Is that the time ?

Ok it's been (another) while since I updated the blog and after the usual ear holing from Kenneth I have finally given in, so here goes.

On the football scene it's been interesting to say the least. We've progressed int he FA Cup until Ilkeston FC hit a purple match in the replay at Christchurch Meadow and scored 5 after we took the lead.

We also progressed in te FA Trophy until Cammell Laird came to town and deservedly won 2-0 last Saturday (thankfully no sign of Mr S Knife this time around).

League wise we plumbed the depths when a 1-1 draw at home to Carlton left us bottom of the table. Since then we have had a bit of a turnaround and we currently sit 13th, still with games in hand that could see us on the edge of the play offs. If we hadn't let in a 95th minute winner at Gresley and a 94th minute equaliser at Chasetown we would be right up there with the play off contenders already.

Sadly no Frogba so far this season due to a pre season knee injury at Holbrook which refuses to heal. We keep hearing 2 more weeks but like tomorrow it never quite arrives. Fingers crossed that he is back soon as we desperately need his goalscoring touch.

Tomorrow we're off to Stafford Rangers to play Northwich Victoria who are groundsharing. A new ground and a new team for me.

All the match day action can be seen here: BTFC Match Action Photos

On the cycling front the 2012 target (of 2,012 miles) remains a possibility weather permitting. Today I moved on to 1,831 miles for the year - just 181 to go in the remaining 8 weeks. That should be easy unless the weather decides differently and I have to miss out on a few weeks, fingers crossed that does't happen.

I have acquired another bike since I last blogged. This is the definitely the last bike for some considerable time. 

A fine machine made from Carbon Fibre and sporting 22 Campagnolo gears - even gets an old bugger like me up the hills quicker. Only bought it as it was such a bargain (aren't they all ?) I really do need to sell one of my bikes now though as I have 3 in the garage and one in the shed.

Talking of bikes I found some old photos relating to my cycling history - reproduced here for nostalgia (and to give Ken a good old laugh)

Me with my first 'proper racing bike' - I recall wanting a racing bike for what seemed like forever, then one Saturday dad said "come on we're off out" - we got on the bus and went up to the Old Normanton Army Barracks on the corner of Sinfin Lane and Osmaston Road. On the other side of the ring road was a bike shop called Burleys. We got off the bus and dad took me into the shop - to return with this speed machine. I had to ride it all the way home down SInfin Lane, which was a busy road at tea-time. Somehow I managed to get home in one piece (probably due to my 'go faster tracksuit top - complete with collared shirt underneath. We fitted a 'computer' to it to measure the distance rode. When I say computer, this was June 12th 1976 (now THAT was a Summer)  - the cyclometer consisted of a little plastic box with a window that fitted to the front fork. The distance was recorded by a metal pin attached to a spoke that turned a small plastic wheel which in turn moved the numbers in the little window. You had to buy the one that matched the size of the wheel otherwise the distances were all wrong. I rode that bike for hours that day (even though I didn't get it until tea time) and clocked up 18 miles riding round the estate until dark. Not sure how accurate that was - probably only about 10 miles in real distance.

A quick Google and I found a couple of pictures of what I am trying to describe:

And this is what it looks like fitted to the bike

How technical is that ? How could it be anything but 100% accurate...

The next snap shows me a few years later with my Peugeot Equipe bike, stood outside our house in Kestrels Croft

The tracksuit has long gone by this stage, replaced by a moustache and a hint of a mullet haircut. I rode this bike for miles and miles around the Sinfin, Barrow on Trent, Findern, Newton Solney, as far as Stapenhill and back some days. I rode into Leicestershire through the country lanes of Melbourne - that bike served me well, even though I cannot remember taking the chain off it once, or replacing any parts. I can't remember what happened to it but it must have been sold as it never seemed to have anything wrong (can't even remember a puncture).

Moving on here's a shot of me 'in action' riding one of my mountain bikes which we used for our longer day rides back then.

This must have been uphill unless I was just posing for the camera (surely not !!). I still have the same shoes and was using them up until I recently switched to clip less pedals. They really don't make them like that anymore. I think this was my Diamond Back bike - again long gone to be replaced buy the GIANT one I have gathering dust in the shed.

The next photo shows me and my cycling buddy Dave Upton after we did 100 miles in a day. I remember we rode to Cannock Chase and back - with quite a few detours on the way to make up the miles. 

As you can see I was the original Ned Flanders (look him up if you don't know who he is - indeedly doodle). I also still have the Carrera shirt I was wearing but it must have shrunk over the years in the wardrobe as it is a little on the tight side these days. Had to buy a larger one to allow for that shrinkage in years to come. Dave is sporting his Banesto shirt made famous by Big Mig (Miguel Indurain - again look him up if you don't know).

Well thats it for my trip down cycling memory lane - hope you enjoyed it. More rubbish will be posted here in the future - whether distant or not remains to be seen...

Time for another catch up

Ok so it's been 3 months since my last update so it's long overdue.

