Away We Go

Oh bloody hell, not again! A quick pre-dawn check of Ceefax shows the tube's up the spout - faulty communication equipment or some such dodgy excuse - and the District Line is only going as far as Bow Road!

Being the sort of cautious person I am, I leave the house at 5:50am in order to give me plenty of time to get to King's Cross just after 7am. I share this habit with Freud apparently - always had to be at the station hours in advance.

My reasoning is also quite self-centred since bacon sandwiches have to be be procured for the journey and that's my job. Once these are sorted, I can relax and meet John (Wilson) on the lovely new concourse at St Pancras before we set off at 7:55am for Robin Hood country.

(right) John Betjeman at St Pancras station - presumably scanning the skies for that Barry Conlon penalty

Early departure equates to early arrival into Nottingham and plenty of time for our usual meander to Selectadisc for some CD shopping. Unfortunately it seems it is only half the shop it was - the second-hand portion of the shop was shut down but we still managed to find a few bargains, including £3.99 for Ted Nugent's Scream Dream. He may be a gun-toting red-neck git but boy can be play guitar.

And then before we can spend any more money on re-issues of stuff we already have festering in the loft, local DAFTS Colin Fletcher intervenes and whisks us away for some beer.

John and Colin outside the King Billy

Today Colin was taking us to one of his new finds - the King William IV. The King Billy, as it is know to locals, is in the Sneinton part of town but to me it's still Nottingham - it's just a couple of hundred yards from the Ice Arena-thingy.

Worryingly though, it was looking like the type of pub that doesn't open until noon - the bane of our lives since the advent of so-called 24-hr opening - there were no signs of activity through the frosted panes. Salvation though as the landlord arrived just before 11am and opened up.

There was a wonderful mix of beers on tap awaiting us with offerings from Thornbridge, Kelham Island, Oakham and Oldershaws.

The Thornbridge Kipling - described as a South Pacific Pale Ale - caught my eye and at 5.2% may have proven to be the wrong beer to start the day but it's clear, hoppy taste belied it's strength - a smashing pint, definitely the younger sibling to their Jaipur IPA.

Colin inside the King Billy

Colin, being a dark man, had a half of Kelham Island's Mieszko - a Polish-style porter being offered as part of their World Series of Beer. A beautiful dark brew which makes me wonder if I opted for the right pint. Hopefully our trip to Rotherham in October should allow a visit to the Fat Cat and a chance to try more of their wonderful brews.

John opted for a pint of Oldershaw's Mowbray's Mash - I tried it and it tasted fine but after drinking the IPA and then the porter, it was probably a bit light for me to really appreciate.

And then a text from Lance - "I'm in the VAT" - meant our trip to the King Billy was cut short and sweet but I do hope I get a chance to visit again - it has the feel of a real, cared for local.

The VAT & Fiddle is where we've habitually congregated before and after games at County and Mansfield for many seasons - with the latter's relegation to the Conference, it seems that this will be our sole visit for the season.

As we settle in, we're quickly joined by Steve, John (Bell) and Brian - Doug and Pete arrive a little later after driving down from Darlo.

There are the usual Castle Rock beers on offer - their seasonal beer is Bumblebee and it's a nice, smooth golden ale with a decent body - the name suggests it may have honey in it but I can't detect any. Unfortunately it soon runs out, bloody typical! The good news is that it is replaced by White Horse Village Idiot which is a more than adequate substitute.

The game itself was quite entertaining despite being a nil-nil draw - we took the game to County and went close on several occasions, hitting the woodwork twice. Alan White was substituted in the first-half as he was suffering from a virus - Miller proved to be a more than capable replacement and is, with Foster, my preferred central defensive pairing.

The Notts fans were certainly sorry to see White depart - I think they'd been looking forward to venting their spleen on the former County player. He was not well liked apparently...

In the end I think County will feel most pleased with a point - we more than matched them. My only worry is Brown, our new keeper - he doesn't seem to have the confidence of his defence yet and seems too keen to go walkabout - thank heavens Delroy Facey left his shooting boots in the dressing room.


Back to the VAT after the final whistle for a couple of hours - we meet Tammy VIP, an occasional inhabitant of Bottom of the Barrel (vaguely football-related messageboard for the uninitiated) who Brian has met before. We have a good chat with her and her other half before they wander off to see some live footy in another pub.



VAT & Fiddle cat in traditional club colours


John and I have the luxury of first-class travel back to London - not bad value at £14 - and all the complimentary tea we can drink. For once we have the pleasure of an uneventful trip and predictably it's not long before we nod off and the first away day of the season is over.

Blazing Saddlers

Good to see the lads getting their first win at Walsall last night. Well, I say "see" but I didn't see them because I didn't go - a previous engagement in the Head of Steam at Euston combined with a can't-be-arsed-to-go-to-Brum-during-the-week attitude meant I watched most of the action on the big screen in the pub.

The Head of Steam - or Doric Arch to give the place it's new name that I can't get used to - is well known to travelling DAFTS as a post-match venue after we've been to the likes of Barnet and Wycombe. Some decent beers (Taylors Landlord, York Centurion) amongst the guests plus the ubiquitous Fullers range and not the happiest bar staff in town but we're so used it, it's easier than going elsewhere.

I managed to spend about 20 mins having a beer with my old boss before realising that I was sitting next to an old chum from my Trust days - Brian Lomax - without recognising him. It has to be said that we're both a bit hairier since we last met - I don't know who was more surprised.

