Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Some of the skills we can offer...

Here's a promotional video for a charity that we've worked with and features Dave Guard performing most of the tricks.

Monday, 11 February 2008

Wednesday, 29 August 2007

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.

Wednesday, 22 August 2007

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.

Thursday, 9 August 2007

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.

Wednesday, 8 August 2007

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.