And it's half time at the City Ground

The visit to the home of the double European Cup winners (in the days when you had to be champions of your league rather than finish in the top four) was bookended by a visit to the worlds oldest club and one a la Harry Potter that cannot be named.

The first leg of the day was a 20 mile ride from Mansfield to Nottingham through some of the old places that I played football at in my formative years.

As we passed a sign for the old mining village of Calverton it reminded me of when I played there in the Nottinghamshire County Cup. The actual game was unremarkable as we won the game comfortably but was memorable for another reason. Spectators in mining villages had a reputation of being a little feisty. This day was no different and after some par for the course verbals aimed at us I had the ball near one of the touch lines. I headed towards the opponents goal only for one of the mothers of the other team to hit me on the back of the legs with her umbrella. Needless to say I played the remainder of the game in central midfield and we did not stay for refreshments afterwards.

Josh joined me for the 20 miles on our way to Notts County through sadly what is unremarkable countryside.

Notts County, the oldest club in the world, has had its struggles in the past few years. They seem to be through the other side now as they are under the stewardship of Martin Mad Dog Allen. The ground is neat and tidy although unattended on a Sunday so we were not able to get inside.

We then went what is the shortest journey of the trip, a whole half mile to the City Ground. My choice of photograph today was inevitably going to be of the City Ground and you can see they know how to welcome someone home. The crowds were out and the coaching staff even arranged for a coaching session to be put on. I do of course jest. My visit coincided with the Nottingham Forest Open Day so we had little problem getting in for photos. The visit to Forest was half way at least in terms of the number of clubs and we will wait to see at the end how close it was to half way in distance once we get to the end.

We were safely reunited with Rebecca after her mid trip break as we headed off to the club that resides at the other end of the A52. Near to their ground there is the biggest array of food chains that you have ever seen. KFC, McDonalds, Subway, Frankie & Benny's, Greggs, Burger King, Starbucks -no wonder Kris Commons had to be transferred - he would have exploded otherwise. We were met at the ground by Stephanie's cousin Andrew, along with his partner Karen and his daughters Isobel and Helena, who as they live nearby kindy came down to show their support. We were unable to spend too long with them though, as getting started again after a long stop is incredibly hard work!

We then zipped off for our last leg of the day to the hotel at Burton and for the first time the wind blew, much of the way into our faces. That made the last few miles hard, particularly the uphill miles.

The scores on the doors for today are 52.7 and total 369.6 miles. Averaging per day 52.8 miles.

I will check in from the Black Country tomorrow.

Sousaphones and Spireites

As I looked out of my bedroom window this morning the signpost pointing right said 'Doncaster Royal Infirmary' and the other said 'HM Prison Doncaster '. Given various aches and pains the former had its attractions and a spell in the latter would give me a day off. My direction was however straight ahead towards Sheffield.

The manageress at The Premier Inn kindly donated £20 to the cause and then told us that she was a sousaphone player. Not only that, she was to be playing at one of our destinations later in the day Chesterfield at their Open Day tomorrow. In Yorkshire the brass band is never too far away.

The first part of the journey seemed endlessly uphill and you were left to wonder when the uphill leg was to end. The best clue was 'The Hilltop Hotel' and after that I had a good downhill route into Sheffield. Known as the Rome of the UK as like the capital of Italy the city is built on six hills. We did at least four of the six! Sheffield Wednesday were at home to Stoke City so we were not able to get pitch side and Sheffield United (apart from the shop) was simply closed notwithstanding their open day due for tomorrow. They have clearly taken their relegation at the end of last season very badly.

Eventually we found our way out of the city via Woodseats which is so high the atmosphere begins to thin and less oxygen is available for lung use. The downhill was worth waiting for and the speed sign thanked me for only doing 29 mph - good law abiding citizen

We arrived in Chesterfield at 2.30pm half an hour before their kick off against Hull in a friendly. The only way we were going to get pitchside was to buy a ticket and watch the game which is what we did. We joined approximately 2,500 Spireites and despite us being honorary Spireites for the day we could not help the home team as they were well beaten 2-0 by the away team.

That did mean no riding between 2.30 and 5.00 pm and that is why the blog this evening is later than usual. I still had 16 miles to ride to the hotel and then decided that the literary juices were non exitent without food. Those of you who may have speculated on other reasons I am sorry to disappoint. I am still feeling good albeit a little leggy. My daughter Rebecca will rejoin us tomorrow at the home of the twice European Champions Nottingham Forest. The necessities of the journey mean we have to visit Pride Park. The team that play there shall remain nameless.

