Strike Factory

4 February 2006

Venue: Ricoh Arena, Coventry, Warwickshire (though W.Midlands to goverment), England, United Kingdom

Mode of transport: Got a lift on the Roguemobile, getting to Covvers, via the A23, M23, M25, and the M1 parking at the nearby town of Bedworth for the 20 minute walk through a posh rural suburb and a dodgy looking estate to get to the ground

Pre match drinks: At a nice pub with mostly Albion in Bedworth

ISF members present at game: All members of the ISF including new member Bakesy were present at the game.

Review of Coventry: Did not see a great deal of Coventry and did not go the the city centre, but u must bear in mind that during World War II, sadly a lot of the old city was bombed. not much of it exists, I walked through what seemed a nice old suburb, and then a dodgy looking indrustrial estate, the new ground and leisure park were impressive, and locals seemed ok 6/10

Review of Coventrys ground: A great new ground, looks impressive on the outside and the inside, atmosherpe was good inside, acoustics were good, shame a small group of idiots decided to throw bottles at us, all in all good day out bar the result. 8/10

Review of food: Food was OK but nothing to exciting, a bit dear, 6/10,

Price: The price was fair for what u got not bad but only a pound less than Withers 7.5/10

Friendlyness of locals: Some locals I met in nearby Bedworth and Coventry seemed friendly and helpful, but there seemed to be a small group, that enjoyed throwing bottles at away fans 7.5/10

Overall 7/10 Not a bad place for a away game with a few reasonable boozers, a nice ground and most locals being bit of a mix, it was nice to visit a new ground, just a shame about the result.

Review of Worthing and Woodside Road

Picture courtesy of Birthday Boy John Hewitt

In attendance, Mr Ball, John Hewitt, Ashley Bradley, Yoda from NSC and lovely Laura were all together in the Worthing terraces.

Mode of transport: We got the train from Brighton Station to Worthing (Central) Station. Courtesy of Southen

Friendiness of locals
All in all like most Sussex people, Worthing people can be friendly and helpful as I found today. 10/10

Local totty
Despite having the reputation of having the fittest girls in Sussex, we could not see many today, and the ones we did see John thought they could be Brighton fans from elsewhere in Sussex. 5/10

Arena rating
Its actully a nice little non league ground, got a new stand, plus the paint on the stands seems clean and new, shows it has had good investment in the last few years by Victor Gladwish the former sponsor of Crawley Town with his firm GLS. 8/10

Cost of food at mentioned venue

The food and drink was good the club had a good bar where the 4 of us went for some fun and drink afterwards. Prices were fair, but main gripe was why were both catering bars at one end of the ground and not one at the otherside, which mean't for some it would be a long walk to a bar 8 /10

Cost of Venue entry

A bit dear bearing in mind its a friendly between a non league team and a half first/reserves Championship team

5/10

Bars and clubs in Worthing
Worthing is home to some nice pubs and the odd good bar as we found, we had some good drinks in this pub near Worthing Station before the game.
7/10

Overall of Worthing

Not a bad town nice quiet and laid back, close to the downs and a lot of friendly people but its starting to get let down by graffiti, and increasing numbers of Pikeys. But it is still a nice Sussex town
7.2/10

I started off my south coast tour today, visiting the coastal town of Eastbourne, in sunny Sussex By The Sea. For starters for those Burgess Hill Uncovered fans, I have found the answer to the mysterious blue paint that has appeared in BH town centre the last few weeks. I belive the paint must almost certainly have come from this town, who have used so much in a smilar style to Burgess Hill (the tennis tournys even Blue). So there u go. Anyway, sadly I have no pics as I don't own a digi cam. But after a brief venture around the town centre and sea front. I entered one of Sussexs great sporting arenas, Devonshire Park for a spot of tennis, I watched a few fab games, saw the sexy new youngster Anna Chevladize (A new improved Anna Kournikova). And met the young and upcoming player Sania Merza, who I managed to get a autograph off. There were one or two marathon matches, saw the likes of Mauresmo, Kuznetsova, Myskina all top respectable top 10 players practising on the legendary courts of Eastbourne. All in all a good day. Apart from the train system that serves Eastbourne badly, had to wait 45 minutes for a train back to Northern Sussex.

Review of Eastbourne and Devonshire Park

Friendiness of locals
All in all like most Sussex people, Eastbourne people can be friendly and helpful as I found today. 10/10

Local totty
Eastbourne girls in general can be quite fit if they dress well, though get some local girls that are pretty average looking 8/10

Arena rating
All in all Devonshires a nice place to watch tennis in a quiet laid back town, though the place is not a patch on the home of tennis Wimbledon, still a good place to watch tennis.

8/10

Cost of food at mentioned venue

Food and drinks nice at Eastbourne particully the imfamous Strawberrys, sadly food and drink can be a bit dear, price of food here is roughly the same as Withdean. 7/10

Cost of Venue entry

Good value much cheaper than Wimbledon, £5 to get into the grounds and £26 for tickets at the final good value £26

10/10

Bars and clubs in Eastbourne

Eastbourne has a few OK clubs from what I have heard, it has a very impressive Bar called BN21, but gets busy on a Weekend though from local info. Eastbournes doing a good job to erase there Gods waiting room image, though in my opinion Eastbourne will never be a Brighton or a Bournmouth.

6/10

Overall of Eastbourne

Not a bad town nice quiet and laid back, though can get a bit boring, then again at least its mostley pikey free and hosts a decent tennis event.

7.8/10