Cost of Living Crisis?

It cannot be denied that we are currently living in a period of rapidly rising prices especially energy prices food prices and fuel prices. The rate at which these items have risen in recent months is incredible and is in my view more than the stated rate of inflation which is I believe is said to be around 10 percent now.

To read most newspapers or to listen to the television, they are telling us that we are in a cost-of-living crisis and that people cannot afford to eat, heat their homes, buy fuel et cetera. The news portrays a doomsday scenario that we are all suffering.

I wonder from my experiences if that is correct or not. It is no doubt the case that a lot of people are finding it harder to make ends meet. I am not for one minute suggesting that that is not the case. What I am queering is whether it is as much of a doomsday scenario as the media would have us believe.

Back in 2007 when the financial crash hit Britain, and the world. One of the things that I observed was overnight the “ boy racer” types were no longer driving their cars on the roads. You know the sort of person I mean with the souped-up cars speeding from traffic hold up to hold up and wasting fuel and burning rubber.

In fact, overnight in 2007 the number of cars on the road reduced whether during rush hour otherwise stop those were my observations from the many hours I spent leisure cycling and cycling to work each day in central London. Clearly in 2007 people certainly were not using their motor vehicles stop I believe the only explanation for that was that people could not afford to use their cars owing to the financial crash.

Let us look forward now to 2022 and the situation and now. I have not noticed any reduction in the volume of traffic on the roads since the early part of 2022, before the rampant inflation. Indeed, the roads are getting busier, both at rush hour, and more significantly on evenings and weekends when people are more likely to be out in that lecture time. It may well be that it is because of the time of year, namely summer, but the number of boy racers driving around the east London stroke Essex border area are increasing. There is a considerable amount of ridiculous acceleration from Bourne hold up to another and very wasteful driving scene. This would suggest that certainly at least amongst at that age group stroke title person they are not feeling the credit crunch and feel able to afford to waste fuel unnecessarily.

I accept that not everybody is in that position. However back in 2007 there was a rapid reduction in the number of people I saw driving compared to 2022Ulster

An even more significant feature, and warn that did not exist in 2007, are the number of Deliveroo / Just Eat type of delivery drivers. I noticed as I returned home from work this afternoon. There were seven such motorbike riders sat outside the local subway store waiting for orders to deliver. There were a similar number if not more outside the local McDonald’s. Outside of many fast-food shops, especially the chains there are always numerous delivery drivers. These drivers are regularly collecting and delivering orders. I appreciate the pay they receive is minimal and it is not an attractive job, and my comment is not a reflection on the delivery riders. However, people are obviously willing to pay to have food delivered to their door. If the situation were as bad as the media would have us believe, then even if people were able to afford takeaways, they would not be paying for them to be delivered. We have here but two examples of people spending money unnecessarily:

1. buying takeaways rather than cooking food themselves, which would be cheaper and

2. the fact that they are willing to pay for people to deliver that food to them rather than walking to the local shop.

This to me seems to suggest that the current cost of living crisis is not as bad as the media make it out.

I do not live in an area that could be described as posh with people on high salaries. It is an area with poor housing mediocre quality of health and some of the least financially well-off people in society. Despite this those around me seem to have money to spend unnecessarily on fuel by driving in a wasteful manner and they can both afford takeaway food and to pay for its delivery.

If the cost-of-living crisis was as bad as the media painted to be, then how are people able to afford to waste fuel and to not only by takeaways but pay for delivery of them rather than walking to the takeaway shop to collect them.

For some time now I have been volunteering and helping at a Community Food Surplus Hub which distributes food to people in the area. Whilst it is correct that since around March 2022, we have seen an increase in the number of clients attending, we have not seen the huge increase in numbers that might be expected from reading or listening to the media. Speaking socially with our clients, it is correct they are finding things harder now than they did before the cost-of-living crisis hit. However, from what has been said to me by numerous clients it is a case of finding things more difficult rather than not being able to eat at all.

Society changes overtime and whilst in the past even a household telephone was considered a luxury, today a mobile phone is considered an essential given so many things are only available online. However, when paying for Netflix, Cable TV et cetera people make choices of where their priorities lie. Certainly, living in London having a motor vehicle is not an essential. The public transport in London is exceptionally good, and cheap, when compared to elsewhere or alternative options. People may choose for their convenience to have motor cars. Some people may choose to buy football season tickets and other items that cannot be considered essentials.

It is also correct that some people cannot afford any of these things at all. I do not want to suggest that people are not finding things harder now than they did say 12 months ago. People are generally having to make choices and do not have as much disposable income as in the recent past. That is undeniable, but it doesn’t necessarily amount to a crisis.

However, when you look around this situation is not the crisis stop the media painted to me it is a difficulty rather than a crisis.

Down, Down, Deeper & Down

22 January 2022 Histon Fc 0 v 1 Chasetown FC

Northern Premier League Midlands Division

Saturday saw me visiting a new ground (for me), with a visit to The Glassworld Stadium, home of Histon FC. I went there on the day Leeds United were hosting Newcastle United in an FA Premier League game.

The relevance of this? Well, a few years ago, over13 years ago to be precise (November 2008), Histon FC hosted and beat Leeds United in the FA Cup 2-0. The following season, Histon finished 3^rd in the National League ( 5^th tier of football) and lost out narrowly to Torquay in the play off semi-finals. If they had won, the play offs they would have been in the English Football League. Sadly, for Histon these were their greatest achievements. They have not reached the FA Cup 1^st round since 2008/9 and by 2017/18 they had slumped to the 9^th tier of English football. They spent 2 seasons there before returning to 8^th tier for the 2 Covid abandoned seasons and this current season.

The fact Histon reached the verge of the football league is an incredible story for a little village / town on the edge of Cambridge. Even more so when Cambridge has two established clubs, Cambridge United & Cambridge City. Cambridge United recently went away to Newcastle in the FA Cup and won there [See how I neatly linked there back to Newcastle playing Leeds today].

What it has also meant is that Histon have a ground that is fit to host National League football, which is a class above most other grounds at this level. All four sides of the ground are covered. With covered terracing at both ends. Relatively simple Atcost style terracing of approximately 4 or 5 steps. The far side of the ground is all seated Atcost style stands. The Main Stand has a very similar seated stand next to it which also hosts the Cambridgeshire FA Headquarters.

The ground whilst a class above many grounds at this or even the 2 levels above, does show signs of neglect. The seated stand opposite the main stand has a number of broken, and unrepaired seats. The seats in this stand are also dirty. In one corner of the ground is a toilet block that looked closed, and above it sat what looked like a police observation box that had not been used for many years. With Histon averaging around 200 fans a game this season, its no surprise that the police box is not used.

