The Magic of the FA Cup

Tomorrow sees the start of the FA Cup for Belper Town (and many other clubs at this level. The competition actually started two weeks ago with the extra preliminary round which saw tomorrows opponents Deeping Rangers beat Spalding United after a replay to set up the tie.

A two hour trip lies ahead which is strange as the past two seasons have seen us play nearest rivals Holbrook - although we lost both of those ties so lets hope the trip tomorrow is worth it. My forecast is a narrow win for Belper.

Barton Marina

Today saw us take a trip out to Barton Marina just past Burton on Trent. Although it was a really nice place there wasn't much to see there although we had a nice coffee and a piece of cake. A quick walk around the lake before heading back to Belper. After lunch it was time for the Friday bike ride. Put on my new Carrera shirt and headed off to do a 12.5 mile ride into Milford, along the Chevin and back via Far Laund. The drag back up from the A6 was real hard work - a real sign that there is a long way to go before I reach the peak of fitness (although there is a fear that I have already peaked a lot of years ago !)

After that Sally decided we should wash the cars and then she got my old racing bike out of the shed (I think she's trying to tell me something about buying a new bike - or not as the ase may be !). I was surprised how good it looked after 12+ years in the shed. A quick clean up and some air in the tyres and we'll see how things go. I think that it may need some new tyres and possible some new inner tubes. We'll see how things go - if nothing else it should give me time to save up for a replacement.