Obviously the football season has started - we're 5 league games in and a few cup games. League wise the start has been less than impressive - 4 draws and a defeat, so still looking for the first league win of the season. Cup wise a totally different story, won through two rounds of the FA Cup (Holbrook Sports 6-1 and Matlock 2-2 then 3-0) and into the next round of the FA Trophy by beating Loughborough Dynamo 4-3 (reminds me of a previous visit when we lost 4-5).

Next round of the FA Cup is on Saturday. Another local Derby against Ilkeston FC at the New Manor Ground. I won't be at the match due to photographing my best mate from school, lads wedding. Hopefully my absence will be a lucky omen as we beat Holbrook while I was photographing Sallys nephews wedding at Hartington Hall. I'd settle for them winning and me not being there. Coincidentally if we do beat the Robins, the next round will take place in two weeks time, when I'll be photographing Sam Carters wedding - if I book a few more weddings I might yet get to see Belper at Wembley !!!!

Already the club has earned more than £7K from the cup competitions. Next up in the FA Trophy is a visit from Leamington FC. We last met them in 1971 when they played under the name of Lockheed Leamington. We played them between 1963 (the year I was born) and 1971 when the changed to the Southern League at the end of that season.

All photos will available here:
Belper Town Match Photos

I have a programme from the last time we played, on 12th April 1971 - priced at 6D it only runs to 8 pages and has more adverts than articles. One advert is for R. G. Chimes of Clarendon Street, Leamington Spa 'Hairdresser to Gentlemen and Sons" - wonder if they are still there ? Also there is one for R. R. Hall proprietor D.F Watson "purveyor of Best Quality Home-killed Meat" mmm not sure I'd want to visit that guys house.

On the cycling front, we had a great day last Monday when the Tour of Britain came through Turnditch. It was a great experience even if it didn't last too long. I snapper a few shots whcih can be seen here:
Tour of Britain Photos


On a persona cycling front my total for this year is now 1572.47 miles, leaving me 439.53 or 29.8 miles per week until the end of the year. Should be doable if the weather doesn't decide to intervene and get me off the road for three weeks like last year.

Cycling Update

So you're up to date with how the season ended, time to update the cycling side of the blog.

Last time I wrote (back in April) I was clocking up around 100 miles per month (except March when I did 222 thanks to a few days off from work and some unseasonably hot weather). April saw me clock up 109 miles. The last two rides of the month (16.71 & 9.11 miles) were the first ones to dip below an average of 4.00 mins / mile for that month.

May took me back into the 200's (203.60) including a ride to Ashbourne and back on Saturday May 28th. The hike up through Turnditch was as hard as expected but I managed it without getting off - all 1.5 miles of it (hardly Alpe D'Huez i'll admit).

so far this month I've clocked up 61 miles in 6 days but the end of the month sees us off on a cruise to Norway so that will cut down on the miles a bit. 

Today I went out in the sun although the skies were leaden over Holbrook. I managed the first 15 minutes in the dry then the heavens opened and the next 40 minutes were ridden in torrential rain. Thankfully I decided there was a risk of a downpour and went out on the Boardman rather than the Pinarello so at least I had mudguards in situ. Timing wise I was only 3 seconds slower than previous rides over the 13 miles circuit.

This was me when I got back (just as the sun started to come out). It's hard to see how wet I was but the clues are there - the filthy socks from the road and the dye running in my gloves due to being sodden). The clouds behind give only a hint of what had been happening over the previous hour. I really enjoyed it - even if I will have to spend a while cleaning my bike over the next day or so !

Catch Up Time

Ok so it's been too long but at least that means that we have a few things to write about. When I last blogged we were heading to Shepshed with three games of the season left. It started so well with a 6-0 thrashing of the Dynamo (and I won the Grand National sweep on the bus - even though I went in the car, figure that one out !). Shepshed were a poor side and were lucky to get away with only losing 6 goals.

That game put us on a high for the visit of Leek Town - our main rivals for the last play off place. An even game saw Leek park the bus, playing with 6 at the back, including leading scorer Matt Haddrell. Belper took the lead through red hot Ash Longstaff to lead at half time. Leek equalised in the 83rd minute,  as things stood that meant that Leek were in the ideal place to keep us out of the play offs. Time ticked on and with the 90 minutes up and added time being played the ball was on the Belper byeline being held up by a Leek forward. Players piled in and a free kick was given to Belper. Amazingly the ball was played from one end of the field to the other and at the third attempt leading scorer Jon Froggatt fired in a winner to send the home fans wild.

All that remained was for Belper to equal Leeks result on Saturday and not lose 5 goals and we were in the play offs - simpless.

Our visitors were New Mills and with nothing to play for everyone felt that Belper had turned around a very odd season. 13 wins and a draw in the last 14 games was championship form, but footballs is a funny old game.

Leek were playing Shepshed so we knew that they would win (barring a miracle result). We were 2 points ahead at kick off with a goal difference 4 better than them.

