Alliance League double

No reports from two games I watched yesterday (Good Friday), but photos were taken at both games and they can be viewed in the two slideshows below:

Game 1

White Eagles 3-4 AFC Royal Oak

Alliance Football League Division 6

Victoria Park, Leicester

Game 2

KS Leicester Polska 1-5 MDH Knights

Alliance Football League EW Foster Cup Final

Leicestershire County FA Ground, Holmes Park, Whetstone

Steelers extinguish the Blaze

A different format regarding the blog report today as it was done for the American website Stadium Journey.

COVENTRY BLAZE 3-8 SHEFFIELD STEELERS

Saturday 16th March 2013

Elite League

Coventry SkyDome Arena

Croft Road

Coventry

CV1 3AZ

Tel: 02476 630693 (box office)

Capacity: 2,600 (2,100 seats)

Official website: Coventry Blaze

ABOUT

The SkyDome Arena was built in 1999 as part of the SkyDome multiplex. This also included an Odeon cinema, Wetherspoons pub (The Spon Gate) and Harvester restaurant.  The complex also includes a bar, Crosbys which is at the end of the ice rink. The rink itself is also used for public skating sessions, concerts and various other events.

The Blaze compete in the UK’s top hockey competition, the Elite League, and have been doing so since 2003. The team were originally from nearby Solihull and evolved from the Solihull Barons, which in turn became the Solihull Blaze. In 2000 the team moved to Coventry at the newly opened SkyDome arena to attract a new and larger fanbase. Since moving to Coventry the team have won the following honours:

British League champions: 2002/03

Elite League champions: 2004/05; 2006/07; 2007/08; 2009/10

Elite League play-off winners:  2004/05

Elite League Challenge Cup winners: 2004/05; 2006/07

Elite League British KO Cup winners: 2007/08

Elite League Charity Shield winners: 2008/09

At the time of writing the team sit in fourth place in the Elite League and have already qualified for the post-season play-offs.

FOOD & BEVERAGE (4* out of 5)

The standard fare that you generally see across the country at sports venues also applies here. The difference being is that you don’t feel like you are getting ripped off with the prices more affordable.

Inside the arena the choice is limited to hot dogs and burgers (starting from £3), pies and pasties (£2), sausage rolls (£1.20) and nachos (£2.70), snacks and chocolate bars also available from either the food kiosks or vending machines.  It should be said that this is ample enough in relation to the capacity of the venue.

If you have time before the game then the previously mentioned Harvester and Wetherspoon outlets serve standard pub / grill food.

Alcohol wise a pint of draught beer at Crosby’s bar will cost £3, which unlike the football stadiums in the UK you can drink while watching the action on the rink. Soft drinks are £1.80, Tea and coffee £1.50 and bottles of water cost £1.20. For anyone that likes a decent pint of beer the adjacent Spon Gate had a decent selection of ales on tap.

ATMOSPHERE (2*)

The SkyDome is a u-shaped arena with all the seats being elevated and standing at ground floor level. There was not a bad seat in the house and with only having a capacity of just over 2,000 you are not that far away from the action on the rink.

The rating probably wasn’t helped that it was an end of season game and that Coventry were not at the races for the most part during the game. For the first two periods it (the atmosphere) was subdued) and it only came to life during the third period when the Coventry team showed some fight on the rink. I am sure this would be higher if the game had some significant importance and (deliberate pun intended) the Blaze were on fire on the ice.

NEIGHBOURHOOD (3*)

Without meaning any disrespect to Coventry, it is a city that does not immediately spring to mind when thinking of somewhere to visit. It does though have some attractions for visitors which include the cathedral, Transport Museum and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. The city is also close and convenient for visiting the nearby towns of Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon.

With the city being one of the largest in the UK (population around 320,000) it is home to all the usual high street chain stores and plenty of restaurants catering for all tastes, requirements and budgets.

More information on Coventry and Warwickshire can be found by clicking on the following link: info

For sports fans the city has plenty of other options which include: football (Coventry City FC), rugby union (Coventry RFC), rugby league (Coventry Bears), speedway (Coventry Bees), American Football (Coventry Jets) and greyhound racing.

FANS (3*)

Firstly the Coventry supporters know their hockey, and like all sports fans cheer and criticise their team accordingly. Also during the game I attended the officials got some stick as well. Whereas football / soccer has a generally male orientated supporter, there was more of a mix at the Blaze. I did notice a lot of Blaze replica jerseys were being worn buy the supporters, along with the odd NHL jersey from teams such as the Boston Bruins.

Opposition supporters had their own section behind the goal on the right hand side, though despite being segregated there was no barriers and security in place and there was no hostility being the two sets of supporters before, during and after the game.

ACCESS (4*)

The Arena is located in the centre of Coventry and is easily accessible whether by using public transport or by driving. The railway station is located 0.6 miles away to the south and according to Google maps should take twelve minutes to walk. For those who are coming by car take junction 7 of the inner ring road and there are a couple of car parks (one of Moat Street and a multi-storey on Croft Road) which are adjacent to the Arena. The multi-storey one is operated by RCP and has 800 spaces which costs 60p (US 90c) per hour.

