Finished!!!

What a week!! We got all of our grounds visited well within the time limit of one week. Finishing at Luton Town we felt a mixture of joy and relief. We're going to have the Video Diary and Juggling Videos edited and uploaded soon. But in the mean time here's some of our personal highlights from the week:

Aldershot Town - Saturday Night

We arrived at Aldershot Town at 12:30am and were feeling very tired and ready for bed. We weren't expecting people to meet us but a great guy called Wally was just closing up as we arrived. He said he was expecting us and we went up into the bar for some photos. He came back with an away shirt and a jumper for us! We also went onto the pitch and Wally turned the lights on for us! It was a great morale boost.

Bristol City - Sunday afternoon

After 2 days of foul weather we were surprised when Bristol City unexpectedly let us into the stadium on Sunday afternoon. They were selling tickets for the Carling Cup game so people were around, we explained what we were doing and they let us wander around. We were all very impressed with Ashton Gate and took many photos. This one is from the tunnel area.

Liverpool - Monday


There were many highlights during Monday; getting tea at Stafford Rangers at 8am; getting on the pitch at Shrewsbury Town; getting a signed shirt at Bolton. But THE highlight was Anfield. We already knew they would lend us a shirt for the photos, but we cheekily asked if we could get pitch-side. The guy in the Tours said he could get us in if we waited for 50 minutes, we couldn't really afford to because of the schedule, but we did anyway and it was well worth it. The stadium, dressing rooms and people were amazing.

Tuesday - Sunderland and Carlisle



Both of the clubs were amazing. Burnley were too as they leant us shirts each, but Carlisle and Sunderland went way above the call of duty. We weren't expecting people to meet us at Carlisle but they did and gave us a full tour of the stadium and leant us shirts for the shots and donated us a shirt and picture for the cause. Sunderland also met us and they took us on a tour of the stadium, leant us a shirt and also donated a signed picture of the stadium for us to auction.

Wednesday - Bradford and Notts County


Bradford City were the first club we visited on the Wednesday. They met us, leant us a shirt and showed us Valley Parade in all it's glory. They were very good to us and the contact was made through the Chairman, Mark Lawn, the only chairman to contact us directly. Notts County had arranged to meet us and they opened the doors to the ground and let us take photos inside. They also donated a club pennant for us to auction. Both clubs were very hospitable and this appreciated greatly.

Thursday - Rushden & Diamonds and Paul Ince


On paper this was going to be the worst day. The only club that had responded was Rushden & Diamonds and there was a lot of mileage in the day. The club that one us despises were also very welcoming. They let us in, let us onto the pitch and we got to meet Paul Ince. Also on the way out they said they'd donate a signed shirt and the cameras of Soccer AM may well have picked up on our adventure. Keep watching the program to see if we do! Thankfully Rushden & Diamonds went one better and made us feel very welcome. They let us on the pitch, leant us shirts for the photos and donated a bag of goodies. They have also put out a press release.

The Final Day!


Many of the London clubs were very good to us, including Brentford who let us pitchside and donated a club pennant. However, getting into White Hart Lane (after some tugs at heart-strings) and Upton Park made our day!!


Conclusions
We need to say thank you to so many people. All those of you that donated money to us, those of you that prayed for us, those of you that met us along the way and those of you that housed us, namely The Wrights, Sarah Beer, the Stafford family, Lindsay, The Dixons, Paul Rickard and Paul Broughton. We had such a good time over the week and all 5 of us (Pete, Matt, Dave, Steve and Barry) are greatful that we could do this for charity. Please keep giving and we'll let you know soon about how to buy the donated stuff and any future media involvement as well as a final sponsorship amount.

Half Way Through!!!

Hello people!!! Pete, Dave and Matt (only just here - he's very tired!!) here in (not so) sunny Leeds! We've done 65 grounds so far, 4 days gone and a lot of tiredness! We've taken loads of great photos and will update with pictures soon. The video looks great and we've had lots of clubs being very generous. We have a signed Bolton shirt, a signed Middlesbrough football, a signed Sunderland photo, 6 football shirts, a mug and a scarf. We got inside most stadiums, which was unexpected.

Some of the highlights so far:

Getting a tour of Anfield (liverpool)
Having the cleaner at Stafford Rangers make us a cuppa at 8:30am.
Aldershot turning the floodlights on at 12:45am just for our photos - thanks Wally!
Singing 3 Lions very loudly in the van.
Drinking milk at Accrington Stanley.
Weeing at a lot of football clubs.
Directors box's (and tour) at Sunderland and Carlisle.
All of us wearing shirts at Burnley.
A worker at Chester City smuggling us out a free home shirt.
Bacon Sarnies at Lindsay's house in the morning.
Getting promoted as Kingstonian on Champ Manager while travelling in the van.

