Saturday 31st March 2012

Just 6 matches of the season to go (unless we make the play offs in which case we could have 7 or 8. I have been looking at the chance of a play off place and it's going to be tough. Although we are only 5 points behind 5th placed Leek their run in looks a easier than ours. Our two big games are Sheffield & Leek, they only have us really. Sheffield have us and Carlton as their difficult games. Other contenders are Stamford who only have Grantham but are not particularly on form at present - especially after being battered 6-0 by the Sheffield Club in midweek.

The table at 5pm tonight will tell us a lot more. I think we need to be looking at 72 points for a play off place - which means gaining 14 points from the remaining 6 games. Thats 4 wins and two draws or 5 wins and a defeat - tough ask but it can be done. I don't think we can afford any slip ups at Coalville today - a side that beat us 2-0 at Belper in January but have only won 1 of their last 6 games.

Decided that I only needed to do a few miles yesterday due to the previous efforts this week so I stopped at 11.5 making a weekly total of 61.5 - hardly Olympic training numbers but I'll settle for that.

Time to get sorted for the trip to Coalville - updates later on how we got on.

Remember me ?

It's been a while since we got back from Brighton and lots has happened on the football front. Belper have extended their unbeaten run to 10 games - 9 wins and a draw. They sit just outside the play off places and hope is high that we can nick that last place. It's still a tough ask but it can be done on current form. The two biggest games remaining are the trip to Sheffield FC on Easter Monday and the home game with Leek Town who are the two sitting in places that we can catch.

Results since my last post:

Belper 3 Kidsgrove Ath 1

Stamford 1 Belper 1

Belper 3 Hucknall Town 0

Belper 1 Lincoln Utd 0

New Mills 1 Belper 4

Photos from the first four games are on my Flickr site here: Belper Town Gallery

Ken took on the photo duties at New Mills and produced tho cracking set showing all the goals and near misses Kens Snaps

Froggy reached 30 goals for the second season running with his second strike at New Mills - and generally the past two seasons haven't been particularly good - I can't imagine how many he's have scored in a top side.

Cycling wise I've been out quite a bit on the Pinarello. I changed the cadence sensor over from the Boardman. Recent rides include a 10, 26 & 20 miles last week with this weeks efforts so far 10 on Monday and a 40 miler today in 2h 42m 41s. A glorious day with the temp getting up to around the 20+ mark - just didn't want to come back so I kept going until my knee said 'enough now' What that 40 miles did do was take me past 1,000 miles since returning to the saddle

I tried the clip less pedals but didn't get on with them at all - they just don't release the pedals easily - and even though I only tried them in the garage I started having knee pain due to the twisting action of getting your foot out. Afraid they will have to go on EBay to recoup some of the money.

Might get a few more miles in tomorrow but it won't be too many as we're out for a meal at 7pm with Mike and Jenny next door.

Then on Saturday it's another new ground for me as we go to Coalville for the first time. Hucknall was my 62nd non-league ground. New Mills would have been a new ground but for the 2nd time circumstances meant I missed that trip. 

Brighton Photos

I have finally got around to sort through the photographs I took on our trip to Brighton last week (at this time we were just about arriving at the Grand Hotel).

Here are a few of my favourites

The Grand Hotel

Clothes Shop with hundreds of old sewing machines

Another sunset photo

The Royal Pavillion

A Beach Hut for sale at £12,000 !!

Peeling paint on a Beach Hut

What did Mrs Snapper see ?

Graffiti at the Brighton Marina

The whole set can be seen here: Brighton Photos

A Long Way to Stamford

As I said earlier, before the match I would settle for a point from Stamford this afternoon. Thats exactly what happened this afternoon. A decent game with chances at both ends, a penalty save, a sending off and many bookings.

Jon Froggatt scored his 25th of the season

Froggy slots in number 25 for the season

The match photos are here:

Stamford v Belper photos

Brighton Sunset

As promised here is my favourite snap from the Brighton trip. It shows the West pier against a setting sun, I almost feel like a photographer when I see results like this !

Last night I was at the Derby Assembly Rooms to see the Pink Floyd tribute band 'The Australian Pink Floyd Show' What an incredible band they are. If the real Pink Floyd were still touring they would be hard pressed to put on a better show in the restrictions of the Assembly Rooms.

We were treated to a laser show, an inflatable Teacher (who could only stand at the side of the stage due to the size of him and the most amazing music. If I had a criticism it would be that there was a little too much from the Division Bell and not enough Classic Floyd, but what they did do, they did extremely well.

£29.50 to see a tribute band ? Worth every penny !

Today we're off to Stamford to see if Belper can continue their rise up the table. A real test this one as Stamford sit in the last play off place. In real terms the two teams that we need to catch are Stamford and Sheffield FC if we are going to sneak into the play offs so a win today would be a massive result. We have a game in hand on those two so a draw would be acceptable before kick off but we shall see what happens.

PC went off for repair this morning - depending on the cost that may be the last we see of it and the switchover to Mac may be here for good. If it can be fixed I will recover the data and move to Mac over the Summer - time will tell.

