Worst Venue.

[TS]

Wellow House - Senior Counties Div 1a.

Very slippy floor, freezing cold and bad light. Not the best place to play any important matches. I think that this venue should be changed to somewhere more suitable for the county championships.

[DaveR]

Bloody lost to Phil Logsdon (I'm still mourning) in the counties yesterday in a very cold Halifax .............but was ok on the Saturday.................bacon butties were nice too!

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

mmmmmmmmm bacon butties,just so happens i have some danish smoked in the fridge with my name on it ,

white chappel in concord in winter was -15 had to scrape the ice from the table but it was all good,even the mice had parkers.

[HarryBelafonte]

have to agree with fantasy for once,great venue tho....
floorboards missing, pews in the way.ceiling to high ,lights to low,to dim,not enough runback ,but to wide,to hot in summer,to cold in winter,think we used the floorboards to burn and keep us warm in winter..
some great characters as well,crocky,the greatly mationed haggis,olaf the lap, diddy,duv,surts,chris the giant sloth,arthur ,alex the swede,doug the boss.happy days.:thumbsup:

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

hoorah.....:thtease::thtease::thtease::thtease:one day ill be on time team digging it up when im 97 ........ah yes and hear we have an interesting relic , a piece of a 1982 hans alser wooden blade its markings on the edge indicate it was flung at a wall , as the risidual plaster marks are still intact,this set of false teeth were also removed from the dig,possibly one of the older chaps that played here back in the 70,s and 80,s.

but the finest find we discovered was a signed score card from the fabled doug lawrance and arthur shingler expidite marathon, of myth and legend,it lasted 15 days and ended with arthuer giving up saying"ok i cant go on any longer i need several pints of tetleys .:popcorn:

[HarryBelafonte]

Brilliant stuff..think youll find it was a crockwell powerspin blade:woho:..

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

ah i stand corrected it was such a blade i bow to the belafonte (roman name..."anorakus belafonticus") :thtease:

[Hovis Bread Eater]

Blackburn League Venue

Played Lancashire Cheshire League match for Stockport in a Parcel force depot, freezing cold and snowing outside the only people in the warehouse was the two players and the umpire, everyone else was watching from an office window....... character building venue

[JKC]

Was it worse than Wadsley Bridge Hovis?

[IrishCanary]

Bloody lost to Phil Logsdon (I'm still mourning) in the counties yesterday in a very cold Halifax .............but was ok on the Saturday.................bacon butties were nice too!

I can remember playing Phil in the extension of his parents home many years ago. Beat me too, but i somehow think it was nothing to do with the venue
Irishcanary(only 9 games to go)

[JKC]

He soundly beat me when I had a season in Norwich about 10 years ago.

[Hovis Bread Eater]

It was colder than Wadsley Bridge, but Wadsley Bridge has Character (being a listed building).

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

:thtease:worst venue without a doubt was usworth pit mine shaft,they threw the table down 500 metres then you climbed down a rickety ladder to the bottom(very daRK AND FREEZING COLD WITH THE ODD COLLAPSE OF COAL) table was obliterated via the fall so we played on the bits that were left,tornaments were very tricky,but the pit cafe was the best,great chips and a cracking cuppa.:thtease:

[Spongebob!]

:thtease:worst venue without a doubt was usworth pit mine shaft,they threw the table down 500 metres then you climbed down a rickety ladder to the bottom(very daRK AND FREEZING COLD WITH THE ODD COLLAPSE OF COAL) table was obliterated via the fall so we played on the bits that were left,tornaments were very tricky,but the pit cafe was the best,great chips and a cracking cuppa.:thtease:

...You were lucky....we used to dream about playing down mine shafts - luxury!!! :happy: Now, I'll have to go I've got some serious chimney sweeping to do...Chim Chiminy!!! :coverlaugh:

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

chim chim cherooo:thtease:

[The Windmill]

I have played in some intersting places in my time. The Stanley CIU working mens club in the Stanley league (mines a pint), A shed attached to a Farm in Hunstanworth near Blanchland (middle of nowhere), The garage attached to Fred Inch's house in the Philadelphia league (Inch Co.), Anglo great lakes Canteen (Graphite Factory) was like an ice rink with Graphite dust on the floor, The St Johns Ambulance place in Sunderland (front living room of a terrace house), There was a team from Spittal (Berwick) in the Northumberland league for a while, this was a 150 mile round trip for an away match (They didn't last long)......I could go on and on the list is endless, there seems to be more poor venues than good.........Is this an argument for games to be played at a central venue, all on the same night ?????

[Spongebob!]

Windy - we tried that in the Sunderland League once and it was brilliant - well at least I thought it was. You saw everyone - played in some great matches etc. I think there were some issues around cost - but certainly I for one would be interested in this idea being set up again. Nice one maaaaaatey.

Sponge

[DaveR]

Central venues have so many issues its quite hard to list them, with most of them in my opinion being a positive thing. They give the sport a place to be seen and not "packed" away into a church hall etc (although i have played in many good church halls) the games can be viewed by the general public given the central venue is usally a place with quite a big hall such as the Dome or Aldersley Stadium, which are typical of the type of central venue one could have depending on logistics.

This debate goes on and on within various leagues and associations, with many arguments for and against............the against is generally the loss of local venues once the team/s have moved to the central venue which i think is rubbish given you could retain the local venue also, whilst playing on a certain night for league matches.