Some of the lowlights so far:

Pete not being able to juggle the ball at Forest Green Rovers.
Taf remembering he's actually flying to Albania on Thursday, so can't finish the tour. Steve Hirst will replace him.
Pete's camera smashing to pieces at Plymouth (the first ground) after a gust of wind blew the tripod over.


So it's been a great first half! Keep checking back and please call us during the next couple of days. It gives us a great morale boost and we can always answer the phone. The number is 07841815639.

Bye.

Route Published! Be on the Video!!!

As you will know, we will be making a video of our exploits, which will show us juggling a football at each of the grounds that we visit. We'd like you guys to be involved and feature in the video in a cameo role, even if we've never met any of you. If you live close to any of the locations then please come down and visit us. It's also a great way of encouraging us and cheering us along. So here is the route, please contact us on the email address at the side or phone us if you know us personally.

SATURDAY 18TH AUGUST:
Plymouth Argyle - 08:10
Torquay United - 09:20
Exeter City - 10:30
Yeovil Town - 12:00
Weymouth - 13:20
AFC Bournemouth - 14:45
Salisbury City - 17:45
Southampton - 19:00
Portsmouth - 20:00
Brighton & Hove Albion - 21:35
Crawley Town - 22:30
Woking - 23:50

SUNDAY 19TH AUGUST:
Aldershot Town - 00:45
Reading - 01:40
Wycombe Wanderers - 02:25
Oxford United - 09:20
Swindon Town - 10:30
Cheltenham Town - 11:50
Forest Green Rovers - 13:00
Bristol Rovers - 14:20
Bristol City - 15:10
Cardiff City - 16:45
Swansea City - 18:10
Hereford United - 20:20
Kidderminster Harriers - 21:50
Birmingham City - 23:00
Aston Villa - 23:45

MONDAY 20TH AUGUST:
West Bromwich Albion - 00:20
Walsall - 01:00
Wolverhampton Wanderers - 01:50
Stafford Rangers - 08:20
Shrewsbury Town - 09:35
Wrexham - 11:00
Chester City - 11:55
Tranmere - 12:55
Everton - 13:40
Liverpool - 14:10
Wigan Athletic - 15:15
Bolton Wanderers - 16:05
Bury - 17:00
Manchester United - 17:55
Altrincham - 18:40
Northwich Victoria - 19:30
Crewe Alexandra - 20:30
Stoke City - 21:35
Port Vale - 22:20
Macclesfield Town - 23:20

TUESDAY 21ST AUGUST
Stockport County - 00:15
Manchester City - 00:45
Droylsden - 01:15
Oldham Athletic - 01:45
Rochdale - 08:40
Burnley - 09:30
Accrington Stanley - 10:10
Blackburn Rovers - 10:55
Preston North End - 11:45
Blackpool - 12:40
Morecambe - 14:00
Carlisle United - 15:40
Newcastle United - 17:15
Sunderland - 18:10
Hartlepool United - 19:20
Middlesbrough - 20:15
Darlington - 21:10
York City - 22:50

WEDNESDAY 22ND AUGUST:
Leeds United - 00:05
Farsley Celtic - 00:50
Bradford City - 08:50
Halifax Town - 09:35
Huddersfield Town - 10:10
Barnsley - 11:05
Rotherham United - 11:45
Doncaster Rovers - 12:20
Scunthorpe United - 13:10
Hull City - 14:10
Grimsby Town - 15:25
Lincoln City - 16:45
Sheffield Wednesday - 18:30
Sheffield United - 19:15
Chesterfield - 20:05
Mansfield Town - 21:00
Notts County - 21:55
Nottingham Forest - 22:25
Derby County - 23:25

THURSDAY 23RD AUGUST:
Burton Albion - 00:15
Leicester City - 01:20
Coventry City - 02:10
Northampton Town - 08:40
Milton Keynes Dons - 09:35
Rushden & Diamonds - 10:50
Peterborough United - 11:55
Histon - 13:10
Cambridge United - 13:50
Norwich City - 15:40
Ipswich City - 17:15
Colchester United - 18:20
Southend United - 19:40
Grays Athletic - 20:45
Ebbsfleet United - 21:35
Gillingham - 22:20

FRIDAY 24TH AUGUST:
Crystal Palace - 00:05
Fulham - 01:00
Brentford - 08:40
QPR - 09:20
Chelsea - 10:05
Millwall - 11:05
Charlton Athletic - 12:00
Dagenham & Redbridge - 13:10
West Ham United - 14:10
Leyton Orient - 15:00
Arsenal - 15:55
Tottenham Hotspur - 16:40
Barnet - 17:45
Watford - 18:55
Stevenage Borough - 20:00
Luton Town - 21:05

Liverpool lend shirt and more paper coverage

Liverpool phoned this morning and said that they will lend us a shirt for the publicity photos. This is one ground in particular that I'm looking forward to seeing. One day i'll go to one of their games.