Coming from Leicester which is some twenty five miles to the north east of Coventry we had no problems getting to and leaving from the arena.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT (4*)

Adult tickets cost £16 (US$24) + a 10% fee if booking in advance, with concession and family deals also available. An example being a family ticket of two adults and two children (under-16) is £41 (US$61). I am unsure what to think if the pricing represents value for money or not, but Coventry does seem to be the norm regarding adult ticket prices, with Nottingham charging the same, Cardiff £17 and Sheffield £15. For the level below this in the English Premier League I paid £12.50 at the Swindon Wildcats.

match day magazine cover

EXTRAS (3*)

Firstly the club issue a monthly match day magazine which is onsale at rink side for £3, though in my opinion is overpriced. Secondly the Blaze have official merchandise for sale inside Crosbys which include caps (£10), jerseys and pucks (£3.50). This runs alongside an online store at their official website.

The club also give the supporters a chance to win various prizes in a couple of ways. Firstly in the form of raffle tickets (cash and a players jersey), and secondly the chance to win match tickets and another cash prize, this time by throwing a rubber duck onto the ice which will hopefully land inside one of three small inflatable kids pools.

  

FINAL THOUGHTS

With being new to the sport I am enjoying it, though with not having a team or rink where I live I suppose I will never be a passionate one club supporter. With that in mind I will hopefully watch a few more games next season, whether it be again at Coventry or other nearby rinks at Nottingham or Peterborough.

THE GAME ITSELF

Sheffield took control right from the start and were four nil up at the end of the first period, with the goals coming from Ashley Tait (1:27); Jonathan Phillips (2:01); Jeff Legue (7:14) and Danny Meyers (16:50). This was despite having four players in the sin bin during this time, and the home side unable to take advantage of the power plays.

The second half was more sedate in terms of game action with only one goal. James Jorgensen scoring on 16:27 to give Sheffield a 5-0 lead.

The third period was the most entertaining of the three with finally, Coventry showing some fight and passion and scoring three times through Josh Bruce (3:05); James Griffin (8:23) and Derek Campbell (10:53). Unfortunately they also conceded three as the visitors comfortably ran out 8-3 victors. The Sheffield goals in the third period came from Steven Goertzen (3:49); Jeff Legue (13:52) and Jonathan Phillips (18:36). With 16:37 on the clock the Blaze fans got a bit excited when Derek Campbell lost it and was sin binned for two offences of roughing-minor which was for throwing punches.  A couple of minutes later and Benn Olson was also binned for two offences of roughing-minor and the Blaze played out the final stages with only four men on the ice.

All the match stats can be found on the Elite League website by clicking here.

18 photos of the arena taken inside and out and be viewed in the slideshow below:

Uttoxeter photos

While in Uttoxeter itself on Saturday (2nd March) I took nine photos in the town centre. They can be viewed in the very brief slideshow below:

Four in the sun for Town

UTTOXETER TOWN 4-1 CHESTERTON AFC

Saturday 2nd March 2013

Staffordshire County Senior League Division 1

Oldfields Sports Club, Springfield Road, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire

Leading up to the weekend I was having a case of football burnout with having watched over sixty games this season so far, and god forbid even contemplating even not watching a game today. But after getting home from work Friday morning I was mulling things over in my head, and for some reason the name Uttoxeter Town came into my mind - no idea why or how but it did. I remember earlier on in the season reading about the club on the Non-League Matter forum and the reports were vary favourable, so thought I would venture into new territory football wise and hopefully re-energise myself for the final three months of the football season.

Uttoxeter is a market town and civil parish in the district of East Staffordshire with a population of around twelve and a half thousand. It is located some twenty miles west of Derby, fourteen miles south east of Stoke-on-Trent and twenty miles north of Lichfield. 

The following history on the town is taken from the wikipedia page:

Uttoxeter's name has had 79 spellings since it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Wotocheshede": it probably came from Anglo-SaxonWuttuceshǣddre = "Wuttuc's homestead on the heath". Some historians point to pre-Roman settlement here and Bronze Age axes have been discovered in the town (now in display in the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent). It is possible that Uttoxeter had some form of Roman activity due to its strategic position on the River Dove and closeness to the large garrison forts at Rocester between 69 and 400 AD, and recently discovered fort at Stramshall, though little collaborating archaeology has been found.

Uttoxeter also saw the last major royalist surrender of the English Civil War, on 25 August 1648, when James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamiltonsurrendered to Parliamentarian General John Lambert.

Perhaps the most famous event to have occurred in Uttoxeter is the penance of Samuel Johnson. Johnson's father ran a bookstall on Uttoxeter market, and young Samuel once refused to help out on the stall. When Johnson was older, he stood in the rain (without a hat) as a penance for his failure to assist his father. This event is commemorated with the Johnson Memorial, which stands in the Market Place, in the town centre and there is also an area of town called Johnson Road, which commemorates him.

