Olympic Park - 8th August

Riverbank Arena - Hockey

9-10 Classification (Women) Japan 2-1 South Africa
7-8 Classification   (Women) S Korea 1-5 Germany

Basketball Arena - Handball

1/4 Final (Men) Croatia 25-23 Tunisia


With the football season just about to begin I am just starting to think about my groundhopping for the coming season but before all that starts there was another small sporting event taking place in London that warranted some interest, the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As the "biggest show on Earth" and with it being just up the road I couldn't not make the effort to get hold of tickets for this once in a lifetime experience.As a groundhopper I wanted to try and get to as many of the stadiums and arenas as possible especially those on the Olympic Park themselves. As with many people though I was unsuccessful in getting any tickets in the first round application process, but was lucky enough to get hold of tickets for a couple of sessions in the second round.

So there I was at 5am picking Will Harmer up from his house and on my way down the M11 to Epping Tube station to go and watch some Hockey and Handball, two sports that I have never watched previously and had very little or no knowledge of.

The journey to the park was very easy and on leaving Stratford station were greeting by a mass of the volunteer Games Makers who were directing everyone to the Olympic Park. Entering the Park was similar to going through border control at any major airport and the military personnel who were managing things made it very quick and easy and there were no issues.

We entered at the Stratford Gate and were immediately met by the impressive Aquatics Arena to our left with the Orbit and the Olympic Stadium in front.

I will have more photos of both the Aquatics Arena and the Olympic stadium in a later blog as I have tickets to both for the upcoming Paralympics.

As we had an early session at the Riverbank Arena the other end of the Park we made our way straight there to take our seats for the first of two matches that were included in the session, Japan vs S Africa in the 9-10 classification match for the Womens competition.

The Riverbank Arena is a temporary Arena and is made up of 4 scaffolding stands holding around 20,000 spectators and as such looked very basic. There is no covered seating apart from the very centre of the West Stand which is reserved for VIPs, so we were hoping that the dark clouds that were looming would not produce any rain.

The match was a very close game which was eventually won with a penalty stroke (not a Penalty Corner) by Japan in Golden goal extra time. The match finishing 2-1.

Japan score there first goal with a Penalty Corner (Not Penalty Stroke)

The second match was the 7-8 Classification match between S Korea and Germany, this match had much more action and Germany ran away with a comfortable 5-1 win that secured them 7th place in the competition.

S Korea and Germany line up for National Anthems

The atmosphere within the arena started off very subdued as it was only half full possibly due to the early start time with most people not arriving until at least half time of the Japan - S Africa match but this definitely brightened up during the second match along with the weather which became very warm and sunny in the early afternoon.  

Olympic Stadium and Orbit as seen from the river
that runs through the Park



The session finished around 1.30pm and we then had an 8 hour wait until our evening Handball 1/4 final match was due to get underway. During this time we had a walk around the rest of the park.



Velodrome



After having a walk round the Park we met up with my parents who had been to see some athletics that morning for a quick catch up, we then left the Park and hopped on the tube to Kings Cross and went for some lunch and a pint in the Euston Flyer along Euston Road, which was a lot cheaper than eating at the Park and watched some of the other Olympic action on the big screens that had been set-up.

Around 6pm we made our way back to the Olympic Park making use of the Javelin service that was running between St Pancreas Station and Stratford International.

We made our way to the Basketball Arena and sat watching the big screen that has been set-up in the centre of the Park to watch Usain Bolts 200m Semi Final before entering the Arena.

The Basketball Arena is also a temporary Arena which I believe is to be reused at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and possibly again at the next Olympics in Rio. The Arena was used originally for the Basketball Group matches, the games were then moved to the O2 (sorry North Greenwich Arena) once they reached the Knockout phase of the competition. The Handball was moved to the Arena for their Knockout Phase. The court was transformed from Basketball to Handball in under 24 hours.

Although it just looks like a big tent from the outside the Arena looks rather impressive on the inside.

I had never watched a Handball match before and had no idea what to expect. The sport is very minor in this country but in the rest of Europe it has a massive following and the supporters of both Croatia and Tunisia were very vocal and created a fantastic atmosphere within Stadium.