The route has also slightly changed in around the Leeds area. This means we do not need accomodation in Barnsley but do in Northampton still.

We've also made the paper and the online version of the Herts Ad. Here's the story online.

More clubs respond

We've been away for 5 days, hence why the updates have been non-existant. Middlesbrough sent through a great letter. We cannot be pitchside but they are going to supply us with a signed football by the team!!

Man Utd replied saying they support many charities so cannot help, Liverpool replied saying that are passing the lettet to someone else, and Shrewsbury Town will be delighted to accomodate us.

We've passed £600 in donations now, hopefully about £150 in tax to be added on top as well. We still think the target of £1,160 is attainable but we need your help, so please badger your family and friends.

Accomodation Requests & Sponsorship Update

ACCOMODATION

We still need various places to stay, whether it's at your house, one of your mate's house, or a church floor. We need accomodation from about 2am until 8am. The dates below are of the night we get there (so Sat night is actually Sunday morning 2am):

Friday Night 17th: Plymouth - sorted
Saturday Night 18th: Wycombe - NEED ACCOMODATION
Sunday Night 19th: Birmingham - sorted
Monday Night 20th: Rochdale - sorted
Tuesday Night 21st: Barnsley - NEED ACCOMODATION
Wednesday Night 22nd: Northampton - NEED ACCOMODATION
Thursday Night 23rd: Brentford (W London) - NEED ACCOMODATION

If you can offer that would be fantastic. Anywhere within 10 miles of those places is good enough. Email me at petermiller36@hotmail.com if you can help.

SPONSORSHIP

Due to the nature of this task and high costs (van and fuel) we are collecting the money before we do the attempt. If you would like to donate then please click here. So far from that site we have £422.12, we also have £80 collected from money given to us. If you cannot give online then please send us a cheque with your details so that we claim tax back as well. IF you sponsor £10 or more then you can put your name by a club on the left. This is a way of us gauging how much sponsorship we have and in return we'll send you the photo of us at your club. Thanks for the support so far. Keep going though!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good

We had 4 letters over the past 2 days, the first was from Salisbury City who inform us that they have a home game that day and we are welcome to go on the pitch from 6pm and they're lending us a shirt for the photos. Next up was Bolton Wanderers. I wasn't expecting positive responses from Premier League clubs due the huge amount of charity work they already do. Their letter surprised me, as they said they would be "delighted to supply us with a shirt". Cardiff City phoned up too and said that the groundsman is around on the Sunday afternoon and we will be allowed on the pitch and will be borrowing a Bluebirds shirt for the photos. Preston North End also phoned to inform us that they too can accomodate us and lend us a shirt for the promotional shots.

The Bad

Aston Villa "regret" they cannot support us due to the overwhelming number of requests. The next one is a cracker, I couldn't help but laugh at this one. The letter from Halifax Town reads as follows: "...we do not the stadium and our rent only covers us for admittance on match days." How bizarre. And finally Sheffield Wednesday replied with a letter which said they've suffered severe damage to the flooding. We do have permission to take photos outside their reception though. Tough situation for them.

The Ugly




We were also asked to do some promotional shots for the Herts Advertiser, these will be also be useful for the other media sources that are wanting to cover us. Thanks to Sophie for her expert photography skills here.

Yorkshire Replies.

Leeds United, the club in massive problems up north, have said they can't help and listed about 30 charities they already support. Doncaster Rovers have responded positively, so much so that we've said we'll delay our arrival by 45 minutes in order to meet people there and wear one of their shirts. Nice fellas up north!

Taf, Matt and Pete met up for the first time since deciding to do this and the meeting went well. Over a pint of Guinness we discussed how excited we were and tried to sort out accomodation, 3 nights of which are already sorted. We do still need housing (and sponsorship of course) so please check the facebook group for details.

Watford, Bradford and Leicester - out of hours ggrrrrr!

All 3 clubs responded positively, but unfortunately we're visiting both out of hours so they can't help us. Ah well. It's frustrating but there's no way we can change the plan so that each club is visited in office hours. If we did then it take at least 2 weeks.