Brian was the first chair of Supporters Direct and was a major influence in getting the trust movement off the ground. He was also a huge help in setting up the Darlo Trust in what feels like a long, long time ago. He's now retired but is still involved in football. We need more people in football like him.

Later in the evening I met up with someone I'd never met before but had been in touch via his blog. He's a Darlington lad - not a follower of the Quakers but he can be forgiven as he does put his time to brewing some damn fine beer and is one of the Darlington Traditonal Brewing Group.

At the last Spring Thing festival in Darlo, he brewed a little number called Glasshouse Porter which was one of the best beers at the festival. He's promising another cracker for the Rhythm'n'Brews festival in Sept (clashing quite nicely with our home game against Accrington) so get down there and give it a try.

We're off again

After all the anticipation, Saturday turned out to be disappointing on far too many levels.

As usual, the day starts at 7:30am where I'm breakfasting at Da Vinci's - what was Orlandos last season before Orlando sold up. The place certainly looks cheerier - a big TV, decent décor and cheery, young staff. For day one of the season I have to start with the big breakfast - bacon, sausage, egg (now singular - a bit tight), tomatoes, mushrooms, chips, beans, toast and tea. Not too bad for £5.50 however the bacon could have been a lot better, I suspect that they microwave it. That is just wrong.

During the breakfast, Martin Deans calls to say he's stuck in traffic and may miss the train. Ladies and Gentlemen, the first cloud of the day is on the horizon….

From Da Vinci's it's over the road to King's Cross - which seems very busy today - and I soon realise that it's due to trains being delayed or cancelled. Martin finally arrives after breaking the land speed record around the streets of Harlesden only to find our 8:30am departure doesn't leave the station until 09:05am. We are further delayed around Newark - signalling problems after some cabling has been half-inched - which all means we pull into Darlo over an hour late. And it's now raining.

Tony and Colin - and later Neil who is over from Norway - are in the Quaker Café - the bar looks as full as ever with 10 hand pumps but it doesn't look quite right - two beers from Jennings? Brains? Courage? It appears that the pub's purchase by Scottish & Newcastle a few months ago has finally kicked in and there are almost no brews from the micros.

It's a happier picture when we move onto Number Twenty-2 where we meet up with a few other regular DAFTS - Paul Brown and John Bell - before we taxi it to the Arena.

The game itself is the archetypal game of two halves - I refer you to Craig's Echo report as this more or less sums up the game and saves me getting the names of the new players mixed up. I'm trying hard not to be too optimistic or too despondent as this stage of the season - not only is it silly to speculate but it's a waste of time. Suffice to say it was the usual undercurrent of moaning that accompanied us all out of the ground. It could have been worse.

The railway station is full of happy Grecians - they're happy to be back in the league and who can blame them? They've had some shitty times down at the real St Jame's Park - good luck to them. Despite this I'm glad they're not in our carriage - the post-pub chips'n'curry sauce are making me sleepy and I can do without anything approaching chirpiness!

The train home - delayed before it even arrived of course - has one functioning toilet and no water for hot drinks. Despite a 10-min stop off in York to re-stock, the guard opts for a 15 min comfort break at Peterborough so passengers can use the facilities. It's like a scene from Carry On At Your Convenience as people file off and on the train.

We're about 35 mins late arriving back at King's Cross - but at least both delays means we can claim some money back on our journey. It's small comfort though.

Not to be outdone, the Circle line has a signal failure at Farringdon and so my 35 min journey takes an hour - finally home at 11:40pm and a microwaved curry to send me on my way to sleep.

It's not been the wonderful start to the season I'd anticipated - I'm knackered (nothing to do with four days at the GBBF of course) and seemingly weary of the season already. Hopefully next weekend's visit to Notts County will redress the balance.

Pre-season training

You always know the football season is round the corner when it's time to visit the Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court.

And given that the venue is a mere two tube stops from my office, I decide to pop along each day to see various folk.

Tues - that's trade day - and it's wall-to-wall bloggerage, not to mention the Ratebeer folk polishing over the US brews. I'm near the Dutch/Belgium bar and some kind souls leave me some lambic beers they don't like.


Wed - I bump into Argyle fan and DAFTS associate, Geoff, before myriad London Millers arrive after work.

Liz calls through with news of the 17 point deduction for Rotherham - cue a debate on what we'd all like to do with Brian Mawhinney whilst Chris Turner takes comfort from a friend...

Thurs - my chum Richard (left) is down from Northallerton - as is part-time Macc fan and beer fest chum Trevor (right).

We hang around Bar Nouveau, mainly so Trev can tick a few new brews off but it eventually turns into a day of talking bollocks - it's what Trevor does best...






Fri - DAFTS day - John and Steve join me as we dig into some beers and investigate the pies from the Crusty Pie Shop. Not as crusty as I'd like but their pork scratchings make up for that.

The place starts to gets a bit too busy in late afternoon - the office brigade arrive and it gets far too noisy for wee delicate souls like us.



We decamp to the Harp, near Charing Cross, and meet up with Brian who has just spent a second day at the Oval. It's a bit cosy but the Landlord is on good form - the landlady sees that we've been to the GBBF and is keen to know our opinion on her wares.

All in all, I'm a bit weary after four days supping and socialising but tomorrow we're back to grim normality - football on a Satdi.

Come on Darlo!!