A Game for All

Well safe to say we were super excited about heading out to a new ground for the 2nd Qualifying round, more so given the reason the game had been moved to Sunday was because Bromley who Cray share with were hosting Notts County on Saturday (who are my Dad's team). Thanks to my sat nav we went on another wonderful journey to get to the ground taking in some delightful Kent countryside and long stretches of single track road, not ideal in a WAV. Anyway en route we stopped at Cobham the only major services we passed the whole journey and one we were already familiar with and therefore knew there was a changing places here (though yet again not sign posted until you get all the way through to the disabled facilities at the back of the services), I really am amazed they don't scream about having these facilities as they were really clean and being well used. Our wonderful journey in meant we arrived just after 2.15pm, there are building works around the ground (well mentioned o

23/09/19 - Well I totally missed that the draw was going to be live on the radio, so annoyingly I had to wait for twitter to give me the info which was quicker than the FA's own website. It was there I learned that we would this time be heading into North London for the 3rd Qualifying round to see last times winners Cray play Haringey Borough. Haringey Borough also play in the Isthmian League and currently sit 6 points above Cray and 3rd in the table, so this could be a very close game. They have already met once in the league this season only last week in fact with the game ending in a 1-1 draw at Cray. They also play on a synthetic pitch so we will hopefully see more good football. The tie is due to be played on the 5th October at the CVS Van hire stadium on White Hart Lane, so close to the new Tottenham ground, who thankfully are away from home that day so we might actually be able to park 09/09/19 - So the draw for the 2nd qualifying round is out, I actually completely f

Well this was the game that reminded me why this is so much fun. Good football, familiar faces and being made to feel a part of a community After a week of everyone being ill (in fairness my youngest and wife were still really ill over Friday night so not much sleep was had) we headed out on the now familiar path to Cambridgeshire. JJ refused to sleep his meds off before we left (he will always sleep for between 1 and half and 3 hours after the masses of anti epilepsy drugs he takes) we made it to South Mimms before he woke. South Mimms services provided more surprises, it was a busy, heady mix of sports teams en route to games and England fans heading to London for the rugby and football alongside the usual craziness of M25 services. Having adequately fed and watered JJ we headed to the toilets to discover another service station that without signposting had a changing places (and yes I know I could just research there location before I left, but where would the fun in that be?)

So I'll confess, I'm not a natural writer and having been super busy with work and holidays have already let this blog slide a little. So catching up on our preliminary tie at Soham now I knew we would have a similar length journey ahead of us, so had planned on another 11am departure. We were however heading out on holiday that day and so even though I harassed and harangued my wife from 7am that morning we were a little later then planned departing, I knew we were going to be pressed for time and had the added joy of JJ's 6 month old brother along for the ride. I was worried, we pulled into Beaconsfield services again for a lunch bring for the kids, I was hoping for a quick turn around and no crisis. The stop worked perfectly with every one fed and watered we rolled out as we pulled through the car park I looked at our ETA. 3pm arrival not much wiggle room there. A couple of accidents were relatively well steered around by the sat nav and we were looking good, un

The 1st game is always exciting, this time more so, heading off to Bedfordshire on a long journey for the opening game, that excitement may still be going, judging by the length of this post. It was supposedly a two hour journey to Biggleswade , which would have meant leaving about 12.30, smack bang on JJ's lunch time (not an easy process) so decided on an 11am departure, which turned into 11.15 by the time lunches were made and the car loaded. 50 mins in we made a pit stop for lunch at Beaconsfield services, they are huge so thought there would be space to hide out with JJ if he started screeching (one of the things he is very prone to do in busy areas - we have always thought because of sensory overload). JJ has meds to take 30 mins before lunch so the pitstops are normally an hour min. JJ was unusually well behaved and devoured his lunch with the minimum of fuss. Once completed we had our first really positive experience when we headed to the toilets for a pad change. whils