Millwall respond positively

Millwall phoned me at lunch time to say that they'll be delighted to help. We can go on the pitch and do our skiiiiiiills and have a look around the ground too. I've been to Millwall's ground before and it's a good setting for us!!

First Club Donation!

Wolverhampton Wanderers have been wonderful! Even after a phone call in which my phone died (not ideal!) they still wanted to talk to me. We're going to be at their club at 1:30am in the morning and they have said that we're going to be allowed in to wear a shirt and do our kick-ups. They are ALSO donating a shirt to us to do with as we want. We're still not decided about we'll do with the shirts that are being donated. They sounded very enthusiastic about the project.

More responses...

Stoke City responded with the classic "unfortunately we cannot help you". All of which I was expecting from most clubs anyway. Other people thought "oh yeah clubs will donate you shirts" - but it doesn't work like that, hence why we've gone for individual sponsorship rather than relying on clubs donating shirts etc.

Wolves phoned me up this morning. We're going to them at about 1:30am so when they phoned me I expected them to say "good luck, but we can't help", but in fact they said that they have security on duty 24/7 so they're more than willing to help. They shall leave a shirt out for us to borrow and let us do our tricks in front of the main sign. So good on you Wolves!!!

We now have 12 people sponsored £10 each, so we're 1/10th of the way there. It is definately possible.

4 more clubs respond!

Got 2 more letters through door today and they're both from Premier League clubs. Sunderland and West Ham United both responded informing me that theyre passing the letter onto someone who deals with the enquiry more accurately. The letter to me wasn't needed to tell me that but it's very nice of them. Darlington (in their lush new stadium) phoned me up and said they would have had us on the pitch in shirts doing our kick-ups but they can't accomodate us as we're scheduled there at 9:30pm. Big shame we can't change the route THAT much. Rushden & Diamonds also phoned to ask for more info about the charity etc. It seems that the majority of letters got there today/yesterday. I expect next week to a busy week of liasing with clubs and sponsors. We've reached the £100 mark already (and that excludes the tax return!). So keep sponsoring us people! We need to reach £1,160 BEFORE we leave.

Leyton Orient respond

Leyton Orient have responded and it's not exactly the best letter ever. They've responded with the whole "we support lots of charity, but cant help in this case". That's fine though, because it isn't about the clubs being generous, but I don't see why they couldn't say "yes, we'll be in the offices then anyway, so come in and say hello". But there we go. We got four more sponsors yesterday, so that was good.

The First Media Feature!

We have made it in the first media feature of this adventure! I have no idea what the headline is about, but here is the story. They got most the facts right, apart me actually living in Luton, but hey! there we go! I'm getting photographed tomorrow for the Hertfordshire Mercury. That will probably make next week's edition.

New Recruit!

Today the 116 Challenge Team has expanded. Negotiations have been taking place internationally and we can now reveal that the third member of the team, joining Pete Miller and Dave Guard, will be: MATT HOWELL. Although currently on a missions trip, Matt has snapped up the opportunity to join us for the seven days stating "this sounds awesome, I'm looking forward to seeing the 23 grounds where luton will win away this year!".

The first Club has replied!

I sent the first 30 letters out last night in time for the last post, they were only sent 2nd class (to save money of course) and yet it appears theyve already reached the clubs! I got a phone call just now from AFC Bournemouth. In the letter to AFC Bournemouth I said that their club was the only one at which we were hoping to watch a game. The lady on the phone said it seemed good what we were doing and we're to meet her before the game for free tickets and to meet people! What a good result!! So for August 18th 2007 I shall be an AFC Bournemouth fan for the day! They're playing against Huddersfield Town that day!

News Flash!

Got woken up this morning by the reporter from Luton Herald & Post. She wanted some more info about we're doing and told me that we're going to be in the paper tomorrow. When I did the Tube Challenge I appeared in the paper and then the local radio stations read it and it spread from there. This may well happen this time, and we're scheduled to be in 4 papers, Luton Herald & Post, Hertfordshire Mercury, St Albans & Harpenden Observer, and the Herts Advertiser.

So go out and buy the Herald & Post tomorrow!

The route has been finalised now and we're picking up momentum!

The Letters are sent!

So this is it! The beginning of the fundraising. The letters to each of the clubs are being printed and posted as we speak. The first 30 (AFC Bournemouth to Crawley Town) went out 2nd class tonight and the rest will hopefully be posted out tomorrow. The letters basically outline to the Chairmen of the club what we're doing and how they can help, which hopefully will be by promoting us and giving us a shirt to wear for the photos and videos. We still really need a third suitable person to come with us for the week as it's tough with just two of us. The sponsorship site is now up and running and the facebook has started an hour ago. Keep posted for more info as it happens.