At the back of the Main Stand is the clubhouse bar. This is rather small and not what you would expect from a club that had played for several seasons at the top of the non-league pyramid. I’ve seen a lot larger bars at many clubs playing at the 9^th and 10^th tier of English football.

There was only one catering outlet in the ground, which was more than adequate for crowds of 200. I presume that when they played at a higher level, mobile catering vans were used to dispense food and drinks. The club serve the usual fare, burgers, including ½ lb burgers with cheese and bacon, chips (with wonderful smelling curry sauce if desired).

Turning then to the football itself. The expectation was for a convincing away win. Histon were bottom of the table and Chasetown in 3rd place. The game started and after the first few minutes I expected a landslide win for the visitors. Every time they got the ball they cut through the Histon defence. However, Chasetown seemed to be unable to get shots on target, after doing the hard work of beating the last man and getting crosses in. After 12minutes, they did score what turned out to be the only goal of a rather drab game. Neither side seemed to want to score. It was rather dull affair, only livened up by a couple of incidents of handbags between the players over nothing. The Chasetown manager in reality should have been sent off numerous times over. His foul-mouthed abuse towards the referee and linesman was not needed and served no purpose. He seemed unable to speak without foul language. Perhaps he needs to be reminded that Law 12 provides that it is a sending off offence for:

“using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or action(s)”

Positives from the day were good spectator facilities, friendly people and a football ground in a lovely setting surrounded by trees on three sides. Apart perhaps from Macclesfield, this will be probably the best ground in Step 5 next season ( unless the Isle of Man get promoted)

A Visit To Park Avenue In Bradford & Then A Trip To Watch Bradford (Park Avenue) Play

After completing the 92 last week. I was back to watching domestic football this week. I. Went to watch Spennymoor Town play away at Bradford (Park Ave). I left it very late to book my train to get for this trip, so I ended up. Having to get the 0630 train from Kings Cross to Leeds. Which meant I was in Bradford by 09:30 on Saturday morning.

As I had such an early start from Kings Cross, I was there just before 6:00 AM unexpected the area to be very quiet with perhaps one or two people on their way to work. Coming out of the underground station I was surprised to see several gangs of youths milling about and various knife fights taking place between the different gangs. I heard barely a word of English between these gangs, and it was quite a worrying situation. I spoke to one of the door staff at McDonald’s who told me that this was a regular occurrence and that the police did very little about the matter. Further investigations suggest it is likely to have been fights between Bengali use based in Kings Cross and Somali Youths based in Camden. A lot of those taking part were high on substances and I suspect had probably been in the local nightclub which don’t kick out until 5:00 AM in the morning.

I got myself a coffee in McDonald’s and moved to the safety of Kings Cross station. There is a number of security staff on duty at Kings Cross station and an order of the youth seemed to attempt to come anywhere near the inside of the station.

For all my journey from Kings Cross to Leeds, apart from the last quarter mile, my train was running ahead of schedule (and yes, I am that sad that I monitor the progress of the train past every point on the route). Unfortunately, we were delayed outside of Leeds and arrived 5 minutes late. Ironically on the journey home the train was running slightly late all the way until the last stretch when it actually arrived in Kings Cross 5 minutes early

I made full use of the time I had in Bradford. I initially had a wander into the town centre to the local Wetherspoons pub for a breakfast. A sausage and Egg Muffin and a drink for two pounds forty was not to be turned down. Also, they were serving beer at 99p applied. The same as in Fleetwood the previous week. It would have been rude not to have taken Mr. Wetherspoons up on his generosity.

I had plenty of time to spare before my friends looking into profit, so I decided to go on visit Bradford’s old ground. The club have a long history, their predecessor club were in the Football League until approximately 1970 when they lost their place in the league and eventually went bankrupt in about 1973. That ground at the time was shared with the Bradford Cricket Club and unlike some grounds, the cricket and football pitches were separate. After Bradford Park Avenue went bankrupt the Cricket Club purchased the football ground and knocked it down. The old football ground now has cricket Nets on it and a gymnasium. there remains little of the old ground visible from the outside.

On Park Avenue itself you can see the old external wall of the ground and the bricked-up turnstiles. You can still see the old price marked on the wall next to the turnstiles showing as a pre decimal amount. Unfortunately, that is all that can be seen from outside the site. The Cricket Club have secured all entrances to the site with big metal fencing. Because it is the wintertime the Cricket Club is all locked up so very little can be seen from the outside.

One thing I did notice though was that in the wall of the old cricket ground you could see there had obviously been numerous turnstiles and ticket windows there. Bradford cricket club was used on several occasions by Yorkshire cricket club to host County Championship games and the ground was clearly quite a substantial ground in the past.

There being nothing more to see at Park Ave, I took a cab over to low Moor which is near where Bradford plays now. A few beers in a very nice pub called the British queen wait some of my fellow Spennymoor fans was in order. The landlord of the British queen is quite proud of drinks he serves and certainly serves a very good paint. I would recommend this pub to anybody going to watch Bradford play. Paragraph from this pub it is approximately a 10-minute walk to the can you ground that Bradford play out will stop the ground is a former athletic stadium which for current purposes consist basically of 1 seated stand, a large substantial stand that. Behind both goals at present there was just flat standing. On the far side of the pitch which housed the dressing rooms and dug outs spectators were not allowed.

Bradford have done the best they can with the ground. Because the main stand as a quite steep rake to it, you do not notice the running track around the pitch that much. Certainly, compared with around this area where Ilford play at Cricklefield and it is not a pleasant venue to watch football at. The same is not the case at Bradford. Paragraph the game itself was uninteresting game. Bradford is a well drilled and physical side but when they attack, they get lots of men forward and they know exactly what they’re doing will stop however they did not create that many chances and Spennymoor took the lead in the game add had by far the most chances. Bradford equalised through a penalty which couldn’t be argued with it was clear from where we stood but a foul had taken place.

After the game I had booked a taxi to take me back into the centre of Bradford. The taxi driver was not aware that Bradford existed. When I said I’ve been to a football match he thought I had been to watch Bradford City Youth or Academy team play. He was not aware that there was another team in Bradford. Bradford City are in the Football League in league 2. This means they are only two divisions above Bradford. It is quite sad that Bradford has so little recognition even within their hometown, especially when one considers the history of their predecessor club.

The taxi took me back into the centre of Bradford where I had about an hour and 3/4 to wait for my train. So, I did what most football fans would do and headed back to the Wetherspoons pub for something to eat and a few more beers at 99p a pint. I left just in time to get some drinks for the train home will stop got the train from Bradford into Leeds which was packed with football supporters. They turned out to be Orient fans who were heading from Rochdale back to London. I hadn’t expected the Orient fans to be travelling this way.

I eventually arrived home at approximately 11:00 PM at night some 18 hours after I had left my house as all football fans know you make sacrifices to follow your team.