Today's shift was 52.8 miles with a cumulative total of 316.9 miles.

My choice of photograph today is to warn you all of what happens to you if you do mad things. When I get back you may not recognise me!

Moved aside for Westlife!

We woke up for the first time on the ride to dull dank and overcast conditions. Ideal for swing bowling. I am pleased to say that I appear to have dealt with the conditions a little better than the England top order at Trent Bridge.Still those Notts boys are setting about showing the batters how to play - c'mon Swanny and Broady!

Leeds United was undergoing a face lift and was fairly uninspiring. No wonder Cloughie surrendered after 44 days.

The trip to Barnsley from Leeds did not offer the same delights as crossing the Pennines the day before but it did offer less hills which was much appreciated. Despite not having been in contact with Barnsley FC before the trip they could not have been more welcoming and gladly issued us with pitch side passes so we could get a photo inside the stadium. We entered via Gate 1 to see the groundsman supervising the water sprinkler and cursing the fact that in a short space of time 22 players would ruin a whole summers work!

The Dearne Valley Parkway seems to a cyclist like the Santa Pod Raceway and the lorries are perilously close to you as you progress. Avoiding them and the pot holes at the same time is often a task too many and the survival instinct kicks in at the expense of a bone shuddering visit to the bottom of the pothole!

Eventually the heaviest trsffic disappears on to the A1M and you can then comfort yourself with dealing with the local traffic on the run down to The Keepmoat Stadium and Doncaster Rovers FC.

The stadium is in the middle of an industrial estate but is quite impressive. We tried to blag it inside the ground for a look but were thwarted on grounds of elf'n safety. Our way in was barred by the fact that they were constructing the set and stage for the Westlife concert taking place in the stadium tomorrow evening. They did say no very nicely though.

So we are now ensconced in our sixth Premier Inn - still no sign of Lenny Henry. We could offer ourselves to the Whitbread Group as top class mystery shoppers on the venues that we have visited.

The complicated lives that we lead even impacts on these two weeks and my Dad has just picked up Rebecca to take her to an important rehearsal in Chertsey tomorrow ahead of a concert she will be involved in at Wembley Arena early in 2012. She will be delivered back to us on Sunday at the home of the twice European Champions at the City Ground.

Mum - if you are reading this and if you are not I cannot see that you have any reasonable excuse- I hope you are having a great time visting our Canadian family and you really enjoy the wedding. Please give my best wishes to all of them.

Today was, in comparative terms, a short one in the saddle being a total of 41.6 miles bringing the aggregate up to 264.1 miles. The legs could definitely have gone further but I wish someone would remove the porcupine that seems to be able to occupy the saddle before me. This is making my journey a little uncomfortable at the moment.

Tomorrow has a trip down memory lane as we visit Sheffield where I lived for three years whilst studying and met the future Mrs Hallam. Where have those thirty or so years gone. Fade out with violins playing.........

Today's photograph is for my Barnsley supporting mate at work. For anyone interested if you visit the virginmoneygiving site the photos of the trip so far are available as a slide show.

Tune in again tomorrow.

Day 4 - Truly an uphill battle

Although we were only half a mile from our first stop of the day it was a small example of what was to come for the rest of the day. Hills hills and more hills. Stephanie chatted up the car park attendant to get us in to the stadium for a photo to record our visit and we set off to cross the Pennines into Yorkshire.

Crossing over the Pennines over the Moors on a beautiful sunny day was a quite breathtaking experience. As much of the hills were hurting the pain was reduced by the spectacular views over the countryside. At one stage I had visions of Kate Bush leaping out from behind the wall in a shimmering white robe with a haunting rendition of Wuthering Heights- maybe I was hallucinating. We wound our way down to the Galpharm Stadium for our visit to Huddersfield FC.

The lady on reception at the Galpharm was not able to leave her post to take us pitch side and suggested that we ask someone in the shop to do it. The shop manager steadfastly refused suggesting that I ask the lady on reception. Now I am not saying that yorkies are awkward.......
Anyhow I was able to resolve matters by speaking to a contractor working on the ground and having agreed that I had neither seen or spoken to him and he had neither seen or spoken to me I was able to get into the ground to do the photographs.

