direction for the day! Thanks all …… and ESPECIALLY to John Coupland in Bromley, Kent who has been my absolute saviour. He is a great ambassador for BNI and a true friend of the Shirt project.

Today was always going to be difficult after the news I received last night. It was a night of little sleep and much thinking. I woke up very unsure what to do but one thing I was determined was not to let my host for the day down. Jim Peacock is the local franchisee for TheBestOfDotCoDotUK and he had a busy schedule. I could not disappoint him.

I have to admit that I’m feeling a bit lost for inspiration as regards writing so I am delighted he wrote this great overview for his site. Thanks, Jim. It was a GREAT day and my faith in mankind was reborn.

Luton delivers for World Record ‘TheShirt’ Attempt

A couple of weeks back thebestof Head Office suggested I might like to help out one Steve Hall, who was ungoing an amazing world record attempt for refugee awareness…

Steve is cycling around the 92 league football grounds, plus a few others including Luton Town, collecting shirts in order to stitch them together to create a record breaking giant shirt for display at the World Cup. He needs a few things from charitable local people everywhere he goes to make this possible, I decided this was the very least I could do, so I made a few calls and before you know it, we had a great day planned for Friday 4th June.

Shockingly, the night before I spoke with Steve who had just received horrendous news – before he left his current home in Spain he moved ALL his possessions into storage – the storage facility burnt to the ground – he has lost almost EVERYTHING he owns. Incredibly, Steve decided to carry on and head on to Luton.

I met Steve Friday afternoon, we headed straight to join DJ C-Tip at Diverse FM, who gave us a couple of shirts and interviewed us on Drive Time. All the staff at Diverse FM are brilliant and it’s great to meet them (I’ll be on Diverse again in three weeks time to talk about thebestofluton).

Next stop was with David Hoskins, Commercial Manager at Luton Town FC who gave us a shirt signed by the team. David was fantastic, giving us access to the ground for a photo shoot (thanks to Yvonne Barton Photography for your help).

From there we headed to the two Regus offices, Steve is visiting every Regus building in the UK on this tour, getting one shirt signed at all of them. Finally we had a breather and stopped at the Icon Hotel, who put Steve up for the weekend FOC.

Walking down Wellington Street we dropped in on Mani who has moved Klassic Clothing from the Luton Market to a great new shop there, he gave us a shirt too (picture above).

Steve is no stranger to Luton, so we went for his favourite curry at the Alankar, the owner Dilip was a great host as ever, we also met Bina and Bronwen from Plain Talking HR and Gina from Contact Consultants – all donating some great shirts.

Steve is really pleased with the people he’s met and the support he’s received here – but it’s not over. PLEASE donate your shirts – call me and I’ll collect them, then you can see your shirt on the pitch at the World Cup in just a few days time.