92 Not Out & Nearly Not Home

On Saturday, I made the trip north to the FA Cup. First round tie between Fleetwood Town and Burton Albion. I do not support either of these teams and had little interest in who won the game. The reason for making the trip was to complete the 92 Premiership and Football League grounds again.

It has been a number of years since I had last completed all the 92 clubs. At the start of this season. I had five grounds to visit. Harrogate Town and Barrow came into the Football League last season and owing to Covid I never got the chance to visit them. AFC Wimbledon and Brentford had both moved Newgrounds last season and again owned COVID. I had not been to their new grounds but had been to their previous grounds. I visited all those four grounds earlier this season.

That left me with Fleetwood to do. They have been in the Football League for a number of years, but I have never managed to get to their ground. I tried to go several times in the past , but Northern Rail were having weekend strikes and it would have meant I may well have been stranded in Blackpool. Unable to get depressed and for my train home. Then COVID intervened. I was determined this time I was going to complete that ground.

When the draw for the FA Cup first round was made and Fleetwood were drawn at home to Burton Albion, that seemed an ideal opportunity to visit Fleetwood. I initially had to withhold from booking train tickets until the TV companies had decided which games they were going to show and whether this game was going to go ahead or not. When eventually. It became clear that this would be a Saturday 3:00 PM. Trip I booked my train tickets to Fleetwood. To get the cheapest available route. I had to go up. From London Euston to Liverpool. Then get a train from Liverpool to Blackpool and coming back. I had to travel from Blackpool to Preston and then take a train from Preston to Euston. The observant among you will have noticed, I said about train journeys to and from Blackpool. The reason for this is that there is not a train station in Fleetwood and has not been for many many years now. It was necessary to walk from Blackpool North train station to the sea front and take a tram from there. 2 Fleetwood. It actually turned out to be the best way of travelling. I could have taken the bus from Blackpool to Fleetwood, but as the Illuminations were on the bus on the way home would likely have got delayed in the Illumination traffic.

It was an early start for me to get to Fleetwood. I was on a train at three minutes past seven from London Euston. It was interesting to see how quiet. In terms of football funds, London Euston was to how it used to be in the past when I started travelling regularly to football matches. In the 80s there would always be mobs of football fans hanging around the station. There were none this weekend, partly because. There were not that many premiership games on, but even the lower level clubs. There were very few fans there.

The train journey itself up to Liverpool was rather uneventful, apart from as we arrived in Liverpool we went through but did not stop at Edge Hill station. That is a station about. Football fans will remember from years gone by. It was always the station about the football special trains. Stop that when you are playing at Liverpool or Everton. Also, sometimes the police will put buses on for away fans from Liverpool or Everton and make the normal service train stop specifically at Edge Hill to put you on the train and keep you away from the town centre.

Arriving in Liverpool Lime Street, it was like used remarkably quiet and the edge there used to be on football days was no longer there. The station has been modernised and. The biggest threat to your pocket this time was the prices in the coffee shops rather than the local population.

A quick change of train at. Lime Street and I was on my way to Blackpool. This journey was operated by Northern Trains. Fortunately it was one of the new Northern trains rather than their old decrepit trains. Paragraph we arrived into Blackpool on time and I made my way from the station down to the sea front too. Get the tram to Fleetwood. It is the first time I have been in Blackpool for several years. Blackpool has certainly suffered a decline in that time, will stop. It is looking very run down and very shabby. The one exception to this was the tram we got from. Blackpool to Fleetwood. This is a modern tram and much more comfortable than the old fashioned trams I remember.

Arriving in Fleetwood. I was early and decided I would head to the local Wetherspoons pub for a pint and something to eat. Walking from the tram to the pub. Along the High Street it was very noticeable how many shops had closed down and were shuttered. There appeared to be no big name shops in the High Street. Indeed at one point. 3. Successive shops were a cash converter type shop, a 1 pound bakery and a Bernardo’s charity shop. That sums up the level of shops in Fleetwood. However, it is probably fair to say that the majority of the shop premises were closed.

I went into the Wetherspoons pub and. Was pleasantly surprised at the prices. A pint of real ale for 99 pence is not to be sniffed at. I cannot remember the last time I was paying less than a pound for a pint of beer. I said that I had intended to have a drink and something to eat. At those prices, it would have been rude of me not to have several drinks before the game. I took advantage of the hospitality.

Eventually I had to drag myself out of the pub and force myself to go to the game. If it hadn’t been a new ground and my. 92nd ground, I could have been tempted to spend all afternoon sat drinking in the pub. I. Instead made my way. Along the deserted High Street towards the ground.

The ticket I had was an electronic ticket and it didn’t actually tell you where the turnstiles were to go into the ground. The stewards did not seem to know where the turnstiles were for the stand I was in. That is never a good sign.

I did eventually find where the turn start were an went into the ground. You will see the various photos of the ground. It is a modern looking ground now with covered standing at both ends of the ground and a big main stand down one side and. I seated stand of only six rows. Covering about 2/3 of one side stop. That was the stand I was in. It is called the hurry. Step by band are. The odd thing about this stand is that immediately behind it is the old main stand. As you can see from the photo stop. It is not clear. Why they built the new stand immediately in front of the old stone and. Why it has not been demolished. There is a suggestion that the old stand was left there in case Fleetwood wanted to redevelop that area in the future. They would be able to say that they were demolishing a structure and replacing it rather than wanting to build something. on land currently has no building on it.

The game itself was a game between 2 mid table League One sides who were relatively evenly matched. The game ended with Burton winning 2-1. It was actually an enjoyable, hard fought cup tie. However, 20 minutes or so of the second half was played in some of the worst conditions I have seen in a long time. Very heavy rain and strong winds. It was actually. quite funny at the end of the game over the pa system they played the Travis song “Why Does It Always Rain On Me”. That about summed up the afternoons weather.

I made a sharp exit from the ground at the end of the game and got the first tram from Fleetwood into Blackpool. This gave me time to get something to eat, found a few beers for the train. It actually cost me more per can in Sainsbury’s then I was paying per pint in the Wetherspoons pub will stop. I did however, get sorted and onto the train from Blackpool to Preston, where I had to change for the train back to London.

I did even manage to sneak a peek at the Illuminations. The real highlights of the day

We arrived in Preston on time, only to hear an announcement over the PA system that the London train had been cancelled with no further information provided. No help was available for passengers as to how to continue their journey. All the Avanti West Coast staff seemed to have disappeared. The Travel Centre was closed and There were around 200 or so passengers trying to head back for London on that cancelled train. A lot of them were Horsham Town FC supporters who had been to see their team in the FA Cup at Carlisle that day.

No, thanks to Avanti West Coast. I worked out the quickest way back to London. Involving a couple of changes of train and arriving home an hour and a half later than expected. It is good to see, that despite privatisation the railway still do not run a service for the benefit of the customers. The only positive is I will get a full refund of my return portion of my train ticket.

I have now completed the 92. Ground and have completed nine out of the top 11 grounds in the National League., so hopefully. I will not have to do many grounds if any next season try. Membership of the two group. Paragraph. I suppose now I will have to find another obsession and another excuse to go to varying football grounds. I have completed 17 out of the 23 National League grounds, so I suppose I should look at trying to do the remainder of those in the near future.

The Emperor’s New Clothes & Other Hypocrisy

So as the COP 26 climate change conference opens in Glasgow, and we are repeatedly getting messages about global warming and what needs to be done. I thought I would just have a look at some of the seemingly contradictory things that are being said.

Firstly, I would say that I am not in any way a climate change denier. Climate Change is happening there are so many examples of that that it would be unrealistic to suggest there isn’t some form of climate change.

It is also clear that we do need to take drastic actions to reduce our climate changing behaviour and to reduce our personal carbon footprints. However, the actions we take need to be realistic and proportionate. A couple of examples that concern me about things which in their own sound fine but when taken together with other factors make them in my view unrealistic are as follows.

Electric Cars

From 2030 petrol and diesel engine vehicles will not be sold in the United Kingdom. We are going to have to buy electric vehicles from their north quite clearly there will be a lot after that before electric vehicles are compulsory there will be a runoff period from 2030 when people still have petrol- or diesel-powered cars because not everybody could afford to buy a brand-new car.
My concern about electric cars is where is the energy going to come from to power these vehicles. Yeah, I hear you say the energy is going to come from electricity, but go back one step further where are we going to get the electricity from?

At the present time we have only just managed to supply the current demand for electricity in this country new power stations are needed they are not being built. Every time a new power station is proposed we end up with delays of years owing to public inquiries et cetera nobody wants a power station built near them. The environmentalist will say that we should be using solar power wind power or wave power. However, when any of these schemes are proposed others object to them and progress is painfully slow. Given the lag between proposing a new power station and it being operational we are not going to have these power stations in place by 2030.

Domestic Heating

When you are in the issues around domestic heating supplies the situation becomes even more unrealistic. The government are saying that all households will have to install heat pumps to replace bare gas boilers in the future stop these heat pumps will either need to be ground source heat pumps or air source heat pumps. Leaving aside the costs of the pumps for the moment [I will come back to this at a later point in this blog close brackets. The heat pumps are not able to supply all the heating needs for a house, especially in cold weather. Also, it takes quite some time for the heat pump to produce enough extra heat 2 raise the temperature in your house. It is not like a gas boiler where you were just the thermostat and the room heater almost instantaneously.

To overcome these problems, it will be necessary for people to have an additional source of heating in their home, namely electric heating.

Now every house that currently has a gas boiler also needing an additional electric heater is going to provide considerable extra strain on the power stations in this country. New partner you may of course remember in the previous section about electric cars I raised the issue of providing the power for those cars. Now not only do we have all those cars to provide electricity to charge, but we also need huge amounts of electricity to supplement the output of the heat pumps.

As I have said previously there simply is not the capacity in this country at the present time to achieve this. It should also be borne in mind that we currently already must import. a huge amount of electricity into the UK. I understand the amount we currently import is 24,556 giga Watt hours of electricity. This predominantly comes from France via. Undersea cable.

However, it should also be borne in mind that France is going to have similar problems to the UK, namely switching to the use of non-fossil fuels. It is reasonable to expect that the French will have more demand for their own electricity and will therefore be unable to supply unlimited amounts to the UK.

Also, is it worth being so reliant on an overseas nation for our energy supplies. We are currently seeing the French threatening to detain UK fishing boats and blockade port if they don’t get their own way. By increasing our reliance on the French for power supplies, we are giving them increased power. To dominate the UK.

Costs

The next issue that concerns me is. The whole issue of cost. At the present time, an electric car costs upwards of 30,000 pounds. That is out of the price range of most people. I appreciate that the cost of. Electric cars are likely to come down over time, but until that cost does come down, people are not going to be able to afford electric cars.

At present. Driving an electric car once you have paid the purchase price, is relatively cheap because there is no fuel duty on the electricity you use. However, as more people move towards electric motor vehicles, The government will lose out in huge sums of money that they currently get from duty on petrol and diesel. These sums will have to be replaced. The government is not going to be able to suddenly take a huge drop in income given the services they must fund. Effectively all the money the government pay out for services is taxpayers’ money and must be raised in taxes from somewhere.

If the Chancellor gives with one hand, he takes away with another.

The net effect of this is that we will almost certainly have road pricing in the future, I.e., Charging per mile driven, whether that is only on major roads which all become toll roads, or whether we all must have some form of black box device in our cars remains to be seen.

In relation to heat pumps, they. Can cost at present. In the region of 6 to 10,000 pounds or more. If you have a ground source heat pump, then there is considerable cost. In installing the necessary underground piping. That of course assumes that you do have sufficient area to install that piping. Most homes in this country probably do not have sufficient outside area that could be dug up for the paving to be installed.

However, that is not the only cost involved with. Heat pumps. As I mentioned earlier, they do not heat a house as well as. Gas or electricity stop. The. Homes need to be fully insulated. This again is a significant cost for a lot of people, especially those with older style homes. Homes will also need to be triple glazed too. I’m sure they are more efficient. Finally. The size of radiators in the home will also need to be increased. This. As a significant cost again. It may also be that. Houses need under floor heating which. Will be a Hitchcock used.

The government recently in its statement on Green Energy stated that it would make grants available towards these costs. However, they are. Only making 30,000. Grants available per year of up to £5000. Those grants. Over three years will only amount to 90,000 homes. Whereas we have over 60 million people living in this country. The £5000 grants will also not even cover the cost of a heat pump, let alone the installation new radiators, new insulation, under floor heating etcetera

The cost simply of moving to electric cars and to heat pumps to heat homes. Ah, far outside. Most householders’ ability to pay. If people cannot pay. What are we going to do? As I mentioned earlier. The government money is your money, so it is not simply the case that the government can pay for this to be done. It seems at present we are legislating, so that people will no longer be able to have their own motor vehicles and will be back to Victorian times with no heating in their homes. In fact. it will be worse than Victorian times because people will not be able to burn a fossil fuel to keep warm full stop

I have not even mentioned the effect on the economy. Look at all the HGV vehicles on our roads. The cost of electric HGV vehicles will be incredible. The transport companies will have to pass that on to the consumer and thus we will end up with huge increases in. Transport costs and therefore huge increases in prices of goods. This is on top of the increased cost. Everyone is going to have for buying electric cars, installing heat pumps, running those heat pumps, et cetera.

The reality is that the current green proposals are a bit like the Emperor’s New Clothes. It is simply talking. Everybody is getting carried away with things that in reality do not work.

Yes, we need to move to more environmentally friendly methods and processes. It is no good moving towards more environmentally friendly methods and destroying the economies of the world to do so. There must be a balance between. Climate change prevention and not destroying. The economy and society with it.

Any proposals made need to be ones that are. effective and can work. At present. It seems that nobody is thinking about the effectiveness of these ideas. It is great to say we need electric cars or that we need heat pumps, but without the infrastructure to support them or the ability to pay for them, it is a nonstarter.

Insulate Britain, with their protests, are demanding the government pay to insulate every home. What is not being asked is where that money is going to come from. As I have said previously. The government do not have does not have money of its own. It is. Your money that is raised via various taxes. Protesters always seem happy to spend other people’s money.

Overseas Aid

Another theme that was being discussed in the media. Today was that developed nations. Need to be giving huge amounts more aid to developing world countries to enable them to install. Green facilities. Again. The question must be where is this funding coming from?? As we have already established, the cost of electric cars, heat pumps, insulation, et cetera in the UK is huge and is going to be crippling. Where is the extra money going to come from to pay? For similar. Cost in third World countries?

We do need to act. However, action needs to be action that is not going to destroy our society.

People to stop and to take a realistic look at what is being done and what realistically can be done rather than jumping on the bandwagon of the latest green initiatives proposed by some academic.

Some very small changes that we should be talking about are things like for example:

Stopping FIFA and UEFA from expanding European and world football competitions. We are seeing, for example, UEFA increasing the number of teams playing in the European Champions League. Those teams are flying across Europe, every week of the football season. Now, that is doing horrendous damage to the environment. A simple way around that would be to have the European Champions Cup played over a month in one host country. That way, all the teams taking part would need one flight to that country and would be based there for the period.

I notice that no. Commentators are. Caring to take on the football authorities. They are too powerful, and football is too popular to try and. Forced to change.

I notice in the recent budget the government reduced air passenger duty. Four flights wholly within the United Kingdom. This on the face of it, seems a strange. Policy when we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint. We should be encouraging people too. Travel in the United Kingdom via more green methods, e.g., the railways. I do not know the logic behind. This moves in the recent budget. It seems at odds with the government other pronouncements and. Suggest a luck of joined up thinking.

We still see. The very rich. And famous flying by private jet around the world for holidays, weekends, away and other. Jones. Nobody seems to call those people out.

Football teams, for example, often fly to warmer climate during a break in the football season. Again, unnecessarily increasing the carbon footprint. In fact, recently, I understand Manchester United flew to an away league game at Leicester! Yes, flew! No one is calling this waste out, but instead you are expected to bankrupt yourself to pay for a heat pump that won’t heat your house.

Again, at this time of year we will start to see lots of houses covered in thousands of Christmas lights and other decorations. The same BBC and ITV News programmes that berate us all year over our carbon footprints and lecture us on what we need to do to save the environment, will be running features, about how wonderful these houses look. They are praising the householders for doing so. What about the extra electricity being used? All those lights are increasing our carbon footprint. Why are we praising people and celebrating people wasting Electricity?

First Hat Trick in a While

No, I have not taken 3 wickets in three balls at the Twenty 20 cricket, nor have I scored 3 goals in a football game. The hat trick I am referring to is doing 3 games in 3 successive days – and all at different grounds and in different competitions.

Taking advantage of the last three days of my leave from work, and the unseasonably warm evenings, I decided to get myself out and watch some local football.

Monday 25 October 2021
Barkingside Fc 1 v 0 Buckhurst Hill Eastern Counties League Division 1 South (Step 6)

This was a night of firsts for me. My first trip to Cricklefield Athletics Stadium this season, and my first time watching Buckhurst Hill play.

I say a trip to Cricklefield. It was more like a gentle stroll. The ground is less than a mile from my home, so I had a stroll down there. Getting my steps count up for the day as well! both Barkingside FC and Ilford Fc play home games here. You may think I am lucky to have a ground so close with two teams playing there. The reality is that this is one of the worst venues to watch football at. The pitch is inside and athletics track, with the spectator facilities outside, so you are effectively a long way back from the pitch.

Now, the pitch, that is another thing. It is very uneven and very hard to play good football on as you can never be sure the ball will not bobble up at an unexpected or inopportune moment. to make matters worse, it was a floodlight game. The floodlights here are not the best, and are very uneven in their distribution of light. I’m not an electrician, or qualified to test lights, but I do not believe the light distribution is consistent enough to pass the relevant ground grading

Admission is £7 ( no concessions now at Barkingside), but you do get a programme included with the admission price. I took my seat in the Main Stand ( ok, only stand) and spoke with the usual groundhoppers. Barkingside try to play their home games on a Friday or Monday to attract groundhoppers when there is little competition. It is a policy that works. Tonight the crowd was 115, far more than when they play on a Saturday.

The visitors are in their first season at this level and are a rapidly growing club. They were formed as a junior club in 1985 and are in their 1st season at this level. The club seem to have very good foundations, including rarely for London, owning their own ground. They are challenging for promotion from this league and had a great 5-1 away win at Great Yarmouth on Saturday in the FA Vase.

Given the uneven state of the pitch, it was not going to be a footballing classic. The game itself was relatively even until Buckhurst Hill took the lead, then added a second. At 0-2 it was game over I thought, until a great goal almost immediately from Buckhurst Hill made it 1-2. That however was the highpoint for Barkingside as they eventually sucumbed to a 1-6 home defeat.

I would expect Buckhurst Hill to be in the promotion fight at the end of the season. Barkingside? Staying in this division will probably be the best they can hope for. Its a shame as its a friendly club and Jimmy the chairman does wonders to keep the club going.

I always enjoy my visits to watch Barkingside

Tuesday 26 October 2021
Waltham Abbey 0 v 2 AFC Dunstable Southern Premier League Division 1 Central (Step 4)

Tuesday and I decided to head to Waltham Abbey for a change. Its a venue that I like to attend. It is a smart ground, if simple, but always looks very neat. The fence around the ground and the pitch fence are always in impeccable condition, as is the pitch. Spectators on the far side and the far goal have a simple concrete walkway to spectate from. Behind the near goal is a covered small terrace and a seated stand, and down the other side is a seated stand and a small covered standing area. All very simple, but well maintained, smart and functional. I suspect if Waltham Abbey ever got promoted, they would need to do little to meet the higher ground grading. They have even tarmacadamed the large car park during the period since my last visit.

Sadly, Waltham Abbey are not a well supported club. They have only had one gate over 100 this season, which is poor for a step 4 club. Tonight the attendance was a second three figure crowd, with 105 there for the clash with promotion chasing AFC Dunstable.