The main plus is the night is pre-arranged and therefore matches cannot be cancelled for spurious non existent reasons that from time to time pop up. All teams would know there specific team and one night which would have to be arranged by the teams agreeing on the best for all.

The whole central venue when used has in my opinion been good for myself but only my thoughts.

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

Windy - we tried that in the Sunderland League once and it was brilliant - well at least I thought it was. You saw everyone - played in some great matches etc. I think there were some issues around cost - but certainly I for one would be interested in this idea being set up again. Nice one maaaaaatey.

Sponge

agreed mr sponge, seaburn sports centre was a brilliant idea,central venue good atmosphere,and you watched some great games in one excellent venue. and they had coffee and crisps and bikkies and pies and mars bars etc yum yum...............:bag:

[HarryBelafonte]

:covereyes:Yea was quality,the reason it packed in( I think) was that a lot of people had their cars stolen,was played at the height of the car twokin epidemic,thankfully this seems to be a thing of the past. Think phil stafford had his stolen 3 times in 1 season..was a major factor anyway...about time we gave it another go..poss venues anyone.?
sandhill,birtley, seaburn, ....

[Spongebob!]

:covereyes:Yea was quality,the reason it packed in( I think) was that a lot of people had their cars stolen,was played at the height of the car twokin epidemic,thankfully this seems to be a thing of the past. Think phil stafford had his stolen 3 times in 1 season..was a major factor anyway...about time we gave it another go..poss venues anyone.?
sandhill,birtley, seaburn, ....

Yeah your right I remember now - that was a big issue back then but certainly not now. There are security camera's at the car park now - and of course we've held the North East Masters there now for the last 3 or 4 years with no problems at all being reported. So...shall we make a proposal as an option for future seasons.

I also think there had been talk of seeding the teams, i.e., the top ten players being split into ten teams, then the next ten etc and so on. This will make the teams more even (on paper that is) and the league very competitive with potentially everyone have an equal chance of winning the league.

Of course this proposal might be a bridge too far to get agreement. Although it might stop Thompson Insurance winning the league all the time (I'm sick of winning all the time - its get a bit boring after a while...!!! - Thompson's cha cha cha!!!).

But seriously, the players splitting up is no big deal because you are all at the same venue anyway - it will create more excitement and also generate more team spirit etc. :dance3:

Spongey!

[Jose]

Rain stops play at table tennis... headlines from the 1975 World Championships in Calcutta! A brand new stadium had been built but perhaps not properly finished. The monsoons came while we were there and completely flooded the streets of Calcutta. The stadium was flooded too. The arena was mopped up. Planks were put across the flooded moat between the competition floor and the arena, but play had to go on as people had bought their tickets and there would have been a riot if play had been cancelled. Incidentally, China won the men's and women's team events, Jonyer beat Stipancic in the final of the men's singles and Gergely and Jonyer won the men's doubles ... a magical event except for the rain.

[DaveR]

Jose your a mind full of Table Tennis !

Hope your still up for this World Record business !

[The Windmill]

Central venue certainly floats my boat......I'm all for it.......At least you know where you are. same night each week and you get to see all of your mates every week...Quality

[Spongebob!]

Central venue certainly floats my boat......I'm all for it.......At least you know where you are. same night each week and you get to see all of your mates every week...Quality

Correctamundo...you know it makes sense...we have a canny little pint afterwards - just to be sociable of course! :thumbsup:

[DaveR]

Sociable sounds good to me................now lets see the rush of people to organise it !

[Spongebob!]

:happy:Well...how do we get it proposed? Is it through our league representatives etc - have a word with those in the know and see if we can get it on the table as a proposal, i.e., if we can, when / venue. In this respect, if we can we will have to have a clear strategy for promoting the proposal, its merits and benefits etc.

[Martyn L]

I can remember playing Phil in the extension of his parents home many years ago. Beat me too, but i somehow think it was nothing to do with the venue
Irishcanary(only 9 games to go)
Phil Logsdon has beaten me wherever I have played him!

[Martyn L]

Wellow House - Senior Counties Div 1a.

Very slippy floor, freezing cold and bad light. Not the best place to play any important matches. I think that this venue should be changed to somewhere more suitable for the county championships.
At least things improved at The Durham Ox in Wellow. Great food in there!

[DaveR]

Anywhere is great when the food is good !

[HarryBelafonte]

:thtease:central venue,at least :taz:my team might turn up and the match be on....
not if i have nt listened to me phone....
...
would at least have a chicken f snack later....( sunderland closed) ask fishy).......

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

ah,the frozen chicken that was suppose to be your pack of sarnies in tinfoil,but it wasnt sarnies it was a frozen chicken......could only happen to the belafonte,one of many other funny stuff on the list was at 40 years of age still being threatened with being expelled from the swimming pool by the attendants for launching oneself from the diving board in a way only to be described as suicidle but controlled,amazing achievement to summersault doing a starjump and living to tell the tale.(extremely funny):rol:

[Spongebob!]

:thtease:central venue,at least :taz:my team might turn up and the match be on....
not if i have nt listened to me phone....
...
would at least have a chicken f snack later....( sunderland closed) ask fishy).......

Aaaaah yes...I remember now...still, you managed to get over it by eating half of my roast dinner and luckily it didn't weigh you down too much - I think we won the doubles that year!!! :woho:

'...frozen chicked, slighly rippled with a flat underside..!' :covereyes: