All Quiet on the eircom Front (In association with Itchy Feet – again…)

So then, we hit the winter low of no-Bohs.  Yep, the League season ended in suitable ramshackle style down at Ridden-Rock-Solidville (aka Cork) on November 9th – where a frankly magnificent own-goal gave the Big Club a 1-0 victory and with it the best of the European trips next summer.

Aye – the Intertoto Cup.  “But surely…” I hear you proclaim, “The Intertoto Cup is but the worst of the European competitions on offer for domestic club football”.  That may be correct in some quarters – but the utter superbness of the Intertoto can be found in one small detail.

The games take place on Saturday afternoons in June.  A weekend fixture in the middle of summer is superb when you have to travel abroad.  No need to grovel to the boss for a whole week off – the Friday and Monday on annual leave works out as a much better prospect that taking out double the amount for a trip.

I was in Gent in Belgium for our last foray into European competition – granted I did book off the Wednesday before until the Monday – but that was due to us all heading to Amsterdam for a couple of days before the short hop across the border into Belgium.  It was literally two trips in one.

The other great thing about the European trip to somewhere like Belgium – the idiot quotient you normally get at League games is cut drastically – the people you normally get on the away trips into the continent are the proper fans who love nothing better than a few pints (or in our trip to Gent – much much more than a few) and going to support the club. 

These trips are one of the highlights about following this great club – and by God, we missed out on Europe last season – we sorely wanted to make it back in. 

And we have.

We now await the UEFA draw to be made sometime the other side of Christmas.  The good thing about the Intertoto draw as opposed to the “Champions” League and the UEFA Giant Vase is that they do the draw in two stages.  Sometime between Christmas and February UEFA publish the draw.  But instead of the clubs taking part (as it’s based on League positions and most Leagues involved are still playing at this time) they publish which country will play which country (e.g. Ireland’s representatives will take on Belgium’s representatives).  This gives us a rough idea where we will be going – so the plans can be formulated and cheap travel and accomodation booked up.

Then in April UEFA simply complete the formalities by slotting the relevant clubs into the already drawn ties.  Simplicity in it’s best form.

Finally on Bohs – I had the absolute pleasure of a run out on the hallowed Dalymount turf on the 18th as I was asked to referee the First Team as they took on the Event and Security Staff.  A 13-2 victory for the First Team was secured and a good afternoon was had by all. Hopefully I’ll have some photos of the game winging their way to me via email soon enough…

Away from the Land of eircom – the refereeing in England is progressing nicely.  Getting some really good games on the West Midlands and Worcester Leagues – for the first time in a few years I’m actually really enjoying it again.

I’ve also been accepted to attend the USA Cup in Minnesota in July, as well as the usual Norway jaunt (which will be my 10th one).  I’ve heard good things about the USA Cup – and the chance to chalk another nation off the list is not something to be passed up.

Finally – I’ve been doing some thinking as to what I want to be doing in 12 months time (prompted by a couple of work colleagues leaving the company to pursue different paths) – let’s just say I’ve got the travel bug again (but not in the conventional way).  I’m taking advice and discussing the whole plan in depth with people who have already done what I’m thinking of doing, so I’ll be more than well prepared this time.  First hurdle is, pass my driving test…

All I can say about the above is – watch this space…

Next update to follow soonish hopefully,

Goin’ Loco In The Intertoto

No Heroes Outside of Worcester…

About a quarter of an hour ago we all indulged in the intangible concept of time travel without even realising it. Yes, it’s that time of year where we revert back to GMT – just to placate some silly farmers.

It means we rapidly hurtle towards the winter season – going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark.

As I write this I’m watching an MLS Playoff match between New York and New England – however it’s pretty difficult and confusing to follow at times.

They’re playing the game in Giants Stadium in New York – which is an NFL stadium with one of these artificial FieldTurf pitches. Which means that the pitch markings are permanent. However – the soccer pitch is larger than the NFL field – which means that the pitch markings we can see on TV bear no relation to the actual game going on at the moment – as you can see below…

Anyway – onto the more pressing matters at hand – the past few weeks have been a disastrous one for the faithful of the Bohemian Nation.