Free car parking, and a reasonable admission price of £8 is seemingly not enough to attract more people from the local town. This despite their also being a rather decent clubhouse at the ground.

The first thing I notice on entering the ground is that a bit like Aveley on Friday there is a new electronic scoreboard. Also a bit like Aveley, they appear unsure who they are playing. The scoreboard announcing the visitors are Biggleswade. clearly geography is an issue in the Home Counties.

I am pleased to say that by kick off time they had realised they were playing AFC Dunstable.

The first half of the game was largely forgettable with a lack of excitement, until the 39th minute when AFC Dunstable took a probably deserved league. The second half was largely the same, especially after AFC Dunstable had added a second goal to make it 2-0. Like on Monday night, I expect the visitors to be challenging for promotion at the end of the season.

Wednesday 27 October 2021
May & Baker 0 v 2 Saffron Waldon Town Essex Senior Cup ( Step 6 v Step 5)

A third game in successive evenings. This only came about as a result of circumstances. Normally on a Wednesday I help out at a Food Surplus Hub helping to distribute food and reducing landfill waste. This time, I could not remain at the charity centre after dropping off 300+ meals as I was taking part in some development scheme in relation to road signs. It so happened this research finished at 1900 and was in Dagenham, so only about 5 or 6 miles from Aveley, where May & Baker play there home games. I like it when things fall into place

May & Baker are the former works team of …May & Baker a pharmaceutical company. They had a large plant in Dagenham which closed in 2000, but the social club and sports teams continued. By a twist of fate, the research I attended was actually on the site of the old May & Baker plant.

M& B are the 3rd team to share at Aveley, along with Grays Athletic. This means that Aveley usually play weekend home games on a Friday evening. The ground at Aveley is far better than most if not all step 6 teams in the rewgion. A great 3G pitch and good spectator facilities make it a favourite of ground hoppers.

Getting to the ground and paying the £5 admission fee, the first thing I notice was the rental M&B pay obviously does not cover the use of the electronic scoreboard there. There was a small crowd there, which was to be expected for a county cup tie against a team from the north of the county and a host team that do not represent an area and play a few miles from their base. The crowd was 58.

The game was a very entertaining one in which M&B pushed their higher ranked visitors close. A goal in either half put Saffron Waldon town 2 up and surely cruising to a win. However, their inability to close the game down allowed M&B to pull one back 10 minutes from time and made for a nervy last 10 minutes for the visitors. M&B hit the woodwork 3 times in the game and may feel a little disappointed not to get anything from this game.

Friday Fun

Aveley 5 v 3 Maldon & Tiptree Isthmian League Division 1 North

After a pretty crap week, I decided to get myself out today (Friday) and be more proactive, so I spent the morning volunteering at a local community surplus hub offering free food, home essentials, clothes, toys without assessment or referral to anyone that needs it. I normally help out on a Wednesday but put an additional shift in today.

It is a very simple idea, to ensure surplus foods are distributed to the community. We collect surplus foods from local supermarkets, bakers etc and distribute it to anyone who calls at our sites. Additionally, we often have food from large distribution companies, toiletries, 2^nd hand clothing etc.

No one is means tested. There are no hoops to go through and clients can choose what they like, unlike most foodbanks which give clients pre-prepared packs whether the client wants or needs the foods.

It is very cathartic to help out at a place like this and to provide help to those who find themselves in need. It is also heartening to speak to our clients and see how much they appreciated the help given.

So that was my morning and early afternoon taken care of. Arriving home, I did something I have been putting off for a while and cleaned my bike and the chain. I’m not sure why I have been avoiding doing this task. It seems to be the story of my life – putting things off for no good reason.

This evening saw me attending a Friday night football match for the first time in ages. I cannot go tomorrow as I am doing something with the community surplus hub, so for my weekend football fix, it was down to Parkside at Aveley to watch then host Maldon & Tiptree in an Isthmian League Division 1 North game.

Parkside at Aveley is a venue I have visited many times since Aveley moved there a few years ago. However, most times I have been there has been to watch either Grays Athletic or May & Baker who groundshare there.

Aveley moved to a new ground 4 years ago after selling their old ground nearby for housing. I always loved the main stand at their old ground, but the whole ground had become rundown.

The new ground has been very well designed. As well as the main pitch, there is land around it used as other football pitches. The main pitch is a 3G pitch, which enables it to be used as a home by 3 sides.

The ground is rather effective but also very simple. It has a main stand which has a clubhouse available for hire and also a smaller secondary bar at the other end of the stand. On the opposite side of the ground there is a small, seated stand and behind each goal there are two small covered terraces. The rest of the ground is simply hard standing around the 3G pitch. There is plenty of space to redevelop the ground if necessary if Aveley were to move up the leagues.

The idea of having two separate bars in the main stand is proving to be a money earner for the club. Tonight, for example the main bar was booked out for a private function. I presume this was booked before the game on the Friday night was arranged. By having the second smaller bar it meant that Aveley were still able to earn an income from those going to the game who wished to have a drink.

The game itself is between two sides that were doing very well prior to the lockdown. Three seasons ago Aveley had a run in the FA Trophy reaching the quarter final stage. Maldon and Tiptree two seasons ago had a stunning win over Leyton Orient in the FA Cup. But there were four divisions between the two sides. Maldon deservedly won the game.

This season however neither side are doing as well as could be expected. Both sides are in the middle of the table. From this I was not expecting a particularly exciting game. However as there are no other local games on tonight this was Hobson’s choice.

Arriving at the ground and paying my £10 admission I noticed they now have a new scoreboard at the ground. That was a cause for surprise as the scoreboard showed that Aveley were playing Uxbridge tonight. I could have sworn they were playing Maldon. Eventually somebody realised this, and the scoreboard was corrected. Being a Friday night game there were quite a few groundhoppers at the game and this was a chance to catch up with people I haven’t spoken to for some time and make plans for future games.

The first half of the game showed Maldon take a three-nil lead. You may think that this was a one-sided game. It wasn’t the difference was Aveley took the three chances they had and scored them whereas Maldon wasted every chance they had. If the score had been level at half time it would not have been an unfair reflection on how the game had gone.

Second half of the game saw Maldon score early on to make it 3-1. Was a comeback on the cards? After more Maldon pressure, Aveley scored again to make it 4-1. Then another Maldon goal made it 4-2 before Aveley added a fifth. Act 5-2 the game was surely over. However, with virtually the last kick of the match Maldon scored again to make it 5-3. That last girl was so late that I had already taken a photograph of the scoreboard showing the score 5-2 with 90 minutes on the clock.

A thoroughly entertaining game with eight goals and my first local non-league fixture for some time. It was good to get out and to meet up with fellow groundhoppers. It was also far more enjoyable than most premiership or England games I have seen for some time. Both sides were committed played with passion rather than playing simply for money. It is good to get and watch live football.

