Saturday, September 16, 2006
Exeter Chiefs' new ground
This afternoon, with City away and not being able to get to Gravesend, I popped along with a friend to watch the Exeter Chiefs play their first game at their new ground out at Sandy Park. Parking was in Sowton car park 30 or Digby Park and Ride (which is where we were, for £2 which went to charity). From the car park its a 5/10 min walk to the ground. Prices for the ground were £16 for the grandstand, £14 terrace, £12 ground.
One thing the rugby club need to work on is ticket sales. No pre-orders had been available so everyone had to pay on the day, causing huge queues.
The picture below shows one of the bars in the grandstand.
There was also an external bar and food place. Not sure how good that'll be when its raining as there was no cover. (You could take beer from here into the ground to watch the game - one of the great things about rugby, plus there was another bar in the ground).
The main grandstand, it must be said, is very nice and seats 2400 (I think).
However, the one terrace, opposite the main stand, is pretty poor and is roofless.
Being able to buy a beer during the game was good - though they ran out of many things and I was left with a choice of guiness or Best.
In the background of this photo is where I was stood for the first half, and took the above photos of the grandstand etc. Clearly, a stand would be needed before we could move there.
A view of the terrace and grandstand from the other end.
The view from the grandstand isn't bad, no better/worse than from the Cowshed.
There are 4 bars inside the grandstand. One for memebers, one for general supporters, one for Gold members or something along those lines and one for the boxes (there are about 10 of these I think). The bars look like this:
All in all, its a nice rugby stadium, but is not ready for a football crowd. It needs more stands and segregation would be a problem. With "rugby specials" running, plus the train station at digby and the parking, I think transport should be ok. Id guess the crowd today was over 3000 and the area seemed to cope ok.
Oh and the score? 13-13. Entertaining game, mistakes on both sides. Exe opted to kick for the corner near the end rather than extend their 13-10 lead and paid for it giving away a late penalty.
One thing the rugby club need to work on is ticket sales. No pre-orders had been available so everyone had to pay on the day, causing huge queues.
The picture below shows one of the bars in the grandstand.
There was also an external bar and food place. Not sure how good that'll be when its raining as there was no cover. (You could take beer from here into the ground to watch the game - one of the great things about rugby, plus there was another bar in the ground).
The main grandstand, it must be said, is very nice and seats 2400 (I think).
However, the one terrace, opposite the main stand, is pretty poor and is roofless.
Being able to buy a beer during the game was good - though they ran out of many things and I was left with a choice of guiness or Best.
In the background of this photo is where I was stood for the first half, and took the above photos of the grandstand etc. Clearly, a stand would be needed before we could move there.
A view of the terrace and grandstand from the other end.
The view from the grandstand isn't bad, no better/worse than from the Cowshed.
There are 4 bars inside the grandstand. One for memebers, one for general supporters, one for Gold members or something along those lines and one for the boxes (there are about 10 of these I think). The bars look like this:
All in all, its a nice rugby stadium, but is not ready for a football crowd. It needs more stands and segregation would be a problem. With "rugby specials" running, plus the train station at digby and the parking, I think transport should be ok. Id guess the crowd today was over 3000 and the area seemed to cope ok.
Oh and the score? 13-13. Entertaining game, mistakes on both sides. Exe opted to kick for the corner near the end rather than extend their 13-10 lead and paid for it giving away a late penalty.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Oxford away, 12/9/06
Chris and I set off for Oxford at about 330pm. 5 minutes later, we'd stopped to get petrol....
After that false start we finally got going for real, with Bloc Party on the stereo and a tiny bit of fear in our hearts as City faced a tough away game against table-topping Oxford, who were unbeaten. We hit the M5 (NORTH)....
You can see the fear I was talking about in Chris's eyes here (unless thats annoyance at me taking the picture? Who can tell?):
We only saw one car-load of city fans making their way to Oxford on motorway, and I only managed to grab this photo of them and my hand:
As the sun came out as we got further north (we seemed to have entered some sort of parellel universe where it didn't get nastier as we went north of Taunton), Chris reached for his driving sunglasses - they seem to work on him:
I'm not sure they suit me though:
(plus, my girlfriend tells me I need a shave and am generally a mess - thanks ;-) )
We stopped at a pub just outside Oxford for a pre-game pint and food. Well, I had a pint or two, Chris stuck to coke. Turned out, this place wasn't a pub, but quite a nice restuarant. Food was very good (as was the service). I had a burger that cost me £12. To be fair it was an Aberdeen Angus burger with "hot cheese and bbq sauce". Not your bog-standard McDonalds crap.
The traffic got heavier as we neared the ground (the attendence was 6000, including 400 City fans which for a reasonably long trip on a tuesday night, wasn't bad).
A few pictures of the ground from outside and in. They're not great pictures, but never mind:
(They're missing a stand, which is a shame as besides that, its a nice ground, though VERY expensive to get in - £18 if you pay on the day (£16 in advance))
We had time for a pre-game beer in the ground (£2.90 - not cheap but hardly surprising). Its a shame City can't sell beer in St Jame's Park. There are strict legal restrictions on doing that - has to be out of sight of the game etc.