Time for a catch up

It's been over a week since I posted and quite a lot has happened. Last week I got in three bike rides, a 10 miler, a 22 miler and a 16 making the highest weekly total (48) miles. 

Saturday we played Kidsgrove and won for the 6th consecutive game - the play offs (and a clash with Jethro Tull) is getting nearer and nearer !!

Despite dominating the first half it was Kiddy who took the lead at just before the break. Belper came back in the 2nd half with 3 goals to win 3-1. That win moved Belper up to 10th in the table. Just 9 points off the last play off place with a game in hand (and we play 5th placed Stamford this coming Saturday).

The match photos are here: Belper 3 Kidsgrove 1 photos

The match started with a presentation to Tony Treagus to make his 80th birthday and his 27 years at the club.

On Sunday we headed off to Brighton for a new nights stay at the Grand Hotel. 

The Grand Hotel is a traditional hotel in the true sense of the word - read more about it here:

The Grand Hotel

We had a fantastic time, especially on Monday when the temperatures were like a summers day. We walked all the way to Hove along the seafront. Took lots of photos which I will sort over the next day or so - might take a while as I broke my PC by accidentally switching it off at the plug (meant to turn the speakers off - then it wouldn't boot up again so might be terminal).

If the sunset photos over the old West Pier look as good on screen as they do on the camera I will be very pleased.

Watch this space for more updates over the next day or so.

ANOTHER win ! Whatever next ? The Play Offs ?

Yesterday saw another great first half performance with a less so second but still we held on to win 3-2 against a Market Drayton Town side that was on a decent run of form themselves.

2-0 up at the break, Belper let MDT get a goal back, then Froggy made it 3-1. MDT scored in the 90th minute and then we hung on to record the 7th win in the last 9 games. The play offs are not beyond reason but the current wins are going o have to continue for a bit longer yet if that is to happen.

Froggy celebrates goal number 23 of the season

The rest of the match photos are here: Belper v MDT Photos

On the way into the ground it appears we have a new sign to show any visiting ghosts where they need to park their vehicles

No midweek game this week so the players can rest for next weeks visit from Kidsgrove Athletic - going to be an interesting end to the season after all.

Not More Sunset Photos !!

Well yes but as part of an experiment. How quickly does the sun set ? Can you really see the sunset ? The answers are quickly and yes.

The following nine photos were taken over a period of just four and a half minutes at approximately 30 second intervals (if you check the exif data you'll see the time - although they will say 18:33 etc rather than 17:33 as I never altered the time on the camera last October and it's not worth doing now as the clocks change again in about 4 weeks).

And there you have it.

Today we went to Decathlon and I finally gave in and bought some new cycling shoes and a set of clip less pedals - watch this space for the upcoming traumas of getting used to them (I've been here before !!)

Did a 10 mile ride today (with the old pedals still in situ) - 40m 10s Funny how you always feel you should have gone a little quicker to get under the whole number, in this case the 40 minute mark.

Got my new glasses (with the amended lenses in) but the cycling ones are still wrong. The lenses have to be changed due to the close fitting of the frames - they didn't think to take that into consideration at the time. So thats another week to wait, oh well worse things happen at sea as they say (but that serves them right for booking a Costa cruise !!)

Market Drayton Town tomorrow - should be another win but as we know things don't always work out that way although it;s hard to see anyone holding out Belper on recent form (except for the 2nd half against Dynamo).

Does the Camera Lie ?

They say the camera never lies...well thats probably true but it can be persuaded not to tell the whole truth. The sun was just setting over the horizon this evening, so I grabbed the camera and fired off some shots. The first one I took wasn't brilliant so I decided to switch to manual setting. I dialled in 1/250 @ F8 ISO 200. Focused on the houses on the horizon and got this one.

Quite pleased with that one. 


Especially when you consider that the view from the bedroom window ACTUALLY looked like this (taken at 1/80 F4 ISO 200

Now tell me the camera doesn't lie ;-)

Football on Tuesday night was almost a repeat of Saturday. Belper took a 3-0 lead but they eased off and let Loughborough win the 2nd half 1-0.

Thats 6 points in 4 days and the fas are talking about play offs again... if we make the play offs then I'll miss the semi final as we're seeing Jethro Tull that night at the Assembly Rooms in Derby.

Froggy fires in number 21 for the season

Rest of the match photos are here; Belper v Loughborough Dynamo Photos

Today I had a day off work (using up the days before the end of March that I had saved as 'snow days'). Took the Pinarello out for it's first ride (other than up and down the close). What a fantastic machine, so much lighter than the Boardman and being brand new everything runs so smoothly on it.

Went out to Allestree, then Little eaton then took a detour past Horsley Lodge and back through Horsley Woodhouse, Denby and back via Heage. The total mileage at that stage was 22 so I did a loop of Far Laund, back into Heage, and a couple of loops of the estate to make a total of 30 miles in 2h 04m. That must be the first time I've cycled 30 miles in about 20 years.

After that I did 2 hours gardening, then we went shopping - I reckon it's easier to go to work (although not half as much fun !)