We were soon on our way to Bradford passing through the great town of Brighouse. Those of you who are a certain age will remember the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. Well as we passed through not a tuba or trombone could be heard. There could have been a horn playing the last post for me as we scaled the never ending incline to Bradford City and the former Valley Parade now the Coral Stadium.

Stephanie chatted up the Facilities Manager this time who was very helpful and took us pitch side to record our visit. On our way back around the ground we happened upon the the memorial for those that died in the Bradford City fire on 11th May 1985. The tragedy took over 50 lives with some very poignant entries in the memorial. The oldest fan to lose his life was 86 years of age and three young boys of 11 perished. As a family man the one that tugged at the heartstrings was 12 year old twins and their father who went to the game and never came home. Little moments like that remind us to appreciate what we have.

And so we hit the road again or should I say the road hit us. The clue was in the word Valley for Valley Parade and we were soon again on yes you've guessed another long,long,long,long uphill leg. The trip was uneventful other than I found out a different version of the highway code in Bradford. Apparently women pushing children in buggies have right of way to cross in front of cyclists especially in the cycle lane!

So having stretched out and cleaned up I have been able

to share my musings of the day with you. The sponsorship is ticking up nicely as we edge towards the target.

For the record the day's journey was 45.5 miles and cumulatively 222.5 to date. Tomorrow takes us to 'Dirty Leeds' and a place close to the heart of one of my business partners Barns-a-leee finishing off in Doncaster.

Until tomorrow..............

Sergio Aguero - where are you?

Day 3 began with a short jaunt to the Peoples Republic of Wigan which was a good warm up for the rigours of the day. Saw absolutely no-one fishing off the end of Wigan Pier. Come to think of it never saw a pier! As we arrived at the DW Stadium there was a huge crowd of people (to greet us?)Alas no merely queueing for some season ticket deal or other.

And on to the Theatre of Dreams aka Old Trafford. The anticipation as I cycled into Sir Matt Busby Way was palpable only to be dashed by Joe the car park Guard/Attendant who told me that I could go no further. Rather disappointingly the area in front of the main entrance was being repaved and it was not possible to get close enough for a photo in front of the statue of the United Trinity (Best, Law, Charlton) or the one of Sir Matt.
Still had a good look around the main car park.

And then on to 'the only club in Manchester'

and a visit to the newly renamed Etihad Stadium. I have to say they were great and we were greeted by a lovely woman from the PR and Marketing Department by the name of Damaris Treasure. She really looked after us and took us pitchside. The playing surface was outstanding but we had to keep a lookout unless we got in the way of all the media and official action surrounding the transfer of Sergio Aguera who was somewhere in the stadium. We hung around for as long as we could in the anticicpation of a glimpse of the squillion pound player but find him we could not. Hopefully Premiership defenders have a little more success in finding him during the course of the season. Damaris if you are reading this - thank you very much for looking after us.

We could not hang around any longer for the elusive Senor Aguero and we moved on to our final call of the day Stockport County. County only qualified for inclusion in the trip as they were in the Football League on my birthday but will start their new season in the Blue Square League. They have big plans to get back and have appointed Didi Hamaan as their new manager. They too like many of the lower league clubs looked after us really well and did give us a shirt signed by the last group of players to play for them as a league team. As the bloke who showed us round said only a few years ago they were in the play offs for a place in The Premier League.

I then had the small matter of a ride to Oldham. Given that Oldham is one of the highest grounds in England I knew what was coming. The last 3.5 miles were seriously uphill and when they are the ones that come after the first 53 miles of the day they do leave a lasting memory to finish the day.

There is a real chance that I could make the Guinness Book of Records (do they still have that?)this evening for the shortest time ever to fall asleep. A record that I probably already hold from last night!

And so tomorrow we say goodbye to Lancashire which quite remarkably has been dry for the time that we have been here. Three sunny days. Another record?

And so to Yorkshire - eeeeee baaaah gum!

From Blackburn to Bolton in 62 miles

As I waved a cheery goodbye to Premier Inn Preston Central the prospect of a long day two loomed large. The journey to Blackburn was uneventful. Blackburn were one of the clubs who failed miserably to respond to my request for a pitchside photograph so we had to make do with a photo of the statue of Sir Jack Walker(the first man to buy the Premier League title)

From the heights of the Premier League we arrived at Accr

ington Stanley. The contrast in both facilities and the warmth of the welcome were stark to say the least. Stanley went out of the league in 1962 for failure to pay the gas bill and took over 60 years to regain its league status. The kettle was on as soon as we arrived and the people there were so friendly. We were given a guided tour which took not very long and we were shown the dressing rooms which make Chorleywood House and the pavilion look luxurious. Breeze block not painted for some time and four showers for the players use. As you enter the pitch their equivalent to the 'This is Anfield' motto is 'Stanley the club that refused to die' The capacity of the ground is 4,500 and their average attendance is 1,800. The guy who showed me round was not slow in reminding me that on their re-admission to the league they turned over the twice European Champions Nottingham Forest 1-0 in the Carling Cup. Boy we had some dark days under Colin Calderwood!
They would have been happy for us to stay all day but we had to make tracks.

On to Burnley where we were escorted pitchside at the same time as the press were there to interview Kieran Trippier who had just joined Burnley on a seasons loan from Man City. A quick bite of lunch and we were off again.

The only thing to be said for Rochdale is that the journey there from Burnley has a 4.7 mile climb to the summit of some hill or other. When you think you are there so appears another hill. When you are just as high as the wind farms you know then it must be time to descend. The descent is well worth it. I was really chuffed to trip the 30 mile per hour speed limit sign as my speed through there was 34.7 mph.

I was going so quick that I almost missed Bury but the brakes were working well enough to grab a quick photo of the outside of the ground and to move on to the last call of the day - Bolton.

Bolton to their credit had emailed to say that they were more than happy to meet us and to take us pitch side to record our visit there. As we were greeted in reception of the magnificent Reebok Stadium and taken through to the pitch we happened upon the Bolton FC chairman Phil Gartside. He took time out of his day to join us pitchside for a chat and some photographs. He is a real gentleman and explained that he is coming to terms with Bolton's change of style under Owen Coyle. He says that he still envisages Kevin Davies with his elbow in the neck of many Premier League centre-backs! I am sure he will be proved right.

So it was a really fantastic end to a very tiring but very contrasting yet rewarding day.

This whole project is really firing now but it would not be possible without the support of my family particularly my wife Stephanie and my Partners at Turbervilles who have generously found not only the time for me to have additional time away from the business celebrate my 50th birthday this way but have supported me in very real terms by funding the cost of the accomodation on the trip.

My grateful thanks to you all.

So on to tomorrow and the first call at, in the words of Stuart Hall, the Peoples Republic of Wigan. It will have to go some to top today.

For those in the least bit interested the total distance covered so far is 119 miles. I have a feeling that the legs will remind of that in the morning!

And we are underway!

So after a weekend in Birmingham watching some spectacular trampolining and tumbling at the British Gymnastics Championships we made our way up to the tourist Mecca that is Morecambe.

Like a condemned man I opted for a tradtitional fish and chip supper as I cast my mind forward to the rigours of Monday.

All began well until the GPS started an argument with me on where Morcambe FC was located. On this occasion the human triumphed over technology and our first destination was reached.

The journey from there to Blackpool was a test for the support vehicle and its ability to communicate with the riders. After a shaky start things improved rapidly once we decided we were both going a different way to Blackpool! In order to locate our position Josh asked a lady doing her garden for the name of the road or the postcode only to be told she spoke no english. Once we were back in touch we were able to get to Blackpool with no further incident.

After a quick photo at Blackpool FC and meeting Jimmy Armfield (well the statue at least) we were set fair for Preston. We quickly knocked off the 19 miles to get there. It was slightly disconcerting to arrive before the support vehicle as I know by that late in the day I was not travelling that fast.

After more photos this time with the Tom Finney statue we eased the two mile to the luxurious Premier Inn Central Preston.

So I finished the day with the yellow jersey but there was nothing special there as we are all wearing them.

After an overnight refuelling we will be off again - mileage so far 57.

The Final Countdown

Firstly thank you all for your good wishes and messages of support.

The bike is in the bike shop for a service and some go faster tyres and I am resting up for the next week's efforts.

Thank you to those who have sponsored me so far and those who have promised that they will but have not yet got round to it. We are half way to our target and hope to build from there.

To help as many people as possible to follow the progress the blog is now linked to my facebook page and to my twitter page @hallams5.

Once I am underway I will post daily and I will post on Sunday evening to let you know how I am feeling when the size of what I have committed to will be very real

Please remember the site for donations
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/5050Challenge

Til the next time