What looked like a superb position a couple of weeks ago has resulted in League Cup Final and FAI Cup Semi-Final appearances – with two defeats. And as for the league – the promise of a possible second place which was up for grabs recently now looks like being traded in for a fourth place finish – meaning that once again – we miss out on the Setanta Cup and would be possibly scraping around for an Intertoto Cup place next summer.

As one correspondent said on our club forum tonight about the defeat o Cork in the FAI Semi Final on Friday:

“I know when I stand in the Jodi, that the lads standing around me would all sweat blood to get an equaliser in a Cup semi, so its a sickener to watch some players on a couple of grand a week not break their bollox.”

That about sums up a spineless, passionless, and dare I say – useless display by the players who pull on the red and black each week – things are well and truly rotten in the Kingdom of Phibsborough – things need to change and quick – otherwise we will face a lot more seasons of disappointment – something we should not have to put up with.

Looking back to a couple of weeks ago – we reached a dark nadir up in Derry thanks to the actions of four people purporting to be “fans” of this great club – when they ventured into a Protestant area of the city and proceeded to smash up a bar whilst shouting, what was reported as, sectarian abuse. Thankfully the situation was resolved satisfactorily – prison sentences handed down (although these are under appeal by the defendants) – and a lot of PR and bridge building by the real fans of the club – around about 650 of whom supported the club so magnificently up in Derry.

The ball is now in the football club’s court – talk of a “zero tolerance” policy on these thugs and the agenda they pursue has been mooted by those in power – we now sit and wait to see if they walk the walk and actually follow through with the promises made to the decent supporters.

Away from the happenings in the land of eircom – unfortunately I haven’t been too well lately. With the stuff going on elsewhere and such – I slipped into a small bout of reassessment – resulting in myself just writing down my situation to date. It didn’t make for pleasant reading. Thankfully a few people rallied round and offered a bit of support that kind of got me back to some semblance of normality, although it still does raise it’s head above the parapets once in a while.

Related to this – I bumped into a couple of old colleagues from high school recently – I expect they’ll probably read this – so if you are Helen and Katy – it was a pleasure to catch up with yourselves – although the gap of some 10 years is probably a bit too long! So keep me updated with how things are going…

Norway Cup – Day 1

Note: These posts were written and stored on my Smartphone – I cannot post them to this from that device – so timings may seem a little bit out.

So it’s 4:29am on Friday morning and I’m currently sat in a Costa Coffee outlet in Heathrow Airport awaiting the opening of the SAS Check-In Area downstairs.

The journey to get this far started at 8:50pm the previous night. Due to the floods shutting down part of the Oxford Rail Line I had to do a roundabout journey. A train to Birmingham Moor Street, a quick dash across to New Street, time for a pint, another train down to Euston put me in London at just before a quarter to one in the morning. Then another short train journey up to Harrow & Wealdstone, and finally a 45-minute bus journey to Heathrow. Arrived at the airport at about 2:45am. Bizzare event number one was spotting a van from my workplace parked on the side of the road in Yeading.

Anyway, checking in at 5:15, then off to the prebooked Airport Lounge for a shower, some free breakfast and a read of the papers. Should hit Oslo about 10:30 CET where the real fun begins!

Cups, Mugs and a Mesh…

As I sit here at my desk at work on yet another quiet and rain-swept English afternoon – I find myself ruminating on yet another couple of weeks happenings in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Another functional 1-0 victory – this time in front of the live Setanta TV cameras at home to relegation fodder (if not for Longford misplacing a load of points on their last visit to Merrion Square) in the shape of Waterford United.  An deftly executed overhead kick from Darren Manseram (his first League goal so I believe) that would grace any top league in Europe stretched the run to 10 wins, 6 draws and 3 losses in all competitions for the season.

A 0-0 draw in yet another highly charged Dublin Derby against the great unwashed last Friday – having to listen to the delusional nonsense spouted forth from the pits of Pat “Better Team” Scully nearly made me want to hurl the PC monitor out of the window. 

The usual circus off the pitch inevitably unfolded as sure as night follows day, and Roddy Collins follows bluster – culminating in the usual nonsense on several Internet forums which shall remain nameless to prevent embarrasment to those involved.

For some wildly unknown reason this season – a load of Sligo Rovers fans have hopped on the bandwagon already being ridden by Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne fans - having a pop and a snipe at us at any given opportunity – even when things don’t actually involve them.  Probably put it down to the fact that Sean Connor took the better job when it came up – as he said he always would do.  Smacks of minnow behaviour from what is virtually our feeder club.

Monday night (last night) saw the return of Chief Fire Marshall Mr Gareth “Spoofer” Farrelly to the hallowed turf.  Probably the worst manager I’ve ever seen at any level (including Sunday morning pub football and Under 9’s Mini-Soccer).  Thankfully we sent him packing with a good dose of RRS and a 3-2 extra-time win.  The winner coming from the unlikely source of a Dessie Byrne header in the 120th minute of the game.

In fact all three of our goals came from supporting cast members – namely Stephen Rice (who is having a pretty good season by all accounts) and Dean Pooley.

Still – a win is a win – and it sees us into a Cup Semi-Final for the first time in a few seasons – hopefully we can convert this opportunity and bring home the first silverware of the 2007 season.

Three weeks or so until the annual jaunt to Norway – and the chance to take in some foreign football – namely a UEFA Cup game and a Norwegian Premier Division match.

Finally - I sold my old PC after 3 years of faithful service – and have a nice new top of the range Core 2 Duo on the way from Mesh Computers down in London – based on the recommendation of a colleague – but with one small worry.

It’s due to arrive on Friday the 13th…

A change in fortunes on all fronts…

I sit here at just before 1am UK time listening to some inane item on Radio 5 about eating chocolate – have to say – late night on Radio 5 has gone right downhill over the past year – mainly thanks to the frankly rubbish contributions from one Anita Annand.  At least I’ve got Up All Night to look forward to in a few minutes.

Anyway – a few things have changed – and a lot has remained constant over the intervening 3 months of updates on here.

First thing – the SVS gig was only for a few weeks it turned out – they let all of the agency staff go over a two week period as the work dried up.  It was always a risk – but that’s the chance you take with that kind of arrangement.

Got reposted to another department within the same institution that was originally going to last for a maximum 6 weeks – leading up to mid to late April.

On the third day there – I get a phone call from another agency I was working for – seeing if I would like to go forward for a full-time permanent receptioning position at a local company 15 minutes drive from home.  As I was facing being out of work again within the month I said “sod it – nothing to lose – go for it”.

Two days later – phone call number two.  “The company don’t wish to interview you for the Reception position”.  In the words of the esteemed Captain Slow, James May, “Oh cock!”

“However – the IT Department at the same place want to talk to you with regards to a position with them”.

So I go in for the interview – and end up being succesful – and have been working there for about a month now.  A great little job and long may it last.

The situation at Dalymount has also turned pretty rosy since the last update.  Not conceding many goals – 10 wins and 4 draws from the intervening 15 matches – culminating in beating Drogheda United 1-0 in the FAI Cup up at their place on the Friday just gone – we might just be seeing the start of something long needed and very special.

Was over in Dublin twice within a fortnight at the end of May and the start of June doing various things.

First engagement was to help celebrate the 30th birthday of one Stu Conroy – whom I count among my main circle of friends – a seriously top bloke – once again – Happy Birthday Stu and thanks for the couch!

Second trip – which was over the June Bank Holiday weekend involved a spot of refereeing for the Dublin Branch of the Nottingham Forest Supporters Club.  It took the form of a Charity Tournament involving 5 Supporters Clubs teams from various clubs – Hibs, St Patrick’s Athletic, Bohemians (who got absolutely hockeyed in 3 of their 4 games – we had a few scorelines throughout the day of 26-0, 21-2, etc.), Nottingham Forest and the eventual winners, University College Dublin.

That evening saw myself, a good friend Shane Butler, and Jay – a refereeing colleague, joining the Forest lads at their end of season function in a pub just outside the main bus terminus in the centre of Dublin.  There was a lot of food and many pints doing the rounds – and as an added bonus we had two former Forest legends attend the function – Steve Sutton, who played in goal during the 1980s for the club, and Tommy Gaynor (who also used to play for Bohs).

Anyway – when it came to drawing the raffle – my ticket got pulled out – and I was the lucky recipient of a squad shirt worn by one of the Irish players in the Forest squad last season.  Plus I got a photo taken with Steve and Tommy:

I apologise for the out of focus photo

Posing for a group photo at the end with Shane (and his quite marvellously to the point t-shirt) and Jay (who also refereed at the charity tournament)

After this we headed into town to a downstairs bar in town for more beer and a bite to eat when we exited at just after 2:30am – into what I can only describe as a monsoon – which lasted the rest of the weekend…

As we left the bar – I spotted a statue to the great musician Phil Lynott – and Jay just demanded he have a photo taken…

Next up is the annual jaunt to Oslo and the Norway Cup at the end of July – nice to get away from it all for a week…

An Update – and a Crazy, Crazy Plan…

A quick update since my last post – and then news of a madcap scheme that could be very interesting.

Anyway – first thing – sorry about a lack of updates recently – just started full time work again. I’m currently working at the State Veterinary Service in the Welfare in Transport Office. We deal with paperwork connected to Livestock movements across Europe – a very interesting little department.

The 2007 eircom League season is now two weeks old – and the so-called new dawn of Sean Connor at the helm of the Bohemian ship hasn’t got off to a good start. A dire 0-0 draw on National TV with Drogheda followed by a 1-0 reversal down by the seaside at Bray – and we find ourselves with 1 point from 6 and in the familiar surroundings of 9th place. As legendary right back Pascal Vaudequin would say “Plus ça change…”

Finally – the long anticipated first Dublin Derby of the season against Shamrock Rovers which should have been played this Friday has been moved to a week Tuesday of all nights thanks to our superb Police force not being clued up enough to handle two events in such close proximity to each other (the other one being the Wales – Ireland football match in Croke Park the day after).

To be honest these lot couldn’t police Sting at a reunion concert.

It means that instead of being there watching the game live – I’ll be huddled over a mobile phone at Hampden Park watching Queens Park vs. East Stirling whilst awaiting text updates from Dalymount.

Anyway – onto the plan I alluded to in the title of this post.
I’m not sure how many of you have heard of something called the “Tube Challenge”. Basic premise is that the challenger has to attempt to visit all 275 London Underground Stations in the shortest time possible. You can read about it further at this site: http://www.tubechallenge.com/.

The current World Record stands at 18 hours, 35 minutes and 38 seconds – set in May 2006.

This got me thinking – and then planning two things – both of which will hopefully raise some money for a charity along the way.

Firstly – to have a crack at the London Challenge – even if we don’t get the record timewise, I want to get through all 275 – good news here is that I already have another two guys who want to attempt it as a group.

Secondly – and I’m sure this hasn’t been done before – involves a favourite annual holiday destination of mine – Oslo.

The plan is to do the London Challenge, but transfer it to the Norwegian capital – and visit all 186 Underground and Tram stations that make up the Oslo Transport System. I have already formulated a route to do this – which will be kept under wraps for the forseeable. Next stage is to approach some other parties to check that it hasn’t been attempted before (thereby setting a record straight off), whether it would be considered as a bona fide World Record attempt, and also to raise some funds for charity in the process. I’ll be creating a seperate section here to chronicle the attempts as they develop.

Plus I need some other nutter to attempt it with!

No To Foreign Sports – Says a Celtic FC Jersey wearing Irishman…

A vey decent weekend after all!

Ireland destroyed England at Croke Park – recording a 43-13 win in Dublin. If memory serves me correct this is the biggest victory by Ireland over England and could also be the first time that someone has put 40+ points past England in the Five/Six Nations Championship.

One thing that did amuse me a lot came in the form of a photo that appeared in the Telegraph today. There was a small protest organised by the splinter group Republican Sinn Fein to highlight the ‘unacceptable normalisation’ of relations between Ireland and England, and the fact that a so-called “foreign sport” (foreign sport = football or rugby) was allowed to be played in Croke Park.

Anyway – this is said photo – just look closely:

Yes – you are seeing that correctly – a protester giving his two cent on “No Foreign Games” to be played in Croke Park – whilst wearing a tracksuit and jersey of Glasgow Celtic FC – a non-Irish team which plays one of the so-called “foreign sports” this fella is so dead set against.