This sport may just be one of my new favourites. A cross between Football, Basketball and Rugby this is a full contact sport and both teams, especially Tunisia didn't hold back, with one of their players even being suspended from the rest of the game just before half time after kicking an opponent at least 3 foot in the air. The game was fast and action packed.

Croatia came in as favourites but found themselves behind at half time but in the end there ability shone through and they managed to make it through to the semi final winning by 25 (goals,points,runs I have know idea) to 23.

I have no photos of match action as flash photography during play is forbidden but trust me if you ever get a chance to go to a game do it you wont be disappointed.

Finally a massive thanks should go to all the Volunteers and Military personnel who have worked on the Olympic Park during the games they would not have happened without them.

I had a great time at the Olympic Park and can't wait to go back for the Paralympics where I will be blogging on the Opening Ceremony,Athletics and Swimming as well as Goalball.

After that I will be back to the usual football grounds for the 2012/13 season.

Laters

Corby Town - Steel Park

Match - Corby Town 0-5 Harrogate Town
Competition - Conference North
Admission - £12
Scarf - N/A
Attendance - 460
Food - All Steak Pukka Pie 8/10
Ground No - 110
Ground Rating - 6/10

My last game of the 2012/13 season was to Corby Town's Steel Park to see there last game of the season against Harrogate Town. Neither team had yet guaranteed survival in Blue Square Bet North and so along with a number of other clubs were hoping to get the points to stay up.

I had been to Corby's old ground last season which I hated due to the fact that they played at an athletics stadium and were as such miles away from the play and there was also very little leg room when seated in the stand, but they have now moved to there new ground directly adjacent to the athletics ground.

On arriving at the ground you are met by a very smart set of turnstiles, as shown below.

Once me and my dad had entered the ground we made our way to get some food where they had a good selection of pies burgers and chips.

Steel park is made up of two stands, the main stand is along one touchline at the half way line and has around 500 seats with Corby made out in white. The other stand is a large terrace at the far end of the ground that stretches the whole width of the pitch. The other end is fully open with hard standing and is home to the snack bar with the other touchline also made up of hard standing that back on to the athletics stadium stand which is home to the teams and officials changing rooms.

The game itself started very slowly and almost nothing happened in the first half so I wont waste your time trying to come up with anything.

The second half though was a different matter altogether with Harrogate's monster centre half, Richard Pell scoring after a goal month scramble within the first 5 minutes of the half. Harrogate were playing by far the best football with Ex Football league player Lee Elam showing his experience and greater ability in pulling the strings down the left. Unlike Corby, Harrogate looked like a team trying to survive in the league and soon went two in front when a good strike from around 25 yards was dropped over the line by the Corby Town keeper who had a poor game throughout.

The third goal was scored from a corner and came from Pell again with a powerful header into the top left hand corner of the goal to end the game as any sort of contest. The game died a bit after that goal although Corby did have one chance, but with an open goal the attacker managed to put the ball at least two yards wide from only 10 yards out and summed up their whole day.

With only a few minutes left Harrogate scored goals 4 and 5. The fourth was a nice curled finish into the bottom right hand corner of the Corby goal from 15 yards but the best goal of the game was the fifth and came in time added on with Harrogate midfielder Tom Platt picking the ball up and smashing it in to the top corner from 30 yards out.

  

The result in the end didn't mean a lot as relegation rivals Hinckley Town lost meaning that they were the final team to be confirmed as relegated from the Blue Square Bet North.

Overall Corby's new ground can only really be described as clean and functional there was little character or atmosphere created from the small attendance.

That is my season over now but I will be updating my blog with my Olympic exploits in the summer and any other sporting events that I manage to get to. This will be difficult due to me and my wife expecting our first child at the end of May but will try none the less. I will definitely be back next football season though so keep coming back.

Thanks for reading

Fish

Glasgow Celtic - Celtic Park

Match - Celtic 2-0 St Johnstone
Competition - Scottish Premier League
Admission - £26 Lisbon Lions Stand (East)
Scarf - £7 Shirt £20
Attendance - 57,848
Food - Chips with Curry Sauce 5/10
Ground No - 109
Ground Rating - 9/10

We (Me, Will, Phil) awoke this morning at a decent time knowing that we didn't have any travelling to do for today's game with Celtic Park being only around a mile and a half walk down London Road from our Premier Inn hotel. therefore we were able to have a casual breakfast and relax before heading for the stadium. On leaving the hotel for breakfast we discovered that almost everyone that was staying at the hotel was also attending today's game as we were greeted by a sea of Green and White shirts.

Today's game was supposed to be the day that Celtic won the SPL title but a slip up in midweek against Rangers and a last minute goal in the previous days game for Rangers against Motherwell left Celtic still requiring 4 points to guarantee the championship. The game was a 12.45pm kick off so at around 11am we left for Celtic Park, the ground was easy to find as it could be seen a fair way down London Road and by following the thousands of hooped shirts.

On arriving at Celtic Park we made our way to the main entrance to the stadium (above) where there are three proud standing statutes of Club legends. The first is of Brother Walfrid who was the founder of Celtic football club there are also Statues of Jock Stein CBE a former Celtic Manager and Jimmy Johnstone a former Player. I have pictures but they don't seem to want to upload properly so may try later.

We then crossed the Car Park and went to the large Club Shop to purchase scarves, I also purchased the Celtic away shirt, this is the only time of the season I buy shirts as they have usually been reduced from the normal £40-£45 to around £20. The shop was packed with a very long queue but with 10 tills in operation we were soon out and on our way to the turnstiles.

As we had seats in the second tier of the ground we had to climb a number of flights of stairs they seemed to be never ending but finally came out into a smallish rather tight concourse and headed for the food kiosk with the usual Pies, burgers and hot dogs on offer. Unlike a lot of large grounds in England they also had chips which I had with Curry sauce. I wish I'd had a burger or a pie.

We made our way to our seats in the top tier of the Lisbon Lions Stand, where we had a great view of the action. Celtic Park is a large, mainly two tiered stadium the only single tiered stand was the South Stand to the left of the above photo, which has what I believe to be a commentary position suspended underneath the roof. The South East corner is home to a very small section that is handed to away supporters which St Johnstone didn't even half fill. The ground also has two large scoreboard under the roof at each end of the stadium.

The game started in lively fashion to the background sound of "You'll never walk alone" as Celtic created a couple of chances early on without really testing the keeper, as the half went on the chances were limited apart from a great chance for Commons which he dragged wide. The most dangerous player for Celtic was Samaras and he caused plenty of problems for the St Johnstone defence especially when he drifted out to the left but was left isolated too often when surrounded by up to 3 defenders. Samaras did have a good shout for a penalty mid way through the first half as he was dragged back at a corner but the referee must have seen things differently. On 19 Minutes there was a terrific standing ovation given in support of Aston Villa's Stilian Petrov, a former Celtic hero, who had just been diagnosed with Leukaemia. The first half then ended with the scores 0-0 and with hopefully a much improved performance in the 2nd half.

The 2nd half started with the visiting side looking the more likely to score with a number of close opportunities helped by the Celtic midfield who seemed to give the ball away every time they managed to get it back. Against the run of play though Celtic took the lead, a free kick from the left was floated into the box and Samaras climbing highest managed to head the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the keepers goal. Samaras deserved his goal for all his hard work but Celtic as a team probably did not. The second came less than 5 minutes later with St Johnstone again on the attack. A foul on the attacker was missed by the officials and Celtic broke quickly and ended with a cross from the right being turned into the net by the defender.

After the second goal Celtic calmed down and played the game out easily keeping the ball away from the St Johnstone players for large periods off time. The game ended 2-0 leaving Celtic 1 point away from winning the title, and with supporters already starting to celebrate.

After the match we made our way back to the hotel and after a quick drink in the pub were in the car for the long drive home straight down the M74, M6 and A14. We were back after a few stops on the way around 11pm.

 The only problem with the weekend was there was a distinct lack of goals and as such my average goals per game has taken a massive hit as it was above 5 per game but as they say "That's Football". Overall though we had a great weekend of football, drinks and laughs and I look forward to my next Groundhopping weekend. Hopefully my Dad will be able to make the next one.