As the game went on we started getting updates from the Leek game. We were 1-0 up and safely in the play offs whatever Leek managed to do, then New Mills found an equaliser and it all changed. News of Leek goals flooding in 3-0, 4-0 - as things stood we would be in the play offs by 1 goal. We heard that Shepshed had a penalty - which they missed. Then the news we didn't want to hear - Leek 5 Shepshed 0. At the final whistle it was all over, Leek had finished on the same points, and the same goal difference but pipped us by having scored more goals (despite the fact that in head to heads we had won 2-0).

The final table looked like this:

1. Grantham Town 92-44 93 +48


2. Carlton Town 101-52 83 +49
3. Ilkeston Town 93-44 83 +49
4. Sheffield FC 93-62 75 +31
5. Leek Town 77-60 74 +17


6. Belper Town 74-57 74 +17

As you can see, a win would have put us in 5th place and an away trip to Carlton Town in the play offs.

As things turned out Leek beat Carlton on Penalties in their SF and Ilkeston thrashed Sheffield 7-0 in the other. The final was at Ilkeston and as expected the Robins came through 2-0 infront of over 1,600 fans.


So thats another season over with - next time I'll update on the cycling (which is going well, despite the awful summer we are having thus far)

The Sharp End of the Season

Mondays 2-0 win at Sheffield means that promotion os now well and truly in Belpers own hands. Three games to go and three wins means we will definitely finish in a play off place.

The weather and the pitch were rough on Monday but the players stuck at the task and as Sheffield lost their discipline (having two players sent off) Belper took the initiative and scored from the spot (Froggys 32nd goal of the season). This was followed by a great strike from Ash Longstaff 4 minutes later and we had made it 12 wins in 13 games.

Sheffield FC 0 Belper Town 2

Tomorrow we travel to second-bottom Shepshed Dynamo. The Butthole (unfortunate name for a football ground location if ever there was one !) is not  a happy hunting ground for Belper, even when Shepshed are struggling. I recall last season we went there and lost 0-1 to a penalty and Shepshed finished in a relegation spot but were reprieved to struggle again this season.

I also recall going there in a 12 game unbeaten run and losing 3-0. We must be due for a good result - lets hope it's tomorrow.

Following on from that we have the biggest game of the season so far - a visit from Leek. If we beat them the play offs look an almost certainty (assuming we have already beaten Shepshed). Of course there is also the fact that Leek and Sheffield need to keep winning also to take it down to the last game of the season.

Cycling wise I've only managed a couple of rides for the past two weeks thanks to the weather. Having said that todays ride included a severe drenching in the middle of a 20 mile ride - not a pleasant experience but I've had worse !

Currently I'm up to almost 500 miles for the year. With Summer ahead I'd like to think I could manage a target of 2012 miles for the year. If thats to happen I'll have to pile on the miles during the close season as the end of the year will see a reduction. Last year I did 508 in just under half a year so that would be a massive jump but lets go for it !

Ain't no stopping us now !

Following on from the Coalville win we sneaked past a resolute Romulus side at home having to come from a goal down to make it 11 wins and a draw in the past 12 games. We even won the Manager of the Month award for March which is usually a poisoned chalice. As things stand we are 3 points behind Leek having played 38 games each. Four games to go and all to play for. 

Today we're off to Sheffield FC - or Sheffield Club, or The First Club in the World or The OLDEST Club in the world (whatever they are calling themselves this week !) We love that fact that they are in Dronfield, which is officially in North Derbyshire but they insist they are from South Yorkshire. Either way it's a massive game which could send us on to Shepshed next Saturday in high spirits or could potentially finish off our season (depending on Leeks result at home to New Mills (our last day opponents) today).

You will recall that I was cycling in 20+ degrees a couple of week back, then on Wednesday last week we got up to this :

Not brilliant as it was taken at 6:30 as we were heading off to work but you get the idea. What you can't see is that it was blowing a blizzard and we could only just get off the drive. Is this what global warming is all about ?

I'll update what happens in the next day or so.

And on we go

Another game, another win. Thats now 10 wins and a draw in the last 11 games for Belper. We haven't been beaten since yesterdays opponents Coalville won 2-0 at Belper back in January. We sit just 1 place below the play offs after yesterdays win at Coalville (combined with Stamfords defeat against Loughborough). 

A scrappy first half on a bone hard pitch in a biting wind saw Belper take the lead through a Longstaff snapshot that caught out the Coalville keeper and the Coalville snapper by the looks of things

Coalville equalised just after the break but Belper came back to score two more though Froggy (number 31 for the season)

and a Mark Ward free kick which caught the keeper out at his near post.

Five more games to go and the play off are still the topic of conversation - anyone want to buy a Jethro Tull ticket ?

At half time we were having a cup of tea in the boardroom and sheltering from the bitter wind (10+ degrees cooler than Thursday without the wind chill factor). I looked through the window and saw that the Coalville snapper had left his camera equipment by the goal and obviously one of the Ravens substitutes fancied a bit of a go. From what I saw he needs a bit of advice on his technique !!

Next up it's third bottom Romulus at home on Saturday - surely the run can't come to an end there can it ???