Mary Howitt, the Quaker writer of the poem "The Spider and the Fly", lived in Uttoxeter for a long period of her life. The town influenced some of her poems and novels, as well as fuelling her love of natural history, which also featured in her books. Howitt Crescent, a residential road in the town, was named after her. Recently, three of her poems were displayed in the town's bus shelters by the Uttoxeter Arts Festival Committee (now defunct).

Bunting’s brewery occupied a large area of the centre of the town since the Victorian era. It stopped producing beer in the 1930s after being bought by Bass Brewery of Burton upon Trent. The last remains of the brewery were demolished in the 1960s to make way for the Maltings shopping precinct and car park. The brewery clock was recently re-furbished and installed on the town hall.

In 1945, Joseph Cyril Bamford founded J C Bamford Excavators Limited in Uttoxeter, now known as JCB. The firm, based in the nearby village of Rocester, is the world's third-largest construction equipment manufacturer. The firm's first vehicle was a tipping trailer made from war-surplus materials, which J. C. Bamford built in a rented lock-up garage in Uttoxeter. The Bamford family had previously started Bamfords, later Bamford International Farm Machinery which was a large employer in the town from the end of the 19th century through to the early 1980s when it gradually went into decline before closing in 1986.

Uttoxeter celebrated its 700 year anniversary of the awarding of a Market charter (1308) in 2008, which underpins the market provision on Saturdays and Wednesdays in particular, and other festival markets. The 1308 charter followed a more general Royal Charter granted to the town's burgesses in 1252. The originals reside at the National Archives in Kew and the Deferrers Museum in Leicester.

The football club currently ply their trade in the division 1 of the Staffordshire County Senior League, having transferred over from the Burton & District Sunday League in the summer of 2012, a league in which they were crowned champions for the past two seasons. In both seasons they beat Edge Hill to the title, firstly in 2010/11 by three points and then last season by two points. This season they have taken to their new surroundings like a duck to water, currently sitting top of the division one table five points ahead of MMU. Impressive also is the fact that they remain unbeaten in their league campaign recording fifteen victories from sixteen matches, adding to this is a current winning streak of eleven in league fixtures. The latter of which came last Saturday (23rd February) when Congleton Athletic were beaten by the odd goal in seven. 

The club play their home games at the Oldfields Sports Club which is located on the western side of the town. They share the facilities with both the cricket and rugby clubs.

Uttoxeter is very straight forward to get to from Leicester, firstly heading up the M1 motorway to junction 23a and then across on the A50 to the town itself. According to Google maps it should take around an hour to make the fifty mile journey. Come Friday evening and I decided to see how much it would cost on the train, and it came out at £14 return going via Derby which is cheaper than going by car. O.k. it meant leaving out earlier to get a bus into Leicester and adding the cost of the bus fare would make it about the same price, but sometimes it is nice to leave the car at home.

I arrived on time in Uttoxeter around 1.15pm and the station is on the edge of the town adjacent to the racecourse. It didn't take long to walk into the centre itself, and having took one or two photos went into the JD Weatherspoon Outlet, The Old Swan for a pint before heading to the football ground. For real ale drinkers there was four or five on tap, with a couple being guest ales. I don't recall the one I had but it was a decent dark beer all the same. Afterwards it took around ten minutes to walk to Oldfields, the entrance is through some gates with the pitches straight ahead and an impressive pavilion to the right. No admission was charged but a twelve page programme was available for £1.

The game wasn't too bad an affair for what is the twelfth level of the English football pyramid. Leaders Uttoxeter wasted no time in putting their stamp on proceedings when Tommy Smith was fouled in the penalty area by Jon Wood after only a couple of minutes. With calls from the sidelines for a red card, the referee showed the offender a yellow one. Anyhow Uttoxeter couldn't take advantage as the resultant spot kick was put wide. The visitors took some heart from this let off and made life difficult for their high flying hosts. On the balance of play during the next half hour Uttoxeter were just ahead on points, but you felt that once they got the first goal they would run out comfortable winners. Going into the latter stages of the half and the breakthrough was made with Tommy Smith coolly slotting the ball past Craig Wilson in the Chesterton goal on thirty eight minutes.

In the opening twenty minutes of the second half Uttoxeter turned the screw and put the game to bed as a contest, scoring three goals in the space of just eleven minutes. Firstly after a shot was cleared off the line, the ball fell kindly to Gary Beardsley who's shot over Wilson went in off the underside of the bar on fifty three minutes. Three minutes later and Smith got his second off the afternoon with a scrambled effort at the far post. Smith completed his hat trick on sixty four minutes with a header when unmarked in the penalty area. To be fair to the visitors their pride kept them going and they deservedly got a consolation goal on seventy six minutes. Andrew Smith slotting the ball past Alex Langridge at the far post from a few yards out. In the final fifteen minutes neither keeper was rarely troubled with most of the efforts being off target.

Overall an enjoyable afternoon out in East Staffordshire at a club that seem to be on the up, and a decent turn out from the locals to watch them. 

Admission: Free

Programme: £1

Attendance: counted around 80 pitchside, but more stayed at the pavilion

54 photos of the ground and game can be viewed in the slideshow below: