Monthly Archives: January 2008

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Dire doings in Dagenham

Grimsby Town were playing at Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday, and as we’d missed the other London-based games against Barnet and Brentford, we made a conscious effort to go to this one.

The Jubilee Line was out of action which didn’t help make the journey any simpler, but we got the DLR to Bow Church and the District Line from Bow Road to Dagenham East. For some reason which we’ve not yet worked out, the journey from Zone 2 to Zone 5 only cost us £1.

As the weather was looking a bit grim, we paid £18 each for seats in the covered part of the ground rather than £15 for the uncovered terraces. As it drizzled quite a bit during the game, I’m glad we did.

The stadium is pretty small, with a single seated stand and the rest being a combination of covered and uncovered terracing. It came across as a pretty friendly club though and there was no sign of any trouble.

The Mariners fans on the terrace at Dagenham & Redbridge

It was the first time the two teams have met, as this is The Daggers first season in the Football League. They’re down in 22nd place, which is pretty much where Town were a month or so ago, before their streak of 4 League wins in a row.

The game started well with the Mariners showing some classy touches and doing the whole pass-and-move thing that they’ve been practising recently. Then it all went a bit “hoofy”. Wallop the ball up front, bounce it off a few heads, boot it back the other way, more of the same… for pretty much the rest of the first half.

Very dull to watch neither side really had any chances worth mentioning. Half time and a chance to investigate the culinary delights round the back of the Barking Stand.

The usual football ground fare, burgers, hot drinks and hot-dogs. The burgers were actually pretty tasty with proper onions unlike the nasty dried onion bits that they served on the hot-dogs at Blundell Park.

The second half kicked off much like the first, with Town having a few good chances and applying loads of pressure…. then it all went a bit “hoofy” again, despite Alan Buckley doing some sterling vocal work on the side-line to try and get the Town players to control the ball and pass it.

Things brightened in the last 5 minutes with quite a few chances at both ends and some pretty good saves from both keepers. Town were saved by the woodwork on one occasion but frankly neither side deserved a win.

So a goal-less draw in the end, which is better than losing, but Town were lucky that they weren’t playing a better side.

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Chartwell

On Sunday we went down to Chartwell, former home of Sir Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine.

It’s a National Trust property, and we’re both members of the National Trust so it only cost us the travel. The house was closed (even though the sign at the gate said it was open), but we’d only gone down there for a walk in the grounds anyway.

Chartwell

There are formal gardens around the house which we walked round when we visited last year, so this time we headed down to the lake, past the statue of the Churchill’s by Oscar Nemon and up the hill along the edge of the wood.

The ground was badly churned up for quite a lot of way which made the walk a bit slippery, but we got some good views of the house and lake.

I’ve uploaded some of the photos I took onto my Flickr album of Chartwell.

We had some food at the restaurant, which like most National Trust properties was pretty good, with some nice home-made cakes.

There are a few other National Trust properties near to Chartwell, so we might venture down that way again.

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Pottering in Greenwich

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On Sunday we had a wander along the river at Greenwich. Although we’ve lived in Docklands for a year now, we’ve not been down there for a walk since we moved. It was chilly but not too cold to enjoy a walk. I took the camera along so there are a few photos from the walk on my Flickr site.

Trinity College of Music

After walking eastwards along by the river, we visited the National Maritime Museum which I don’t think I’ve ever been to before. We attended a talk about the Princess Alice disaster of 1878. More than 600 people were killed when a coal-freighter cut a passenger steamer in half just by Beckton Gas Works. We had heard about the accident when we visited the Museum in Docklands last year so it was interesting to learn more.

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More housing troubles

We recently found out that our landlord has sold the flat we’re living in. This happened in the last place, up in West Ham, too, so it’s becoming a bit of a regular event.

We’re not sure what effect this is going to have at the moment, though I suspect the new owner will want to hike up the rent. I wonder if they’ll be as keen on fixing the numerous problems with the flat, given that they bought the place without seeing it?

Dollar Bay Court & the Lord Amory