The irony oozes from every pore there…

Anyway – back to this weekend just gone – the wedding reception I went to straight after the game was well-attended and a good time was had by all – good luck with it all Andy and Heather – I’m sure you’ll make a great success of this.

Sunday morning saw me out on the local parks pitches in Worcester – where I handled a local city league Division 2 match. The head wasn’t as sore as it may have been – the pitch was bloody awful – a real mudbath in the centre, stones down both flanks and one corner under just enough mud and a small amount of water meaning that any attempt to take a corner was impossible – however we managed to sort a solution for that out.

Ended up with 4 cautions and a penalty – the majority of which were accepted in the right spirit – both teams played a good hard-fought competitive match – and again – in the right spirit – which added up to a thoroughly enjoyable morning. The final result being the home team ran out 4-1 winners.

I’m in the middle on a County Youth match on Monday night between Worcestershire and Leicestershire up at the RSC in Worcester. Good news is that I get two neutral Assistant Referees – meaning I can concentrate more on what’s going on in the middle rather than worrying about offsides.

Finally – next weekend sees the start of the new Refereeing Promotion Season here in England – decided to give it a bash this season after a year out of it – so the hard work commences next Sunday!

The Weekend Awaits…

Following on from a nice quiet Friday – where I earnt myself a few quid setting up someone’s new Vista PC- an action packed weekend lies in wait..

And it’ll go something like this:

Saturday – a leisurely morning – followed by the start of an afternoon / evening on the lock.

Rugby first of all – probably watch the first game at home – before heading into town to watch Ireland – England with a lot of pints (hopefully with an Irish victory in Croke Park).

Then straight after that game is over I’m heading a few miles down the road to a mate’s wedding reception thing at a local pub/restaurant.

ofc I won’t turn up in my Ireland rugby jersey – that would be downright rude and not keeping with the dress code or spirit of things, so I’ll have to take a change of shirt and change on the way.

No doubt I’ll be at the bar most of the evening.

Sunday: will see me working off the beer with a morning on the local parks and then a nice leisurely afternoon at home.

Hopefully it’ll live up to it’s billing.

Away from those plans – a couple of things that I need to get down on paper (so to speak)

I’m sat here at 4:10am UK time watching Sky News and the pictures of the train derailment in Cumbria.

Story for those of you outside the UK – a Virgin High-Speed Tilting Train derailed out in the North of England – with 8 or the 9 carriages taking a hefty drop down an embankment – most of them ending up on their sides – the Emergency Services are still unsure as to what has caused the accident – in which, atm, sadly one person has lost their life.

Hopefully we won’t lose anyone else – one death is one too many in this day and age.

Finally – on a bit of a brighter note – Bohemians drew 0-0 with Scottish Premier League side Aberdeen at Dalymount last night.

Apparently we were extremely unlucky not to record a win in our penultimate friendly before the 2007 League Season starts (we are due to travel to play Coleraine on Tuesday night).

It was the first real test of our new manager Sean Connor and our new look squad (including the much vaunted return of one Glen Crowe to Dalymount) – and by all reports – we look like a half-decent side for the first time in a year and a half.

Roll on the new season!

A New Start at a New Location

I’m in the process of writing a book!

Had the idea whilst pottering about reading some magazine or other a couple of weeks ago.

An article on Internet publishing site Lulu.com – and how easy it is to get yourself published nowadays caught my eye – gone are the days of having to grovel to Publishing Houses to get your manuscript out there.

Anyway – back to the matter in hand – as you may or may not know – my main passion is following League of Ireland football club Bohemians – even though I’m based 75% of my time in England.

The plan is to write an account of the upcoming season – which, imo, is a pivotal one in our history.  The ground deal being finalised giving us financial security, a new manager, a lot of new players coming in, the implosion of Shelbourne FC, and not to mention the League itself coming under the control of a new body of people.

2007 could be an extremely interesting year – and I’ll use this place to log stuff to do with the project that will be fleshed out and come December this year hopefully in a format available in book form.

I’ll also use this place to log the general day-to-day stuff that goes on around here – starting with the post above!