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 ???

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.