As for the game itself, we had some early pressure, before Oxford scored an ugly goal (it was ugly for us to conced it). Gill was robbed of possession in midfield, their player tried to feed the ball behind our back 4, our defender Edwards missed it, leaving their striker one-on-one with Ricey in goal. 1-0. They had a bit of a purple patch then, before being awarded a penalty, of which I have a great picture:
As you can clearly see, Rice pulled off a great save (I may have been a little excited and ruined the photo!). After that, we got on top and started having a huge amount of possession. We had a few crosses in the box, and a few chances, but didn't manage to get back on level terms.
In the second half, after a fairly even first 10 we again got on top and created an absolute hatful of chances, the best being put over from 6 yards out by Stansfield. Despite a load of pressure, and a few desperate scrambles in the Oxford penalty area, we weren't able to get the goal. I still feel that if Stansfield had put that chance away early in the second half, we would have gone on to win. Ho hum.
After that, we were faced with a 45 minute wait to get out of the car park. Im quite glad I don't have to face that every time I go to a home game - a 10 minute walk is clearly preferable - one of the many reasons I hope City stay at St James Park, at the heart of the City the club is meant to represent.
After having such a great time at an away game, Chris and myself are pondering whether to go to Gravesend - its a 3.5 hour drive across the country and around London (and its my turn to drive!). Away games are so much more enjoyable than home ones at the moment as the atmosphere amongst those that travel is much more positive and supportive than the negative rubbish the players have to put up with at home games. If we do go, I'll make sure to take some slightly more exciting photographs ;-)
After that false start we finally got going for real, with Bloc Party on the stereo and a tiny bit of fear in our hearts as City faced a tough away game against table-topping Oxford, who were unbeaten. We hit the M5 (NORTH)....
You can see the fear I was talking about in Chris's eyes here (unless thats annoyance at me taking the picture? Who can tell?):
We only saw one car-load of city fans making their way to Oxford on motorway, and I only managed to grab this photo of them and my hand:
As the sun came out as we got further north (we seemed to have entered some sort of parellel universe where it didn't get nastier as we went north of Taunton), Chris reached for his driving sunglasses - they seem to work on him:
I'm not sure they suit me though:
(plus, my girlfriend tells me I need a shave and am generally a mess - thanks ;-) )
We stopped at a pub just outside Oxford for a pre-game pint and food. Well, I had a pint or two, Chris stuck to coke. Turned out, this place wasn't a pub, but quite a nice restuarant. Food was very good (as was the service). I had a burger that cost me £12. To be fair it was an Aberdeen Angus burger with "hot cheese and bbq sauce". Not your bog-standard McDonalds crap.
The traffic got heavier as we neared the ground (the attendence was 6000, including 400 City fans which for a reasonably long trip on a tuesday night, wasn't bad).
A few pictures of the ground from outside and in. They're not great pictures, but never mind:
(They're missing a stand, which is a shame as besides that, its a nice ground, though VERY expensive to get in - £18 if you pay on the day (£16 in advance))
We had time for a pre-game beer in the ground (£2.90 - not cheap but hardly surprising). Its a shame City can't sell beer in St Jame's Park. There are strict legal restrictions on doing that - has to be out of sight of the game etc.
As for the game itself, we had some early pressure, before Oxford scored an ugly goal (it was ugly for us to conced it). Gill was robbed of possession in midfield, their player tried to feed the ball behind our back 4, our defender Edwards missed it, leaving their striker one-on-one with Ricey in goal. 1-0. They had a bit of a purple patch then, before being awarded a penalty, of which I have a great picture:
As you can clearly see, Rice pulled off a great save (I may have been a little excited and ruined the photo!). After that, we got on top and started having a huge amount of possession. We had a few crosses in the box, and a few chances, but didn't manage to get back on level terms.
In the second half, after a fairly even first 10 we again got on top and created an absolute hatful of chances, the best being put over from 6 yards out by Stansfield. Despite a load of pressure, and a few desperate scrambles in the Oxford penalty area, we weren't able to get the goal. I still feel that if Stansfield had put that chance away early in the second half, we would have gone on to win. Ho hum.
After that, we were faced with a 45 minute wait to get out of the car park. Im quite glad I don't have to face that every time I go to a home game - a 10 minute walk is clearly preferable - one of the many reasons I hope City stay at St James Park, at the heart of the City the club is meant to represent.
After having such a great time at an away game, Chris and myself are pondering whether to go to Gravesend - its a 3.5 hour drive across the country and around London (and its my turn to drive!). Away games are so much more enjoyable than home ones at the moment as the atmosphere amongst those that travel is much more positive and supportive than the negative rubbish the players have to put up with at home games. If we do go, I'll make sure to take some slightly more exciting photographs ;-)