ANARCHY IN THE UK

Anarchy for the U.K

It’s coming sometime and maybe

I give a wrong time, stop a traffic line

Those of us of a certain vintage will remember the classic from the Sex Pistols. (Scary to think it is 45 years ago next month -26 November 1976- since it was released)

The lyrics, an extract of which I quote above are rather apt when thinking of the current protests by the Insulate Britain group, especially the bit about stopping a traffic line.

Now, before I go any further, I should make it clear that I am not expressing a view as to whether the cause Insulate Britain are in favour of is a cause I support or not. This article is about the tactics used and the hypocrisy of these tactics.

This group and their supporters seem to think they are justified in breaking the law because they believe in the cause they are protesting about. Interestingly you will note they are not breaking laws they believe are unjust or unfair as the Civil Rights movement in the USA did especially in the 1950s/ 1960s. They are simply choosing to break whatever laws they like with the intention to cause maximum disruption to people going about their normal lives whether those people agree with the Insulate Britain cause or not.

Is this not what anarchy is? Ignoring laws and breaking the law to suit your purpose? Whether we like it or not, we live in a society which operates according to rules and norms.

I wonder what those supporting Insulate Britain would say if someone targeted their homes/ possessions and burgled their property claiming they (the burglar/ thief) passionately believed they should have more possessions and were therefore justified in taking the possessions of the protestors?

I’m quite sure those Insulate Britain protestors would be demanding the law of the land be upheld and the burglars/ thieves be prosecuted as their actions were against the law.

Can anyone see any hypocrisy in this?

How about direct action? The Insulate Britain protestors argue that they are justified in taking action that breaks the law because:

I) They passionately believe in their cause

ii) The situation is so serious it justifies direct action

Well, I am sure the Insulate Britain protestors will be equally happy that members of the public take direct and forceful action to remove or restrain the protestors, after all:

I) The motorists believe in their cause e.g., to go to work, take children to school or to go to hospital etc etc

ii) The situation is so serious it justifies direct action as the roads are being blocked and the obstruction in the road needs to be removed.

I am not so sure that any protestor forcefully removed from the road would refuse to appear as a witness in an assault trial against anyone who removed them from the road.

Response To Insulate Britain

Now let’s turn to the actions of the authorities in response to this group. Firstly, as I referenced in an earlier post, their actions could be seen to be acts of terrorism. The CPS definition of terrorism is:

Terrorism is the use or threat of action, both in and outside of the UK, designed to influence any international government organisation or to intimidate the public. It must also be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial, or ideological cause.

On that definition, you might expect tough and swift action to be taken against Insulate Britain, but to date it’s been a rather muted response.

In the early days, the police were seemingly acting to protect the protestors and to prevent the public clearing the roads.

Contrast this behaviour to the way police act when football fans cause disruption. If football fans are causing obstructions, they are rapidly and often forcefully removed, arrested, and often charged with offences. If bailed they face very restrictive bail conditions.

In the early stages, the police were not arresting the protestors and allowing them to break the law at will.

Even when that changed, and the police did start to arrest people, they were either releasing under investigation or without bail conditions, despite the protestors avowed intent to return to the scene of the protests and carry-on law breaking.

The police seem to think they are limited to charging relatively minor non-imprisonable offences and seem to have ruled out Conspiracy charges from the outset. Its obviously just chance that the same group of people choose totally independently to turn up at the same sites at the same time!
Its almost as if the police seem to be running scared of tackling those breaking the law in these protests. The police will blame the CPS and vice versa. Whenever there is seen to be a real problem, the CPS and Police work together to tackle the response – e.g., major outbreaks of public disorder or football violence.

Injunctions

The next response to the protests was to use the civil law to obtain injunctions against the protestors. This would mean anyone breaking an injunction could be dealt with for contempt of court and face a penalty of up to 5 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

The seeking of injunctions was a positive step towards dealing with the law breaking and deliberate disruption to innocent people. However, the government lawyers sought injunctions that only prevented Insulate Britain blocking the M25, so what did Insulate Britain do? Yes, you’ve guessed, they moved to disrupt other locations.

Government lawyers went back to court and sought injunctions for these new locations, so the protestors blockaded another part of the transport network.

You may well ask why the government never sought injunctions to prevent Insulate Britain from blocking or obstructing any part of the UK transport network.

This is a question that I do not know the answer to either. It may well be that the government lawyers thought that the court would not grant such a wide injunction. However, it must be considered that there is no lawful reason for Insulate Britain to obstruct the transport network. That is not to say that they should not be protesting. They have a right to protest they do not however have a right to obstruct the transport network.

Now that injunctions have been granted and quite clearly Insulate Britain members have shown they have no intention of complying with those injunctions what enforcement action has been taken? To date it seems very little has been done.

You might therefore wonder what was the point of going to court and getting these injunctions if the powers are not being used. Those breaching the injunction should have been summoned to appear before the High Court at a very short notice and dealt with swiftly.

Allowing the matter to drag on for months it is not justice and by the time it comes to the court dealing with the breaches of the injunctions, the disruption caused will have been forgotten and no doubt the High Court will grant will give very little in the way of punishment, despite the clear and wilful breaches of the injunctions.

Now contrast this rather ineffective action against deliberate criminal actions with the way the police deal with football supporters, or those rioting. Where we had people creating disturbance on the streets they were dealt with swiftly. During the riots in 2012 substantial prison sentences were given for those offences because the Police, Prosecution and the Courts worked together to get people before the Courts swiftly.

It seems that it is a very different situation for the Insulate Britain lawbreakers. They seem to get sympathy not punishment. Football hooligans believe in their cause as much as the Insulate Britain protestors do.
Whether you believe in your cause or not is irrelevant to the breach of a court injunction. The question to be asked is have the accused breached the injunction after knowing of it.

Why Not a Bit of Anarchy

Terrorism

Now, you may ask, what has this post got to do with terrorism. The actions of Insulate Britain or similar groups cannot be considered as terrorism surely?

Well if you look at the Crown Prosecution Service website and their definition of terrorism which is:

“Terrorism is the use or threat of action, both in and outside of the UK, designed to influence any international government organisation or to intimidate the public. It must also be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.”

Now, let’s break that down

Terrorism is the use or threat of action – well insulate Britain are both threatening and indeed using action.

both in and outside of the UK – Their actions have affected roads around the M25 and ports. This is obviously within the UK.

designed to influence any international government organisation or to intimidate the public – The actions are by their own admissions intended to influence the UK government (to insulate properties). Whether the actions are designed to intimidate the public is a moot point, and irrelevant here as the actions meet the influencing government criteria.

It must also be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial, or ideological cause – This is again obvious from their own admissions. They are advancing either a political or an ideological cause and as such meet this part of the criteria.

So, by the definition of terrorism, Insulate Britain are also a terrorist organisation and their actions such be treated as acts of terrorism!

Let’s consider this situation. One of the Civil Service Unions is unhappy with pay negotiations and its members decide to strike in support of a pay rise.

Terrorism is the use or threat of action – The threat of, or actually striking.

both in and outside of the UK – Obviously any actions must by definition be in or out of the UK!

designed to influence any international government organisation or to intimidate the public – Obviously a strike is designed to influence the employers, who are the UK government.

It must also be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial, or ideological cause – The strike could be seen to be advancing either a political or ideological cause – i.e., that civil servants should be paid more.

Thus, a simple threat of a strike is now deemed to be a terrorist and the Union a terrorist organisation.

Think about any sort of protest and it is likely to be covered by this definition of terrorism.

You could probably argue that a group of football fans being escorted from train station or coaches to a football ground whilst chanting football songs is covered by this definition:

Terrorism is the use or threat of action – The chanting whilst walking as part of a group is action/

both in and outside of the UK – Obviously any actions must by definition be in or out of the UK!

designed to influence any international government organisation or to intimidate the public – The chanting could be said to be intimidating to the public and fans of the home team.

It must also be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial, or ideological cause – It could be argued their ideological cause is the support or promotion of their team and their belief their team is the best.

There you go, you are now a terrorist be going to watch your team play away with others!

I have not even mentioned the use of chants such as the famous Millwall one:

“We Are Millwall

Super Millwall

From The Den

No One Likes Us

No One Fights Us

We Are Millwall

From The Den”

Or the Newcastle chant (v West Ham)

He’s only a poor little hammer

His clothes are all tattered and torn

He came for a fight, so we set him alight

And now he won’t come anymore

Both chants, along with many others could be seen to be intended to intimidate and as such it could be argued they are acts of terrorism.

In fact, we talk about some football grounds being intimidating places for teams to come, simply because of the noise the home fans make. So, are they all terrorists committing terrorist acts? Well according to this extraordinarily wide definition of terrorism, the answer must be yes.

Back to my Roots

So, on Saturday, I had an unexpected chance to watch Shildon AFC v Brighouse town FC in the Northern Premier League Div 1 East. Obviously, I took that opportunity.

Shildon is where I spent the first 2 or so years of my life. It is also one of the first football grounds I visited, some nearly 50 years ago. Who they played, or what the score was I canot remember. My father took me, because my older cousin who was into football was staying with us, and it was one of the few games on that day owing to the weather.

Over the years, I have been back to Shildon on many occasions, usually to watch Spennymoor United and later Spennymoor Town. It however is at least seven years since I last visited Shildon.

Shildon have played in the Northern League 1932, until this season. Prior to 1932 they had played a few seasons in the old North Eastern League in between spells in the Northern League. They remain the last Northern League team to reach the 1st round proper of the FA Cup, back in 2003/04 season.

Shildon were struggling back in the 1980s, and it would not have been a surprise if they had ceased to exist. However, a lot of hard work from dedicated people ensured the club has survived, and indeed thrived. For a period Bishop Auckland were tenants there. This resulted in a small covered terrace being installed opposite the main stand to ensure the ground met the then Northern Premier League ground grading, for it was so long ago Bishop Auckland were in the Northern Premier League then, rather than their current plight of battling to avoid being relegated out of the Northern League Division 1.

The dominant feature of Shildon’s Dean Street ground, apart from the great chip shop outside the ground, is the wonderful pagoda roofed main stand, which houses the dressing rooms and the club house. Sadly, the seats in the stand are no longer in use owing to safety issues. The cost of making the seats useable again was too expensive, so a new seated stand was built on the opposite side of the ground where the small covered terrace was installed when bishop were tenants.

The issue of tenants reminds me of a great bit of business done by Shildon back in 2012. Darlington had been placed in the Northern League, after yet another financial crisis and they had failed to obtain the football share. Darlington signed a tenancy agreement to groundshare with Shildon which allegedly contained a £10,000 penalty if Darlington terminated the agreement early. Then only a few days after signing this agreement, Darlington decided they wanted to groundshare at Bishop Auckland instead. Quids in for Shildon – allegedly

As I say, I have not been to a game here for a few years. As well as a new seated stand, a small covered terrace has been installed by the corner of the side the Pagoda Roofed Stand is on.

The ground has been tidied up over the years. It is a surprisingly big site with, lots of space to expand the ground if it ever proved necessary. The main entrance to the ground, if you look closely originally had a lot more turnstiles than it does now. All the entrances were from Dean Street.

Coming into the ground, you have the Pagoda Roofed stand and covered terrace on your right, the new seated stand on the left, and both ends are open, with flat standing, but no terracing. all the grassed areas were taped off in accordance with grading regulations. This is something that is seemingly not complied with at many grounds.

Turnstiles & Bricked Up Former Turnstiles

Entering the small, but well appointed clubhouse, a nice touch was that on every table was a copy of the team sheet. This saved me trying to hunt out someone who had a team sheet.

The game itself was a hard fought game that for long periods ebbed and flowed. Shildon opened the scoring, but were almost immediately pegged back by Brighouse Town. However, just before half time Shildon were back ahead, and after the interval they extended the lead to 3-1.

Neither side gave up the fight and at times the game threatened to boil over, but the referee did a good job of keeping things under control.

Shildon have made an excellent start to their first season at this level, both on and off the pitch. They are currently 2nd in the table and looking good to get a place in the play offs with nearly 1/4 of the season gone.

The attendance on Saturday was 294, which is a good crowd, for a cold miserable damp Saturday. Shildon in all competitions this season are averaging over 300. This is distorted by the 824 crowd in the FA Cup v South Shields

All in all, it was heartening to see how progressive Shildon have been since I was last at Dean Street. They seem to have done lots of work both on and off the pitch and are very well equipped to do well in the Northern Premier League Div. 1 and probably also at the step above. They have boosted their crowds from the days of one man and his dog attending. Indeed there were several dogs in attendance with their owners today!

Shildon look to be a club that will not be returning to the Northern League anytime soon. I do wonder how their once famous neighbours at Bishop Auckland look at the little village of Shildon progressing up the football pyramid and going from strength to strength both on and off the pitch, whilst all Bishop have is fading memories to rely on. Indeed, there are not many people alive who saw Bishop Auckland in their last Amateur Cup success

Going from memory, it also looked that Shildon have done considerable work to improve their pitch. It looked very flat and in good condition. My memory is that it used to have a bobbly pitch and problems with drainage. Those seem to have been resolved and it looks a good pitch now.

Shildon 3 v 1 Brighouse Town
Attendance 294
Admission £9